It was chicken time at Loose Valley Care Home on Tuesday 28 September – hen power!
It may come as a surprise, but chickens are a great therapy animal; having a hen sitting on your lap is so calming and she really listens to your voice when you have a chat to her!
Chickens as pets are wonderful birds, full of life and the ability to make us smile. They like to be stroked and they also like a lap to sit on, making them the perfect therapy animal.
Paula from our Recreation and Well-Being team brought one of our hens around for our residents to stroke. She chatted away to Henrietta, who replied with a ‘cluck, cluck‘ as if she was talking back in conversation. Our residents thought this was so funny!
We love our sessions with our hens as they promote interaction and encourage our more reserved residents to join in, often bringing back happy memories of their youth. Lots of our residents were brought up having hens in the backyard or on their parents’ farm, so it’s a familiar animal to them.
Our chickens have been socialised early in their life as most were hatched by Debbie from our Domestic team (who has her hands full with all our chickens, rabbits and ducks in the garden!) so they have an easy going temperament and shouldn’t ruffle anyone’s feathers! Plus, they lay lots of eggs and are very well behaved .…except for our cockerel who doesn’t like Paula taking his girls away from him, even for a short time!
