Last Friday, November 6, we ventured out to Remlap, AL to visit the Self Farm. This is a seasonal location (which means we will visit it during each season), and this was our first trip of the year.
The farm is fairly new to the Self family; they purchased it last year. I had heard it was a blueberry farm, but it was so much more!!
The main part of our visit was spent learning about chickens, petting the donkeys, and feeding fish.
We spent a few minutes talking about differences between chickens and the ducks and geese we saw in September. The conversation centered on the beaks and feet. The kids remembered how the toes on the ducks were situated (3 in front and one in back) and how the were webbed. They noticed that the chickens were similar except for the webbing. I encouraged them to look for differences in the 3 breeds of chickens that the Self's had in the flock.
Then, Chuck Self took all of us into the chicken yard, and had us observe. He taught us about the hierarchy in the flock...we found the head rooster (a beautiful Americana) and the kids kept commenting on his huge spurs, so Chuck explained how they used them in defense, and how the rooster would be willing to lay down his life for the hens (pretty amazing, huh?). The flock consisted of Golden Orpingtons, an Ameraucana rooster, Polish hens, and Barred Rock hens (I think). The kids were able to feed and hold a few of the hens, and explore the chicken yard and coop.
The Self's have 2 donkeys that attracted a lot of attention, partly because they were very vocal! I want to focus on them more in the winter when we go next. One is the offspring of two Canyon donkeys (Grand Canyon) which should make for some fun discussion.
Some of the students have been to the Self farm before, and asked if we could feed the fish in the pond, so we spent a few minutes throwing fish food and oohing and ahhhing at the huge catfish.
The weather held off, but finally it started sprinkling. On the way out, we stopped to see the blueberry bushes. I wanted the kids to have a visual of what the bushes looked like in the off season. There is a patch of bushes near the house, so we took a quick peek and Kari explained to us how they are harvested in the summer...hopefully we can help with that this year!
Before we loaded up, some of the kids played tetherball (blast from the past- ha ha) in the rain.
It was a great day, and I am looking forward to more trips out there this year.
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