The 5th graders got chicken time during Unplugged. We had a blast interacting with “the girls,” and we were all able to identify them thanks to Ms. Ele’s laminated signs.

Chicken training (“station” on the wood pallet) + community connection:

This family (children Sydney and Sage) live in Mira Mesa and come here 3x per week to visit Gymboree and see/feed the chickens!

They were excited to see the chicken names/identification poster up, because they made up their own names like Vanilla and Chocolate! More importantly, they were ecstatic to see and talk to Emma, the chicken whisperer.

Join us for chicken training sessions and community connections!

Cleaning, feeding, touching, discussing and learning!

It was a wonderful Wednesday for the MEA chickens.

After a thorough home cleaning (Gracie + Miss Shannon) with a complete change out of their overnight nesting area paper, shavings, and Timothy hay + a raking of their home, three more middle schoolers joined in on the fun.

We talked chicken behavior (who accepts tactiles/touching from humans and who doesn’t), what chickens eat (they are omnivores), scoured the wine barrel gardens for pillbugs to feed the chickens (twice!) and the multiple reasons why we don’t have a rooster.

The students created quite the buzz with the roly poly offerings! If you want to make a chicken best friend, stop by the coop on a day with Miss Shannon and reinforce the chickens with something novel...like pillbugs (our terrestrial crustaceans) or more!

Tuesdays, 9:00-10:00am

If you'd like to be involved in taking care of the MEA chickens, come to the chicken coop area on Tuesdays from 9:00-10:00. The Coop Group welcomes new members and is ready to train you!

You are encouraged to bring veggie scraps to the chickens during the Coop Group times!

Coop Care Checklist

Ophelia, Zira, and Cleopatra delight in their dust baths!

Dust bathing is an important part of keeping chickens healthy and clean. A chicken scratches and digs out a bowl-shaped depression in dirt. Then she settles into this hollow, fluffs up her feathers, and scratches up loose dirt through fluffed feathers. Our girls are bathing beauties!

Click for video

Recommended foods per:

Backyard Chicken Coops

The Happy Chicken Coop

Chickens can eat these every day:

Usually there are a few fresh eggs (and sometimes even a dozen!) that are available for our Mt. Everest families. Stop by the front office to see what's "in stock." Donations are appreciated to support the feeding and other supplies needed for our chickens!

To see how we prepared a home for our chickens, scroll down to the bottom to rewind in time!

Our chickens were safely harbored in their chicken coop during a rainfall. When the cloudburst cleared, they wanted to fly their coop and get back to pecking and scratching outside! Below, Chris the Leghorn is on an inside perch, clucking and waiting hopefully at the "window." Two helpful students came to their rescue and out strutted our happy chickens!

A proud, exciting moment!

When Colton S. was an MEA 9th grader, he took on the responsibility of making our chicken coop as a Boy Scout Eagle Project. Colton's schoolmates, friends, and fellow scouts also got involved in helping make the coop. In addition to clearing out a lot of greenery and trees, Colton participated in several fundraisers to make the money needed to build and complete our coop. Thank you, Colton!!