This recipe is in honor of our seven lovely hens, who are now 1 1/2 years old and laying on the order of 3-5 beautiful eggs every day. Yesterday afternoon my 3-year-old grandson and I stopped at the coop to collect the day’s gifts, but two of the girls were in the middle of laying and so we left them to their business and turned around to instead go climbing on a big pile of logs. This morning my husband needed some eggs to bake oatmeal cookies, so he ran out to the coop and discovered 7 eggs! Continue reading
Tag Archives: hens
Scoop at the Coop: First Eggs! 2025
When our most recent flock of chicks was brand new this past August, we kept them under a heat lamp to maintain their body heat. We were able to wean them from the heat lamp by the time they were about 6 weeks old. But in January, during the recent nationwide cold snap, we made a decision to turn the heat lamp back on. I think it was the low of minus six degrees that did it.
The girls stayed close together, cuddling and fluffing up their feathers to insulate themselves and conserve energy. I could also see that they were eating more food than usual. Continue reading
Scoop at the Coop Returns!
About 15 years ago we built a small chicken coop in the backyard, and our first three hens, Hamburgs, were delivered to Cleveland soon after, all the way from my parents’ New Jersey farm. They were followed by a couple of Golden Buffs from a nearby farm in Middlefield, Ohio.
We enjoyed our hens, their antics, and their eggs, and I told many stories in this blog about them in posts identified with the title “Scoop at the Coop.” After a few years, we expanded the coop to include an area with an overhang plus two long pens. With room for a few more hens, we (and friends) enjoyed an endless supply of gorgeous eggs. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Summer Corn Salad
Now that fresh corn is starting to show up at the local markets, it’s time to put it to work! Feel free to double this recipe, or to put aside some of your corn kernels in the freezer so you can make this recipe in a few months, when you are feeling like you really need a taste of summer. Continue reading