Natalie Imel has a way with chickens. She seems to understand them and they respond to her. At only five years of age, she and her parents Lynn and Tom own three of them but it's Natalie's job to take care of them. When she's around they come to her, and she very gently picks them up in both arms and hugs them. When we first encountered these particular chickens they were doing what chickens do, crossing the road. Why?

To get home and see Natalie.

The birds are "Pearl", a Black Osterlorp, "Didi" an Americana and "Ninny" a Speckled Sussex.
The family purchased them from Monroe Feed 18 months ago.

"My sister had chickens," explained Lynn," and she wanted a certain type of chicken and I went along just to give her moral support and we ended up with three chickens."

They sought breeds that were docile and good egg layers and they get two to three eggs per day, though in the winter they produce a lower number. Pearl has, "the most beautiful eggs," offered Lynn," they are really dark speckled," and Didi produces "huge white eggs bigger than the other two."

Both Lynn and Tom had chickens growing up and after their family dogs had passed away they wanted something that was fairly low maintenance and that would teach my young kids responsibility. Natalie "goes and gets the eggs and locks the chickens up at night," Lynn said. Chickens are easy to care for. " The responsibility is about as simple as a fish," explained Tom, "You can go out of town for a week if you water them well and feed them with a trough/hopper but we do have somebody come by to check on them and collect the eggs."

The coop was built by Lynn's sister who has a company called BetterCoopsandGardens.com who also build a variety of other chicken related structures.

They all have different personalities. "Didi will chase off any crows or anything that gets in the yard. she fluffs up and gets after them to get them out(...) and the other two are just very sweet, loving and funny." Lynn said.

Lynn concluded, "As far as her with her chickens it's been really fun because they totally know her, love her and she can handle them like no other. She's had them since before she was four so it's been a really good experience in teaching her responsibility."

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