4-H Poultry Project - ideas needed!

Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone has better ideas than me ...

I started up a poultry project with the local 4-H Multi-Club this year. I have three kids in my project: two 7 year olds (Cleaver age) and one 9 year old.

One amazing WCPS member has already kindly forwarded me some of her old 4-H Poultry Project materials.

The current 4-H materials are geared towards the 9-11 year olds and upwards, so I am trying to think of more fun activities/learning opportunities for the younger kids. There are a few ideas in the leader books, and I already made a matching/memory game with different breeds for our next learning day.

We'll be incubating eggs and hatching chicks starting in mid-February, but I am looking for some fun games/activities to keep the littler ones engaged between now and hatch day. Achievement day is June 1.

Some things I have thought of already are ...

Choose a name and draw a logo for your chicken raising business/hobby (you can take a girl out of business school, but you can't take business school out of the girl!)
Matching/memory game
Building brooder boxes
Building nest boxes
Possibly building chicken tractors later in the spring (kids and power tools totally mix. I'm pretty sure.   )
Candling eggs and having kids draw a picture of what it looks like at each candling
Examining fertile vs. infertile eggs
Cooking with eggs (this was actually in the 4-H books, too)
Do a naked egg (dissolve shell in vinegar, play with rubbery egg)

Help a girl out! I want my 4-H kids to be super pumped and excited about raising chickens.

I don't know anything about 4-H. However, I want to congrates you on starting a 4-H poultry group up. Think it's cool.

Authentic, if you would like some 'fun' eggs, to hatch for the kids, a little later on let me know.

coopslave wrote:Authentic, if you would like some 'fun' eggs, to hatch for the kids, a little later on let me know.

You are awesome. The kids would probably be excited to have a few different coloured eggs in the incubator, if that's what you're thinking of ...

It kind of sucks that the 4-H year goes from Fall through Spring, doesn't necessarily line up with typical hatching dates. I'd like to keep the project going over the summer, informally, since the kids all live close by and I see them a lot anyway.

I am not a 4H gal so if any of these ideas sound too teachy, I am sorry!

You can do some chicken art. Just ask me for some ideas!

Ask Rico where to find the SOP silhouette cards. Children need to identify the breeds by their silhouettes.

Throw in half a dozen extra eggs and open them along the way so the children can watch the development of the chick. (Only if they are not too tender hearted!)

Create a chicken hatching calendar/poster with pictures and information. Include information like lockdown and hatch day! That can draw embryos from the above activity.

Have them begin a chicken pedigree...this can carry them several years.

Design and create tracking pages on excel or some similar program. You can track weight gain, feed consumption etc, then use excel to create graphs.

Let me think...I know I have others!

Science grade 3 topic E is animal life cycles. You can probably find some pretty great stuff made by teachers on the Internet.

Yes, thinking of different coloured eggs and they will have some interesting chicks in them. Could do an easy 'genetics' type activity to guess what will hatch with them.

Will be putting together breeding pens late Jan early Feb depending on the weather, so keep me in mind.

Enchanted learning has a ton of stuff

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I wanna be in the 4H group! This is my level of learning, well on some things. Dang it that you live so far away. I'm short, but not short enough to fit in to that age group though, and probably a mite too round and wide - they'd notice me, one of these kids is not like the others :-(.

This sounds like a lot of fun. I was also thinking about the genetic thing, scientists in the making right there. I heard Tara uses fluffy toys for her grid thingies. That really IS my level of learning. 9 - 11 yr old level genetics!

Schipperkesue wrote:I am not a 4H gal so if any of these ideas sound too teachy, I am sorry!  

You can do some chicken art.  Just ask me for some ideas!

Ask Rico where to find the SOP silhouette cards.  Children need to identify the breeds by their silhouettes.

Throw in half a dozen extra eggs and open them along the way so the children can watch the development of the chick.  (Only if they are not too tender hearted!)

Create a chicken hatching calendar/poster with pictures and information.  Include information like lockdown and hatch day!  That can draw embryos from the above activity.

Have them begin a chicken pedigree...this can carry them several years.

Design and create tracking pages on excel or some similar program.  You can track weight gain, feed consumption etc, then use excel to create graphs.

Let me think...I know I have others!

Brilliant! Good ideas, all of them. I could probably make the SOP silhouette cards. I have the technology.

coopslave wrote:Yes, thinking of different coloured eggs and they will have some interesting chicks in them.  Could do an easy 'genetics' type activity to guess what will hatch with them.

Will be putting together breeding pens late Jan early Feb depending on the weather, so keep me in mind.

Will do! I will discuss it with the other kids and see if they'd want to do some "fun" ones in addition to the breeds they've chosen. The beef kids all seem to have double the animals they need for their projects, so I don't see why we couldn't do the same.

Would you be coming up to the show in Wetaskiwin in February?

