Hawanasa

New Name! Hawanasa! Big Changes!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 05:05:00 +0000

Yes, you're in the right place, but it's time for a change!
Hawanasa. This means "My Home." And that's just what this blog has always been about. Homesteading! Home grown food and medicine, home canned and preserved food for winter and hard times, sustainability to protect your home for always.
My home to your home!
Welcome to Hawanasa! :)

EGGS OF BLUE!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 01:06:00 +0000

Nothing beats your very own home grown fresh eggs. Except your very own BLUE and GREEN eggs!

Our new developing Easter Egger flock is largely made up of pure Ameraucana hens and roosters, meaning many of the chicks will be pure bred Ameraucana.

Three of our roosters are part of a project to add amazing flowered feathers to the blue egg world, so some of the babies may have these roos as their dad. These amazing roosters have such amazing, deep, iridescent colors that just sparkle and shine in the sunlight!

We also have a pure Ayam Cemani rooster! The babies from eggs from these boys will lay blue, mint, light olive, or maybe gray, depending on how much of a dose of pinkish tan egg gene they get from dads.

Babies from the cemani boy will lay blue eggs like their mothers, since cemani boys carry only white egg gene, however, these babies will be black to the bone like their father!

ALL the babies from our blue eggs will have the blue egg gene as they are ALL from our pure Ameraucana hens.

If you like, we do also have eggs from our buckeye and RIR girls if you want to add a few of those for a great Easter egger mix. Many of these eggs will have Ameraucanas as their dads, so odds are about 50/50 that babies hatched from these eggs will still lay various shades of green/blue eggs as adults from the blue gene carried by their dad. The other half will lay varying shades of pinkish/tan.

Eggs are $25 a dozen. All blue eggs, $35 a dozen.

We are located in the Chattaroy/ Deer Park area, but we can deliver to downtown Spokane on Mondays or occasionally by appointment depending on when we will be in town.

Send me a message if interested!

Hatching Cracked Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 19:23:00 +0000

Oh no! I just cracked this beautiful blue egg as I was on my way to put it in the incubator! Argh! 😫

But check this out:

Many cracked eggs can still be successfully hatched with a bit of Scotch tape! You have to be able to cover every hairline crack, but not cover more than 30% of the egg so the shell can still breathe. You can candle the egg to check for hairlines. The light makes them stand out nicely.

21 days later:

Look closely and you can see it's hatching!

A healthy baby chick! Despite a rough start! Yay! 😃

Chamomile Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 03:22:00 +0000

I spent a lovely quiet late afternoon picking chamomile flowers in the garden. Not many flowering plants can match the enthusiasm of chamomile.

Hundreds of tiny daisy-like blossoms cover a typical happy mature plant. Just looking at it brings joy and a sense of peace and tranquility. While I was picking, there must have been five hundred little bugs representing a dozen species. Paper wasps and honey bees mostly, but also flies, bumblebees, and a few beetles.

Chamomile is a calming herb. It calms the nerves, calms the tummy, calms the mind. Maybe it could be called "calm-o-meal"! Making a tea and sipping before bed is a great remedy for insomnia. It combines well with lavender for a really powerful sedative punch.

After picking until I just didn't want to pick anymore (I could have kept picking for a couple more hours, and still not have picked them all!) I took my bucket of flowers inside and spread them on a roasting pan to dry. I put the pan in a warm oven, (about 100 degrees) and will stir the flowers around a bit as they dry. After drying, they will go in a quart jar with a tight lid for use all winter long, until next year, when they will be blooming all over the garden again!

Another use for this happy bright flower is for beauty and body care. As a hair rinse, it gently conditions as well as lightens the color of your hair. Simply use a tea to rinse and leave on to air dry. As a skin cleanser and tonic, chamomile will sooth irritated skin, tighten wrinkles, and relieve puffy eyes.

Cotton Patch Geese Pair For Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 17:07:00 +0000

Spokane, Washington. Asking price, $100. Will consider some trades, interested in Black Shouldered Peacocks, Olandsk dwarf, and production blue-egg chickens.

