Chicks Become Chickens

The sun rose up like a diamond over the mountains. We had no idea our flock of chickens was increasing from six to ten hens.

The Day We Purchased Four New Chickens

That morning, Paul and I found ourselves shopping in IFA ( Intermountain Farmers Association). We were getting some feed and supplies there. As we walked in we heard the little peeps of the new spring chicks basking under warm lights in the silver troughs near the entrance of the store. There were a lot of chicks to choose from, Leg Horn, Golden Sex-Link, Ducks, Turkeys and Barred Rock Pullets. Though I  dreamed of having ducks and turkeys one day, our eyes wandered to the Barred Rock. We had done pet sitting for a few Barred Rock Hens and they were a delight. Their cackles sounded like gentle laughter. The next thing we knew, we were carrying out a little box filled with 2 Barred Rock Pullets.

I sat the carrier on my lap in the truck and I could here them peep and scuffle about. When we got home we set up the large kennel in the main coop with water spiked with electrolytes and placed the feeder with medicated chick starter inside. An infrared lamp was installed. We poured the little chicks out of their carrier and into their new home.

Barred Rock Pullets- Henny Penny and Betsy

We like them so much, my husband and grandson took the little carrier box back to the store ...

 

... and asked for a refill! "Two more, please!"

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Four Barred Rock Pullets

Meet again Henny Penny and Betsy with their new coop mates,

 Cali ( Caliente) and Peck.

The Chicken Sun Ritual

The afternoon sun made it's way into the coop in long streaks of warm clear light.

I was surprised and enchanted to see the little chick instinctively open her wing to her first sliver of sunlight.

Chicken's First Sun Ritual

 4 weeks later... they are venturing out of the kennel into the main coop. In the picture below, Henny Penny is always in front. She is quite the adventurer. The other are leery after being pecked by the older hens. We are designing an escape section in the main coop for our little young hens.

Four weeks old Barred Rock Pullets

Betsy is now bigger than her bowl! 4 weeks old

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Barred Rock Pullets 4 weeks old.

Here are all the supplies we needed. We already had a kennel. It came in real handy. You can slip a  stick through the bars when the chicks get old enough to roost.

Just add your own mason jar to this feeder.

Chicks Turn Teenager

Barred Rock Pullets about 3months old





Egg Laying Adults

Peck is now 5 months old.

3 month old Peck was injured by Lucy our aggressive Rhode Island Red Hen. Peck was bleeding a bit from the neck. We scooped up her quivering body and quelled her inside in the kitchen in a kennel ( See? The kennel comes in real handy). We applied Mercurochrome and I held her in my lap with my hands lightly on her wings. * She relaxed and nodded off to sleep. We kept her overnight and found that her wound was healing nicely. she was eating and drinking. We released her in a couple of days back to the coop. Since that episode, she has been particularly friendly running up to greet me and following me underfoot.

Chicks Become Chickens- These hens are very friendly.

 The Barred Rock hens lay the reddish rust colored eggs.

Little Mama Chicken with her two white daughters Venus and Jupiter.

We collect a rainbow of colors everyday from all our hens. We also have two Black Sex-Links ( Madonna and Faith), two Rhode Island Reds ( Lucy and Kitty Hawk), and one Leg Horn ( Venus). Mama, our first chicken, hasn't been identified yet.  She appears in my post Feeding My Chickens. She is tiny and lays small white or pale beige eggs. Above is a picture of Mama

 Can anyone identify the dark grey and white hen?

These barred rock hens are the friendliest hens we have. They do really well in the freezing cold of winter and are the last to go into their coop at night.  We use an infra red lamp for their insulated roosting area when it gets in the 20's or teens or sub zero temperatures.

When we lived in Southern California, we would turn on the lamp when it was 50 degrees. That temperature was cold for us then and we thought they needed it. But these girls do fine here in Utah weather. They say the red colored lamp does not bother them at night.


Related posts:

Feeding My Chickens- A collection of gourmet recipes that my girls love.

Raising Chickens In The City Our first experience with chickens.

Hurray For Llama Beans - A New Green Lawn

In April we dug up the old lawn in the garden and threw all the clod of grass and roots into a mound or knoll along the fence. Then we sprinkled llama beans (manure) evenly over the the ground.

