Posted by Allyson
Last week, we held a poultry workshop for livestock interpreter volunteers interested in learning more about our chickens and how to properly handle them. Carlin, a member of the program staff, led the workshop. She spent time with the volunteers demonstrating and practicing proper handling techniques and also discussed general facts and information about chickens, including how the poultry business was run on a 1920s farm. Linda, one of the livestock interpreters who attended the workshop, put her training to good use on Sunday when she brought out a hen for visitors to meet. Some of the kids were a little timid at first, but warmed up quickly and even seized the opportunity to touch the chicken's soft downy feathers. Sensory experiences like this are great conversation starters about why chickens are raised on a farm and what we get from them. In these teachable moments, connections start to be made and words like "feather pillow" don't seem so abstract or strange. As adults, we sometimes forget just how important such basic experiences like seeing and touching a chicken's feathers are for knowledge building.
