Through Yellowstone Academy’s Vo Ag program, youth learn animal care, life cycles, and the value of daily responsibility.
At Yellowstone Academy, learning often comes to life through hands on experiences. In 2019, the school added pheasants to its Vo Ag department, giving youth at Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch the opportunity to take part in monitoring egg incubation, raising chicks, building pheasant pens, and caring for birds throughout the year.
The Pheasant Program helps students learn about animal life cycles while maintaining daily responsibilities. From gathering eggs to observing hatchlings and caring for growing birds, youth gain practical skills and a deeper understanding of the patience and consistency required in animal care.
The program also creates meaningful opportunities for reflection. As Cass Cole, Yellowstone Academy Principal, shared in the flyer, observing the birds can become a therapeutic tool for conversations about bullying, relationships, and empathy. Youth who have experienced being picked on can often relate to the behavior they see among birds in the pen, opening the door to important discussions about their own experiences.
Once the pheasants are fully grown, they are either released to wetland sites in the area or sold to individual landowners to help replenish the pheasant population. Proceeds from the program go back into supporting Yellowstone Academy’s educational efforts.
The flyer also notes that YBGR began participating in a pilot program in 2019 focused on repopulating Ring Neck Pheasants in Montana. Staff and youth helped build breeding pens and fly areas, and the program later celebrated its first pheasant release into the Kindsfater Wetland Mitigation Site near Laurel.
Yellowstone Foundation is proud to support programs that help youth build responsibility, confidence, empathy, and practical skills for the future.
As the flyer reminds us, “It sure makes a difference when you know somebody cares.”