We covered the area with llama bean (manure)



The little llama beans protect the seeds from the winds and are just the right height to cover them. I run a rake gently over the beans in an up and down motion just enough to vibrate the seeds down a bit to cover them. The llama beans are a balanced fertilizer and keeps the grass seeds and surrounding area moist.

Below you can see green blades of grass are peeking thought the layer of llama manure we applied.  It took awhile to sprout with the weekly snows and cold temperatures. But Mother's Day I noticed the welcome green haze coming up from the lawn. The right side was planted first. The left side of the garden lawn was seeded a week later. Notice in the far upper right hand corner of the picture there is the little knoll we built from recycled clods of grass. We will plant wildflowers there when the weather warms.

A new green lawn is sprouting

Animals In A Storm

Cattle facing northeast in a storm.

I spotted these cattle one blustery morning. I was touched by the sight of their backs turned toward the storm. I had seen this in western paintings and perhaps in a few movies but to see this in real life was very moving. Animals are connected to the web of life. They move through their challenges with dignity and grace. I have always admired in their natural instincts.

Horses with no complaints.

These horses face northeast away from the storm. Snow collects on their back sides without any complaint. The animals take what nature gives to them. They allow rather than survive.

Rose In A Storm- By Jon Katz

This book was highly recommended by my friend. I am now reading katz's book on dog training and I find his writing very healing and comforting. If you love dogs, his books will make you love dogs even more. When you click on the image below, it will take you to Jon Katz books on amazon. I buy all my books on this site.

Product Description

Rose In A Storm

From New York Times bestselling author Jon Katz comes a moving and powerful novel, the first one inspired by life on his celebrated Bedlam Farm—and perceptively told from the point of view of Rose, a dedicated working dog.



Rose is determined and focused, keeping the sheep out of danger and protecting the other creatures on the farm she calls home. But of all those she’s looked after since coming to the farm as a puppy, it is Sam, the farmer, whom she watches most carefully.



Awoken one cold midwinter night during lambing season, Rose and Sam struggle into the snowy dark to do their work. The ever observant Rose has seen a change in her master of late, ever since Sam’s wife disappeared one day. She senses something else in the air as well: A storm is coming, but not like any of the ones she’s seen over the years. This storm feels different, bigger, more foreboding.



When an epic blizzard hits the region, it will take all of Rose’s resolve, resourcefulness, and courage to help Sam save the farm and the creatures who live there.



Jon Katz consulted with animal behavior scientists to create his unique and convincing vision of the world as seen through the eyes of a dog. Poignant, thrilling, and beautifully wrought, Rose in a Storm is a wonderfully original and powerful tale from a gifted storyteller.

LLAMA BEANS FOR EVERYTHING

My Llamas produce the most wonderful manure ever. It is perfectly balanced in potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen. Llama manure discourages some harmful bugs and discourages deer from entering into your garden. You can compost it and make the little beans into a manure tea for your garden plants.  Over the winter, I layered fresh llama beans with leaves and hay and a small bit of chicken manure like lasagna in the garden area. It really improved the hard clay soil.

Our Llama Bean
Factory


Llama beans are sturdy but break down very well when kept moist.
 I sprinkle them right on top of a prepared planter for seeding vegetables and flowers.

The  llama beans protect the little seeds from wind and when the planter is watered it provides a time release fertilizer and it keeps them moist. We used llama beans to cover the grass seed we planted, to keep it moist and protected from the wind. Prepare llama beans tea for fertilizing flowers and vegetables and trees. Just add a shovel full of llama beans to a 5 gallon bucket add water to 3/4 full and let sit overnight. Pour it right where you want it. The tea won't damage most plants or burn in the sun. Please test an area if you are not sure. Experiment with different plants and trees.

I discovered the benefits of these little jewels last year. I was experimenting with what techniques worked best for my windy, dry climate and hard clay soil. I sprinkled llama beans into one planter and dropped in some basil seed. The other planter had steer manure and top soil and amendments I planted basil seed in them also.  The planter with the llama beans produced a hundred sprouted seeds that were later thinned and produced beautiful throughout the season. The other planter had none. Yep, I vote for llama beans. I used them everywhere.

We plowed up the old lawn in the garden and recycled grass clumps by piling the heavy clods of soil roots and grass into a long hill along the fence. I topped it with llama manure and later in the spring I planted wild flowers. The chuncky clods of lawn grew thick green grass and the flowers seeds grew into baby's breath, California poppies, bachelor buttons and dianthus and camomile. There were few weeds, even the bindweed was discouraged.




