Small Farms

I think it is a great idea to hatch baby chicks in school- it is a true learning experience and you get to watch it up close.  It is no longer a picture in a book or a theory- it is hands-on experience.  While I’m all for classrooms doing this, I think sometimes teachers forget to do a little advanced planning.  Obviously, cute little baby chicks grow up (rather quickly) and will become chickens or roosters.  Then what?

A little planning will help you avoid that problem, but the time to plan is before you get those eggs to hatch in that cute little incubator for the classroom.  One of the best places to start, and is also a resource for borrowing an incubator instead of buying one, is your local Cooperative Extension office.  There are usually farm or even poultry specialists in those offices, and even if you live in town, they’ll have a network of people they can call to find homes for your chickens.  The keyword though is planning.  Last minute calls may be met with “it will take me at least a week to find someone.”  That means someone will probably have to take the chicks home to care for them during a school break or the weekend.  Otherwise, the little peepers can die, become injured or even get loose in the classroom.

Many small farmers (like me), will be happy to take the little chicks, but we need a few days to get things ready for them.  We can’t just throw them in with the full grown chickens and they need to have special feed and heat lamps.

A little advanced planning for the end of the hatching experience will keep everyone happy- the farmers, the kids… and the school janitor.

The fully automated incubator, pictured above, can be purchased at McMurray Hatchery online .