Horrible chicken accident with my daughter

[Egg Snatcher]

My sister when she was smaller was holding a chick and squeeze it way, way to hard... And killed it.
This year I accidentally stepped on a 2-3 month old Pullet. She died.
Maybe your daughter was trying to cetch the hen, not kill them.

 

[DogAndCat36]

Something terrible happened today. My four year old daughter was playing with the chickens like she always does while I was nearby puttering around the farm. We leave and walk back to our house. When I return to feed about three hours later I open the feed container and inside are two hens that my daughter trapped.
One is dead and the other one jumps right out and carries on with life. I am obviously horrified and know I’m 100% to blame for not supervising my kid more closely. Feeling all kinds of guilt of failing as a mom etc etc....Needless to say she is no longer going in without me watching her closely.
Now that the initial shock has somewhat worn off my curious mind can’t help but wonder how the Australorp died while the Barred Rock was fine? Maybe the BR trampled it? Or it suffocated? The Australorp was definitely lower on the pecking order but it had no wounds.
Also, my daughter doing this obviously has me worried. She loves her chickens and can’t wait to hold them and pet them every day and I can’t believe she did this. Anybody have any stories to share of their kids doing harmful things to animals without thinking anything of it? Thanks in advance.

Wow. It is kinda hard to type. Kids develop and they adjust, over time they grow the capacity of more empathy and thought to properly recognize right from wrong.
I don't know how to answer most of your questions but I do know some stories. When I was really young I accidentally got a chick stuck in a hole in a plastic tote when I tried to push her through and I only feed my chickens about one time every two days during winter, they died... My family left an 8 year old to care for chickens. I fricking hate what I did so much. I still remember my thoughts at that age. I was curious, did not think of their emotion and I was easily distracted from them and lazy. From what I can guess your kid most likely wanted to feed the chickens or put them somewhere so that she could hold them later that day or she just didn't think about it and did it out of curiosity.

 

[alohamoa]

My sister when she was smaller was holding a chick and squeeze it way, way to hard... And killed it.
This year I accidentally stepped on a 2-3 month old Pullet. She died.
Maybe your daughter was trying to cetch the hen, not kill them.

Yeah, she is a good girl, I think she must have thought it was funny. Accidents happen.

 

[alohamoa]

Wow. It is kinda hard to type. Kids develop and they adjust, over time they grow the capacity of more empathy and thought to properly recognize right from wrong.
I don't know how to answer most of your questions but I do know some stories. When I was really young I accidentally got a chick stuck in a hole in a plastic tote when I tried to push her through and I only feed my chickens about one time every two days during winter, they died... My family left an 8 year old to care for chickens. I fricking hate what I did so much. I still remember my thoughts at that age. I was curious, did not think of their emotion and I was easily distracted from them and lazy. From what I can guess your kid most likely wanted to feed the chickens or put them somewhere so that she could hold them later that day or she just didn't think about it and did it out of curiosity.

Yeah. Thanks for sharing your story!

 

[SulkyBantam]

Once my sister when she was about 4 wrapped her chick up in a paper towel (to catch the poop while she held it, it’s head was sticking out) and it fell asleep and she sat it down to go do something, and then forgot where she left it. This was in our unfinished basement and I was panicking! It could have been anywhere and it could easily hide or have something fall on it, luckily I found it. Another time we were at a friends house and my other little sister chased their rooster to hold it, and it had a heart attack and died. I was absolutely mortified, especially because it was one of their sons’ favorite They said it had heart problems but I don’t know if they said that to make us feel better. I’m extremely tight when it comes to chicken rules—some incidents resulted in my sister not being allowed to touch my ducks at all and I always glance out the window every once in a while when she’s out there to make sure things are ok. It was definitely not your fault that that happened, we all make mistakes sometimes. What’s important though, is what we learn from it. I’ve made some huge mistakes with the chickens (I was tube feeding once and overestimated the amount and the hen aspirated and died, she was my absolute favorite) but I’ve learned to overcome the guilt because I know my heart is for all of them to have perfect happy lives—mistakes happen though. I’m sorry for your loss

Exactly. Though no one should be blamed, for the good of your chickens, put some rules in place.

