I don’t know how to raise chickens; guess I'll have to wing it!

The Cliffside Park High School Biology Club led by myself, Alejandro Ramos, is responsible for the chicken coop located in the school's courtyard. What originally started as a personal joke to Mr. Danho, the club advisor, became an attainable goal when brought up casually to Mr. Pinto. Fortunately, Mr. Pinto owns chickens himself which permitted this joke to become a learning experience.

As part of a learning experience of the Biology Club I acquired fertile eggs which were incubated for 21 days. On the 22nd day, 22 out of 32 hatched. For a first time hatcher it was a very successful clutch. No coop had been built yet, so my mother and I found a suitable home for the chicks in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Down there we found a farmer that took the chickens and cared for them. The farmer taught me how to care for them. This further inspired me to actively pursue this idea.

The first step toward accomplishing a habitable chicken coop was collecting donations for the needed materials. Afterwards, two students from Mr. Jones’s class, Marc Rizzo and I, helped in constructing a coop by following a desirable design. My partner and I were able to put the chicken coop together during the final two weeks of school last year. By mid-October this year the whole project was complete; the coop had been built, painted, fenced in, and cleaned up. Finally, on November 6, 2017, the hens arrived at school.

The past two weeks have included arriving every morning at 7:30 and leaving at 4:30 after school. On a daily basis, I feed, give water and care for the chickens. Though it has been and will continue be hard work, I enjoy running the Cliffside Biology Club’s chicken coop. Each school day from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, all are welcome to visit the hens in the courtyard.