How much stress is too much?

[CritterHill]

We are having our chicks delivered next month (12 of mine, 36 for my sister which I will be watching for a few weeks for her).

I had this crazy thought of having my daughter's preschool class come to our place for a field trip. See the baby chicks, tour the chicken coop before it gets all chickeny, that sort of thing.

But I am wondering when i should schedule this for. I want the babies to have time to get a little sturdier before 30 preschoolers start passing them around, but I would like to have the kids over while the chicks are still fuzzy.

Think one week old is too soon? How long should I wait before inviting the mob over?

 

[silkiechicken]

Mob might be dangerous. LOL. I brought 2 two day old chicks, a month old, and a year old, to a 1st grade class and none of the students were allowed to touch the ones under a month old. Teacher's rules for the class. I let them hold the one month old bird though as if they dropped it, it would be fine.

I personally would maybe let each student go line up and pet the chick while you were holding it, but I don't know if I'd let the kids hold them per se, especially en mass. Then again. I don't have kids yet and they are no where in my near future. Good luck with what ever you decide. I guess most importantly is the chicks stay warm.

 

[MissPrissy]

Small hands don't mean to be rough but they are very rough. It only takes one too many squeezes to injure or kill a chick. I would not let them hold small chicks. Not all children are equal in sensitivity. Maybe a month or 6 weeks old would be better sized for smaller hands.

 

[ibpboo]

What a wonderful field trip that would be for the preschoolers. I would make sure to have lots of volunteer parents, and maybe just a viewing of the chicks, not actually holding them, you could demonstrate how to hold, care for etc. Just in time for Easter too, what a treat! Have fun!!

 

[CritterHill]

Ok, thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll do the holding and just let them pet.

The neat part is that I had a chat with out next door neighbor about having the kids come over to see the chicks and he offered to do a demo with one of his bee hives for them while they were here. So this will be the real birds and the bees trip.

Now, if I can only convince my other neighbor to bring her miniature goats over...

 

[ibpboo]

Nice of your neighbor! The goats would be cute too. 30 preschoolers? Wow, that is a lot in one class. There are 18 in the class here and 20 in the other.

 

[CritterHill]

That is actually 2 classes, but they go on field trips together. So there are approximately 15 in each class.

 

[chicamama]

YOu may make yourself nuts with 3- kids that young. They just CAN'T help acting. like, well, preschoolers.

I brought my five, 1 months old chicks home with two 4 years olds and I was a bit stressed, but it worked.

See here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v673/sylvia_mia/?action=view&current=MVI_0001-6.flv

in case you missed it earlier this week.

 

[CritterHill]

Yeah, I did warn the teachers that if we do this, it MUST be on a sunny day so the kids can have full run of the yard and jungle gym. I am not even considering thirty 4 year olds in my house!

We'll see. I am not committed to the chick outing yet.

Somehow my husband roped me into going to the school to do a sabre fencing demonstration for the class this week (they are doing a unit on knights and castles and my DH thought it would be fun to do this). Well, I tried my fencing uniform on for the first time in nearly 10 years today and let's just say it wasn't pretty...