 

[Acre4Me]

a 4yo meant no harm. Like a previous poster indicated, she likely thought they would love being in with the feed and didn't think too much of it. No need to even bring it up again - she's 4. Like another poster, just ask her - "now no chickens are in the feed bin, are there?" or something equally benign.

My kid, who loves animals, got a hamster at a young 5 age. She always held it with us right there. Well, as is typical, she held it a bit too tight at first, not wanting it to run off. It squeaked indicating it was being held too tight. As a parent, I said "don't hold so tight, see it squeaked bc it was too tight". Well, I guess the squeak was so cute that she would always squeeze the poor little hamster to hear the squeak, followed by our instruction to not do that. The hamster lived about 4 days before it died, I'll assume from internal injuries. We were right there, and showed her how to hold it, explained not to squeeze, but you also have to give them opportunities to learn. Maybe the hamster had something else wrong with it, making it more fragile, I'll never know. We took that loss and never got another hamster.

Chickens die - maybe it was weaker than the other for some reason, maybe it suffocated, maybe it freaked out and had a heart attack. You'll never know!

 

[Rooapalooza]

A long long time ago, when I was about 7 or 8, my friend had a little brother who was 3 or 4. He was a handful. Several times he snuck up behind me and pulled out chunks of my hair. One time he snuck up and stabbed me. Anyway I remember his mom talking to my mom about him chasing around their chickens with a stick, trying to hit them. One day they turned on him. He was mostly fine but he got bloodied up. I assume he grew up into a normal adult.

Some kids do fine with animals, some don't. Basically all kids need supervision for the animals' sake.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

When I was a kid another kid (around your daughters age) that went to my church decided to teach his kittens to swim... in a 5 gallon bucket... They kept getting out so he put a lid on the bucket to make them learn to swim... you can imagine how that ended...

As far as I know that kid did not grow up to be a serial killer

I couldn't add multiple reactions so: ☹

 

[Kusanar]

I couldn't add multiple reactions so: ☹

Yeah... he was the youth pastor's kid too...

 

[alohamoa]

Let's break this into two parts... kids and chickens.

KID: You, mother did nothing wrong. Nor did your child. The situation is terrible but your daughter likely left the chickens in the feed bin because your fat ladies were in there having a grand old time at the buffet and she knows to close the feed bin when you leave. Or possibly she just wanted to put them in the feed bin because it's food and what a better place for chickens! There's no chance of any ill will there- and like any parent you just have to do your best and sometimes things happens, no one is perfect. I wouldn't even mention the dead chicken to her, but it wouldn't hurt to say something simple like "and let's make sure there are no chickens in the feed bin when we leave or close it".

CHICKEN: It's incredible that your Aus. didn't make it, sorry to hear that- but I have to think somehow it was just her time. Judging that the BR did fine and given the relatively short period of time- something "odd" happened. Usually in the dark chickens will just hunker down, it's nature. Likely in this case the BR decided to go a bit nuts trying to get out (or both of them) and it escalated when they were running into each other in the dark and that there was unlevel ground (feed) moving under their feet - there was an accident of birds smashing into birds. No visible injury likely means some kind of blunt force issue- likely a neck break. Or, something just unknowable or pre-existing condition that manifested just then. I suppose it is possible that she suffocated too, but given that the BR just "jumped out" that doesn't seem likely to me because she would have been low on air at that point too and a single breath isn't going to magically revive her in 1 second. There's also the chance something happened before the chicken was in the bin and she was placed in there, maybe your daughter accidentally squeezed her too hard or grabbed her by the head, or was too rough putting the Aus in there or put the lid on too hard and hit her. But in any of those situation a 4-year old is too young to comprehend the magnitude of death in the situation and you should just try to teach her proper handling, etc. Again, really no way to know what happened so I wouldn't go overboard.

Either way- no one is at fault and sadly chickens die all the time. It's our job to do our best to keep them alive and happy for their short chicken lives and you, and your daughter, did all you could to do that. So all is good in Chicken Karma and your life. Sad, but move on and keep enjoying the rest of your flock!

Yes, the chickens have been jumping into the buffet. This made me feel so much better! Thank you.