VTP Raises Chicks

VTP Raises Chicks
Posted on 03/10/2023

The Vocational Technical Preparation (VTP) program has been helping students spread their wings toward a career for years. As part of a new initiative, students are now helping some feathered friends spread their wings as well.

The Trades, Technology, and Agriculture section of the program is working to raise chicks while constructing a specially-designed coop to house them. Through this project, students will refine and develop skills in several career-relevant areas. Those areas include carpentry, agriculture, and culinary arts.

The class hosted a Chick Day earlier this week to give other on-campus students an opportunity to meet the chicks. 

Before the chicks arrived, students worked through an in-depth study of chickens to understand what would be expected of them in class. They have utilized that knowledge to get a strong start on the care and feeding of the entire brood during their class time.

Alongside the animal care component, the class has been hard at work cutting, painting, and nailing together their custom chicken coop creation. The coop is being constructed in sections for easy transport to its future home, which will give students an expanded opportunity for hands-on learning outside of the classroom.

The coop is headed to instructor Tom Browka’s home farm, where it will become a long-term component of the class curriculum. The chicks will make their new home in the coop through the upcoming summer break. When class resumes for the fall semester, this group of students will pick up their responsibilities where they left off.

As the chicks mature into chickens, the class will be able to harvest farm fresh eggs and take them back to the classroom for cooking projects. That opportunity will lend an authentic farm-to-table component to the experience.

Want to learn more? Watch the video below!