It is with deep sadness and regret that I must admit I need to sell our pair of cotton patch geese. They deserve better than what we are able to offer them at this time. For one, they need a larger family. We have only the two of them, and they spend their days seeking the company of others, either looking in the front door for us, or pacing the fence to try to socialize with the chickens across the way. They also deserve more water than their kiddie pool. When we moved, it was our intention to find a place with a pond, but it didn't work out that way. We got a river instead! I'm not complaining, but obviously that's not going to work out so well! I'd love to see our geese go to someone who has a pond for them to frolic in!

So here's their stats:

Both are Walker line that I bought from Regina Hembree Breland in Mississippi. Amanda is almost 2, and Logan is just turning 1 year old. Amanda hit the nest early this year and laid 3 clutches of 7-8 eggs for a total of 24 eggs! Unfortunately, they were all infertile as Logan was maybe just a little too young to know what to do. However, Amanda looks like she might nest again soon?

I need to sell them locally, as I have no desire to make them deal with the danger and stress of shipping. I might consider Delta Dash if someone wants to go that route.

These are wonderful pets as their personality is simply charming! They will follow you all around the yard, always sharing a close look at whatever you are doing. They are sweet and gentle. Amanda loves to be petted and cuddled when she is in the mood.

If you are interested in these beauties, please contact me! You can send me a gmail at delilahra. Thank you!

Modifying a Tray for Quail Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 18:39:00 +0000

So I have decided to get back into coturnix quail. We got a bunch of eggs from a local guy with a great line of jumbo coturnix. Our "universal" egg trays would not accommodate the huge-but-still-smaller-than-a-chicken eggs, so I sat and thought for a while about how to make the trays work somehow while we wait on our new partridge egg trays to come in the mail. I tried running a string across the bottom, which kept the egg from falling through, but there was no way to place a string higher to stop the egg from flopping all around when the tray tilts. So I was kinda stumped. Then it hit me. The answer was sitting right in front of me. Paper egg carton cups! Woot! It worked!

Clever, huh? :)

Sauerkraut!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 03:18:00 +0000

I made a quick batch of sauerkraut today from three big heads of cabbage that had stacked up in the fridge. I posted a picture on Facebook and was asked several times for instructions. So I posted a nice reply and thought I'd share it here too as an official blog post.

Sauerkraut, step by step:

1. Chop cabbage. What I do is inspect a nice head of cabbage and remove wrapper leaves, browned edges, any other specks and blemishes. Give it a good rinse. Then quarter it so you have a quarter of the stem in each slice. This way it's easy to slice out the wedge of stem from each quarter. Then chop cabbage into fine shreds with a good chef's knife. Toss shreds into a big wide bowl.

2. Add salt at a rate of 1 tablespoon to 1 3/4 pounds of cabbage, which is a 2% brine solution. That's about a tablespoon per head of cabbage, or a tablespoon and an extra teaspoon if you have a big or dense head. Do not use salt with iodine or anti-caking agent as it will ruin your sauerkraut by screwing up the bacterial growth! I use natural salts that are full of trace minerals. :)

3. With clean hands, dig in and toss, mix, and distribute the salt all through the cabbage. Do NOT disinfect your hands or use heavy chemicals, dyes, or perfumes. You don't want that stuff in your food! Just simple soap and water. After you get it all tossed and mixed, let it sit for a few minutes so the salt begins to pull the water from the cabbage.

4. Pack your kraut into clean jars. They can be sterilized, but they don't have to be. I find the kraut is better if the jars are not sterile. Keep stuffing and packing. I use wide mouth jars and use my knuckles to keep pushing the kraut down. You keep stuffing until the juice and kraut are both about an inch from the top of the jar.

5. Make adjustments to the amount of kraut. What you want is very tightly packed kraut that is completely below the surface of the juice that has been extracted from it.

6. Cover loosely and monitor for 3 or 4 days at around 70°. You can get those nifty airlock lids for fermenting, but I do just fine using canning lids. Just set a lid on top of each jar. Keep rings nearby, but do NOT leave them on the jar for an extended period or the pressure of developing gasses will break your jars! So every few hours, or as I happen to be in the kitchen, I'll check to make sure the kraut is all below the juice. If I feel like it, I'll put the rings on and gently shake the jars around to release bubbles. Then I remove the lid and pack the kraut back down. I then replace the lid, but remember, not the ring!

