ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT POULTRY

The following facts may provide information about poultry that is of interest to students and may be used at any time the teacher desires.

  1. There are many different breeds of chickens.
  2. Female chickens are called hens and male chickens are called roosters.
  3. Young chickens are called biddies or chicks and are covered with soft, fluffy down. As they grow older, feathers appear.
  4. Chicken feed is made from corn, soybeans, wheat, and vitamins.
  5. In the past, most farmers raised chickens in their backyards.  Today, chickens are       raised in specially designed houses.
  6. Some chickens are raised for meat and are called broilers, and young female chickens called pullets are raised to lay eggs.  As they grow older, they are called laying hens.
  7. If you grew as fast as a chicken, you would weigh 349 pounds by the time you were two years old.
  8. Eggs are collected automatically, sorted by sizes, put into cartons, and sent to    grocery stores. Alabama's laying hens produce 2.8 billion eggs each year.
  9. Some eggs are hatching eggs.  These are carefully placed in incubators to produce baby chicks in 21 days.
  10. A chicken lays one egg every other day or about 15-20 dozen eggs per year. Many people eat one egg each day so we need as many chickens laying eggs as there are people.
  11. It takes from two to four days to get chicken from the farm to the grocery store.
  12. A chicken's body temperature is about 106 degrees.  This helps them to fight disease.
  13. Poultry is one of the top agricultural industries in Alabama, and there are different       kinds of poultry farms.  Chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys are all raised on farms, but most farmers raise only one kind of poultry.
  14. Turkeys should be raised in an area where there is little noise.  They are fed concentrated foods so they can weigh 25 pounds in five months.  One large turkey farm is Bates Turkey Farm in Logan, Alabama.
  15. Ducks and geese are raised to produce meat and feathers.

EXTENDED ACTIVITIES

     Ask the students open-ended questions. Examples: How do you think the poultry farmer makes money?How many  ways to cook eggs can you think of? Which way do you prefer?

     Use the treasure map the students made after reading Chapter 1. Locate Cullman, Alabama, on the map and mark its  location with a small picture of a chicken.

     Have the students draw puppet figures of Mike, Muffy, or Ms Pauline. Paste the figures on popsicle sticks and have the  students perform plays with them.

     Paste each additional fact about poultry on a card and place the cards in a file. Let students read the cards to one another or choose their favorite fact and read it to the class.

     Make a copy of the story or put it on your classroom computer. Let students read the stories to one another or to another class.

     Make copies of the student book on the visit to a poultry farm.  Give each student a book to take home and share with  others.

     Select books from the school library about poultry, eggs, or related subjects and bring them into the classroom for the   students to read.