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Chickens

Last year, as one of our flocks aged, our adolescent community hosted several discussions about what to do with our aging chickens. Not an easy discussion to have, but our adolescents were mature, humane and practical. Many showed an interest in helping to process the chickens here on site, which we did this past week during Micro-Economy with the assistance of Señora Rivera. 

We do not raise animals for meat here, at Millstream Farm, but each animal has a purpose and is not a pet. Every student feels a sense of responsibility to the animals in order to ensure they receive the best care possible. We do this by building mobile coops in order to get the chickens out in the grass and sunshine, by taking the goats and sheep on walks, and by ensuring every animal gets food, water, and a clean environment. On a farm, you need to balance respect and care, with reality and practicality. We rehome baby goats, knowing that by keeping our herd small, the ones here will have a better life. When chickens age and it’s time to purchase new chicks, we know that we need to make a coop available for them. 

Many members of our adolescent community participated in processing three of our chickens. They did so with the utmost respect and gratitude for the many eggs these chickens have given us over the years. Señora Rivera demonstrated how to humanely end a chicken's life, and then walked us through the process of defeathering and cleaning the birds. We got a chance to study their anatomy as well. Very little of these chickens went to waste- an important lesson for young adults growing up in a world where food waste accounts for almost 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and where one in three people are food insecure. From our chickens we made bone broth for ramen, and BBQ chicken tacos for our Farm Fest. While we give thanks to those three chickens, we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of our next flock of chickens, due to arrive in two weeks.

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