First Farmers of the Year Meet the Chickens

The garden hens know how to put on a show and thrill the new students. Today’s assignment was to observe the chickens and get a sense of how they move, play and relate to each other and the farmers.

Farmer 1: Peanut is the smallest chicken. She runs very fast even though she only has 3-1/2 toes. 

Blackie is the head-chicken but Sunshine thinks that she is.

Farmer 2: Brownie is one of the older chickens. She likes to dig holes in the garden, eat bugs and have dirt baths. I found a brown feather in the coop and I’m going to keep it.

Farmer 3: Peanut laid an egg. It was warm so we all held it.

Barbara: I often find that most students have never seen or held a live chicken. They greet them happily but with a bit of apprehension that soon turns to love once they build trust.

Today, the kids followed the hens around the garden and watched them dig, play and frolic in the warm sun.

They learned that these small beings like to be treated with respect and talked to in a quiet voice. No screaming, yelling, fast-movements or chasing.

The kids discovered that freshly laid eggs are hot not cold like a supermarket eggs. 

I told them stories about the older hens (Goldie, Blackie and Brownie)  from the time they were tiny fluff balls being raised by Ms. Siskin’s class four years ago. “More, more!” They beamed when told that Sunshine and Peanut joined the coop last year as chicks and were raised by Siskin’s then third-graders.

In a short time the chickens and the kids started bonding. They should all be good buddies in the next several weeks.