7. Taste! After about three days, taste your kraut. If it's rich and sweet, you're done! Store in the fridge or cool cellar between 35 and 55°. As long as your ferment is alive, do not seal your jars! If you use the plastic lids screwed on loosely, that works. Remember to check occasionally to make sure the kraut stays below the juice. Sauerkraut will keep like this for 3 or 4 months. Maybe as long as six months under perfect conditions.

Homecoming!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 03:14:00 +0000

Introducing the new home of Qwatra Gardens! After years of dedicated effort, diligence, planning, and tight budgeting, Chuck and I have found our little piece of heaven! I wake up every morning and can't believe we live here! We could not have possibly found anything more perfect! Right now we are renting, but the owners have said they will be selling in the near future, so guess who's first on the list to buy!

The wildlife here is CRAZY abundant! We have only been here a week and we have seen resident flocks of deer, swarms of turkeys, herds of ravens, dozens of squirrels playing in the trees (and leaving piles of pine cone scales all over the ground!), an eagle sitting in the top of the tree above the chicken pens (covered in chain link for a reason!), I heard an elk trumpeting just around the river bend, (yes I just said that!), and a woodpecker was knocking on our bedroom wall, and was then sitting on the balcony outside our bedroom door this morning! Let me remind you that it's only been our first WEEK! I'm in paradise! Let's just hope we can keep the bears out of the kitchen! ;)
We only have 5 acres at present, but that will be just about right for a small scale to start. I trust Creator and know full well that when the time is right, more land will become available for us to purchase. The front of the property out by the road is sunny and flat and will be the place for the greenhouse and the majority of the gardening. It will take quite a fence to discourage elk, moose, rabbits, raccoons, and quite probably bears. Of course, we will just have to plant a few mulberry trees and keep everyone fed, fat, and happy! We have permission to grow an edible landscape and short of chopping trees (not that we would consider that anyway) are at liberty to grow whatever we like in the flower beds and planting areas around the house! I can't wait to get started!

Here Come the Buckeyes!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 21:31:00 +0000

Bringing Back the Buckeye

I have been patiently waiting for Buckeyes, and now I am finally rewarded! This very special breed is making a comeback from near extinction, a fate many breeds were and still are facing after the introduction of commercial hybrid chickens that convert feed into meat and eggs with such tempting efficiency that almost all else is ignored. Now the farm world is realizing what a mistake that is. Hybrids are weak. They are incapable of reproducing themselves, are prone to disease, cannot forage well, can't defend themselves, and as a result, quite frankly, commercial grade chickens are severely lacking in personality!


Buckeye Roo, Crains Run Ranch

So, lesson learned, farmers and homesteaders are turning once again to old heritage breed chickens. And in my opinion, the Buckeye tops the list! Buckeyes were created as a breed in Ohio; the only American breed credited to a woman as its creator. With their compact pea combs and short tucked waddles, these birds were made for survival! Whether hot and dry or shivery cold, Buckeyes are right at home, scratching and pecking for this and that, able to find and forage for most if not all of their own food.The hens are excellent mothers and will happily raise their own babies if given the chance. The roos are watchful protectors, but are not aggressive to people. (though there is always that ONE)
This breed is noted for being curious and friendly, and will gladly accept treats right from your hand. Some even enjoying being held and petted or even riding around on your shoulder. Roosters weigh in at 9 pounds; hens are about 6 1/2 and lay a light tan egg every other day.

Strombergs Hen

After asking around and waiting for several breeders, I finally decided to ask Strombergs if they had a few, even though they are sold out according to their website. Strombergs is recognized by the American Buckeye Club for their line of Buckeyes. It was my lucky day! After checking with the incubator room, they had just enough to fill my order, and said there probably wouldn't be any more till spring! So we will be getting our babies on Sept 10th. As I expected, there is a lot of demand for this breed, and more buyers are lining up than I have chickens! I ordered 100, 88 pullets and 12 cockerels, so I will be selling 10 starter flocks of 7 pullets and a roo, and keeping the last 2 roos and about 18 pullets for starting our own flock. We will grow them out over winter and be ready to breed in the spring! WOOT!
decided to ask Strombergs if they by any chance had a few extras, even though their website says they are sold out for the year.

