Chicken Coop

Marcella loved animals, especially her chickens. As a girl she was often photographed with birds from her flock. The Schumacher family usually had about fifty Plymouth Rock chickens on the farm, and grew corn, oats, and barley to feed them and their other animals.

The chickens that Marcella and her family raised roamed free around the farm during the day, and went into the chicken coop at night to be safe from predators. Marcella recalled that her chickens were “just plain independent.” When there was no food in sight, neither were the chickens in sight. Marcella and her mother would gather the eggs in the evening, but often a hen laid eggs in the weeds and would emerge three weeks later with a small family of chicks.

In 2010, park staff moved this chicken coop to Schumacher Farm from another farm in Dane County, and placed it near the location of the original chicken coop. Today in the summer, a small flock of chickens makes its home at the park. Volunteers care for the birds every day, cleaning the coop, collecting eggs, and giving the chickens fresh water and food. Visitors to the park are often treated to the sight of chickens roaming free in the farmyard, eating insects and greens, much like they did when Marcella was a young girl caring for her beloved flock.