Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

I am just astonished that someone would take on the task of bringing life into this world without understanding the responsibility that then entails. To do so without any of the basic knowledge associated with the "life" in question shows a complete lack of basic understanding. In short, I wonder how we can trust our children's education to someone who will not educate themselves.

Please know that I am not convicting all teachers, just this one.

For me, seeing such callous disregard for living things is frightening. If chicks are disposable and not worthy of care, what else is?

I agree completely, but to be devils advocate sometimes
“You don’t know what you don’t know
Till you need to know
What you don’t know”

Which is why I feel the teacher aught to have been informed of her error. And educated.

Which is why I aim to ensure the teacher I am handing the eggs over to knows what she os doing, and offer to chat with her class about the eggs and chicks, these are just kindergarten kids but I know even kids that young can absorb and remember information.

 

[bgmathteach]

I am just astonished that someone would take on the task of bringing life into this world without understanding the responsibility that then entails. To do so without any of the basic knowledge associated with the "life" in question shows a complete lack of basic understanding. In short, I wonder how we can trust our children's education to someone who will not educate themselves.

Please know that I am not convicting all teachers, just this one.

For me, seeing such callous disregard for living things is frightening. If chicks are disposable and not worthy of care, what else is?

I do believe this, too..(hence the angry emoticon as well as the sad). BUT....one would HOPE that they learned from this (I assume the student would tell the teacher that the chick died??) And 'next time' it would be better? Again, no excuse for the suffering of the chick...nor the child having the chick die on them either.....but, again, one would hope that they did learn from this and improve next time!

I suspect that a combination of ignorance and wanting to be 'fair to all the kids in the class' led to sending one chick home with each child...but if that is your plan, then also plan on hatching 2-3 times the number of chicks as there are kids ( allowing for an incomplete hatch rate), so that they could go in pairs or trios...then it is fair to the kids AND the chicks.....AND get permission slips from all parents that either state 'yes, we will accept a couple of chicks' or NO, we don't want any" AND send care info home with each child - both prior to chicks hatching so proper living situation can be gotten...AND when the chicks go home 'just in case' previous info is lost.

Alas, who knows what happened - both before and after...but one would HOPE that someone learned something from that so that mistake isn't repeated....

Also, not defending what happened...but I did a fair amount of reading before I got my first chicks...and I am STILL learning more everyday despite having thought I was reasonably well prepared before my first set arrived. Thankfully I didn't do anything that stupid, but there were certainly things I could have done better then.. and a year from now I am sure I will look back on today and say - jeeze...really, you hadn't figured that out yet!!!

 

[BY Bob]

I agree completely, but to be devils advocate sometimes
“You don’t know what you don’t know
Till you need to know
What you don’t know”

Which is why I feel the teacher aught to have been informed of her error. And educated.

Which is why I aim to ensure the teacher I am handing the eggs over to knows what she os doing, and offer to chat with her class about the eggs and chicks, these are just kindergarten kids but I know even kids that young can absorb and remember information.

When CrazyChookChookLady did this for her daughter's school she did a full education including bringing dear old Stanley in to show the class. That's how it should be done. You should make it a condition that you get to help teach.

 

[Ponypoor]

MORE POLKIES MORE POLKIES MORE POLKIES!!!

You are an enabler Mr By_Bob

Shannon doesn’t want any more chicks at the moment so no more Polkies boohoo.

She also thinks one of my eggs is not growing, she will get her sister to check the egg when she gets home from work (she is a Vet Tech).

I am interesting to see which one it is, the dark eggs are really hard to tell with.

 

[bgmathteach]

When CrazyChookChookLady did this for her daughter's school she did a full education including bringing dear old Stanley in to show the class. That's how it should be done. You should make it a condition that you get to help teach.

Speaking of her, @BY Bob , how is she? we haven't seen her on here in ages. Hope she is doing well. If I remember correctly, she had to move or something, had to give away the chooks???? But then didn't she get more later????

(I may be comingling her and someone else, like Grandma Kavorte ?sp?)

 

[Ponypoor]

When CrazyChookChookLady did this for her daughter's school she did a full education including bringing dear old Stanley in to show the class. That's how it should be done. You should make it a condition that you get to help teach.

Oh yes I aim to be part of this, and showing them the candling and how to care for them.

I believe in starting kids very early with learning things. When my nieces where only 1 yr old they were helping in the barn putting feed in buckets, helping me do water, cleaning stalls

Which is why my nieces are big animal lovers - my sister isn’t a huge animal person, but I made sure her kids were taught about animals. So I guess it’s because of me, Allison got hens, and then I followed suit!

So really, I have only myself to blame!

 

[bgmathteach]

You are an enabler Mr By_Bob

Shannon doesn’t want any more chicks at the moment so no more Polkies boohoo.

She also thinks one of my eggs is not growing, she will get her sister to check the egg when she gets home from work (she is a Vet Tech).

I am interesting to see which one it is, the dark eggs are really hard to tell with.

Please don't let her toss it just yet. I've had eggs I thought were 'bad', but at second check a week later...turns out they were just a bit slower developing/getting started than the others - between that and some eggs being more difficult to see....I wouldn't necessarily toss it right away.

 

[Ponypoor]

My oldest daughter went far away to University in Kansas. There a was a tree there that she had never encountered before. The first spring she was there that tree tried to kill her. She was to the ER several times because her allergic reaction was so severe. We wound up getting her the shots. They worked beautifully. She never had the problem again.

Poor girl! This time of year is miserable for me, there is mold from damp, and rotting leaves, pollen from trees soon, and of course the horses losing their winter hair coat and the cat also shedding. And let’s not forget about the chickens. Omnaris is my friend these days

 

[micstrachan]

A really interesting thing just happened! I managed to get home just a little early today, so the girls will get about two hours of supervised ranging time. Here’s a little background. Little Mill is starting to get her laying hormones, and that actually usually makes her super mean to the younger ones. Also note that Flash is the lowest in the pecking order by a long shot.

I had let the chickens out, maybe five minutes or so earlier, and suddenly saw Flash darting across the yard. She didn’t look scared, rather, she looked like she was going for a treat or something. I looked where she was headed and Little Mill had Flo in a full (submissive) squat. Now, even though Flo is one of the youngest, she is very assertive, she is the only one that Bridge lets roost right beside her, and she’s working her way up in the order. Anyway, Flash ran right up to Little Mill, who way outranks her, and started pecking at her to get off of Flo. I was shocked! Little Mill then stood up tall, raising her hackles into a full flair, turned her attention away from Flo and onto Flash. Flash is my quickest chicken and Little Mill with her limp is my slowest. Flash must understand that, because she just ran away, alongside Flo, leaving Little Mill in the dust. I was actually pretty proud of Flash standing up for her friend. It’s interesting, because Flo isn’t usually very nice to Flash.

 

[Ponypoor]

Most people find pics of pussywillows....this turns that idea upside-down View attachment 3455712(On the approaches to the divide. Snow mostly gone around the house).


Bird taxView attachment 3455713

You be careful driving - soon it will be spring

Love that Roo of yours those feathers are gorgeous