Speckled Sussex

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 02:21:00 +0000

I am super excited to announce our new flock of Speckled Sussex! We have 11 hens and two roos. We bought them as adults from a local farm from three young brothers who started their own business! The chickens each have names, though I can't remember them all yet. The roos are Jeremiah and Markus. That's easy enough. The girls are Veronica, Ruby, Screech, Linda, Philadelphia, Daisy, Leigha, Carry, Snow, Charity, and Constance. So far I know Ruby, Snow, and Constance.
Speckled Sussex are amazing dual purpose chickens. They are nice size birds; roos are around 9 pounds and hens come in at around 7.
Sussex chickens lay a light cream egg about every other day. See the larger eggs in the picture to the right (smaller ones are bantam eggs). We have had our girls only a few days, and they really didn't stop laying, even during their transition period. Usually after moving hens to a new location, they will stop laying for a couple weeks until they get used to their new home. But these girls took it all in stride and continue to lay about 3 to 5 eggs a day. I expect that to bump up to a solid 5 or 6 eggs a day in another week or so.
The best part about Speckled Sussex is their ability to forage and feed themselves! They eat anything and everything! Whether you're a prepper looking for a chicken that can survive Armageddon, or just someone looking for a chicken that won't break the piggy bank, this is the breed for you!
As an added bonus, this breed is super friendly and entertaining! They are such bundles of personality and so fun to watch! Since each one looks different, it's easy to keep track of which one is which and fun to give them names.
I'm looking forward to my adventures with this breed! And of course, I already have a breeding project in mind! ;)

Jerry, lost his tail in the move, but foot is better!

More to come!

Bad case of Bumblefoot

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 05:30:00 +0000

New Chickens! I'll write a separate post about them soon, but we inherited one small problem. Jeremiah, the rooster, was battling a pretty nasty case of bumblefoot. Now I'm actually using that as a rather blanket term for an open, infected, swollen wound on the bottom of the foot. Poor Jerry was limping around, obviously in a great deal of pain. In my initial exam, I learned this was a very deep round hole, plugged with a deep hard cork made of a bloody scab full of all sorts of dirt, tiny gravel, and grass bits. The scab had deep cracks going all the way down to the irritated open hole, that continually reopened and

allowed fresh bleeding. So for a few days, he came inside into a quarantine bin of pine shavings that wouldn't get packed into his wound. There he could stay put, and give himself a chance to heal! He was quite happy to accept that offer, and spent most of the fist few days sitting quietly or snoozing with his foot stretched out. We got his owie all cleaned up, which took a great deal of soaking in salt water with turmeric added to disinfect and stimulate healing. Then we put a few drops of oregano oil into the wound. After the fist couple days, I alternated the oregano with lavender oil; plus he got a few lavender drops in his bin to help with the idea of calm and healing. It is going to take a long time for this foot to completely heal, but I am happy to report that the swelling is much better and it is healing quite nicely! We will keep after it, and I'll report back as he gets better! :)

Update! Sept 4...
He is back out in the pen with his girls, and since they are on grass, it is much easier on his foot. He is still limping, but not nearly as bad, and he still sleeps in the nest hut because it's too painful to jump up to the roost. But his foot is looking much better! :)

Mille Fleur D'Uccle

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 06:48:00 +0000

First, if you don't know how to pronounce that last word, it's like "Dew CLAY". It's a city in France where these delightful little rascals are from. Mille Fleur is the name of the color pattern and is French for "Thousand Flower," which is a fitting name for a chicken with a thousand spots! These are some of the world's most colorful chickens, though they are pint size. This is a true bantam breed, with no large size version. Roos tip the scale at a whopping 26 ounces, with the hens not far behind at 22 ounces.

But what they lack in size, they make up for in spirit, not to mention egg laying ability! Our little half pints pop out a white to barely faint cream egg nearly every day! Their eggs are a bit small, but they are actually kinda huge compared to the size of the little bird! They readily go broody if given the chance, and make good mamas. They are great foragers, and it is such fun to watch them chase a grasshopper or moth across the yard. Their fluffy beards and feathered legs and feet really add endearing comedy to their antics.
Our birds were purchased as show quality stock. Our ladies, Prima, Bella, and Dona, are from a breeder north of Spokane who raised multiple show winners from her line, and our roo, Marcel, is from Oregon where he won best in show at the state fair! I'm looking forward to trying my hand (wing?) at the fair. Sadly, Prima is my favorite, but she isn't up to show standards; she has clean legs and feet. I prefer the clean legs and I think they do too. Foot feathers are messy and in the way. They trip on them and are always having to clean them. When not in show dress, I will sometimes cut their feathers off their feet for them. They really appreciate it. Especially in winter when their feet tend to get packed with snow. :)

