Maggie's Happy Hens Farm and Forest School

05/22/2026

Our last co op of the school year has tickets on sale starting 10 am May 22 until June 2 at 7 pm! Go to Happyhensfarmandforestschool.org and click homeschool co op for more information! 🛖🐓🐝🐑🪿🛖🪴💫

05/14/2026

We are grateful to have been selected for a micro grant this year! Thank you VELA!!

Demand was the dominant story of our March microgrant round. And it was impossible to ignore.

VELA awarded 48 microgrants across 27 states last month, totaling $455,000. Our microgrant process is competitive. Not every founder who applies is selected. The ones who rose to the top this round?

Beautiful Minds Learning in Davis County, UT, serves 96 students with a waitlist exceeding 200. Not a single dollar of paid marketing. Apogee Henderson is operating above its designed capacity. Ahava Emet Academy already has 67 paid registrants for 2026-27. These aren't projections. This is real, unmet demand.

Retention rates told us everything. Embers reported 100% re-enrollment for next year. To the Moon Education came in at 94%. Maggie's Happy Hens Farm and Forest School sees 90% return, with about 70% of new enrollments coming straight from family referrals. When families vote with their wallets year after year, that's the signal we're looking for.

The models were creative and community-built. St. Monica's Montessori raised $174,000 on a single regional giving day. Happy Hens offsets operating costs by selling eggs, vegetables, and flowers grown on-site as part of the curriculum. In The Light Performing Arts Center & Flex Theatre has sustained a $350,000 program for over a decade on volunteer labor and tuition at half the cost of comparable programs.

And the learner stories reminded us why this all matters. A child with severe school anxiety who now tells her mother she can leave. A resistant reader who became a grade-level mentor after finding her footing in animal care. A student who ran down the hall shouting, "I hate this school!" on day one, who now doesn't want school to close for holidays.

Since 2019, VELA has invested over $50M in founders across all 50 states. We are the leading investor in Indie Education.

Applications for VELA microgrants are due on the last day of every month. Know a founder who should apply? Share this post.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day from Happy Hens! 🌿💛
This spring has brought such sweet new beginnings to our little farm. We’re so excited to welcome our new Sebastopol geese, Meadow and Guinevere, along with our gentle new buck, Forest, who even inspired the beautiful wool-felted Mother’s Day coasters our children lovingly created.
At Happy Hens, we cherish the beauty of nurturing, caring for, and learning alongside God’s creatures. Watching children grow in kindness, gentleness, and wonder through caring for animals is one of the greatest blessings of this season.
Today we celebrate all the mothers, grandmothers, caregivers, and nurturing hearts who pour love into the lives around them every day. Wishing you a peaceful and joy-filled Mother’s Day surrounded by the beauty of creation. 🌸🐣🪿

05/06/2026

A great day with Happy Hens Co-op at Fox Forest in Hillsboro. We spent time exploring local habitats and found newts, toads, frogs, dragonfly nymphs, skater bugs, and more.
Thank you to Emily Wrubel for guiding us, and to the yurt students and families who joined us out in the warm rain.
Our next co-op is June 3. Check our website for tickets and details — $10 per student. 🛖🐐🐓🪿🐝💫

04/28/2026

Our next homeschool co-op is just around the corner! Join us on May 6 as we explore animals and habitats - tickets can be purchased on our website!

04/23/2026

A huge thank you to MHH Consulting, North Country Lumber, and Merrimack Savings Bank for sponsoring our Read-a-Thon!
Together, we raised an incredible $4,055. Of that, 75% goes directly to our school, helping provide scholarships for families and expanding our outdoor gear lending library so all students can stay safe, warm, and fully participate.
The remaining 25% supports the Read-a-Thon program and the students, who were able to choose fun prizes for their hard work.
We’re so grateful to everyone who donated and supported this effort. Your generosity helps us continue making our programs accessible, inclusive, and enriching for all. Thank you 💛

04/12/2026

Thanks for chatting with us CATO!

https://www.cato.org/blog/friday-feature-happy-hens-farm-forest-school?fbclid=IwdGRjcARInP5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe7pI0NhK_Ab1JFzKWOTXO4M747--itfrDaIsIilIyKjz4XHfBX4PpkhNx_j0_aem_jQS7bfOU1tRx3i6e05NsNA

If your child needs a different learning environment, look for it—and if you can’t find it, create it, says microschool founder Maggie Van Camp. If you build it, they will come because other families are probably feeling the same way but don’t know what to do.

04/12/2026

Our honey bees are officially installed and ready to pollinate! 🌸🐝

A huge thank you to Mike and Lisa at Bees Unlimited in Sunapee for your kindness, guidance, and helping us get started the right way—we’re so grateful! 💛

Our students will play an active role in caring for our hive through close, weekly observations. Along the way, they’ll learn to:
🌼 Identify the queen, workers, and drones
🍯 Understand how honey is made (from nectar to hive!)
🐝 Observe bee behavior and communication
🌱 See firsthand how pollination supports our gardens and ecosystem
🔍 Check for a healthy hive (brood patterns, activity, and more)
🌎 Build respect for these incredible and essential pollinators

We can’t wait to grow, learn, and care for our bees together! 💛🌿

FarmSchool HandsOnLearning Beekeeping NHKids LearningOutside

04/09/2026

Proud sponsor of this fun Mother’s Day 5 k! 🛖💫🐝🐓

Thank you to all of our Mother's Day 5K Sponsors.

Our Gold Sponsors are Hillsboro Health and Fitness and Bear Hand Construction.

Our Bronze Sponsors are:
Oxbow Campground
Happy Hen's Farm and Forest School
Hillsboro Ford
EWDL Home Improvement
A. Pro Electric
K. Pro Generators
Edwards Jones Financial
Osram
Zipper's Soft Serve Ice Cream

It's not too late to join us on May 9th at Grimes Field.
Sign up at https://hillsboro.recdesk.com
Registration is open until Race day. Registration with a t-shirt closes on April 17th.

For more information, contact [email protected]
or call (603) 680-4103

04/02/2026

At Happy Hens Farm & Forest School, we met one of spring’s most magical forest friends… the spotted salamander ✨

That glossy black body with bright yellow spots isn’t just beautiful—it’s a sure sign that spring is waking up here in New Hampshire 🌱

These secretive creatures spend most of their lives hidden underground, beneath logs and leaf litter, only emerging on warm, rainy spring nights to journey to vernal pools 🌧️

A few fascinating facts we loved learning together:
• They can grow up to 9 inches long—one of our largest local salamanders
• Those bright yellow spots are unique—like a fingerprint for each salamander
• They migrate during early spring rains (sometimes with snow still on the ground!) to lay eggs in temporary forest pools
• Each jelly-like egg mass can hold around 100 eggs 🫧
• They spend most of the year underground, making this brief spring appearance extra special

This time of year is often called “salamander crossing season” — a reminder to slow down, notice, and protect these tiny travelers as they make their ancient journey home 💛

Childhood wonder lives in moments like this… quiet, muddy and full of discovery 🌿

salamanderseason childhoodunplugged