Chickens
in the Children’s Garden!
by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director
If
you’ve visited the Learning Farm Children’s Garden recently, you may have
noticed a new and exciting addition! We
now have a small chicken tractor, housing two chickens borrowed from our main
Learning Farm flock.
It’s
long been a dream of mine to bring some chickens into the Children’s Garden,
where so much of our educational programming happens – or at least begins and
sometimes ends! Now our visitors can
visit at least a couple of our chickens, even if they don’t have the time or
ability to trek out into the fields where the others are pastured.
It
would have been ideal if I could have brought one of each of our four breeds
into the Children’s Garden, but this chicken tractor is way too small for
that. I purchased the chicken tractor
online. It was advertised as being large
enough for three standard-size hens – but the reality is, it’s barely large
enough for two. So, who to choose? After some thought, I decided on one of our
Buff Orpingtons (my personal favorite of the four breeds) and a Rhode Island
Red (often a kid-favorite, being the closest to the “Little Red Hen”).
Children
often ask me if our chickens have names.
It would be near impossible to name and keep track of all the chickens
in our main flock – but two chickens in the Children’s Garden is a different
story. These girls would definitely need
names! But how to decide? The names would need to be fun, but
meaningful – and perhaps even a learning tool.
After
much thought, it was decided – Rhubarb and Rutabaga! I love growing and eating both rhubarb and
rutabaga – and, the words are just plain fun to say! So, the Rhode Island Red became Rhubarb (rhubarb
stems are red in color) and the Buff Orpington became Rutabaga (the flesh of a rutabaga
is somewhat buff in color).
Rhubarb
and Rutabaga have settled into their new home and their new routine quite
nicely. I let them out of their chicken
tractor for at least part of everyday – to give them an opportunity to stretch
their legs and scratch for bugs and other chicken-goodies. They’re only free to wander when I’m somewhat
nearby to check on them, but they generally stay within the Children’s Garden fence
or just a few chicken-steps beyond. They
seem to have accepted the chicken tractor as their new home and the Children’s
Garden as their new backyard – and the two seem to have become BHFs (Best Hen
Friends).
So,
next time you’re in the area, you’re invited come say hello to the Rhubarb and
Rutabaga. They’ll be living in the
Children’s Garden for the remainder of the autumn months. And if I’m nearby when you visit, I’ll be more
than happy to help you feed them a special chicken-treat!
Hope
to see you in the Children's Garden soon!
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