Prima

Marcel

Back in the Pacific Northwest! YIPEEE!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 01:01:00 +0000

Hello Spokane! It's great to be home! Actually, we have been here for a couple months, but we have been doing a lot of other things to get established and settled here, so Qwatra has been in limbo since June! Wow! Has that much time gone by?! We are staying on a friend's farm for the time being while we search for our dream farm. This is exciting, but frustrating! There are so many beautiful farms out there! My dreams keep getting bigger and bigger- but more on that in a later post! ;)
We have lots of new things developing and will be back in business shortly! WOOT!
See ya soon!

Mystery Chicks

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sun, 17 May 2015 17:39:00 +0000

I love this game. It's the best part of breeding critters of any kind. What will the new babies look like? Did my critters make something new?

So here is just such a game. The parents are our mottled mystery mix bantams. Hearafter known as our M&M&Ms. ;-)

We just hatched our first babies and what a variety! First, this little one was what I expected:

A little black and butter cream puff.

We also got a whole bunch of these little jewels with coal spots on their heads! Looks like my guess of mottled Japanese for the parents linage was spot on! *giggle*! ;-)

No, that's not a marker dot. That's the color they were born with!

We also got a little chocolate drop. This one is a rich dark brown on top and buttery underneath, named Toffee! ;)

Chocolate? :-/ Where did he come from?!

And then.... (Drumroll)....

We got a solid black chick! Black legs, black eyes, black beak,... Is he black on the inside? I gentle looked in his mouth. Nope. Rats. :-(

But still a cute little guy!

I wonder what this one will look like when he grows up? There must be Silkie in the mix!

Cotton Patch Geese!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Tue, 12 May 2015 00:20:00 +0000

Exciting and busy weekend! The best part was trading a group of Bielefelder chicks for two beautiful cotton patch geese! Thank you Regina! I have been researching these beautiful geese for quite some time. They are the only American land race of domestic goose. They were used in the cotton fields back in the day to eat the grassy weeds while leaving the crop untouched. Today, they can be used the same way to weed our vegetable gardens! Im not entirely sure what they will and won't eat, but I'll find out soon enough.
On the way home, our new girl didn't waste any time. She laid a beautiful white egg, right in her crate!
After sleeping overnight in their transport pen, our pair ventured out and have taken over our fallow garden, already putting quite a dent in the grass!We have some tomatoes, strawberries, onions, and yellow squash planted, but they have not so much as touched any of those, preferring instead to nibble the grass down to the dirt! These guys are better than Roundup! Cheaper too! Just give them water and grass!

For their nighttime quarters, our geese decided the center compost bin was a perfect fit. We agreed that would be a safe and secure spot for sleeping and nesting, so I dug it out and filled the bottom with fresh hay and straw. Chuck sturdied it up and added a roof and door.

They love it! They spent most of today inside and this afternoon laid a SECOND egg!! YIPPEEEE!!!

Mystery Mottled Japanese Cochin Bantam Cross

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 17:23:00 +0000

Meet the newbies! They are cute, sweet, and the girls have been laying non stop since they got here! As near as I can tell, these must be a mix of Japanese and Cochin banties. What do you think? Does anyone else see other breeds mixed in? They lay eggs like crazy, so we are eager to see what hatches out. Mutts they are, but they will be a perfect start to a pet project of mine. ;)
Their egg laying ability is definitely impressive. They are still in quarantine, but they don't seem to care. They still lay cute little cream colored eggs every day. Two of them have laid every day since they got here, one was broody, but after three days, she is laying now too. The little roo is very personable. He crows at us every time we come out the door. He is protective and very gentlemanly with this girls, clucking and cooing to them all the time and showing them the best food bits. I love his body shape and confirmation. His head was a bit picked because of competition with a few other (bigger) roosters, but the feathers are growing back already. I'll have to get some new pictures when he gets all feathered out again. Have a look at my great impromptu nest boxes! They Love them! I have bricks lining the bottom of these standard wash bins from Wally World, so they don't knock them over. Also a couple chunks of concrete in the bottom of the bigger bin. We already have these salt and pepper chicks all named. The roo is Chip. The darkest hen is Inca, the lightest is Crystal, and the medium speckled is Sprinkles. :)

