Come Visit the Chickens!

Farm Connections …
Organic Plant Sale, CSA Shares & Open House
at Prairie Crossing Farm

Saturday, May 18, 2013
10 a.m.—1 p.m.

 
Do you garden with flowers or vegetables? Do you enjoy fresh eggs from pastured chickens? Are you interested in what is happening at the Prairie Crossing Farm?

Come to the Farm Connections Plant Sale and Open House on Saturday, May 18 from 10 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. 

Organic plant starts of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers will be available for sale from the Learning Farm and several other Prairie Crossing farmers, as well as a variety of other farm products.  

  
Meet the farmers, visit the chickens, and support the local food that is growing in your backyard! Several different CSA options will be available including organic vegetables and pastured pork. Reserve your free-range turkey for Thanksgiving and purchase free-range eggs and handmade goat milk soap.

In addition to the Learning Farm, other Prairie Crossing farmers offering organic plants and other farm products for sale this year include:

• Gretta's Goats
• Midnight Sun Farm
• Radical Root Farm
• Sandhill Family Farms
• Yaw-Ye Farms

After you’ve made your purchases, take a stroll around the Learning Farm and visit the Learning Farm’s chickens. A special farm scavenger hunt will be offered for kids! You may also want to bring a picnic lunch to enjoy on the south lawn of the Yellow Farmhouse.

The Prairie Crossing Farm is located at 32400 N. Harris Road in Grayslake. Despite what inter-net maps indicate, Harris Road does not connect to the farm from Route 120. Enter Prairie Crossing via Route 45 at Jones Point Road and follow the signs to the Farm. Park in the parking lot next to the Yellow Farmhouse, or along the side of Harris Road.

Eat fresh, healthy, and local! 
Thank you for your support of local food.
www.prairiecrossing.com/farm/learning.php

Some Summer Chicken Camps Already Full!

Chicken Camps at the Learning Farm
by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

We offer many different farm camps at the Learning Farm. Every one of our farm camps include time with the Learning Farm chickens, and the chickens have always been a farm-camp favorite.  

So, two summers ago we decided to offer our first two chicken-focused summer farm camps -- "Don't Be Chicken to Learn About Chickens" for ages 5-7 and "Don't Be Chicken to Learn Even MORE About Chickens" for ages 7-10.  No surprise, they have become our most popular camps since then! In fact, both of those camps are already full for summer 2013!

But now in our third year of chicken camps, we've added a few more options!  For the first time we're offering a summer chicken camp for older kids -- ages 10-12. 

Also for the first time, kids ages 8-12 will have the opportunity to work with our chicken farmers as part of our "Chicken Chore Crew."  We've just completed our spring "Chicken Chore Crew" camp.  You can scroll down to the previous April 17th and May 3rd blog posts to check out some of what we did.  If it sounds like fun to you, summer and fall sessions still have openings!

Below is the information for the 2013 chicken camps that currently still have openings.  To register and/or for information on our other farm camp offerings, please visit our webiste, Prairie Crossing Learning Farm. 

Chickens: There’s Always More to Learn!

Let’s explore the “chicken-ness” of the chicken!  How do they produce these amazing things called “eggs” – and lay one nearly every day?  What do chicken-keepers need to know, to help chickens “express their chicken-ness”?  Come find out, while spending time with our Learning Farm chickens!

Ages:  10-12 years old

Days:  half days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday for 1 week)
Dates:  August 6, 7, 8, 9
Time:  9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Cost:  $95

Be Part of the Chicken Chore Crew!

If you’ve been a Hen House Helper volunteer with your parents, or if you’ve been part of our farm camps or other farm programs, then you’ve already had the incredible experience of collecting eggs from our chickens.  But there’s much more involved in caring for our flock than collecting eggs.  Come join our Learning Farm chicken farmers to learn about and participate in some of these important tasks!

Ages:  8-12 years old

Days:  Mondays

Summer Session Dates:  July 8, 15, 22, 29

Time for Summer Session:  10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Fall Session Dates:  Sept. 9, 16, 23, 30

Time for Fall Session:  4:00-5:30 p.m.

Cost:  $25/child/session

First Ever Chicken Chore Crew Concludes

Chicken Chore Crew, Part 2!

by Anya O’Halloran,
Hen House Helper Coordinator/Hen House Assistant

Our first ever Chicken Chore Crew Farm Camp concluded on Monday.  It was a bittersweet afternoon.  Our campers thoroughly enjoyed being able to feed, hold, and learn about our chickens during these past four sessions.  Many campers even gave names to some of the flock!  They were all very sad that this was our last day and begged that we extend the camp to many more weeks. 

 

During the wrap-up reflection time at the end of the last camp, we had each camper share whether their initial hopes for the camp had been met.  Holding and feeding the chickens was something most of the campers had hoped to do, and were able to do every day of the camp. 

 

Unfortunately, there was one wish that we were not able to fulfill – that of actually taking home a chicken or a chick! J

 

Sharon and I are very pleased at how well our first Chicken Chore Crew farm camp went.  We had a great group of enthusiastic campers and a lot of chicken chores were completed throughout the duration of the camp.  

 

Thank you, campers, for all your help!  We hope to see you around the Learning Farm again soon – our chickens would love a visit!

 

If you know someone that might be interested in becoming part of the crew, the Chicken Chore Crew farm camp is being offered again in the summer and fall, 2013. 

 

Visit our website (http://www.prairiecrossing.com/farm/learning.php) for more information and to register. 

