What's Taking Over Your Life---and it's not Facebook

This is hard to write (gulp), because I am SO guilty of it. But, once I recognized it, I had to call it out for what it was---a goal destroyer, a dream basher, and relationship duller...Netflix was and is a lot of things for everyone---a "get your mind off of everything" network, a "movie night" at-home-thing, a "life is hard so I'm gonna binge watch while eating potato chips and drinking healthy shakes" producer...the point is...Netflix IS those last three things I just stated, but just like everything else we let become a part of our life, it has had unintentional consequences, and they haven't been the good kind.

First, let me sing my Ode to Netflix.

Netflix Netflix Netflix, King of my soul!
It's so so lovely how you make me forget
the ugly parts of the human soul
that I read about too much on Facebook.
Netflix Netflix Netflix, you are the
"I want to sit and do absolutely nothing" dream
fulfiller,
you are the
"I'm bored" children's phrase killer.
You are the, "we are poor and don't trust anyone to babysit anyways"
date night giver.
Netflix Netflix Netflix,
so why is it that you have to be so bad for my liver!?

So, yeah. liver doesn't make sense, but I was DONE with that ode.

The truth is, I still love Netflix, but we are moving are relationship status from "Engaged" to "In an open relationship"/"It's complicated"(who seriously uses those status' btw? If you need to use that, end it girlfriend!)

I love finding a show that I love to watch. It gives me something to look forward to. But, then I realized that there are so many more things in life that I should be looking more forward to than a show. My Man helped me realize that without even trying because he'd generally much rather do something productive(like try to get our HAM radio licenses) than watch a show. And, whenever I'm like "Hey, wanna put on a show?" He normally says sure, but I can tell he just let every productive goal for the night go out the window because wifey over here is done with the day. I don't want to be that wifey (except, sometimes I do.)

When I don't turn on a show the second the girls go to bed, I feel more like being myself and building my character with the things that I actually care about and am interested in, and I think Netflix (hand in hand with FB) have done a FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC job of helping each individual of our society forget what they like to do in their spare time. I think it has helped people forget what relationships are supposed to be like. And, I'm not saying stopping watching Netflix with your significant other is going to make your relationship THAT much more way fun or something, because honestly it's probably not going to. When I don't do a show, I usually clean, or blog (duh) or sit on the couch and stress out AND tell myself not to stress out (SO much more productive than watching a show while stressing out and never telling myself to stop stressing out!) or color in my cool owl coloring book, or eat good food, or do random other things that I would have never otherwise done. But, what I can say it has done is made our relationship more healthy. Why? Because I have been feeling happier because I have been feeling more productive and I have been dreaming more about things I want to do and I have been remembering that I want to pursue certain passions. And, let's not forget that even though in marriage you "become as one", there are definitely still two individuals in the "oneness", and each of those individuals will make the other individual happier by being happier themselves. My Man loves me more when he sees me get excited about things I love, and go after them.  And him being such a great example of that to me, is the very reason I love him so much.

I want to reiterate that I love Netflix and Netflixing, and YES the fact that I am writing this might strongly correlate with the fact that I don't have a good show series to watch right now, but, I am thankful, people! Let's not forget who we are and that each of us actually have interests outside of the acting world. Life is FOR REAL, so let's live it.

The Backyard Chicken series: Part 5-Outside Time

"Ahhhh, the great outdoors." I've heard this phrase a lot. Not sure if it is a quote, or a phrase, or maybe I just made it up all together? Who knows. All I know is that this small phrase is so so true for us humans, and even more so for the cute little chickies. When you first buy the chicks, as stated before in a few of my other posts (read part 1, 2, 3, or 4) they need to be inside with you. For the first week, they love it because it is warm and comfy. But, it is easy to tell that soon enough, they want to be outside where they are meant to be. They will start laying and the floor and stretching out their legs and wings. This is the best sign it is time to start doing "Outside Time", and they love it!

