Arvada West offers a lot of classes, some more popular than others. One class that is growing in popularity among the students is the agriculture class, where baby chickens are currently hatching.

“We had 18 eggs to start, 17 of them were fertilized and I think we’ve had nine so far that have hatched,” explains agriculture and agribusiness teacher, Rachel Miller. But what happens when these birds grow older? Will A-West keep them?

“This year, I have a few students who already have chickens who are going to bring them home,” Miller said. “Then any that we have left will go back to the farm that we got them from through the cooperative extension agency.”

Miller explains what the Cooperative Extension Agency is “[…an] agency [that] is run through CSU (Colorado State University). Each county has their own office and their own area, so there’s a specialist in animal science and there ‘s a specialist in plants and there’s a specialist in various other [agricultural areas]. They support local farms or people that are doing things in agro.”

So what seems like a unique class has not been around for long. “ Because it’s the first year, I figured there wasn’t going be a lot of people in the class, but since the program’s been going, there’s been a lot of interest.  I’ve had a ton of students come and ask what this class is, what sort of things we do, so I feel like this is a good way to build that program and get the interest out there.”

Watch the chicks hatch in the computer lab, room 121.