Tomahawk Times - 4-H Field Day

By Anna VandeVen

    Tensas Academy’s high school had an exciting day at the Northeast Region’s 4-H Field Day. The trip was open to not only 4-Hers but the rest of the high school as well. Students had a lot of fun learning about various topics. 
    
    They started the day off learning how chickens in the poultry industry are handled. First, the pullets (twenty-week-old females) lay eggs, which are carried down a conveyor belt and put in an incubator, where they stay for eighteen days. The remaining three days are spent in crates, until the chicks hatch. After hatching, they are shipped off to large houses full of 15,000-19,000 chickens each! Did you know that the average American consumes 91 pounds of chicken every year? The group then learned about different wildlife foresters and the process for tree harvesting. 

    A quick hay-ride behind tractors through a field and the team was at a patch of sweet potatoes ready to be harvested. The sweet potatoes were dug up, and the group sorted between Number Ones (sweet potatoes for store shelves), Canners (sweet potatoes to be canned), and jumbos (sweet potatoes to be cut into fries for freezing.) Then, the group got to try Sweet Potato Fries. Yum!

    The group's last station was the world of honey bees, where they learned the life cycle of honeybees, the different kinds, and even got to taste fresh honey! After finishing their cycles, the group had a healthy lunch and traveled back to Tensas.

This is your student council reporter signing off,

Anna VandeVen