Outside time was great for the chickies and for the girls because it made sure that we got out at least once that day. The girls loved getting to go outside and NOT chase the chicks haha. They always want to chase the chicks which is a recipe for disaster---I know this from experience. My little cute chick was smashed when I was little from the excited running feet of a little kid. Not Fun! For the little kid or the chick. So our rule is always that when we are doing Outside Time you are not allowed to chase the chicks to try to catch them. If you want to hold them, you have to sit down and wait for them to climb up onto your lap, which they always eventually do. They love climbing all over the big protectors that feed them and keep them safe :)

They need to be able to go outside to not just stretch out, but practice what they are supposed to be learning. I.E. scratching. If you don't see your chicks scratching at all within a week or so, just show them how to do it with your finger. At first, they are so small it is hard for them to do in the grass and dirt, but they will still try. They will start learning how to use their wings to get from place to place, and they will start learning how to sense danger! Your chicks aren't going to die or not function correctly when you move them outside if you don't do outside time. Everything is innate---but I promise you that they will be better chickens and fulfill the measure of their creation if you let them enjoy their life and do the things they love: eating and being outside!

The Backyard Chicken Series: Part 4-Housing the Hens+The Big Suprise

If you are behind on this series, check out parts 1, 2 and 3.

Did you like the "housing the hens"? Becuase I did. Housing your little hens for the first month or so can be a little complicated depending on where you live and what you have available. We live in a 4-plex currently (soon to change maybe...?), but our landlord is awesome and so it wasn't a big deal to him that we needed to have the chicks inside our home for about a month or so. We have used multiple boxes to give them the needed space as they have grown---and they sure do grow FAST. Still as cute as from the beginning though.

The larger box on the left is the one they lived in for about a week or two. They were still so small and so it worked fine. Great memories of them passing out in that little box, necks stretched out, legs straight out backs, wings out, laying right flat on their tummies! Nature is so so beautiful and brings so much happiness when it is happy itself.

You might think this is messy, but this is after just a day :) We clean it daily.

This is what we moved them into when they started to get some feathers in. They were already so much bigger! Plus, they were sick of being in the light, even if it was the dark infrared one. They really loved this one the best I think, because they felt like they had two rooms as options ha ha. The warm room with the light on, and the cooler room with the light off. They loved sleeping in the room with the light off of them ( No wondering why).

This is the last box they lived in. They were in here for about a week, and currently still sleep in it at night because it is still pretty close to freezing sometimes at night. They haven't fully got their head feathers in so I don't want them being outside yet (because I'm overprotective). Now, with them being inside at night, we also don't have the light on anymore so they will be getting used to the cooler night temperatures.This box was a bit bigger than the other two combined. Most importantly we were able to tape the flaps up because the chicks were starting to fly out of the box. As you can see, even with the flaps up we needed to put lids on top (plastic bin lids and cooling racks from the kitchen so the heat would still go in and not melt the lids) because they started to even fly out of those high walls! They definitely get itchy to be outside.

(update:they are sleeping outside now! such big chickies)

Side note: Some people may say, oh you don't have to get this nice light or that nice coop or this and that or grab them nicely or give them good food or keep them that warm. And it's true. You don't have to do anything special or nice or considerate for them. God made them durable animals, and they can survive pretty rough stuff. But, if you  do treat them nice and be considerate, and develop a respect for them and for their fulfilling 100% of their measure of creation, they will love you. And nothing is more beautiful than a part of mother nature loving you, because it makes you feel complete.

Okay, now the business is done, time for the big surprise.
We bought straight run chickens, which means there is 90% possibility they are females and a 10% chance they are not. After we noticed our lovely little yYang (Barred Rock chicken) bossing all the other little chicks around and getting on top of anything high that it could, we have concluded that she is actually a he! WE HAVE A ROOSTER! We originally didn't want one because we obviously wouldn't be allowed to keep him. But, now that we MIGHT be moving to somewhere new...we might get to keep that little buddy :) Time will tell. But we sure love him and all his protectiveness over his little women hens.

Spring Cleaning(the kid friendly way)

Spring is in the air, along with insanely bad allergies. I'm not gonna lie though, the beauty surpasses the misery when it comes down to it. My allergies are bad enough to make me feel sick, but not bad enough (right now) to wish spring gone. Another thing that comes hand in hand with the things listed above, is spring cleaning! Yay. I never knew I loved (and could become obsessed with) cleaning so much, until my house was constantly a mess from the girlies, and seeing it sparkly clean if even for just an hour is a high that I will always continue to seek out. So what's the mean? Cleaning cleaning and more cleaning. Spring air always makes people want to clean. I wonder why?

