Chickens in School??

[Starburst]

Hello, everyone! I hope you all are doing well!
So, I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, but this was the closest forum I could think of regarding this topic. (Let me know if I should move it somewhere else!)
As you can probably tell from the title, this is regarding chickens & school. I'm working with a local school on trying to incorporate having a resident flock on campus. I think that this school (which has classes from traditional subjects, such as arithmetic, to making soap and building small homes), could really benefit from having some chickens. For example, eggs could be sold, used in cooking classes, studied for science classes, or donated to those in need. Not only that, but I think that children might greatly benefit from learning where their food comes from and also grow in different virtues, such as responsibility and empathy for animals. The school is located in the middle of a fairly large, bustling town, but the campus, while not huge, has a good bit of land where the chicken coop could be placed. Having chickens on campus in the school district has never been done before (with the exception of a chicken being brought in for a brief lecture), and I know that it can be scary to try something new.
So my question is, what are your thoughts? Have you ever heard of chickens being kept in schools? Have you heard of any schools, online or in person, that keep chickens? What are your suggestions for this, and what do you think I need to think about as I propose this plan? Any advice, experience, opinions, or anything else could be really helpful! Thank you so much!
-Starburst

 

[cherrynberry]

Hello, everyone! I hope you all are doing well!
So, I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, but this was the closest forum I could think of regarding this topic. (Let me know if I should move it somewhere else!)
As you can probably tell from the title, this is regarding chickens & school. I'm working with a local school on trying to incorporate having a resident flock on campus. I think that this school (which has classes from traditional subjects, such as arithmetic, to making soap and building small homes), could really benefit from having some chickens. For example, eggs could be sold, used in cooking classes, studied for science classes, or donated to those in need. Not only that, but I think that children might greatly benefit from learning where their food comes from and also grow in different virtues, such as responsibility and empathy for animals. The school is located in the middle of a fairly large, bustling town, but the campus, while not huge, has a good bit of land where the chicken coop could be placed. Having chickens on campus in the school district has never been done before (with the exception of a chicken being brought in for a brief lecture), and I know that it can be scary to try something new.
So my question is, what are your thoughts? Have you ever heard of chickens being kept in schools? Have you heard of any schools, online or in person, that keep chickens? What are your suggestions for this, and what do you think I need to think about as I propose this plan? Any advice, experience, opinions, or anything else could be really helpful! Thank you so much!
-Starburst

Yes, I have heard of it being done before. It was for a private school.


I will be watching as well.

 

[the_peanut_coop]

Hello, everyone! I hope you all are doing well!
So, I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, but this was the closest forum I could think of regarding this topic. (Let me know if I should move it somewhere else!)
As you can probably tell from the title, this is regarding chickens & school. I'm working with a local school on trying to incorporate having a resident flock on campus. I think that this school (which has classes from traditional subjects, such as arithmetic, to making soap and building small homes), could really benefit from having some chickens. For example, eggs could be sold, used in cooking classes, studied for science classes, or donated to those in need. Not only that, but I think that children might greatly benefit from learning where their food comes from and also grow in different virtues, such as responsibility and empathy for animals. The school is located in the middle of a fairly large, bustling town, but the campus, while not huge, has a good bit of land where the chicken coop could be placed. Having chickens on campus in the school district has never been done before (with the exception of a chicken being brought in for a brief lecture), and I know that it can be scary to try something new.
So my question is, what are your thoughts? Have you ever heard of chickens being kept in schools? Have you heard of any schools, online or in person, that keep chickens? What are your suggestions for this, and what do you think I need to think about as I propose this plan? Any advice, experience, opinions, or anything else could be really helpful! Thank you so much!
-Starburst

I've never heard of a chicken flock in a school, however, I think that this is an amazing and an intriguing plan! I would have loved as a kid to have a school chicken flock, as chickens can be used as examples for science,eggs as ingredients in cooking, and the feathers added to art projects, even! (And can be used for math... Chicken math!) I will be watching this thread

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Hello, everyone! I hope you all are doing well!
So, I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, but this was the closest forum I could think of regarding this topic. (Let me know if I should move it somewhere else!)
As you can probably tell from the title, this is regarding chickens & school. I'm working with a local school on trying to incorporate having a resident flock on campus. I think that this school (which has classes from traditional subjects, such as arithmetic, to making soap and building small homes), could really benefit from having some chickens. For example, eggs could be sold, used in cooking classes, studied for science classes, or donated to those in need. Not only that, but I think that children might greatly benefit from learning where their food comes from and also grow in different virtues, such as responsibility and empathy for animals. The school is located in the middle of a fairly large, bustling town, but the campus, while not huge, has a good bit of land where the chicken coop could be placed. Having chickens on campus in the school district has never been done before (with the exception of a chicken being brought in for a brief lecture), and I know that it can be scary to try something new.
So my question is, what are your thoughts? Have you ever heard of chickens being kept in schools? Have you heard of any schools, online or in person, that keep chickens? What are your suggestions for this, and what do you think I need to think about as I propose this plan? Any advice, experience, opinions, or anything else could be really helpful! Thank you so much!
-Starburst

I think it's a fantastic idea! My old college buddy went to an "arts" school growing up and they had all sorts of farm animals including a llama. He loved that even though he was a "city boy" he learned how to take care of the animals and felt like he had pets when he couldn't have any at home.

