I’ve received many inquiries through the years on how I planned to give my children proper “socialization” since they are being educated at home (as if public school is THE ideal place to teach children proper social skills, as if same age segregation is real life “socialization”, as if…..umm…this subject seems to require its own post at a later date!), but I never considered the socialization of my feathered flock until recently. Turns out chicken socialization can be a bit tricky!

Our first 10 chickens came last spring and started laying eggs about 5 months later. Imagine: the mothering and producing qualities/responsibilities of an adult in only 5 months! And big proud mamas is just what they became, having the “rule of the roost” for the next 8 months! (Now, they are not technically mothers, because we have no rooster, but I’m pretty sure they are unaware of this, as they proudly sit atop each day’s clutch of eggs.)

Well, as you may know, we decided to purchase 8 more chicks this spring, and after keeping them inside and warm for the required amount of time, they needed to join the grownup ladies out in the coop. I had read a bit about “pecking order,” and now began to consider the realities of this as we planned to mix the flocks together. It can get ugly.

I called my friend Aimee (resident backyard farm consultant and pro) and she described what she had done with hers in previous years: put the little ones inside their own cage INSIDE the coop of the big ones for a few days – a cage in a cage. This way they can observe each other but not have actual contact, hopefully preventing some future aggression, as well as facilitating harmony among the girls in the long run.

So, we executed that plan, and left them there for about three days. Robert kept saying that it was just like when the new freshmen enter high school – they all flock together for protection while all of the seasoned upperclassmen look on and laugh and their obviously unenlightened state. (I happened to escape this emotionally grueling situation to some degree, since I had been chosen to be a freshman cheerleader, and THAT title carried with it some degree of clout – with some folks – which bought a type of fame, as well as some freedom from this usual initiation process. Sad but true, and just another reason public school is not my first choice for the socialization of my children. And for those who worry that homeschooling removes “salt and light” from the local school and community, my thoughts have just been that Jesus called the children to come to Him, while it was the adult male disciples that He sent out into the world. It’s nothing but a battle out there – lots of pecking and being pecked, and in my opinion, not the best place for our impressionable and immature children to be sent to share their faith – nor something expected of them scripturally. So much for a future post on the subject…and I apologize for any toe-stepping-on. I happen to know many wonderful kids and families who make the public school thing work just fine, but surely you knew we had opinions/convictions on this subject!)

Anyway, I did go out and open the chick’s cage a few times to see what would happen, and it was ugly indeed! The grown mamas were pretty cruel and pecked the little ones on the head and back trying to establish their authority immediately. So, back into the cage I would put them for another day of “observation without integration.”

After a few more days, though, the littles were getting too crowded in their interior cage, and just had to be let out to fend for themselves, come what may. They received a fair amount of torture to be sure, but there have thankfully been no fatalities. And today, weeks after the initial integration, everyone remains healthy. The little ones are still running and squawking for their lives at times, but they are catching up in height and breadth to their upperclassmen counterparts. Soon, we (and hopefully they) won’t be able to tell who came first. Size will seemingly be the great equalizer.

And doesn’t it seem to be a great equalizer in our lives and relationships as well? Our years, plus the training/modeling we hopefully received from our families, plus the maturity and transformation we have received in the grace of Christ, enable us to truly socialize with all sorts of people. And not simply socialize, but love, and sacrifice ourselves- even like Jesus did. Young children are not yet capable of this, and it is not required of them – and same age peer groups don’t usually encourage it. (Actually, there are a lot of grownups not yet capable of this either – myself included at times!)

And chickens…..well, let me just tell you that I have yet to see any sacrificial love going on in the hen house!

When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I have been fully known. But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:12-13