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Kim F
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| Posted: June 23 2005 at 2:24pm | IP Logged
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Hello all! Its been a very busy few weeks around our place. We have been moving out all the stuff we stored in our barn to make it serve its original purpose - housing animals. We have had 4 laying hens here and recently gained a dairy goat and her doe kid. My dh is toying with getting some piglets next month. Also we are starting 25 chicks in a brooder this week, which is what got me thinking....
Since we can easily uplaod pics now I thought I would begin to post pics of the chicks as they grow along with related reading, project work and notebooking or lapbook ideas. This will be a longish unit,one you could easily do one day a week over the next few months culminating in early November when they begin to lay.
I am super busy right now so this is coming to you in its raw format as we go. The advantage though is your family can follow these real live chicks through their growth cycle and we can answer any q's people have. If anyone finds book ideas or websites and is willing to share them here all the better!
Kim
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Kim F
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| Posted: June 23 2005 at 5:07pm | IP Logged
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Ok lets get started. : ) One of my favorite books is Gail Gibbons Chickens. She packs a ton of info into her science picture bks. A good life cycle book with photos would kick things off well too.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/info/chicken /egg.shtml great worksheets here. If you wish, start a circle/wheel book this week with the graphics posted on this site.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/about.html unit with outcomes for different grade levels. I picked out a couple assignments from this site to begin with....
Know parts of the egg:
Break open an egg and point out major parts.
Draw an egg and label egg parts.
Describe which parts of the egg we eat.
Explain why the eggs from the grocery store are not fertile.
Know parts of the embryo:
Draw an embryo and label parts.
Tell what each part does.
Tell how a chick gets its food while growing in the egg.
With your friends, draw a poster showing how a chick develops from fertilization to hatching.
Create a collage or poster on hatching chicks.
How poultry are hatched commercially:
Visit a hatchery http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/faqtop.html (scroll down to virtual tour. this is where our chicks came from)
and see how birds are hatched commercially.
Draw a chart comparing a commercial hatchery to how a hen cares for eggs.
I LOVE this plastic egg idea from another site:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/5924/fromeggtochick.h tm
Have a supply of plastic eggs which will open. These are easily obtained around Easter. Make a set labeled #1-21. Open the egg and trace the diameter of the smaller egg onto cardstock. Glue the circle onto the opening of the smaller egg half making sure that the egg will still close. On the circle, glue a picture showing the daily development of the egg corresponding to the number on the egg. Store the eggs in an egg carton. You can make a set for each student in the classroom. Each day you can open a plastic egg to see how the real chicks in the incubator are developing.
This site includes tons of egg experiments, art activities, and books. This week would be a good time to focus on egg hatching books or that portion of the life cycle books.
Ok that is it for now. I will attach pics of the chicks. They are day olds here.
 
I will take more tomorrow at 5 days. Ours are from the brown layer assortment and the rainbow layer assortment on mcmurray's site. The latter will lay a variety of brown, white and blue or green eggs. The colored eggs come from the Aracauna chickens. If you click on the individual layer breed pics there are small pics of how they look as chicks. Can you figure out what any of ours are? <g>
I will be posting my kids' narrations explaning how the chicks came and are brooded shortly.
Kim
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mi4ol
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| Posted: June 26 2005 at 10:40am | IP Logged
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Hey, Kim,
The boys keep wondering when the next set of chick pictures will be posted... I told them in all your free time. 
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God bless,
Debbie
Do whatever He tell you. John 2:5b
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Kim F
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| Posted: June 26 2005 at 4:13pm | IP Logged
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Here you go! This is one of the chicks now at one week old. YOu can see they are getting their feathers in already. The wings come first. Before long they will be way less cute as they become half down and half feathers.
You can see the feathers that grow in don't always match the pattern of the down. Yellow chicks often grow white feathers though some of our yellows are getting buff colored feathers. The chicks that are colored like gophers are getting brown and black striped feathers. We are very anxious to see how they turn out.
