Reflection from Jessica Niemela, BC Buddies Coordinator

Our last BC Buddies event for the school year was such a great turn out with a total of 11 participants to join us! The event was held at Southlands Heritage Farm where we were guided by Stephanie, who is one of the main farmers on site. The morning started off with our guide introducing us to the farm, and gathering ideas from all of us about our past farm experiences, what our favorite animals are, as well as animal care and safety. Afterwards we got right into meeting and greeting with the animals, starting off with the goats. Everyone took turns grooming the goats, but as we were leaving the pen, all 4 goats slipped through the open gate and escaped!! Fortunately, our guide was able to lure them back to the pen with food- phewf!

Next, we visited the horses, and learned some interesting facts about them. Something that I did not know, was that you can tell how a horse is feeling by looking at their ears! When they are relaxed their ears are forward, when they want to be left alone their ears are faced backward. Then we went into the chicken coup, where some of us even picked up and held a chicken! Two days prior to our event, two chicks hatched, and we had the opportunity to see them- so adorable!

 After visiting the farm animals, we made treats for the chickens to eat. We searched for ingredients for our “chicken cookies” in the orchard garden which included: flowers, leaves, grass, and most importantly gravel. We learned that chickens need to eat gravel and rocks in order to digest their food properly. After mixing the ingredients with flour and water, we baked the cookies and fed them to the chickens. They devoured them!

For lunch we ate wraps and fruit, which was followed by some games and a scavenger hunt. The purpose of the scavenger hunt was to find different shapes on the farm and take photos of them. Some unusual shapes we found were: a rope shaped like a number 7, a heart shaped tree trunk, and some interesting shaped flowers and leaves.

Thank you all for joining us on this beautiful day!