TROTWOOD, Ohio – The chickens are their primary focus right now but at Irby’s Old School Farm, Christine and Dale Irby plan on expanding. They’re prepping their fields for growing vegetables, berries, fruits, and they might get a couple of goats. They never saw themselves as farmers, until COVID. Now they want to make farming accessible to everyone.

“We were just coming out of COVID and we had a lot of questions about where our food was coming from. We met Sharifa Tomilson, Arrowrock  Sanctuary Farm,” Christine said. “She got me interested in growing chickens for ourselves. She said it was easy. She had rabbits, she had turkeys. I said we can definitely do the chickens.”

Shortly after, they met Tia Stuart, of Narrow Way Farm. She influenced them to talk with the Ohio Association of Food Banks. Irby Farm got a contract with them to raise 500 to 1,000 Rock Cornish chickens. Dale set up the detached garage to raise chickens.

“We’re on two acres,” Irby said. “It is rural but it is considered urban because it is Trotwood. We converted our detached garage and we started from there. The contract is, that we raise a certain breed of chickens to eight weeks.”

At eight weeks the chickens are processed and the meat is distributed throughout Southwest Ohio to food banks and pantries. That contract is up in June and Irby thought the current administration was unlikely to renew it.

Along the way, the couple collected what they call the Divas. They are egg layers, and they are mostly heritage breeds.

“We spoil them rotten,” Irby said. “They have personalities. We have eight different breeds right now. We have 25 divas. We get our eggs from them. We have heritage birds because they are hardy with the heat and the cold.”

The Divas include Benga, a Wyandotte, which is so called because of her orange-copper color; Benjy, a brown chicken, came accidentally with the white Rock Cornish chicks raised for processing. They named the supposed rooster Benjamin Baneker for the civil rights activist who predicted a solar eclipse. When “he” turned out to be “she” they shortened the name to Benjy. A Rhode Island Red is named Red-Tail in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen (the red markings on their planes distinguished them).

Each day the Divas produce 12 to 18 eggs of different colors. The Irbys package them in an octagon-shaped box designed by Dale and they fly off the shelf at Gem City Market, a co-op built and owned by the Dayton community. Customers like them because the Irbys use no supplements or antibiotics.

For their day job, the Irbys both work in the Dayton school system. In 2019, Christine won the National Innovative Educator Award for her work teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts to special education students at Westwood Elementary. She is a STEM consultant. They are working on establishing classes and workshops based on STEM for their farm.

Her classes at the Dakota Center’s after-school program create a lot of interest. She teaches that farmers are scientists, and farmers are engineers.

Central State College donated a hydroponics garden to the Dakota Center. So, while the students learned how to garden outside, during last year’s drought they brought the basil seeds inside and planted them in the hydroponics garden.

“So, they learn; even though it may look like you may not have anything, there is always something you can use,” Irby explained.

The Irbys are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) farmers. They feel strongly that everyone needs to know how to grow their own food. Irby has made several YouTube videos that show and talk about their laying hens. She tells her students:

“You don’t have to be a farmer, I just want you to know how to be one. Not knowing how to grow your food, that is not acceptable. That is our vision to make agriculture accessible to everyone. I embrace all children but teach special needs. It is paramount that agriculture needs to be accessible to everyone.”