The chicks are getting VERY active as they are growing. I am not sure how long our current brooder arrangement will last. Here is a link to a page with great pics of homemade brooders. If you ever try to raise chicks at home this is an economical and easy arrangement. For a while anyway <g> http://www.rockingtranch.com/brooders.html
Some brooder basics. The chicks need to stay warm and dry and protected - both from things coming in and them getting out. You can use a regular box but chicks have a tendency to crush each other when they are cold or scared. A rounded edge is better to prevent one of them from ending up in the bottom of the corner and getting squashed. It can be a fatal problem. We are using an old livestock watering trough which is oval and its working pretty well for now. A kiddie wading pool can work too if the sides are high and you cover the top.
You need an infared light to keep the brooder 95degrees the first week and about 5 degrees cooler each week thereafter. Adjusting the height of the light and maintaining the temp is tricky if the weather is changeable.
The brooder needs to be clean to prevent disease. You have to line the bottom of the brooder with something easy to replace. Chickens are messy! YOu need to clean out the flooring a couple times a day. We agree with the owner of the website I referenced above - paper towels are perfect for the job. Straw and newspaper are too slippery and can cause deformities in the legs. They tend to try to eat wood shavings until after a couple weeks old. PAper towels are cheap and easy and they are working really well right now.
You also need lots of food and water. Because chickens tend to stand in and on everything the special chick waterers work best. They can't tip them over or jump in them. (too much anyway ; )) They eat a specially medicated feed the first several weeks to prevent coccidiosis. That would be the research assignment for today. What is it? What does it do? An aside here, chickens carry various diseases that don't always affect them but can be passed to other types of poultry:
"They (turkeys)are very susceptible to the blackhead organism; Many chickens carry blackhead organisms without apparent effect on the chicken. Therefore, one of the cardinal principles is never raise chickens and turkeys together; turkeys must be completely isolated from chickens."
Ok back to kid stuff <g> Here is a link to the 4H site info on raising chicks:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/growchix.htm
Some good reads this week:
The Little Red Hen
Henny Penny
Where do chicks come from? by Sklansky, Amy E.
Chicks & chickens by Gibbons, Gail.
(nonfiction bks on chickens are in 636.5 at the library)
You may want to get some wheat from the health food store when reading the Little Red Hen. You can grind it into flour by putting small amounts into a blender. Have fun!
Kim : )
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Kim F
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| Posted: June 26 2005 at 4:21pm | IP Logged
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Just to tide you over here are a couple more rabbit trails:
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/res10-breedhistory.html This site covers the history of chicken breeds
A couple more reads:
Chicken Little retold by Kellogg, Steven.
Just Plain Fancy by Patricia Polacco
Related crafts:
http://www.first-school.ws/activities/fairytales/redhen.htm
http://www.kidzone.ws/geography/usa/delaware/bluehen2.htm&nb sp; (specialty chicken coloring page)
http://cybersleuth-kids.com/coloring/imagepages/image5.htm
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Kim F
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| Posted: June 26 2005 at 4:46pm | IP Logged
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An excellent looking unit! I strongly recommend downloading the whole unit. There is a quiz that could be taken now and then again after doing the study. Also has crossword puzzles, great sites to follow, some thought provoking essay topics and more.
http://www.spca.bc.ca/Educators/ChickenUnit.asp
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 01 2005 at 11:53am | IP Logged
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The chicks are about ready to move to the coop. They are VERY active and alert. ALmost too much so when we have to reach in the brooder to change their bedding and refill food. They are fully twice the size they were when they were born.
A little side note - ever wonder what a chick sounds like? Not like a chicken! They sound more like a regular bird right now. Any bets on when they start to get that low pitched cluck? Me neither! ; D I can't recall from last time. Will have to watch and see and I will keep you posted.
Some interesting chicken links this time!
Here are some ideas to flesh out a great bk, Chickens Aren't the Only Ones by Ruth Heller. http://www.angelfire.com/la/kinderthemes/chickens.html
here you can follow the life cycle of a chicken, learn about types of poultry, and commercial processing:
http://www.uga.edu/~lam/kids/poultry/plifecycle.html
This site has student art work with a chicken theme. We may try some of these.
http://www.dubuque.k12.ia.us/chicken/chickenart/index.htm
http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/explore/embryology/ Interesting!
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: July 01 2005 at 2:59pm | IP Logged
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Dear Kim,
I just wanted to say thank you for posting such an excellent unit! You've taken the time to provide lots of great resources and I am so appreciative of your efforts!!