I love natural things that I know won't be killin' off my kids brain cells at a high rate. I also love doing a good high-chemical clean out every once in a while because sometimes chemicals just work so much dang better than a natural cleaner to clean off that stained glass stove-top. Am I right? Yes, I AM. But, like I said earlier, most of the time and especially when the girlies are around, I use natural cleaners and I love them because they don't make any of us get headaches or feel sick and because they smell yum-o. There is a brand that I have been wanting to buy because the scents just sound so delicious, but I don't feel like paying the prices for them yet, especially because I haven't done an ingredient check to see if it's even that natural. So, before I go spending money on something that is advertised as natural and smells really good, I want to actually know it's natural. But, I really do want to buy the cleaners in all the scents they have! Check out the site to see if you're interested at mrsmeyers.com.Until that good day comes( and probably after it) I just make my own. I kind of make up the recipe different each time just based off of other ones I have checked out. This is a citrus and vinegar based cleaner. So it is great in the kitchen but not so great on woods (but I use it on wood all of the time...). I also like to add some peppermint oil to it sometimes, just because I'm obsessed with peppermint. It's refreshing, opening, calming and pleasing to the taste!

Ingredients:
quart mason jar with lid
white vinegar
peel of 1 full orange
1 lime halved or quartered (skin on)
water
peppermint(optional)
2-3 spray bottles(I get the largest ones I can from the dollar store)

Directions:
Fill the mason jar about halfway up with vinegar(or a little less). Drop in the fruit in (I like to squish the fruit up a bit with my hands to release some of the oils) and then fill it up the rest of the way with water.Let it sit for about a day. Take the lid off and take your spray bottles and fill them up with the mixture. Depending on how concentrated you want it (and how vinegar-y smelling you want it) fill each bottle about halfway up. I usually fill up about three spray bottles with my quart jar, and then fill the rest of the spray bottle up with some more water to dilute it again. It's up to you! Spray away and don't worry about any headaches or the killing of kids' brain cells or killing too many germs, thus creating, dun dun dun--- THE SUPER GERM. Happy spring cleaning.

The Backyard Chicken Series: Part 3-Breeds

Yin (barred rock) the other, not pictured, is Yang

*if you missed the first two parts, read them here and here :)
Our chickens are just making us fall more in love with them every day. From the way they throw their little legs back and sleep on their belly to the way they are starting to practice flying around and scratching. Love them! It is nice remembering the reasons why I always loved them when I was little. And, it is even better seeing my little girls develop that same love for them :)

I thought it might be helpful telling what breeds we got, why, and what other breeds you might be interested in if you are considering getting chickens some day! (do it.)

We had originally planned on getting 2 ameraucanas, 2 white leghorns, and 2 bantam silkies. My Man and I had finalized these breeds in our minds after I talked to my uncle, who has a great love and care for chickens, about which chickens he thought were good layers and also good with kids (physically and aesthetically).

He told me the White leghorns (the classic yellow fluffy chick) grow to be white, and they are the main breed used in the commercial production of eggs, because they are the most consistent in laying. I wanted two have at least two pretty consistent layers.

Ameraucanas are another breed he recommended for multiple reasons. They are pretty consistent layers, they come in different colors and patters and kids like them because they lay blue-ish green-ish eggs. Kids like that :)

The Bantam Silkies are the dream chicks of mine since I was little. I have always wanted silkies.  Because they are pretty much moving puff balls that lay mini eggs. They come in beautiful colors(black, dark blue and white). And, because they are so dang fluffy, like I already said. Bantam silkies, are mini silkies. You can get a regular sized or mini. I thought these would also be fun for the girls because they are smaller (easier to hold and not as intimidating) and because they lay small eggs (though, they are not very consistent layers). The girls have had small eggs before and they loved eating them!

So, those are the chicks we had planned on getting. But, we didn't end up getting those! Ha. Mainly it is because after checking with a friend about the chick shipment schedule at the local IFA, the chicks we wanted weren't coming in on the same dates. Also, the Silkie Bantams were not guaranteed female (and I guess they never are). Since we don't want a rooster right now, we outed the Bantam Silkies :( My childhood dream chick will have to wait.