 

 

Chickens in the Edible Landscape

Edible Landscaping -- including Chickens!
posted by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

I consider myself a fairly decent gardener -- and I do a bit with edible landscaping in my own front and backyards.  I also own several of Rosalind Creasy's books on that very topic.  But watching this youtube video of Creasy showing part of her home edible landscape, makes me realize how much I still have to learn -- and how much I could (and should) still do!

Even just this photo makes me want to get out there and start planting stuff!

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Creasy "grows chickens" in her edible landscape, too!

Check out the youtube video here!  

Chickens and Weather

"Hens in the Wind: Acceptance"
Posted by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

The following paragraph and photo were posted yesterday on Jon Katz's Bedlam Farm Journal blog (Bedlam Farm Journal):

"I admire certain things about animals. They don’t squawk about the weather, and they don’t need weather alerts or names for storms. They accept the weather as a natural part of life, and today when the wind hit 50 mph gusts, the hens dug themselves into a small dip in the grass, closed their eyes and offered warmth and support for one another. This seemed a metaphor for me, another thing I learn from the animals I live with."

At the Learning Farm, our current flock of Bovans Browns seem to be of less-sturdy stuff than Jon's hens.  We often have a fair bit of wind whipping about the farm, but we've had some exceptionally crazy weather of late here in northern Illinois (where were you when the torrential rains -- and a wee bit of hail -- hit last Wednesday afternoon?).  

For the most part, our chickens hole up inside the coop during inclement weather, and wait for things to clear up.  But as I type this from home -- on a cold, but calm and sunny Saturday morning -- they are no doubt happily scratching about, outside in their chicken yard.

"Chicken Chore Crew" Farm Camp

New at the Learning Farm –

Our Chicken Chore Crew!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

Our spring “Chicken Chore Crew” Farm Camp had begun!  We have ten chicken enthusiasts – ages 8-12 – that have signed up to be a part of our first-ever Chicken Chore Crew.

 

 

 

We’ve met on two Monday afternoon’s so far, and we have two more Monday’s to go for this spring session.  Fortunately, this unusually cold and wet spring weather has been fairly nice to us – and we’ve been able to do most of the outdoor chores that we were hoping to do.

Here are some of the chicken chores that we’ve accomplished so far (some of these chores we did on both days, some only on one day so far):

·         Harvested mealworms and fed them to the chickens.

·         Fed greens and “chicken candy” (scratch grain) to the chickens.

·         Collected leftover chicken feed from feeders; made “chicken gruel” and fed it to the chickens.

·         Raked straw off the Children’s Garden beds; brought the straw to the chicken yard and spread it around.

·         Cleaned the ledges and roosts in the winter chicken coop by scraping chicken poop into our infamous “poop bucket.”

·         Learned how to pick up a chicken, then picked up and held lots of chickens!

 

 

 

 

 

If you think that you might like to spend some time hanging out with our chickens, our chicken farmers, and some other kids that like chickens – then you’re in luck!  We have both summer and fall Chicken Chore Crews on our camp schedule!

Summer Session Dates:  July 8, 15, 22, 29
Time for Summer Session:  10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Fall Session Dates:  Sept. 9, 16, 23, 30
Time for Fall Session:  4:00-5:30 p.m.

Cost:  $25/child/session

For more information and to register, visit the Learning Farm website!

 

 

Chicken Visit

Visiting Previously-Adopted Chickens!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

If you’ve been following our hen blog for a while, you may recall that the Learning Farm held a chicken adoption event last November, and was able to adopt out many of the hens from that flock when they were about 2 years old.  One very friendly woman who adopted two of our hens that day, Nan, invited me to come to her house anytime to visit them.  I didn’t try to visit over the winter, but now that spring weather has finally arrived in northern Illinois (sort of), I recently contacted her to arrange a visit.

Even though it’s still early spring, with little green showing or growing as of yet – it was obvious to me that Nan is quite the gardener.  I can’t wait to return later in the spring or summer and see her yard in all its growing glory.  Nan has a rather large yard, and a rather large backyard chicken flock – currently nine gorgeous hens of a variety of breeds. 

 

 

 

 

The two she adopted from us were new breeds for her – a Black Australorp (which she named Asti) and a Barred Plymouth Rock (which she named Oreo).  Both integrated into her existing flock with little fanfare!

 

Nan's backyard chicken coop was built by her own hands!  She started with a free coop design that she found on the Purina website (you can check out the original design at Purina Henhouse and Hutch Design), but made many modifications to suit her needs.  It serves its purpose well! 

Nan told me that her neighbors often contribute vegetable scraps for her chickens – and she, in turn, shares the bounty of eggs from her hens with them.  She also explained that the neighborhood kids come often to her backyard to visit and play with the chickens – and she welcomes their visits.  What a rare learning opportunity for them!

It was wonderful to watch her flock of nine happy hens, roaming the yard, scratching and dust bathing in her garden beds.  These birds are clearly well-loved and well-tended.  It was a joy to see it – and to “talk chickens” with such a like-minded soul! 

 

Many thanks to you, Nan!

 

Chicken Fiber Art

Chicken Potholders!

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

Maria Wulf is a fiber artist who focuses on creating “original functional art from recycled clothes and fabric,” according to her website.  I love this idea of repurposing old into new, and have been experimenting with some of that myself.  I am not a fiber “artist,” but more of a fiber “crafter.”

As an artist, Maria has her own website (http://www.fullmoonfiberart.com/) from which she exhibits and sells her fiber art.  She has just posted some adorable chicken potholders that she’s made.  I’ve included a photo of my favorite one here, but if you’re interested in seeing more, pay a visit to her website.

Most of these potholders appear to have been sold already – but since she seems to have sold them so quickly, my hope is that there will be more chicken potholders created in Maria Wulf's fiber art studio.