Tilled garden plot on the left. recycled grass knoll on left.

 
















Our Wedding Arbor



The wooden planters in the back along the fence were set in place and filled with some of the new

 mixture and of course more llama beans.



Llama beans were spread out onto the ground



                                                                        





Then we scattered grass seed and topped it with composted llama manure, 365 days worth.

This little spreader came in handy. I spread some seeds by hands and some spots were quite uneven. The wind began to blow and this seed broadcaster did a great job.












Paul built us this wooden compost bin.  He also made me a path for dumping after I clean the corral.

Related post

 Hurray for Llama Beans- A New Green Lawn

SummerTime Garden So Green



THE SENSUAL SPRING

At Dawn I walked outside and smelled the farm fields coming alive. The snow has evaporated, the ground is moist and the green in reaching for the sun.

Farm Field Fog

Low Lying Fog

Little Utah Farm does have a small alfalfa field. The other farms around us have big fields that collected lot's of moisture under the winter snow. The fog stretched out over the land like dry ice across a dramatic stage. I drove between two farms this morning and became apart of the ethereal vapors. "Grandma, I can't see a thing!" Ricky exclaimed. It was thick but I sit up higher than him and could see tsome of the asphalt road. Here are some pictures of the one day event. March 15, 2010.

Farm Fog

Our Journey Home-Little Utah Farm

Deborah Moen 
of Little Utah Farm

We dreamed of living in the country some day.  Then came the time we began searching for a place to live that had enough land to keep our llamas and chickens, 4 seasons, wilderness, and farms.  Our journey began in 2005. Our vacations were filled with adventure and hope that somewhere somehow our home existed. We posted a Dream Board in the kitchen. The board hung on the wall and we gathered and posted pictures of all the things we desired in a home like  the four seasons, barns, animals, gardens and wild horses. Every time we passed that board our mind filled with the possibilities to come. We also wanted to begin practicing for our farm. We planted a 2 sq ft alfalfa field in the back yard just to get the feel of it and raised hens to learn about them and gather eggs. You can read about Raising Chickens in The City on this site just click the link.

Our travels lead to Oregon where we enjoyed camping along the Rogue River and salmon fishing. We searched in Northern California and on our anniversary week in June 2007 we planned a trip through Arizona and Utah where we found our Little Utah Farm. Everything fell into place with little effort only the fun we had on our vacations. Now the days mirror our initial love for the country, the old west and nature. Our little farm was a diamond in the rough. We planted trees and a garden, cleared the tumble weeds, built a shed and corral and pasture, marked out an alfalfa field and had a barn built. We now have a herd of llamas, a flock of hens and fresh eggs. We grow our own alfalfa and have lot's of room to play and live in. Believe in your dreams ! And along the way have fun and  "BE" the change you are wanting to create. You may find your dreams coming true.  

Thank you for visiting Little Utah Farm,

Until next time, 

Believe In Your Dreams 

They Do Come True !

Deborah Moen 
of Little Utah Farm

A STORM AND MANY CALVES

I was fortunate to see this storm from beginning to end. They usually creep in during times I am sleeping or unaware. This morning our sun rose behind the mountains and there was blue sky above me. A storm rolled towards Cedar City like a giant tidal wave from the west. The green that reached for Spring was blanketed in white. The newborn calves lay at their mother's heels in the fields. The storm left as quickly as it came over the eastern range. The wildness here fascinates me.

Winter Sunrise-First Glimmer of Light

A crisp 19 degrees this morning. The ice crunches under the wheels of the truck as I pulled out of the driveway.  The  Rocket Science Quiz comes on the radio and my grandson and I ponder over the  multiple choice  answers as we do most every day on the way to school. The valley lay under the sliver grey cast of morning.  We passed the herd of cattle with their calves. I love the way the herds look against the snowy mountain range.




Looking east towards Cedar Canyon



 In February the sun is low in the sky.  The southwestern range catches the first glimmer of light  as the sun rises over the eastern range,

First glimmer of light

 On the way home sparrows stood over the frozen pools along the road looking in at the world upside down.

I turned at the yellow farmhouse towards home past the frosted red willow branches. It was another beautiful morning.