Incubator is FULL!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 17:05:00 +0000

This is what we have been working so hard for! Hooray! :D
Finally! We now have a professional incubator, thanks to a generous donation by a very supportive benefactor (THANK YOU!) and all three trays are in operation as of today! YAY! The trays are already almost filled to capacity, but we will be adding more chicken breeds soon; so before long, we are going to have to buy incubator number two! Right now we have mostly Bielefelders, but we are also hatching out some of our Easterfelders (Our Bielefelder roos over the Easter eggers we originally got for eating eggs!)
We also have a couple of newcomers who have a few eggs in the 'bator too! More on them in the next post! :)

Mississippi Magic

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 01:50:00 +0000

"You can't cut it out, It'll grow right back." I laugh as I explain jungle control against our thickets and thorns here in the Deep South. It's like the garden of Eden.... on Steroids! You just can't kill plants here. Take this fence post, for example. That's right, this is a fence post. We cut it out in the woods in an area we needed to reclaim... again. We stuck it in the ground while still green. Over the rest of the summer, fall, and through winter, this post re-rooted itself and re-grew branches!

Life on the Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 23:50:00 +0000

SO much has happened over the past year and a half that we just could not say it all in words, so we decided to say it in pictures!

Bielefelder, The Perfect Dual Purpose Chicken Breed!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 02:12:00 +0000

What if there was a breed of chicken that produced little boys that grew into huge, robust meat birds, and also produced little girls that grew into prolific hens, laying nice large eggs on a daily basis? What if they were all also quiet, gentle, and mellow? What if, as an added bonus, you could tell the boys from the girls from day one?

From May, 2014....
My search for the perfect chicken breed may finally be over! Meet our new flock of Bielefelders! We got them locally from The Angels Share Homestead, a sustainable farm a couple hours south of us. (You can find them on Facebook) They bought theirs directly from Greenfire Farms. http://greenfirefarms.com/
As you will see on Greenfire's site, the Bielefelder was developed in Germany in the 70s and has only been in the USA since 2011. We are proud to be some of the first breeders of this amazing bird! Already, they have won my heart. This afternoon I put out a feeder and sat with them, petting them all as they ate. They are more like curious pets than chickens. They will sometimes run right up to you, just to see what you are doing. They really are super quiet and mellow. Much quieter than my other chicks and not as easily frightened.
Here's a picture of their father, a splendid, HUGE handsome roo! In person he was such a proud, stately bird. As tall as my knees!
Laid back, yes. But the owners told me that when threatened, this guy will stand up and fight to protect his hens. The whole time we were there, he was a quiet as a mouse. Even though there were dozens of other roosters crowing all around us. Even when they picked him up, he didn't make much fuss!
Here's a picture of his hens. Aren't they pretty? Again, all super quiet, the whole time we were visiting. All bright and active, but remarkably quiet. Their eggs are a lovely smooth slightly pinkish tan, noticeably heavy and dense.
As I mentioned, you can tell the boys from the girls, right from day one. The boys have a light spot on their head, and the girls have a chipmunk stripe over their eyes. As they get older, the cockerels remain light, and the pullets darken and develop more striping and a dark triangle on their head. It's kinda nice to be able to tell so easily who's who! Can you pick out the two cockerels in the baby picture?
I bought 8 pullets and 4 cockerels. Being such mellow birds, I'm told the high percentage of little roos won't be a problem. If I can keep them all to breeding age, it will be nice to have that much more diversity in the bloodlines. In about 3-4 months I'll be getting my first eggs. I'm so excited! If this bird continues to impress me as much as it has already, we will be switching exclusively to the uber chicken! The Bielefelders!

Fast Forward a few months to today:

Our Bielefelder chicks have all grown up and I must say they have lived up to all the claims! I have been extremely pleased with this breed! Curious and gentle, beautiful and huge, great foragers, hardy, not much more could you ask for in a chicken breed! We now have these chickens exclusively! Be bought a few more hens and now have a total of 15 hens and 4 roos. Our flock does seem rather quiet compared to other chickens we have had. Two of our roos hardly crow at all! But they still dance and strut for the hens and hop on their backs all day. They are not as quiet as my flock of mille fleurs was, but I would say that they are certainly quieter than average.

