C.O.O.P. Group (Chickens On Our Property)

16/07/2024

My backyard hens just lay eggs and forage!!

23/11/2023

Oats and oatmeal aren’t the cozy nourishment for chickens you might think… (It was a surprise for us!)

What you don't know about chickens could hurt them! While it may sound warm and fuzzy to feed your chickens a hot oatmeal for breakfast, the beta glucan in oats is an ANTI-NUTRIENT, that actually causes a thickening of the intestinal mucosa, which prevents them from absorbing nutritional benefits from the oats, AND prevents them from absorbing the ESSENTIAL nutrients from their chicken feed that they need to keep themselves warm in winter! Learn more from a poultry vet and a poultry nutritionist on this topic on my website at this link. --> https://the-chicken-chick.com/the-shocking-effect-of-oatmeal/

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03/05/2023

Respect the chicken!

Make every day more interesting. Dive deeper into the most intriguing corners of history, science, animals, food, culture, and more with mind-blowing facts-of-the-day, interactive games, and fascinating articles.

12/02/2023

Never heard of butter-preserved eggs? Same!

Another unique Irish culinary invention is buttered eggs, a unique and tasty way to preserve eggs.

Invented in time immemorial , probably due to the proliferation of butter on the island, the Irish developed this way to preserve eggs. It became so popular that exportation of buttered eggs to England numbered in the tens of thousands of dozens every year during the English colonial times .

Because the shell is porous, it absorbs the butter to form a more protective seal. Curious, I took one home. Soft-boiled, it tasted fresh from the hen, the yolk the color of sunshine, the white carrying with it a whiff of cream. Today buttered eggs are a delicacy, largely vanished from Irish farmyards and pantries. You can't butter eggs by machine, as it’s an intimate practice involving the hand . Every one needs to be done by hand. Farmers' wives used to say it was a task most difficult to execute in winter, when the butter was harder and their hands were colder. So perhaps in addition to the egg and the butter, what I taste is the memory of an Irish woman whose palm coaxed butter lovingly all the way around a fragile shell, hoping to preserve it for as long as she could.

That might seem counterintuitive. Why waste butter on the outside of an egg? But clever Irish farmers had hit on buttering eggs as a way to preserve them during winters, when hens produce less. Taking freshly-laid, still-warm eggs, farm families rolled them in their buttery palms. The butter helped solidify the hot, brittle shells, sealing off the yolky contents from the outside air.

Buttered eggs take on a shiny gleam. And, as an added bonus, the taste of butter permeates the egg, making it even richer when cracked opened and cooked. Eggs preserved this way keep for up to six months in a cool place and I have had them last even longer . It’s not surprising that buttered eggs were a Cork specialty, seeing as it’s also home to the Cork Butter Museum, a tribute to the region’s status as a butter-producing powerhouse.

They can be found at markets in Ireland and I make them regularly as a homestead speciality. If you keep chickens or know someone local who does , then you can too !

I just lightly brush my eggs off with a dry rag and butter away but I have awesome nest boxes keeping my eggs very clean .

If your eggs have too much p**p on them, and you can’t figure out how to clean them off without washing them then this process is probably not for you.

27/12/2022

Hope you AND your feathered family weathered this storm Ok!

24/12/2022

This frigid storm! Although usually there’s too much risk to consider supplemental heat for a coop, this is a tip that might be lower-risk but help cut the worst of the deadliest chill:

Help young chicks stay warm with this inexpensive coop heater.

03/09/2022

Beware of hawks!! Even in city limits, your sweet pet hens could be carried away by a hungry hungry hawk. Besides keeping hens in a coop or tractor 24/7, here are some other safety tips for city henkeepers (though roosters and horses aren’t available according to the city zoning) https://www.fresheggsdaily.blog/2018/09/how-can-i-protect-my-chickens-from-hawks.html

Protecting a backyard chicken flock from hawks can be a bit of a challenge if you don't know these simple, effective tips.

01/08/2022

No big deal, just a hen and dog chase :)