Ambassadors for the farm

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Ramping things up a bit now to deal with a major exhibit. Chick above now looking like

has been joined by a male cousin. Both are male. Soon to females that are full siblings to second male will be brought out. Both males come when called to fly up. They also go to roost when given signal. Chick above has been going to work with me most days to polish training and provide diversions for youth tours as they get ready for the main events.

Pullets will be similarly trained in preparation for functioning as broodies in a very public setting. The pullets will be setup to enable public to see nest preparation, egg deposition and incubation as part of a living display. They pullets will also be conditioned to work with many people, possibly with chicks in tow.

Orchard area has been modified to provide exceptional forage quality for the couple hours each day the birds are allowed to free range. Strips of mixed plants have been allowed to grow to a little over a foot high to serve as bio-attractor for insects. Insects and greens are of the type the chickens really like to eat.

Pens will be moved from another area so pullets and cockerels can each have their own pen. Pens will be moved every couple days to prevent damage to grass. Same area has very high dog traffic which helps with letting juveniles operate free-range without adults present. We have a hawk issue developing.

One of the cockerels is very precocious producing displays like a fully adult bird as he tries to attract my attention and that of other juveniles. Prior to being selected for this process he was successfully defending interest of brood mates even when challenged by American Dominique juveniles more than twice his size. He is aggressive. I will have to work on getting him to calm down as he need not be acting aggressive around humans when he goes to work. He is also a pretty little dude.

 

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Three bare pens in place.

Mowed lanes roughly width of a pen.

Daughter helping to install covers. I do not like such covers as cause troubles when wind strong and coming from south by southwest. We live as head of a valley that funnels such wind. Better pens have flat top so covers can blow off, but these only spares. They will be swapped out by winter.

Pens in place and ready for birds. Black milk crates make so pens can be tilted up to allow free-ranging once birds imprinted on respective pens. Once birds return to roost, the milk crates are pulled back setting pens back down for night. Pens light duty without additional fencing which OK because in core of where dogs operate.

Pens will be moved incrementally down closely mowed lanes.`Normally pens are a little closer together without taller strips of grass in between lanes. I like this setup better that used where most pens are kept. Kind of pretty too.

 

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Cockerels just before moved into pens. They follow my daughter all over the place.

Cockerel getting settled in.

 

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A little closer view of uncut strip showing some of plant community.

 

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We did a little bit in Kansas City, Missouri where kids have events dealing with a particular events animals and plants. I have two parts; first uses chickens to show some basics of life cycle and behavior, and second will deal with aquatic organisms on our farm this coming weekend.

This round I took a broody rooster with three advanced chicks (about 6 weeks post hatch), two juvenile cockerels (stags), and a broody hen in the middle of hatching eggs.

I described how eggs are laid and the incubation process. The I had a kid pull and egg from under the hen that was pipped. We passed it around so kids were instructed to listen. They could hear chick pipping and see it pecking at the shell. Then I pulled out a chick that was unzipped and pushing out of the shell. The two chicks were pulled out showing sex-linked marker. More time needed to explain that. They also saw the mortal threat the juveniles posed to the newly hatched even though full siblings. They witnessed the communications between hen and chicks. Then they got to see what the broody rooster did in caring for the advanced chicks and how he drove the juveniles away. Several kids got into handling the juveniles. Others handled them but where also scared at first. Everyone wanted to handle the fluffy chicks which we had to monitor closely. Event went really well even though it lasted only 2 hours. It was a loaded visit.

Cockerels interacting with kids.

The kid and cockerel spent about 5 minutes checking each other out.

Broody hen over chicks and hatching eggs. A kid took picture with my phone.

Broody rooster and three advanced chicks dust bathing. Several kids gave a protracted series of questions on that.

I need more small animal carriers and small fans placed in each that can be run off auxiliary power of vehicle.

 

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Cole County Fair Agriland we do every year. A good 300 kids and adults came through. Ty the gamecockerel worked the crowd from the ground while the broody with 7 chicks kept everyone motivated to handle live meal worms. Ty cleaned up what dropped which was quite a few.

Little kid in foreground had my ear for a good 15 minutes as we discussed a Hereford cow a few feet away that was about to give birth.

My student feverishly managed a conveyor-like crowd non-stop for almost 3 hours. We also had some interesting wasps making burrows to be stocked with grasshoppers before eggs where to be laid on them.

Ty during a rare slow moment as he looked for spilled grain. He was so full I though he would explode. He sneaked off to hide on a table behind cooler that a lady was using to store her kids show tackle. It took her a while to figure out just how close he was.

 

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Yesterday we had a group of 15 from Americorps interested in aquaponics and all food production that is adaptable to small scale. What really seems have have caught there I was the concept of broody hens and train-ability of chickens.

They also like duckweed. They got to watch how we harvested duckweed and got a demonstration on how easy it is to harvest.

 

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This round 5 students accompanied me. They suffered my presence for 13 hours; about driving, and about 9 hours working with the public. They started day very green in terms of public speaking and in this case knowledge of critters they were discussing. Additionally, the venue was different than we usually have where we now operated inside the agriculture area and in a nice building. Some of the birds were able to move about to engage public for almost entire event.

This student proved very impressive working with the chickens.

The game stag we called tap worked the crowd hard and also tried to steal grain used as part of display by the Missouri Farm Bureau.

We were provided with some red plastic table covering that did not go well with spilling water at end of day.

We used a white Leghorn (rescue hen from commercial operation) to represent white egg producers. A Black-tailed White Japanese Bantam cock served as a reference ornamental. I hope to get a commercial brown egg producing bird hen in the future plus some Cornish X. I really want public to see first hand what chickens they actually eat looks like. Facts are hidden or miss represented, depending on your source.

A gamefowl friend donated drop pens which proved far more effective than pens we have been using.

Three more events to me done this coming week alone.

 

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New critter in display, Water Scorpion. I have big fingers so critter big.

 

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For the record we had a gentleman that came in with event above and repeatedly kicked at the chickens moving about. He indicated the chicken is getting away then kicked at it in a manner cutting the bird off from me. The bird changed direction in response to the kick. Later he came back with what I think was his wife. She bent down in front of rooster and did a back and forth moving of her hand to and away from then rooster riling him. She was doing exactly what I would do if intentionally trying to train a man-fighter. She appeared to know what she was doing. I intervened immediately acting like it was bird's turn to be penned. Even students saw something was up. I can see those two people in my head clearly, they made me uncomfortable.