I am a junkie... a junkie hooked on the high of learning and for me one of the unsung benefits of home-schooling is all the learning I get to do...
Take today for example: Today we went to Wilcox Farms in Roy, Washington with a group of Home schooled Scouts. No, this was not an actual 'scouts' event rather it was a small group of parents and children who know each other from Home Schooled Scouts. One of the mothers, bless her, had heard about Wilcox and arranged for a narrated tour and I am so very glad that she did.
Wilcox Farms, Roy, Washington, is about an hour and a half drive from where we live. The trip out was arduous to say the least -- one of the children gets car sick and our drive down was interspersed with emergency stops. Of course, being that I had three boys, not all the stops were related to car sickness. Driving along, thinking we were good to go, I would suddenly hear 'I gotta pee!', always AFTER we had just passed an exit or were on a country road with no shoulders. One boy would leap wildly from the car and race away to use 'the bushes'. A short while later 'I need the bushes' and another desperate child fly from the car... You might ask 'why not stop at the next rest stop and have all the boys go?' Answer: I did. I don't know whether it is an atavistic joy to pee in bushes or whether little boys just have a greater need to pee on long road trips but these three...
At any rate, several hours after we left, we arrived at Wilcox Farms in Roy. The scene is lovely and I had absolutely no idea what sort of farm it was... Turns out it is a chicken farm -- not the sort that raises chickens, however but a farm dedicated to producing eggs -- approximately 36,400,000 eggs per year. We learned all sorts of fascinating facts -- like the fact that it takes a chicken approximately 26 hours to produce one egg, that Leghorn chickens -- the ones that produce those lovely large white eggs -- are kept caged in 'conventional commercial' chicken farms because the hens are extremely aggressive and if left in a free range situation, they would kill each other. Wilcox farms has both 'conventional' hen houses -- each house containing approximately 70,000 hens kept in pairs in cages (the Leghorns) -- and organic hen houses. The organic houses, which contain about 25,000 chicken per house, are 'free' range -- that is, the chickens are 'free' to wander around the hen house and the fenced chicken yards. And the hens in the organic hen houses are Rhode Island Reds. Apparently they are much more mellow creatures and highly social. According to our very knowledgable guide, when the hens hear the bus coming, they crowd up to the fence to take a look at all the people... On our trip, no chickens appeared -- to the distress of the children -- but the guide explained that hens in question were still only babies and would be kept inside until they were large enough to be safe outside.
Chickens, it turns out, are attractive to many predators: Bobcat, Coyote, Raccoon, Possum, Rats and ... Eagles. Now the first group of predators are relatively easy to defeat: the yard is fenced and nine dogs run the farm. Eagles, however, are death from above -- and, as they are an endangered species, the farmers cannot shoot them. So how then does one defend against them? Laugh. The guide allowed as how, when the Wilcoxes contacted Fish and Game with their problem, Fish and Game acknowledged the issue and provided a very creative -- and non-lethal solution. Fish and Game supplied the farm with hi-tech slingshots and large fire-crackers. When an eagle is spotted, one person loads and aims the slingshot while another person lights the fire-cracker. The fire cracker is then release up towards the eagle. They never hit the eagles but the noise is extremely loud and, after a couple such encounters, the eagles back off... for awhile. I don't know that the children fully appreciated the elegance of the solution but I was in stitches.
The tour was not just about chickens, of course. There was a one room school house museum-- the children were less interested in the school itself (though they all ran to sit down at desks, something few of them had ever done before!) than in the fact that the floor of the school house was littered with lady bugs. (Xander made it his mission to find and 'rescue' the living ones and begged to be allowed to keep a dead 'zero spot' lady bug.) and a Farm Museum which contained an impressive number of ancient farm machines including a 'home made' tractor and an old delivery van. (That was a hit with the kids as they were allowed to climb in and around it.) There was a log cabin and an ancient chicken house plus lots of room to run and jump and yell. As a final 'high note' to the tour, we were taken into the 'egg processing' plant which stunk quite a bit and watched as eggs were packed into cartons. We saw as the eggs passed over a light source and two women plucked out eggs that were cracked and tossed them in the trash. It was amazing to see how quickly their hands moved. And we saw the USDA inspector wandering the floor: "Anytime we process eggs, he is here." we were told. All in all, it was an impressive operation -- even more so when we learned that the Wilcox sends its 'Organic' chicken poo to the farmers who grow the 'organic' grain that Wilcox then buys to feed the 'organic' chickens. A local business supporting and supported by other local businesses.
The trip was a success. When we got home and were having dinner, both boys were able to tell their dad quite a bit about the trip... though Xander did NOT tell his father that he planned to start a chicken farm...
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