The Rural Voice, 1982-03, Page 12Part of the team
Farm kids learn, and earn, as they work
by Dean Robinson
Ask farm kids about working on the
farm and most of them can tell you plenty.
Ask those same kids about money
management and they're not quite as
talkative.
But that may be changing. at least for
some kids, on some farms.
A case in point is the McIntosh Poultry
Farms at R.R. 4 Seaforth, where Carol and
Ross McIntosh can price their material
wants in eggs just as easily as they can in
dollars. Because for these two Seaforth
District High School students eggs mean
dollars, and there are some to be earned
pretty well every day.
Responsibility for the Tuckersmith
Township farm rests with proprietors Jim
and Brenda McIntosh, who keep, on the
average, 26,000 leghorn-type layers. Out
of their three barns, on a daily basis, come
about 20,000 white eggs, which are
shipped to Elmira.
For the most part, the collectors of those
eggs are their children Carol, nineteen. a
grade thirteen student, and Ross. sixteen.
who is in grade ten.
There is no conveyor belt collecting at
the McIntosh farm. All of it is done by
hand. Elaborate automatic systems not
only produce more cracked eggs, they also
eliminate the close monitoring of the flock
that comes with visiting each hen daily.
That kind of attention can be important if
there is a sick hen or a leak in the watering
system.
Carol and Ross McIntosh get off the bus
about four o'clock each school day. do a
quick clothes change, and spend their next
ninety minutes or so hauling in the day's
production. They also wash (mechanical-
ly) and stack that production. Too, Ross
helps with feeding the birds.
When one of the collectors wants a night
off, Carol, for instance, for volleyball
practice, the other covers, in other words
does all the work. That sort of thing has a
way of evening out.
"Gathering eggs has to be as regular as
milking dairy cows," says Brenda McIn-
tosh. "The hens like to be fed regularly
and they expect the eggs to be gathered
regularly." Seven days a week.
The Mclntoshes haves a full time hired
PG. 10 THE RURAL VOICE/MARCH 1982
Collecting eggs is only one chore Ross and Carol McIntosh do at the McIntosh
Poultry Farms. Their father. Jim says they don't have to hire as much help with
them around.
man and routinely they bring in out -of -
family student workers. That means the
home team is required to work just one of
every three weekends.
As with most poultry farms this one
runs on cycles. as far as the livestock is
concerned. That means a couple of times
each calendar year there is a wholesale
change of tenants in the barns and brooder
house. Taking delivery of new-born
chicks, transferring a flock of pullets, and
shipping out a barn full of spent hens must
be done quickly and efficiently. That's
when more than a dozen other students
will be put work.
It's also the time when Carol and Ross
add significantly to their timesheets. "It's
always a good month when we change
over a barn," says Carol, with a broad
smile.
The spring months are also good
months because they involve a lot of
tractor work. and the McIntosh kids can
plough with the best of them. When things
slow in the winter there is always some
wood cutting, cleaning. or workshop
duties that help fatten the hours and pad
the pocket. And it's tough to be bored
when you're busy.
"We definitely don't have to hire as
much help with them around," says Jim.
"It gives them something to do and it gets
them involved. They've always been good
to do chores; well, I guess there's always
an exception to that, but they both have
been picking eggs since they were old
enough to walk. It's given them some
independence for buying clothes, or a
radio. or going on a trip. It's taught them a
little money management."
Part of that money management has
led to savings bonds, which each of them
freely purchased. "I try to put most of it
(money) in the bank," says Carol, "but 1