The flock of chickens darted past classroom windows, rushing to the feet of two students who carried a bucket of feed.
The Tunkhannock High School juniors call themselves the “chicken tenders.” The tenders fed the birds and checked the nesting box in the school’s courtyard. Three eggs – still warm – sat in the bedding.
“It's a lot of fun being able to come out here and just interact with the chickens and see what they're up to,” junior Molly Dana said.
The school’s FFA club – part of the national organization formerly known as Future Farmers of America – began caring for the egg-layers for the first time in the fall.
The students are part of record high national membership in FFA. In Tunkhannock, the 50 club members are also restoring a tractor and in the spring, will raise different chickens for meat, not eggs. About 30 club members attended the Pennsylvania Farm Show in January.
For the school courtyard flock, students in the building construction and wood tech classes built the chicken house. The coop has an electrical component to prevent the birds’ water from freezing.
Students care for the birds during the school week, and Rob Gustin, teacher and FFA adviser, visits the school every Sunday to check on the flock. Students plan to help care for the chickens over the summer.
“It has brought a lot of excitement. You know, it's a lot of work, but it's worth it,” Gustin said.
The eight chickens lay between three to seven eggs on a cold day, and between eight and 10 eggs in warmer weather. The club sells the eggs – with many people in the school seeking to buy them – to help pay for chicken feed, bedding and other supplies. The rise in bird flu nationwide means the students take extra precautions, such as sanitizing hands, to keep the flock safe.
FFA membership grows nationwide as students become more interested in agriculture and food production.
“More people are worried about where their food comes from, and how it's being taken care of and washed and everything like that,” junior Lucy Karp said. “This really does help, it showed us how the eggs are handled and everything like that.”
On a sunny January day, the chickens explored the large courtyard, scratching the ground and foraging for food.
“Everyone wants to come out and see them all the time. It's really nice,” Lucy said. “It’s something different, too. Not a lot of schools do stuff like this.”
Students who had never shown an interest in agriculture or the FFA now enjoy watching the chickens and asking questions, said Brittany Wood, assistant principal.
“It kind of brings like a new light to the building and to some of those kids,” she said.
Wood has ideas for what she’d like to see next at the high school: goats or a cow.