We GOT:
2 araucanas
2 barred rock
2 rhode island reds

Araucanas: because that is all they would be getting. No ameraucanas coming in.Amercaucanas actually stem from the araucana breed. So, they are pretty similar chickens. Araucanas also lay blue eggs, and they also have insanely fluffy cheeks! Seriously. We got Tranch, a little brown one, and Creamy, a little yellow cream colored one. I adore them.

Barred Rock: These grow up to be black and white striped, but they are black as little chicks. Ours are just now starting to show some white! They are the most consistently mellow of all of the chicks, for now! And the girls like that. They are go-to's for holding.

Rhode Island Red: I had a bunch of these growing up and remembered them having a bit of an attitude. When I looked it up, my search confirmed what I had thought. Something I read said they are a breed that has a little more trouble getting along with other breeds. When I went to the store to buy the chicks, I asked the girl about them being a little bit more tough, and she said that no, they are actually the most mellow of all the chicks. Well, my memories and researched proved my initial thoughts correct. They are definitely are spiciest :) And we love 'em for it. The girls had a harder time with them at the beginning, but they have gotten really good at holding them and learning to get them to relax (sometimes).

So, we didn't end up with what we had originally planned, but we seriously love all the ones we got! Couldn't be happier.

Just missing the other little black one!

Creamy :) (auracana)

Tranch :) (araucana)

Little Tranch has no idea the deadly danger a hands-length away!

Ruby(rhode island red :))

I love seeing their little feathers coming out! Comment with any questions.

Backyard Chicken Series: Part 2

They are still alive! Sometimes, I amaze myself. Like after my first girl was born, and we were able to keep her alive! It seriously is a miracle. Give them milk, and they live and grow. I feel slightly the same about these chicks. When we first brought them home I was way overly stressed about it. I felt like I had six more little people to keep alive. I was stressed that after writing my first part in this series, one of them would die! The thing is, I do have six more little chicks to keep alive, but not six children. Ha! Chicks are pretty easy to keep alive, too. Give them food, give them water, keep the place clean. BAM. They stay alive.

For now they are in a rubber bin in my oldest girls room with a heat lamp still over them. They are starting to get little feathers, and little feather butts (soooo cute), and starting to poop a TON. So, we are going to be switching them into a bigger living space sometime here soon. Not sure what yet, but I'll let you know when we do! They are already eating a lot more, and we have also started taking them outside during the day when it's warm and letting them run around and practice scratching and trying to fly. And they are stinkin' cute doing all of it! Here are photo updates. LOTS of photos.

our oldest with creamy

Honey on the left Ruby on the right

yin(the other black one is yang)

Creamy

Tranch

Tranch

The Backyard Chicken Series

Spring is springing, and along with it little chicks! At least here in Southern Utah it is. Be jealous all you want you snow bunnies, for NOW. But I honestly don't believe anyone can be that jealous of over 100 degree weather daily, for months. So in reality, these next couple of months are our summer. They are really the only months the girlies can play outside all day, so we are living it up. One of the ways we are doing that is by buying chicks! If any of you haven't read my informational post on raising chickens from a long while back , read it here. I have been dreaming of this day for a long time.

When I was in elementary school, we hatched some eggs in the classroom and our teacher told us if we got permission from our parents, we could take as many chicks as we wanted. So, of course I asked my dad, and of course he said yes even though we weren't allowed to have them where we lived, because he is the best. Those were the first of quite a few chickens throughout my younger years, and I loved them so much. I spent a lot of great times outside playing with them and lost a lot of tears over the foxes that kept getting them. Eventually, I got bigger and too busy and stopped buying them. Plus, my mom hated the poop all over our back patio ;). I was always excited about being able to buy little chicks for my own kids, and crazy as it is, that time has finally come.

My Man will be building a coop with a run, and here in a bit, we will be sending them outside to live in it! Oh yeah, and we live in a four-plex. Our land lord is awesome and is letting us do all of this, along with doing a garden again this summer! The perks of living in a small town. Oh the freedom! Stay tuned and learn along with me and my family the up's and down's of doing backyard chickens for the first time. Because it has already been an adventure. More posts soon to come!

