Winter 2010 Chicken Update

We have had a busy fall and continue to be busy this winter. Our egg production has dropped dramatically this year and we are investigating the reasons. Along with the fact that our chickens are a year older, we have also identified the following variables: amount of food and water, amount of light, and temperature. Over the following weeks we will research how egg production can change as chickens get older, as well as developing projects to investigate how the variables listed above can change egg production.

My question to my students is this: What do you think the next step in the Grayling Farms project should be? Should we continue with chickens or look into other projects? Remember to state your reasons for your opinion, and remember to write this as a school assignment.

Food Consumption:

The sixth graders have carefully measured the amount of food the chickens eat. We opened a new bag of chicken food on Sunday 3/29/2009. We ran out of food from that bag on Tuesday 4/7/2009.

Please answer the following questions:

1. How many days did the chicken food last?

2. If we have 18 more bags, how many days will the food last if the current rate of consumption stays the same?

3. Do you think the current rate of consumption will stay the same or will it change? Explain your answer. How will the chicken's environment change in the next few months? Will the change cause more or less food consumption? Explain.

You can discuss this with me or your classmates before you answer. You will probably need some scratch paper to do the calculations necessary to answer these questions.

Remember, you are high school students. Give me good, high school answers (that means THINK before you write!!!).

Food Consumption

Recently, I ordered 20 bags of chicken food. Each bag is 50 pounds. How many pounds of chicken food did I order (yes Ashley, this is another Math question!)?

We need to figure out how long the food is going to last.

I need all of you to come up with a plan so that we can see if we have enough food to last through the summer.

In your response, please carefully explain how we can figure this problem out. After all, if we run out of food before I return in August, the chickens will die, and the elders will not have anymore eggs. We want healthy, happy birds!

Please think carefully and come up with a plan so that we can accurately calculate how long our food will last.

Asha Update

Sadly, Asha passed away on Monday morning. We are grateful for the help of our guests, the Iditarod veterinarians, who worked hard to diagnose and treat our sick bird. They gave her shots of B-12 and antibiotics but by the time they treated her, she was just too sick.

Given what you know about Asha's sickness and your observations of the other chickens, do you think that our healthy birds are in danger of acquiring the same illness that killed Asha?

Asha is one bird out of twenty. What percent of the total birds does Asha represent?

What do you think the fact that only one of our birds has gotten sick means in terms of the possible cause or her illness?

Chicken Coop Revisions

We have gone through our first winter (it is almost spring, I hope!) with our chicken coop and we have had some successes and some failures.

It is always a good idea to study the things that are going right and the things that are going wrong with our project.

Let's focus on the coop today. From your observations and experiences this year, what do you think is good about our coop?

What do you think needs to be changed or improved in order to keep the chickens healthy and producing eggs? Think about the entire building, inside and out. It might help to think about what you would want from your house. If the chicken coop was your house, what would you change about it to make it more comfortable and livable?

We will be using your comments from this post to make plans to modify the coop in the next weeks and months. Remember, it will be summer soon, and much warmer. What will we need to change for the summer months?

Grayling Farms Marketing

Selling Eggs:

We need to start selling more eggs! The chickens are producing about 15 eggs per day and we need to sell as many as possible. So, let's talk about marketing today. First, how are are our eggs different than the ones people buy at the store? If we can convince people that there really are differences between our eggs and the ones at the store, maybe we can convince them to buy their eggs from us.

If you want to think about this assignment in "school" terms, here it is:

Compare and contrast (using complete sentences) the eggs purchased at the store with the eggs being produced here at Grayling Farms. Use specific examples (and the word sustainability), write how our eggs are different from the eggs at the store:

Asha Observations

We've decided to name our sick chicken "Asha". We brought her inside yesterday when we noticed one of her eyes were shut. Today our students are carefully examining her and trying to figure out what is wrong with her. We'll be posting observations as we go through the next few days.

Write your observations of Asha. Observe carefully, using all 5 of your senses.