We just began raising free-range layers here on our farm about a month ago and the kids and I are learning so much about chickens! I watched my son "catch" one the other day...he just scooped her up in his arms like he wasn't afraid or anything (she was not wanting to spend the night in our "chicken wagon" with her friends!)For those who are interested, the wagon was designed and built (with input from a friend who also raises free-range layers) by my dh. Inside the wagon are lots of little places (looks like cubbies along one wall of the wagon)for the chickens to roost. We've provided roosting ladders inside the wagon, along with straw and their food and water. The flooring of the wagon is mesh wire so that the chickens' droppings can fall through through the floor onto the grass below. Dh moves the wagon around to help both the environment for the chickens (the air in there stays fresh) and the grass below (the droppings don't kill the grass if the wagon moves around). The chickens (we have about 50) spend their days wandering about in a section of an open field near the farmhouse (they love to spend time in the Christmas tree lot beside them). When the sun is almost set (dusk) they climb the ladder into the wagon and dh closes it up for the night with the chickens all safe and sound.
One thing about Free-range chickens though...you have to sometimes go looking for the eggs. We have discovered eggs in the tree lot, nestled beside the wagon tires, even in the middle if the field. Since we are finding that the majority of the eggs are laid sometime between sunrise and mid-morning, we are finding that if we don't open the wagon until around 10 am, we don't have to worry about missing some of the eggs!
I spoke with dh about brooding chicks this spring but he thought it might be better if we waited until next spring and had more time to get a feel for taking care of our layers. I can't wait and now it looks like I'll have a great unit to go along with our first experience in brooding!
Thanks also for the hint about using paper towels...I was wondering what we'd use for covering.
If you haven't already mentioned it (I've been reading this quickly) Ruth Heller wrote a book called Chickens Aren't the Only Ones and it tells (in rhymes) about other animals who lay eggs.
Thanks again!
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Kristine
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 06 2005 at 10:14am | IP Logged
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Kristine DO post pics of your *chicken wagon*! We have been talking about building one but haven't tried yet. I am thinking especially about doing that for meat birds.
Kim
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 06 2005 at 10:42am | IP Logged
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Here is the latest on the chicks. They are hitting that awkward stage feather-wise! They are feathery out across their backs and are starting to stretch and try them out. They fan out their wings frequently and check out their new spreads. ; )
Current evening excitement at the Fry's is watching for a moth to fly into the brooder. They are attracted to the light. The chicks go WILD and chase whichever of them happens to catch the moth. They jump over and slide under each other until one of them finally eats it. Yes, we are easily amused <g>
Below are links to some shape books. Some ideas for these would be to narrate what a chicken eats, your breed of chicken report, what is needed for a brooder.
You could enlarge it and use it for the cover of the lapbook too.
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hme/k_5/shapebook/pdf/barnwol.pd f
http://www.abcteach.com/farm/shapbook1.htm
 
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 07 2005 at 5:58pm | IP Logged
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Ok so did I mention chickens can be cannibalistic?
Argh!
Had a near genocide of what I think are our white aracaunas in the past 24 hrs. We put the 4 of them in a makeshift infirmary (the cat carrier) while dh built a chicken alcatraz in the barn. With any luck they sleep there tonight. All of them. We put tons of vaseline on the sore spots and it seems to be discouraging the pecking.
Not sure if they got too big for the brooder or if its due to those 4 being the off colored chicks. Our white birds are the only ones in trouble. We are switching to red heat lamp bulbs which are said to confuse them enough color-wise that they won't go after them. Hopefully between that and the new big space they will knock it off.
Here are a couple links to this odd behavior in chickens for older kids to peruse:
http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/range556/Appl_BEHAVE/projects/Chic ken_Cannibalism.html
http://www.plamondon.com/faq_healthcare.html
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: July 07 2005 at 6:15pm | IP Logged
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I want chickens...wonder what the very strict covenants committee would say? Thanks for letting us live vicariously, Kim!
