Our kids are at an age, 4 and 9, that being more intentional about agriculture and food literacy is a current parenting goal. Even though we live on a farm, our farming enterprise focuses on row crops that don't allow for involvement by the kids. We undertook two projects this year: chickens and a vegetable garden.
In March we obtained fifteen chicks a few days old from a nearby Extension program that hatches eggs in elementary classrooms across Lincoln, Nebraska. The lived in a washtub in the kitchen for a few days before moving to the garage, then a chicken tractor and finally (finally) a rehabbed chicken coop. Really, you haven't lived until you've put a metal roof on a chicken coop in a blizzard ....
This first batch of chicks ended up being ten hens and four roosters (one didn't make it). We encouraged the kids to play with the chickens.
While George was busy planting our field crops and making sure all his clients had the parts they needed to get their crops planted, the kids and I built raised garden beds using an Ana White tutorial. We planted a mix of seeds and seedlings focusing on "things interesting to a four and nine-year-old" like purple bell peppers.
Both Anne and Henry were fully engaged in the garden and chicken project stepping up to help with weeding, watering, and feeding. The first egg and the first tomatoes were pretty exciting days!
As spring turned to summer, we added broiler chicks to the poultry enterprise. These fast-growers had very different behavior than our soon to be layers! Anne did end up taking a pen of three broilers to the fair and earned a purple ribbon.
Henry's highlight was a plant we found at the local farm store labeled, "World's Largest Tomato." No other cultivar information was included but Henry decided early on that this was his tomato. It was a relief when we were able to pick a tomato about the size of a softball late in the season. Henry got a little creative in watering ...
George spent many evenings rehabbing the farm's old brooder house to make a suitable home for our layer hens. It needed moved, a new roof, repairs to the sill and lower siding, among other things. George was able to get the building frame and siding in great shape, but we ended up putting the old roofing back on so the hens and one rooster could move indoors during the first snow storm of the season. The chickens are happy but will be getting nesting boxes, light, wood shingles and a few other things in 2019.
