Make an epic farm in Minecraft

What can we use if we don't have hard-to-find items like leads, spawn eggs, fences, or a hoe?

If you don't have spawn eggs or leads to bring animals into pens, lure and guide animals with wheat/carrots/seeds or use a boat to move them, substitute fences with walls or leaf blocks to mark boundaries, and if you lack a hoe either switch to Creative mode to place tilled soil or craft/borrow a hoe to use on plots.

Why won't my crops grow or my soil stay hydrated after I place water in the trenches?

Check that your water source blocks are actual source blocks placed in the trenches and within four blocks of each tilled plot, that the soil is tilled with a hoe, and that there is enough light for the seeds to grow.

How can we adapt this epic farm activity for different age groups?

For younger kids have them plan the layout with temporary blocks, clear grass, fill holes, and plant seeds; older children can build fences, gates, animal pens and move animals with wheat; teens can add redstone irrigation, automated dispensers, and complex paths using gravel or stone.

What are some ways to extend or personalize the farm after finishing the basic steps?

Extend your farm by building a barn or market, adding decorative gravel or stone paths and lantern lighting, labeling fields with colored wool signs, creating crop-rotation rows, and upgrading trenches into redstone-powered dispensers for automated irrigation and animal-sorting pens.