Meet Our Chickens and Ducks
Be sure to watch the introductory videos below about Tollgate’s farm birds.
- Today, we’ll explore what we know about what makes a bird different from a mammal and investigate how our farm birds, among others, use their various traits to survive.
- feathers and wings
- lays eggs
- many can fly (due to feathers and hollow or porous bones)
- the food they feed their young (Can you look up how this food is alike or different than what mammals their young? What about what different kinds of birds feed their young?)
- birds use their syrinx as a voice box instead of their larynx
- double respiratory cycle (mammals have a single respiratory cycle)
On Thursday, we’ll take a look at eggs from a variety of species and explore the following questions:
- How does the life inside an egg develop?
- How are adult and young chickens and ducks alike but different?
- How does a bird use its external parts to survive, grow, meet their needs?
- How do we depend on chickens and ducks on the farm and how do they depend on us?
Before we dissect an egg during our session on Thursday, download this journal page or have a plain piece of paper ready to take a few moments and draw what you see.
Have You Ever Wondered What It Would Be Like to Raise Chickens?
Like Water on a Duck’s Back
“What purpose does a bird’s feathers serve?” Let’s explore one special feature of a duck’s body that helps them survive.
Do feathers help a bird to:
- control body temperature?
- make it possible for birds to fly?
- protect from injuries?
- all of the above?
Can you think of any other purpose feathers might serve?
Anatomy of a Feather
Can't forget about the roosters!
This Chicken is a T-Rex! by Cristine M. Banfi, Cristina Peramboni, Rita Mabel Schiavo, Roman Garcia Mora
How to Speak Chicken by Melissa Caughey
A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens by Melissa Caughey
So, You Want to Work with Animals?: Discover Fantastic Ways to Work with Animals, from Veterinary Science to Aquatic Biology by J. M. Bedell
Chicks and Chickens by Gail Gibbons
How and Why Animals Hatch from Eggs by Elaine Pascoe
The Chicken or the Egg? by Allan Fowler
The Egg by Galimard Jeunesse and Pascale Bourgoing
Egg! by A.J. Wood
Egg: A Photographic Story if Hatching by Robert Burton
It Started as an Egg by Kimberlee Graves
The Chick and the Duckling by Mirra Ginsburg
Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Heller
An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni
A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz Jenkins
Big Egg by Molly Cave