Bio-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, April 16,1994
Students
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
REAMSTOWN (Lancaster
Co.) Not many fourth-graders
at Rcamslown Elementary School
live on a farm. But that doesn’t
mean they don’t know anything
about fanning.
“I know there are 930 chicken
farms in Lancaster County,’’ Zach
Rineer said.
He learned that fact by listening
to Pennsylvania Poultry Queen
Melissa Stauffer talk about chick
ens and eggs recently.
Melissa visited the school as
part of the Ag in the Classroom
program. She told about the 22,000
chickens her family raises in
Gphrata.
“And she told us that eggs are
good for us. They have lots of good
things we need,” Bobby Wertz
said.
“Eggs have some fat, but we
should still eat them because they
are nutritious,” David Bolar said.
Melissa wore a tiara and banner
that shows that she is the poultry
queen. Many of the students
wanted to know how Melissa
became poultry queen. She told
them that she lived on a poultry
farm, and had prepare a skit that
told about the poultry industry and
answer questions that a panel of
judges asked her.
Melissa handed out recipe bro
chures of her favorite recipes using
eggs and poultry.
Here are some words and defini
tions to learn if you would like to
talk like a Poultry Producer. This
information was prepared by Stu
dents for the Responsible Use of
Animals.
Broiler type of chicken raised
for meat
Broiler house building that
broiler-type chickens are raised in.
Brooding period the time
between when the chicks are one
day old until they can be on their
own without any extra heat.
Candling shining a light
behind eggs to check for cracks
and other problems.
Chick —a very young chicken.
Clutch the egg-laying cycle.
The hen lays one egg each day for
several days in a tow and then does
not lay for 1 or 2 days.
Comb —red crest on top of the
head of most chickens. Roosters
have large combs.
Make eggs tunny-side-up, scrambled, hard-boiled, soft
boiled any way possible these fellows like them all.
David Bolar, 9, center; Bobby Wertz, 11, right, and other
classmates at the Reamstown Elementary School.
Learn About Chicks, Eggs, And Farms
Confinement keeping large
numbers of chickens or other ani
mals in cages or pens inside
buildings.
Fryer another name for the
broiler-type chicken.
Gizzard an organ located
between the stomack and the intes
tines inside the chicken’s body.
The gizzard is filled with gravel
and grit and grinds the food for the
chicken. It serves as the chicken’s
teeth.
Hatch the birth of a chick;
when the chick breaks through the
egg shell.
Hatchery company that
hatches chicks and sells them to
farmers.
Hen a grown female or
mother chicken that lays eggs.
Incubator machine used to
keep eggs warm so chicks will
hatch from eggs.
Layer —type of chicken raised
fro producing eggs.
Poultry—term for all the diffe
rent birds that are raised on farms.
Examples: turkeys, ducks,
chickens.
Poultry grower farmer
raises poultry.
Pullet —a young female chick
en who has never laid an egg.
Rooster male or father
chicken.
Did you know that the chicken
does not have teeth? To grind their
food, the chicken has an organ
called a gizzard, which is located
between the chicken’s stomach
and intestine. The gizzard is filled
with gravel and grit and is said to
be the chicken’s teeth.
After eggs are laid by the hen,
they are washed and checked for
cracks in the shells. This is done by
a method called candling. Can
dling is simply shining a light
behind the egg so that cracks in the
shell can be found and so that the
inside of the egg can be checked. A
trained person watches the eggs
and removes those that are cracked
or have something wrong inside of
them.
Next, the eggs are weighed and
sorted by size. All of this is done by
machines. The government has set
strict rules about egg sizes so the
machines must be exact or the pro
ducer could have problems.
After the eggs have been
washed, checked, and weighed.
(Turn to Pi
%
Holding a peeping
School.
>sesti jnts ask Penns:
a poultry queen.
There are more chickens In the world today than there are people. And the number
of chickens Is growing faster than the human population.
yt- —V >. / —>.
U riK -v \ / P /rW
« pHfVI f\ \ i „I Jn fVf
f Ifl fir If Lv i I I CStMjSJ |j
/3j ,PWI j gfey
■try
leen
Issa
iwn Elementary
itauffer how she became