brandons SAE

SAE Visit

Date: April 2014

Student: Brandon H

Brandon is a very unique student. He socializes more with his animals than the other student but I think it works for him. He keeps chickens, and lots of them. Every week he is looking to buy or create something to improve his chicken operation.

The visit occurred at his new home. Brandon’s family life has recently stabilized and he has built several little chicken houses at his new home. His family is a huge supporter and they help him where ever they can. His step father which was one of Mrs. Millers former students supports Brandon in all his projects and helps him build the houses. We scheduled visit a week in advanced because Brandon runs a lot of errand with his chicken work and keeps a fairly busy schedule.

We walked around with Brandon and let him tell us what we needed to know. He is so into what he does that he will do all the talking. He was so excited to show us each and every peep which he seemed to know. It was so cool. It was an educational experience for sure. I did not know that much about chickens. The peeps were cute as heck too. We asked him about how much he was feeding and tried to make sure that he realized what it took to document his enterprise and to make sure that he was gaining money. We asked him about the feed he was using for the various aged chickens that he was keeping. He was very knowledgeable about the nutritional needs of his animals. He does a lot of research because they are so important to him.

We made suggestions about the types of records that he should be keeping. He keeps a pretty good log on his animals but needs to translate that into his AET book. He gets frustrated with new systems so we discussed how easy it was to enter all the information he already had. It’s all about making him see what he can gain and that it can be a tool not a chore.