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.

Open ended question...

Do the chickens make Grayling more sustainable? Why? or Why not?

Missing Eggs.

The average number of eggs that our chickens were producing have dropped from 12 to 7. It might be from the change of the weather, it has been warm for the past few months and just recently the temperature has dropped to almost -20 below. We also think they might be affected by the lack of sunlight.

Educational Chickens?

In August 2008 the David-Louis Memorial School got 24 chickens in, but within the first month 1 died along with another 1 over Iditarod. The school also gave a Rooster to Shirley Clark, but when Miss Laura’s Kindergarden, 1st, and 2nd graders hatched 4 chicken eggs it brought it back up to 25 chickens.
The school bought 1000 lb. of chicken food for $600.00 in April 2009, but by October they were out. They had asked the district to buy the next bag of chicken feed and they agreed, but after that one they are not going to again. So the school will have to provide for them their selves. If the community would contribute scrap food for the chickens then the school wouldn’t have to spend so much money buying food and could start making a profit. Currently the school isn’t making a profit with the chickens, they lay about a dozen eggs a day that could help contribute money for food.
They get to be about 3 or 4 pounds when fully grown, and need a lot of care. They need to be checked daily for food and water, and to make sure its warm and dry in the coop. They also need to check for any sick chickens that can be contagious.
The chickens are also very educational. The students had to build the chicken coop and by helping take care of the chickens the students are learning responsibility, biology, agriculture, community service, and how to run a business.

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?