Going to try to get to the show. Not sure yet.

coopslave wrote:Going to try to get to the show.  Not sure yet.

Hitch a ride with your friendly neighbourhood PChant person.

authenticfarm wrote:

coopslave wrote:Going to try to get to the show.  Not sure yet.

Hitch a ride with your friendly neighbourhood PChant person.

May do that!

Authentic - I'm excited that you've joined the ranks of 4H leader. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are going to be amazing.

June 1 is a Sunday. The day after my 4H group shows in Lloyd at the expo (you should see if your chicken group can get in there at some point too). So I will be at your achievement day to cheer on your kids. I'm thinking you need to start something long term in the community - selling hens or eggs, chicks the kids hatched and fed and gathered rate of gain etc (I would think broilers of some type for this) or comparisons of different breeds rate of growth etc. Perhaps the kids could raise some broilers in April/May to have ready for sale at Achievement Day. Easily advertised through the regional office/radio/newspapers etc.

As for those of you who are supporting Authentics group - you are amazing giving people - 4H is one of my favourite activities for kids as it teaches them sooooo many life skills - teamwork/public speaking/livestock skills etc - everything they really do need to succeed as adults in our wonderful society.

Anything you need from me - let me know. I'm there for the group at anytime. Anyone who shares their enthusiasm for agriculture with kids needs to be commended - in the highest way. How else do we continue our work and love for what we do if we don't sew the seeds now. Can't wait to see what the kids come up with this year!!

Authentic congratulations on working with the youth. I have been working with Doris Robinson ( youth advisor for the APA/ABA youth program)and a couple other folks on setting up a made for Canada program that is the same as the youth program in the U.S.

This program has different levels such as coop tender, etc. It is a very good program and we are thrilled to finally have something in place for our kids here in Canada. I have agreed to be an advisor along with a couple others. If you go to the APA website there will be a link to the youth program, where you can find info.

Heather

Authenticfarm, are you going to the Wetaskiwin show in Feb? I can bring you a poster I have of a chicken egg developing from start to finish. I got it some time ago and have never done anything with it. It's still in the mailing tube. You can have it if you like.

Toybarons, I am hoping to make it down on the Saturday of the show, weather permitting. I would love the poster for my 4H kids! Thank you!

viczoe, I will definitely check that out! Thanks!

authenticfarm wrote:Toybarons, I am hoping to make it down on the Saturday of the show, weather permitting. I would love the poster for my 4H kids! Thank you!

Cool. Just look for the Houdans and Polish to find me =)

I will get Sue to point you out.

The kids are going to have a lot of fun! My 2 are looking forward to chicks this year!

I am co-cloverbud leader for our local 4-H.  Our multi club doesn't allow cloverbuds to do animal projects so we just do the crafts and book work.  Last year all of our 8 cloverbuds had animals at home and I believe in the "learn to do by doing" with my own kids Montessori taught so as we go through the units I try to find something else that is actual hands on learning which makes the learning stick and a lot more interesting.  Bike safety we found an RCMP parent to do a bike course, horse unit I brought out tack etc and ended the day with a pony ride, swine we got to feed the some piggies and try to figure out what breed they were.  
My eldest son finally aged enough to get out of cloverbuds and did a Cortunix quail project last year as his first animal project.  It was a great 1st project, easy to hatch and care for, handling at show wasn't too hard for small hands.  Building coops etc was easier because they are small.  Sadly the poultry group had a poor leader who had fun meetings but knew nothing else making it an exasperating experience and getting ready for achievement a nightmare   He was just going to quit completely but decided to try something new instead with experienced leaders.  This year he has decided to do a swine 4-H project.  He still has his down sized coop of hens and a few turkeys so he may do his own project and show in open class.  4-H is an amazing experience for kids I think you'll enjoy yourself

This was posted on another forum and I thought it would be a great video to show kids:

that was a brilliant little video!

I have experienced many 4-H poultry club across North America, as has Heather, some are excellent and some are just a name to get grant money.  Doing it right needs a very strong leader that drives the club.  Some of the best Canadian clubs are in BC and especially on the island.  The club leader does not need to be the "know it all" of poultry he/she needs know how who to contact to get the information.  
We tried to get a club going in the Edmonton area for a few years but it didn’t last because not enough time was dedicated to it but the leaders.  They had one going in the Lloydminster area also but it died also. It is a time commitment.  
The other problem I see that a leader would have a hard time showing his/her birds at the show if you want to show the 4-Hers how to prepare and show the birds.  To do it right one would problem need to remove himself/herself from show birds.  
What we did before was – a breeder would hatch 50 chicks of the same variety and distribute them out to the 4-H members.  Then at the fall show, 8 – 10 months later they would be judged by the breeder to see who raised them the best.  In the USA an arrangement was are made a hatchery to give chicks out and a grocery store to buy the full grown stock.  
If you are interested I can give you some more ideas how to get the younger people involved in raising the chicks to show or market.