A big welcome to 250 chicks who recently arrived in Cayman to join the Chateau Chooks family and greeted with a new and improved home.
The innovative chicken coop design was completed at the end of March. Instead of going inside to collect the eggs and potentially disturbing the girls, they now roll out on a specially-designed system for convenience and care. There are perches on the top of the mesh to allow the poop to fall outside the coop, the litter on the ground is sand, and ice is being added to the water to help the birds keep cool.
More modifications will continue to be installed based on recommendations from the Cayman Islands Agricultural Department to ensure the chickens are comfortable and happy.
The Department sources the one-day-old chicks on behalf of The Brasserie from Jamaica and occasionally Miami. They reside in a separate section of the coop from the established hens for a few months, and then move over to the main residence once the older birds are retired.
This important rotation occurs every two years to coincide with the 17-month production period of a hen. As the ladies get older, they produce less eggs that have thinner shells making them more breakable. This time last year we were receiving about 1200 eggs a week, and this amount has now halved.
The retirees are given to community members or taken to our Coco Bluff coconut farm to live out their days foraging, eating insects and leftover coconuts and living their best lives.
The new chicks will begin laying eggs in about six months, so expect the first production to reach The Brasserie kitchen in approximately February or March next year.
The eggs are used to create delicious dishes found on The Brasserie restaurant menu including Yellowfin Tuna Ham Carbonara, and the poached egg that comes with the CAB NY Steak.
Meanwhile, the eggshells are used to compost the plants or make Aide’s plant-loving chemical-free fertiliser specific to fruit trees. Adding leftover banana, potato and eggshell can give the trees a much-needed potassium boost. “Potassium helps plants to move water and sugar, so it makes fruit juicier and sweeter and it also improves the quality of flowers. Secondly, potassium helps strengthen plants – it thickens their cell walls,” says Aide.
“We boil all the ingredients together to release all the essential nutrients from the produce including calcium from the egg shells, and then sieve the mixture. The pulp goes into our compost and the precious liquid is diluted with water before being used as fertiliser. One gallon of the concentrate makes four gallons of spray. Sixteen gallons of fertiliser is enough to cover 25 trees. When the trees start to bloom, we spray to help the development of fruit. This is important as we head into rainy season as the rain can wash the pollen off the flowers.”
Stay tuned for more chick updates on @brasseriecayman Instagram and Facebook as they move into their main abode and start laying eggs.
