Educated chickens?

[raine]

Hi, I am just looking to get a bit of knowledge on chickens. I am trying to see whether it is a feasible idea to keep a couple of chickens in the school where i work. I think it would be a great idea for children to see where some of their food actually comes from. I'm already setting up a square foot garden with the help of lots of ideas from the vine and wondered if anyone has any experience of doing this sort of thing with chickens? I definitely think we would have to have an ark so that they could be moved around our field and they would be contained in one area. What I need to know is how much daily maintenance do they need and would they be alright left for a weekend? Longer holidays wouldn't be a problem because i could set up a rota and my OH is quite keen. As I said- i'm only researching at the moment but any advice would be great!
Thanks
Raine

[yoanbob]

as long as they had plenty of food and water you should be o.k. to leave them a weekend.
will the area the ark is in be fox proof? vandal proof?
will they be warm enough inside the sleeping area with the door open?
you would need to let them out in the morning, check food and water levals, collect eggs and shut them in at night.
weekly (or more if the ark is small) clean them out, health check, inspect for mite and other problems.

[yoanbob]

P.S. you can get automatic door openers and closes that are either timed or on a light sensitive switch they are expensive but could be the answer for you, or you could proberbly download a circuit diagram and buy the stuff from maplins quite cheap if your that way inclined.

[Snadger]

We used to have a gardening club at our school when I was a kid and I used to go in and do a bit of greenhouse watering at a weekend because I lived quite close to the school!
Depending on the age of the kids,(I was about 12), someone who lived close to the school could pop in and feed and water the chooks.

I dare bet you would not be short of volunteers!

Society in general seems a little less relaxed these days though, so the authorities may not be happy about having kids visiting school at weekends, risk assesments and such like will need to be drawn up and they may even insist on a 'grown up' being present!