I have heard people complain that Bielefelders eat a lot. I personally did not notice.
I think you would have to measure and keep careful records to determine any difference at all between these and any other breed. And, well, they are huge birds! So of course they would eat a lot! But they are excellent foragers, so if you let them feed themselves, your pockets stay full. As an added bonus, they will eat most of your ants, slugs, moths, flies, grasshoppers, snails, and even mice! If you confine them to the garden plot for a few weeks before planting, you won't have any weeds! And you almost won't have to till as these big birds have big feet and can really turn a lot of dirt. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

The eggs! They really are denser than normal. You can feel it when you pick one up. They are just heavier than a regular egg. Quite a lovely color too, don't you think? As any free range egg, they really are super tasty too. And yes, they lay eggs nearly every day.
I can't say enough good things about the Bielefelder! They really are the Uber Chicken!
Want to order some? Click here! ->
http://www.qwatra.com/bielefelders.html

Rats!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 22:04:00 +0000

Today I went out to the greenhouse to get to work putting buckets of water along the north wall for heat storage. I pulled back the rubber roofing sheet we have on the floor for weed control and heat absorption and found that it had been chewed to bits! So much for using it for roofing ever again! :(

I found the guilty villain still at the scene- a rat! A quick whack dispensed the bugger.
Nothing ever goes to waste around here, not even a rat! I immediately thought of the chickens. I tossed it in the pen with camera ready. I know how this goes! ;) Chickens LOVE mice! Are these guys big enough to eat a rat? Let's find out! Sure enough, the scene was like watching a school of parana! Zoom! Who needs TV? Chickens are great entertainment! Unfortunately, the rat was just a little too big for anyone to swallow. After a few minutes of squabbling, they all lost interest. The rat went into the compost instead.

As you can see in the video, we had quite a storm last night! Everything is a muddy mess! So, I'll be cleaning mud this afternoon, too. :-/

GET REAL!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Fri, 16 May 2014 20:30:00 +0000

Qwatra Gardens is proud to host our grand opening seminar,

GET REAL!

May 24, 10am - 2pm

We are located about 12 miles west of Stsrkville, MS. (Send an email to delilahra at gmail for directions)

Absolutely FREE to the public with NO STRINGS attached whatsoever!

I am selling NOTHING! I simply want to share what I have learned with the world.

There is a food crisis.

It is happening right now, in your own home town, right in your very own neighborhood grocery store.

The problem?

There is no food.

Oh there are plenty of things that look like food; lots of pretty packages and painted boxes with pictures of food on the label, lots of "fresh" produce that looks like pretty, ripe food and lots of "meat" products that taste great! But the truth is, once your eyes are opened and you really see beyond the lies, you begin to understand how dire the situation really is. The reality is that no one should EVER eat ANYTHING that comes out of a grocery store, ever! There is absolutely nothing untouched. Every bit of it is modified, sprayed, treated, hybridized, processed, fortified, pasteurized, sterilized, preserved, or so flooded with starch, sugar, and MSG that NONE of it is worth eating!

The ONLY affordable solution is to grow REAL food, preserve it, and prepare it yourself.

I know how monumental that leap seems to be. I was there. I had no choice. I HAD to make a radical lifestyle change or I was going to die. Celiac disease, caused by GMO wheat and corn and massive quantities of glyphosate, i.e. Roundup among other things, slowly destroyed my digestive system. It became so bad that almost any food of any kind, healthy or not, would make me sick. I was becoming malnourished and my kidneys and liver were beginning to break down. Doctors just called it "irritable bowel syndrome" and "chronic fatigue". There was no cure, they said. I just had to live with it.

Well, there is a cure!

The only cure, the only solution, the only card we have to play is to STOP EATING IT!! ALL of it! So my hubby packed me up and we moved to Mississippi, back to the farm where I grew up.

It is our goal to stop the insanity.

People, WE are the ones to blame for the mess we are in, because WE are the ones who give power to those who poison us. Because

WE BUY THIER CRAP!!!

Want to stop Monsanto?

Don't buy their produce!

Want to stop big Pharma?

Don't buy their medicine!

Want to stop the plastic waste in landfills?

Don't buy plastic containers, plastic toys, disposable plastic gadgets and gizmos.

Want to stop Them?