My Man and one of his best friends did all of this in a morning!

The beginning of the coop.

                                           

How to Fall In Love With Running---Proper Running Form

Keepin' it real with my little bro back in high school!

Falling In LOVE With Running

These are just a few thoughts of my own. I always notice that when people are trying to start running consistently, they have an extremely hard time with it for multiple reasons. Most of them being that things start to hurt...legs, lungs, side-cramps, shin-splints, etc. These are the reasons a lot of people hate running. The truth is, running is just like anything else you grow to love. I.E. your family, your children, playing the piano, painting, cooking, reading, whatever it is that you like to do.What do all of these things have in common? Time and SACRIFICE. We are always so willing to sacrifice our time for others and to help others, why do we pause when we want and need to sacrifice for ourselves? The more you push yourself, whether it is only one more block or one more mile or one more minute, the more you are giving up to gain something. You are sacrificing comfort in order to feel better about yourself mentally and physically. We need to learn to love ourselves, and when we learn to sacrifice for ourselves, having respect and love for ourselves becomes a lot easier. 

Run outside as much as you can. Running is not JUST about being healthy, losing weight, staying in shape. It is about time to yourself, which is vital in a balanced life. It is about nature. It is about noticing that there is so much outside of yourself that is breathing and thriving every single day. When you run outside, you get to be around the things that you normally never have a second thought about unless you are on a "nature hike" or "camping". Why not feel that connection to our mother earth every day?


I'm in love with running. I'm absolutely addicted to it. If you know me, you know that if I don't run for a while I'm a grumpo that you don't want to be around. This all started in middle school. Oh, running. Why do I love you so? Let me state the ways.
I love how you make my lungs burn
I love how you make sweat drip into my eyes
I love how my legs burn on the up-hills
I love that you know I can always improve
I love how I always have to pee before and RIGHT after a race
I love that you let me eat a lot of carbs
I love that you gave me 3 hairline fractures up my shin bone and countless painful runs from shinsplints.
I love how you make my arch cramp up....

Okay, so I'll stop counting the ways. The point is that I am a running addict, and that I actually don't have that good of a body for it. Yeah, I am kinda small which helps out and yeah, I am pretty good at endurance (which is something I've worked hard for over the years), but the fact of the matter is that my joints are terrible and my bones are extremely sensitive! Do you have that same problem???I find myself asking "How can I go on!?!" Has my healthy addiction somehow become unhealthy and actually damaging to my body?
NO.
Well, it could be. But, that's what this post is about. Knowing your body and how much it can take is vital to maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle. I consider myself "a runner"---whatever that means. Right now I am running four days out of the week and I always run a minimum of three miles. Sometimes(like during finals) I totally slack and it will be a couple of weeks before I get my runs in consistently again. There have even been times when I haven't run for months, but I am still a runner. I feel like most people think you have to do a marathon or at least a half marathon to really be considered a distance runner. Well to them I say, "You're wrong." I know my body and I know my time and my goals. Running a marathon is not one of them. It is not worth the damage that I know it would do to me. I'd rather stay with my 3-7 mile runs 3-4 times a week for my entire life then put my body through something it tells me daily that it would have major problems doing and then be told I'd be better off biking or swimming. Don't get me wrong, I like all physical activity and working out in many different ways, but running is my buddy, my life-long friend, my confidant....you get the picture. Since I have this addiction, I have discovered I need to make it healthy and okay (balance in everything!). And for someone like me, form and technique means the difference between shinsplints and bone splits and pulled muscles. I went to a "Running Class" (a.k.a. Running Nerd 101) at Runners Corner in Orem, UT, and people, this is a great store! Customer service is amazing and the knowledge these people have is unbelievable. You won't be disappointed. You can go to their webpage to check out their merchandise or even check out the page that talks a little bit about what I spent a few hours learning and actually physically doing(they had us all run and recorded us so that we could see our form at a stand-still).
Proper Running Form
-Your entire body should be slightly at a slant...leaning forward a little bit if that makes sense. In practicing this for myself I've realized that this helps lengthen my stride, in turn improving my pace.
-Your shoulders should be slightly pulled back and your chest pushed forward. This does not mean to run like a duck. These are all very slight adjustments. By making sure you are not hunched through keeping your shoulders back, you are doing your lungs a big favor by letting them fill up with all of the air that they need instead of cramping their space.
-Your arms. I learned in my cross-country high school team that they should hang below a 90 degree angle as to help save energy. This is WRONG. You should keep your arms at about a 90 degree angle...like the corner of a square. I don't want you going and getting stiff arms from clenching your arms into 90 degree angles though. It is still important to relax! Your elbow should never go beyond your torso. Instead of thinking to push your arms further forward, think of pushing them backwards further---since your legs follow the cadence of your arms, it should help lengthen your stride as well.
-Your torso. When I would do long, hard runs I would purposefully slow down and twist my torso a bit when I was taking a break. I liked working out my abs like this. Don't do it. Just work out your abs when you get home. Besides, it gives you side-cramps. Keep your torso firm and still.
-Your legs and your feet. This is what everyone is talking about lately with this new barefoot running fad going on. I actually got into an argument once with a kid I worked with about this. He was trying to tell me why barefoot running is better, and me being the stubborn know-it-all that really knows nothing at all, said he was wrong. He was RIGHT. Surprise surprise. As KG Harper states it on his Proper Running Technique page, ". The upper body should carry over your foot leaving your feet to push off and extend behind your center of gravity." I think that is the best way to put it. So, your foot should be flat when hitting the ground. This is hard to know if you are doing this, but what has helped to do better at planting a flat foot is by kind of just flopping my foot forward and against the pavement. It makes it pretty loud when I run, but that is what has helped me. So no, loud running is not bad.

