Wellies on, jackets zipped, bus ready to depart, the excitement was real.. off to visit the Baxter’s hen farm at Glenhead! 🥚As part of their topic work this term, Primary 2-4 have been learning about farming, while Primary 5-7 have been looking at the ‘food journeys;’ the perfect trip for both classes to learn all about egg production 🛻First up, we ventured to site 3 where we saw palettes full of eggs crated up ready to be picked up. They explained that as a Happy Egg Farm the good eggs will be sold in shops like Tesco and the Co-op, while the cracked eggs will be used to make egg whites – so no waste whatsoever ! The boys and girls had so “henny” great questions about the eggs size and colour and speckles.. 🥚We learned that eggs can be white, brown or even blue.. who knew!? Even our little farming dafties had their minds absolutely FRIED! 🪺
Afterwards, we ventured across to a different shed, where we had to dip our wellies in a special liquid. James explained that to keep all the chickens safe and prevent disease spreading, everybody and ever vehicle must disinfect before entering a shed.(thankfully any croc wearers had done a shoe change for the occasion!!) When we got inside we were wowed by the machinery. We met Joanna, who was in charge of sorting the eggs and removing any ‘i
mperfect’ eggs before they were sorted into egg boxes, ready to get collected by the lorries! 🚛
Then we stepped inside the chicken shed and were greeted by hundreds and hundreds of little beady eyes and lots of feathers! It was surprising to see just how many chickens were inside the shed! 🐔 The chickens seemed just as happy to see us. Jonathan explained that their chickens are free range so get full run of the coop once they had visited the nest and laid their egg – they can roam freely outside and go as far as they want (they could even venture into your garden if they like) but they prefer to stay at “home” where they are kept nice and cosy and provided 24/7 with food and water – a bit like an all inclusive summer holiday 🏡
Afterwards, we were shown where the dung is kept – and unsurprisingly even the chicken poo was kept clean!! James explained that Glenhead was the first of it’s kind and that where the poo powers the farm! The electricity made from recycling the chicken poo was used to power all the machines we saw earlier – how cool (or in this case hot as the poo heats the water to allow electricity to be made)! 🙂 OUR HEADS WERE FULLY SCRAMBLED!🥚
A huge big thank you to the Baxter family for bringing our learning to life and giving up their time to show us around their amazing chicken farm, I think it’s fair to say its an experience we will never forget! 🐔🥚
Meta Skills
Communicating Cate
Sense Making Samira
Collaborating Cora
Communicating Cate
Sense Making Samira
Collaborating Cora
Article 13 – freedom of expression involves being able to find out information
