chickens visiting the school

The Urban Farm at Stapleton (TUF) came to school on Thursday, January 8th for the first of several farm visits featuring various animals...this time they brought with them CHICKENS.  The goal of TUF is to provide agricultural and environmental education to children and families in the Denver metro area.  This partners well with our school goal to expose children to the natural world in as many meaningful ways as possible.

The children were excited to meet the chickens and our wonderful hosts, Tenny and Caroline, shared many interesting facts about our feathered friends.

Of course the children were able to share their own observations, including: chickens have feathers, wings, beaks and lay eggs.  They took turns practicing the "cock-a-doodle-doo" of a rooster and the rhythmic "braaaaahck, braaaaahck, braaaaahck" of chickens.

We learned other important facts too, for instance when chickens eat, they swallow their food whole and it sits in their crop all day and doesn't digest until the chickens are at rest in the evening (with the help of some gravel).

Did you know that chickens descended from a jungle bird and is closely related to its dinosaur ancestors.

Chickens don't sweat, they pant when they are hot...just like a dog.
And chickens have good memories, remember faces of people and other chickens and recognize each other even after a long time has past (in chicken time).

There are 113 different breeds of chickens.  TUF brought five breeds to share with the children: Cochin, Barred Plymouth-Rock, Orpington, Wyandotte and an Old English Game rooster.  And you know those dozens of white and brown eggs we buy in the grocery store?  Well it turns out that the color of a chickens egg is determined by the color of her ears.  In fact, there are brown, white and Easter colored eggs (pink, blue and green).  Newsflash... brown eggs are not healthier than white eggs they are just laid by chickens with brown ears.  A chicken can lay an egg every day to day in a half.  That is about 300 eggs a year.

It was a wonderful day to be at school!!!
Next month we will be meeting RABBITS!