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: July 07 2005 at 9:47pm | IP Logged
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Kim,
Ironically, we just had our first cannibalistic experience too! Apparently 2 nights ago some of the chickens in the wagon "ganged up" on another chicken (they are all the same color and breed so I don't know what triggered this) and pecked it to death.  Dh was really upset about this. We had the chickens' beaks clipped to prevent this (we were warned that it happens) but it has happened anyway. I will have to check out those sites you mentioned for some answers for myself. This makes 4 chickens down (we started with 50)...2 eaten by a fox-we're assuming (we couldn't get them to get back into the chicken wagon at night-they wouldn't come out of the Christmas tree lot and dh swears our chickens can run 10 mph if they want to)...1 pecked to death by her neighbors and 1 still hiding out in the sweet corn field (in spite of the fox).
Were your kids shocked by the attack? My poor 5yo has added the chicken (along with the dead skunk and deer he discovered) to our nightly prayer list. I don't quite know how to tell him that there isn't a purgatory for animals...
I'll email a photo of our chicken wagon and the chickens soon.
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Kristine
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ALmom
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| Posted: July 15 2005 at 3:26pm | IP Logged
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As a great living picture book - in rhyme with lots of science terms - Chickens Aren't the Only Ones by Ruth Heller might make a great wrap up read aloud as it discusses all kinds of animals that lay eggs (oviporous).
Janet
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mi4ol
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| Posted: July 15 2005 at 5:52pm | IP Logged
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So Kim... we were wondering if the chicken alcatraz is finished and working out. And, Danny was wondering when the new pictures would be posted since it's been "such a long time".
I've always heard that chickens maintained a rather intense pecking order. (My grandmother had them growing up and my uncle raised some for a Scout badge.) Has that settled down any?
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God bless,
Debbie
Do whatever He tell you. John 2:5b
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 15 2005 at 10:12pm | IP Logged
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Our chicken coop is working really well Debbie! They have been very content now with the extra room. Though they are growing like weeds so will see how long this lasts <g>. They are all feathered out now in their fourth week. The black chicks were most dominant in the brooder but I will have to ask my son what his take is as of now. The big white breed is very laid back comparatively. Wish we had gotten more of those! One of the brown ones has flown up at my daughter and pecked her. Only happened once and hopefully it was a fluke. I am having the kids take turns sitting with them each day to help them get used to us.
Uploading some pics.  
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 9:52am | IP Logged
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Our chicks have that adolescent look to them now many of my children do LOL! All arms and legs but looking more grown than not. Its been a week or so of quiet growth - my favorite kind. We are going to look at McMurray's today when we get a spare moment because now it is starting to be apparent what breeds we have for at least many of them. They have all their feathers so they are graduated from the brooder lights. They still have their starter feed but otherwise they are treated just like the bigger hens. Just waiting til they are big enough to introduce them to the others.
They are getting the little combs on the tops of their heads and if you look at Bleu Cheese (she is the splotchy black and white one) you will see that hers is kinda funky for lack of a better word. Its the only one like it out there and she is definitely the only one of her breed we have. She is WAY smaller than the rest and her red round comb is odd. I would have thought between having a bright red target ont he top of her head and being such a squirt she would have been picked on but not so far.
There are some beautiful brown and black birds that may be getting some kind of full fluffy feathering around their necks. They are gorgeous.
If you have any bets on breeds let me know <g>
  
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mi4ol
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| Posted: July 28 2005 at 11:32am | IP Logged
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Thanks, Kim. They're growing quickly! Are all of them going to be layers or are some for meat?
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God bless,
Debbie
Do whatever He tell you. John 2:5b
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MacBeth
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Kim, they are gorgeous!!! Do you find they have different personalities?
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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 29 2005 at 8:48pm | IP Logged
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I can't honestly say *different* personalities. Sorta. Blue Cheese is the runt but she is bossy. They do odd things though. They like to be higher than the others if given a chance, which is why they are always standing on the feeder and waterer. You can see one of them standing IN the food. Territorial thing. <g> They tend to flap their wings at each other when they are bossing too. One of them did it Alannah and pecked her. That was a couple weeks ago though and they havent done it again.
Gotta admit I tend to *visit* them in the evenings though. Chickens get really dopey after sunset. You can pick them up and whatnot and they hardly notice. Its pretty funny really. Macbeth is this the same with other birds?
Kim
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Chick to hen - come grow them with us!
