Grayling Farms

Winter 2010 Chicken Update

2010-01-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-30T15:53:00.001-08:00

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

Missing Eggs.

2009-11-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-10-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

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:

2009-04-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

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.

Long Hiatus from Blogging Finally Over!

2009-03-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

After a long break from blogging, the Grayling Farms Blog is finally back! We have lost a few chickens since the beginning and are down to 20. Although we didn't order one, we found that one of our chickens is a rooster. Yesterday, while cleaning the coop, we found that one of our chickens is sick. We will post about that later today.

How to post a picture on your blog:

2008-10-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

1. Find a picture you like from our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mbrankman/GraylingFarms#

2. Right click on the picture and choose: Copy Image Location

3. On your new post, on your blog, click on the picture in the toolbar (to the right of the abc with a check mark).

4. Copy the image location into the right side where it says: URL

5. Choose the layout you want (at the bottom)

6. Click "Done"