So, to all you runners out there, the one mile once a week runner, the marathon runner, the 3 times a week runner, to any person that feels connected to running and to nature, let's keep our bodies healthy and strong and do our best at doing what we love!

About Raising Chickens

Time to post about something I have always been completely passionate about---how to raise chickens! This is a great task for families to do together. It is beneficial for the family as a whole (fresh eggs and meat) and it is a great way for the kids to learn responsibility and have fun at the same time. DO IT! You wont regret it. I don't know why exactly, but ever since my first grade teacher brought in the incubator and I got to see these little baby chicks put all of their strength into cracking their shell open and then see them grow up into cute puff balls(which took a matter of days), I wanted my own to raise and love. Luckily, after the project of hatching them my teacher said that if we got permission from our parents, we could take as many as we wanted home. My mom was hesitant but my dad loves chickens too, he raised them when he was young and wanted to give me that same opportunity. That was the beginning of plenty of more chickens to come. The saddest part was coming home from school and seeing feathers scattered everywhere around our backyard. That meant that a fox or coyote had gotten in and killed them(we didnt have a coop---they would sleep in the trees). Anyways, moving on! I haven't had anymore chickens since middle school but I want some so bad! Over at Central Utah Gardens ( water conservation education) they offer all sorts of awesome free classes. The one this weekend was called "Raising Chickens". So, I decided maybe there are a few others out there, like me, that are in love with everything about chickens that would be grateful if I posted the main things I learned from this man's presentation(didn't get his name :/ ) on how to start raising chickens. Here goes!

Basic Terms:

Pullet: A pullet is the term for a young female chicken.

Hen: A hen is a matured female chicken.

Cockrel: A young make chicken.

Rooster: A matured male rooster...Roosters have longer tail feathers and have spurs which are long nails on their lower legs. They use these when fighting other roosters. They also crow, which can be very loud.

1. Chickens can live for up to ten years. They can lay eggs for only about four of those years. 
2. Eggs that are fertilized hatch within about 21 days, and for the first couple days of life the chicks do not need food, just water.
3. An easy way to tell the sex of a day-old chick is by spreading their wings and looking at the edge of them. If the feathers of the wings are straight-edged it is a female and if they are staggering in length then they are male.
4. Bantams are half-sized (mini) chickens.
5. Specialty/rare breeds usually have feather feet, naked necks or are hooded. These birds are normally used as show birds.

These are the pros/cons we were given for owning chickens:

Pros

• food, eggs
• insect control (pesticide free!)
• Compost from gardening
• easy
• inexpensive hobby
• kid friendly-good educational tool

Cons

• smell
• noise
• interference with other pets
• can be expensive
• time requirement
• not allowed in some cities.....(which didn't hold me back living in Denver, CO. But shhhh, don't tell.)

