Raising Chickens in Schools
Although starting a school garden or chicken coop can seem like a colossal task, we are here to make it as easy as possible for you!
Raising chickens and gardening in schools has been shown to have many benefits, including:
Improving Mental Health
Enhancing Healthy Food Preferences
Increasing Food Security
Engaging Students in Learning
Use the following resources as a guide to start your raising chickens at your school!
How to Start Raising Chickens at Your School
Find out how to raise chickens in schools with these 10 steps!
Creating a Committee
Raising chickens at school is a big responsibility–don’t go it alone! Find out how to structure your program for success.
Tips for Sourcing Chickens for Your School
Follow these tips for the best chance at sourcing healthy chickens.
Coops & Gardens Programs
Explore featured examples of other schools who are successfully raising chickens and gardening on their campuses!
Training Videos
Visit our Youtube channel to watch training videos to prepare you and your vounteers for raising chickens on campus!
Fundraising Help
Involve students in fundraising and kickstart your program with this list of fun, chicken and garden themed fundraising ideas!
Schedule a Visit
Not ready to raise chickens at your school? We’ve got you covered! Message us to set up a visit from a chicken in your area.
Join our community
Do you currently raise chickens at your school, or would like to start? Join our Coops & Gardens Program Facebook Group to connect with other schools!
The Coop Scoop Blog
Find ways to incorporate your school chicken coop and garden in learning!
How Your Coops & Gardens Program Can Impact Your Community
School Coops & Gardens Programs can have a greater community impact that just benefiting students! Our programs seek to provide practical, hands-on learning opportunities in poultry mamagement and horticulture to instill a deeper understanding and appreciation for agricultutre and nutrition. Here, we examine 5 ways your school program can impact your community through your school chicken coop and garden.
A true farm to school model at Mountainside Montessori
Despite challenges with predators, Mountainside Montessori has seamlessly integrated animal husbandry into their existing curriculum. Students are being prepared for today’s workforce through a true farm to table experience—at their school! Although the program is run by the Adolescent class, the entire school reaps benefits from the chickens. “With chicken on campus, all our classrooms and age groups get to interact with the chickens. When the hogs have gone to processing, the chickens receive daily food scraps from all the classrooms’ compost buckets. Every classroom spends time outside each day and the younger classes, in particular, include a visit to the chickens on their daily walks.”
Common Questions
Why do schools raise chickens?
Teachers choose to raise chickens at their schools for a variety of reasons, including:
- Increasing food security among students and their families.
- Improving mental health among students and teachers.
- Motivating special education students.
- Enhancing STEAM lessons through hands-on learning.
- Incorporating technology into lessons.
- Creating a tighter-knit school community.
Keeping chickens on campus can have many other benefits as well! Reach out to us to learn more.
How long does it take to start a chicken program at my school?
Starting a chicken or garden program at your school is not typically a fast process. Even if you have funding available immediately, the process of gaining permission, designing a program, training faculty, building and finally planting or getting chickens typically takes schools 6 months to a year minimum when done well.
Do not let this timeline discourage you from starting!
If you would like to learn more about raising chickens or gardening at your school, please email us:
What does it cost to raise chickens at school?
Raising chickens at school can be done withing virtually any budget.
As part of the setup for our Coops & Gardens Programs, we created the Coops & Gardens Wishlist, a spreadsheet designed to help build a budget for your program.
This spreadsheet walks you through everything you could want to design a comprehensive school chicken coop, garden, compost bin, and resource library, and leaves space for those unique items that help you reach your school program’s goals.
Typically, schools filling out this form find the average set-up cost to be between $3,300 and $5,000.
The Coops & Gardens Wishlist has ideas to source items new, used, and “creatively.”
Do not let cost deter you from raising chickens! Visit our list of Fundraising Ideas and message us for help today!
Do I have to have construction knowledge to build a chicken coop?
No!
There are many options to source a chicken coop for your school. We can walk you through the process of sourcing a coop within your price range, whether it is constructing one from scratch, purchasing a coop second-hand, or buying a pre-fabricated chicken coop from a manufacturer.
We have partnered with Lifetime Coops in Idaho to create kit coops for schools. If you are interested in this option, please message us!