Too close for comfort!

Had to take my 3yr old to A&E yest ...erm...his love for the hens has taken a step to far!  Got a couple of sussex crosses a few months ago and they have become really friendly, well perhaps the word friendly is used a bit loosley in this case!  My son loves to dig for worms for the girls and they all flock around him waiting and digging along with him. 
In this case one of the new girls just looked him straight in the face and pecked his EYE!!  Lucky for him it just looked worse than it actually was, his eye was streaming with blood and i was a bit worried for a while. 
Anyway long story short hes ok its a bit weepy and swollen today but no major damage done.
Has anyone else experienced this with their hens??  All my other girls dont peck faces, hand and fingers yes and that i can understand (worms) just wondering if anyone else has heard or had an experience like this!
 

Ah poor little chap! i got a sharp peck to my eyebrow one night when i bent in to check they were all roosting - that gave me a bit of a surprise! -i hope your boy continues to love the hens, ive got an 11 year old who is very good with them but my 17 year old daughter is scared of them! (though shed never admit it!)

Hope he's getting better and has not been put off the chooks. Some of mine will peck at anything, but never aggressively. I have had ocassional pecks towards the eyes. I wear glasses, so have guessed that the reflection in the lense was the subject of the peck. Maybe the culprit saw the reflection of a hen, or simply something moving, apparently in the eye of your son. Chooks are probably hard wired to react to certain shapes and movements because there isn't time to think whether it is a worm or not before diving in.
This is a warnng to me as I often lift one up for my one year granddaughter to 'talk to'. They are very tame and like many animals seem to have an understanding of children, but built in reactions may overcome any intended behaviour. Thanks for the warning.

Ahhh, little love. Give him a hug from me. Dont let him become scared of them.....they are such lovely pets. One of mine love teeth, my nose pin,my eyes, and more recently , a mole that i have on my neck!! But she is a lovely chicken

Thanks to everyone, he's fine with the hens just a little warey which is prob for the best lol    But i will remind him that they are animals at the end of the day and not the stuffed kind which are ok to cuddle!   

Thanks again for ur support!

I hope he had a nice long cuddle and is not afraid of the girls. My 3 year old grandson digs for the worms with  the chickens so i will be more careful in the future.

Poor little boy, I hope it doesn't put him off them. The chicken probably saw a sparkle of light in his eye and was attracted to it.

I'm with the toad....they love things that sparkle, and if his little eyes were sparkly, and blinked with lovely hairy eyelashes, i imagine chook thought it was a fly or at least something edible. Oh bless, but a very healthy reminder to us all....chicken, like all pets, need respect for their beaks and claws/spurs etc.

Hope his eye is all better, and that you all still love your girls, I'm sure she is very sorry, and didnt mean to hurt him