Some people think it would be completely overwhelming raising a flock of chickens for the first time, and for some people it might be. But, there really aren't that many things that you need in order to be successful at it.

You Need:

• A coop/hen house
• outside space for roaming and scratching
• water
• food

A coop or a hen house is what the hens will sleep in. It is also most likely where they will lay their eggs. The coop is a safe-haven for them from predators and it also should be able to protect them from the weather. Inside the coop there should be nesting boxes within it for them to sleep in and lay their eggs in.

Types of Breeds

Egg producers, meat producers, dual purpose breeds.

Sexed or Straight-Run?

When ordering chicks from a catalog or online, you have the option of "sexed" or "straight-run". What the heck does that mean? Well, sexed means that you are looking to get a certain sex. So, "sexed" will normally provide you with 95% pullet (hens...egg producers) and "straight-run" will normally provide you with 50/50 (half cockrels and half pullets). Nothing is ever certain, though. You can end up with different numbers of each.

Where Can I Get Them?

A lot of feed stores sell them, and you can also look online for hatcheries (look around for one you like) or mail ordered through a catalog.

How Do I Keep My New Chicks Healthy?

The most important thing to remember when raising chicks (and fully matured chickens) is that they need a clean environment to live in and constant fresh source of water. If you can do this, your chickens will most likely stay happy, healthy and alive.

Chicks can at first be kept in a box. Cover the ground with wood shavings or hay (switch out often) with a heating bulb above it. Warmth is extremely important for their first week-two weeks of life. They also need a source of water that is in their with them that is not too deep or else they can drown! Also provide a dish with some starter feed. The chicks will eat starter feed for about the first two months of their life, at which point you can start them on grower/developer feed until about 5 months. You can move the chicks to the coop when they are fully feathered and it starts warming up in the spring. The hens will start producing eggs at about 16-24 weeks.

The Eggs

Matured hens need a higher protein diet than the younger ones. A lot of people mix in Oyster Shell (calcium) with the egg producers' (hens) feed.  A healthy diet for the hens is very important since their bodies use their nutrients to create the egg shell. If they are not getting enough nutrients the egg shells are weak and thin, and eventually your hen might not be able to produce as many. Hens will usually start producing at about five months. To be able to lay eggs daily, the hens need adequate light and nutrition.

The man who gave the presentation said that he has researched the difference between the nutrition of the different colored eggs---he said there is none. The nutritional value of the eggs depends on how healthy your chickens are.

Areas Along the Wasatch Front

Here is a list of areas that allow you to raise chickens in residential areas. But, there are different rules/regulations for each area. Some places you can only have so many, a certain kind, etc. Call your city to find out the details.

Alpine, Cedar Hills, Centerville, CLinton, COttonwood Heights, Draper, ELk Ridge, Farmington, Genola, Goshen, Heber, Highland, Kaysville, Layton, Lehi, Lindon, Mapleton, Orem, Payson, Provo, SLC, Sandy, Santa Clara, Santaquin, S. Weber, Spanish Fork, St. George, Syracuse, Taylorsville, Tooele, W. Bountiful, W. Jordan, W. Point, Woodland Hills, Woods Cross.....NOTE: I know in Pleasant Grove it is legal as well, so be aware that there are some areas that allow it that are not listed.

Random (important) Info:

•  The waste of your chickens is GOLDEN for compost for your garden. Gather up the hay/wood shavings that they have done their business in and just add it to your compost. This will give your garden all the nutrients it needs. 
• There are three different types of feeds: mash, crumble and pebble. The presenter said that he used pebble because it was the least messy.
• Breeds that are popular for solely egg production: Barred Rock, Leghorn(lay white eggs), Rhode Island Red(lay brown eggs), Americauna(lay green/blue eggs)
• Cornish X Rock hybrids are a "meat" bird. They are bread specifically for meat and should be harvested by 8 or 9 weeks...otherwise it is considered cruelty because their bodies become too large for their legs to support. ( I don't know if I like the fact that they cross the breeds like that, but to each their own).

Thanks to my uncle for letting me use these pictures! He does an amazing job raising his chickens. So beautiful!

So pretty.