Leswalt Primary School have continued their study of “Farming” by a trip to Glenhead poultry unit, near Leswalt.
The whole school set off on a sunny afternoon for a hike up to Glenhead Farm. Pupils passed through Aldouran Wetland Gardens before the scenic and sensory experience of the Glen walk, which was alive with the smell of wild garlic.
On arriving at the top of the Glen pupils were met by Mr James Baxter at his recently purpose built unit. Pupils were just in time to see the hens coming out to play. The unit is home to 32,000 hens – which did get very noisy!
Once inside the shed pupils learned about the conditions “Happy Eggs” are produced in. The children saw the range of egg yolk colours and were fascinated to hear how different countries like Japan and America all had a preference for different coloured yolk.
Pupils saw thousands of hens- both inside and outside before the conveyor belt was started up and thousands of eggs moved along the line. After cleaning and checking all the eggs were stamped with the Baxter’s special code before being placed in trays and sent away.
It was a very interesting visit for all the staff and pupils of Leswalt. The walk back down to school was a time to reflect on what they learned and how they would cook the half dozen eggs that the Baxter’s generously gave everyone. As well as receiving 6 eggs to cook, children also got one hard boiled white egg. This egg is to be decorated with a farmyard theme (it could turn into a pig, cow, Old MacDonald or even a tractor) and be returned to school as a homework challenge. Mrs Baillie is looking forward to seeing the eggs-cellant, imaginative eggs returning to school next week.
