I like the chicken idea and the trading with other villagers idea.

I think that the children should take care of the chickens and the better the care the more chickens or the more eggs if people dont want to see the chickens die. The childre can gather eggs and feed chickens so the children would have something to do other than runaround and pick mushrooms. Also a new puzzle could be to unlock the chickens.

I also think that the tech points should be used as money for trading with other villages rather than having money, or what would be the point of research at the end of the game other than to have the most tech points.