WE MUST STOP!!

Come join us at Qwatra Gardens and begin your path to total freedom, while at the same time strangling the mass pharma-food industry.

Join us for our first public seminar, May 24, from 10 till 2

We will discuss every stage of your escape to total health freedom.

1. Understanding the illusion

2. Understanding the difference between clean dirt, and filthy sterility

3. Grow all your own food- even in a tiny space

4. Preserve for winter and disaster

5. Simple REAL meals made from scratch that BEAT instant for quick, easy, and FLAVOR!!!

GET REAL!!!

REAL FOOD, RIGHT NOW!

See ya there! :)

The New Victory Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Thu, 08 May 2014 17:38:00 +0000

The Victory Garden was a movement during WWI and WWII to encourage citizens to grow their own food to ease the strain on the economy to aid the war effort. Ladies and Gentleman, there is a new war; a war against an enemy that has every intension of taking over the world. One way they intend to do this is to gain control of our food supply through companies like Monsanto. They feed us what basically amounts to cheap dog food, which then makes us malnourished, which then makes us sick. Then another branch of the world parasitic ruling elite sells us all kinds of medicines and treatments to further their riches and fund their agenda at our misery and expense.

ENOUGH!!!

People of Earth,

WE HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE IT ALL BACK!!!

Plant your Victory Garden!

Now more than ever, becoming self sufficient is the way to best fight the system that wants to dominate and enslave us. Grow your own food, free from preservatives, dyes, sweeteners, flavor enhancers, pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. Take your life back!!! Plant a Victory Garden!

Pickin' up Paw-Paws....

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 00:36:00 +0000

After reading about the American Paw-Paw several years ago, I decided I would just HAVE to grow some, seeing as it's a Mississippi Native! It's a beautiful tropical-looking undergrowth tree, prefering to grow in the shade of larger trees.
The fruit kinda looks like a mango, but is reported to taste like vanilla- banana custard. I can't wait to try one, because that sounds delicious!
Here's a few webpages with pictures and some good info about the Pawpaw.
http://www.cdr3.com/pawpaw/
http://www.druidry.org/obod/trees/pawpaw.html
http://fogcity.blogs.com/jen/2005/08/pawpaw_a_local_.html

Woah! Pawpaw as a treatment for cancer?!
http://alternativecancer.us/pawpaw.htm
well THAT settles it! Pawpaw is DEFINITELY going in the garden!

And check out this cool article on the connection of the PawPaw and the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly:
http://blueridgediscoveryproject.blogspot.com/2011/08/connections-pawpaw-tree-and-zebra.html
Another good reason to plant PawPaw! It's the only food source of this amazingly beautiful butterfly! (and an amazingly beautiful image too!--> )

Welsh Harlequin Ducks join the flock - Silver vs Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Delilah) — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 07:20:00 +0000

Things have gotten a lot noisier around here lately with the addition of 37 Welsh Harlequin Ducks. If you are unfamiliar with the Welsh Harlequin, they are arguably the most beautiful of all domestic ducks. They are descendents of Khaki Campbells rivaling them for productivity as well as noise. The story of their history is available most anywhere online, so I'll skip that part. The brief history of my flock is that I bought all these from two different people that raised them from mail order ducklings. The first group was about 7-8 months old from Strombergs. I had 9 drakes and 8 ducks along with a lovely pair of Khaki Campbells that I soon sold. The second group was twenty 2 year old ducks from a lovely farm a couple hours north. These were from Metzer Farms, CA.
What I've got for you today is a few pictures and video describing the difference between the "gold" and "silver" color variations in Welsh Harlequins. Metzer Farms breeds only the silver, so all my new girls are silver. But the batch from Strombergs has both gold and silver. Silver seems to be the preferred coloration, and I think I would have to agree. The silver is more striking in my opinion. But I am just not ready to give up the softer gold. The difference may seem slight at first, but once you see it, it becomes very obvious! So enjoy my little study of precious metals, er... ducks. ;)


Silver drakes have emerald heads, goldens' are almost black.


Silver ducks are more gray flecked, golds are more fawn.

Both ducks and drakes of the silver variety have a bright iridescent blue wing speculum. On the goldens it is bronze, though the bronze may have a greenish flash if the light hits it right.

Here's the video clip! See how quick you can label all the golds and silvers!