 

[Starburst]

Yes, I have heard of it being done before. It was for a private school.


I will be watching as well.

I've never heard of a chicken flock in a school, however, I think that this is an amazing and an intriguing plan! I would have loved as a kid to have a school chicken flock, as chickens can be used as examples for science,eggs as ingredients in cooking, and the feathers added to art projects, even! (And can be used for math... Chicken math!) I will be watching this thread

I think it's a fantastic idea! My old college buddy went to an "arts" school growing up and they had all sorts of farm animals including a llama. He loved that even though he was a "city boy" he learned how to take care of the animals and felt like he had pets when he could have any at home.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement! @the_peanut_coop, I didn't think of using feathers for artwork...that's honestly a great idea! And the Chicken Math...
@cherrynberry, I'm glad to hear that it's been done before...if you happen to come across any articles on it, and if you could provide me with a link, I'd love to read it! Same goes for everyone - I could really use all the information I can get!
@HollowOfWisps, that sounds like an incredibly idyllic school! I can only imagine having a llama at school!
Does anyone have any hazards you can think of that should be taken into account, or any ideas on how to solve them?
Some issues that have been thought of, as of now:

Allergies (on the student's behalf)

Summer breaks/other long-term school breaks.

 

[Swbertrand1]

On the surface, I think it's a GREAT idea! However, this is 2021, not 1951, and I can't see a school anywhere getting into something like this for the liability issues alone.

Then there's the issue of cleanliness, and we all know birds are not very clean animals, upkeep of their living conditions, and feeding/watering. Who is going to take care of all of that? What happens when one of the students gets salmonella? See where I'm going with this?

Selling eggs? No way; they'd have the health department on top of them in a matter of days. If the health department didn't stop the practice, I'm sure you can imagine the lawsuits were someone to believe they got sick from "school eggs". The list goes on and on and on, but this is the screwed up world we live in these days.

The education is badly needed however. How bad is it? It's so bad that there is at least one member of our US Congress, a current member, that said we don't need farms because we have grocery stores...

Good luck though. I'd like to see you make it work; I just think you're facing an uphill battle.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I used to work for a private Montessori school that had it's own farm. The middle school had all sorts of animals including chickens. Basically the students ran it like a business - selling eggs and meat. The students had to do the research to tend to the animals and the micro-economy they were creating. It actually happens quite often at private schools. I'd do a search for micro farms at school to see what pops up.
Here's a brief description of the middle school micro farm that I am referring to.

https://www.oakfarm.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1820878&type=d&pREC_ID=1980988

Other examples of schools implementing similar programs:

https://prestonhollow.advocatemag.c...r-students-lucrative-chicken-egg-corporation/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/Chicken%20Guide_0.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjK2_bXkaP0AhV_mGoFHZaEB0AQFnoECDIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2WnfmA09MRScorM-lAhxkb

https://www.agupdate.com/minnesotaf...cle_05403660-7193-11eb-b320-3fc669979810.html

https://4hanimalscience.rutgers.edu/2020/03/15/starting-a-chicken-raising-project-at-your-school/

https://sites.google.com/a/agcharter.org/agcs-micro-farm/

Really, there's no shortage of schools with similar concepts. Good luck in your research and implementation of the program!

 

[WhySayWhat]

Don't forget weekends when planning on the chicken care. You "can" have a set up that can be ignored for a few days, but depending on the size of the flock, they could have issues with the eggs sitting that long. My own home "city" flock tend to get bored and try to peck at eggs if I leave them sit for too long! Another thing my gals like to do is "rearrange the furniture" in their coop and run...anything not nailed down gets flipped and kicked all over (leading to lots of broken eggs until I got everything nailed down again), so someone would need to be going in on Saturday and Sunday to fill water, feed, collect eggs, and provide any basic care needed for the flock. Taking care of injuries from other chickens or predators would need to be done as well.

I think it's a great idea, but make sure you (or whoever is in charge of the project) knows that it will be a daily commitment even on "off" days.

 

[Gizabelle]

An elementary school near my home had a flock. Not sure what became of them during the school shut down, but they did it successfully for years. (I think) they started with an egg hatching project and maybe rotated/adopted out all but a manageable few each year. Super cool experience for the kiddos.

 

[Iluveggers]

I think it sounds awesome. One thing I would worry about is aggressive roosters, so an all hen flock might be best. In my dream world I would do this at my school!