Welsh Harlequin Ducks join the flock - Silver vs Gold

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!

Bad Egg-Eater Chickens! How to stop Chickens from eating eggs!

Yesterday morning, less than 12 hours after Chuck added a repurposed dresser drawer nesting area to the chicken house, we found our first egg!!!
Two major disappointments though.... 

1. The egg was very light colored.

2. It was crushed and eaten! 

Boooo! :(

It was as I feared. Before we got the chickens, we were in the habit of throwing eggshells into our open compost pile. The thought never crossed my mind until I saw a chicken munching on an eggshell one day. ARG!!! I cleaned out all the shells I could find and hoped that I didn't have an egg-eater on my hands. 

Alas, it was worse that I thought! I decided to find out who was eating eggs, so I took a store egg out and put it on the ground. About 6 of my hens came running and dove at it! So I'm thinking, what can I do but slate my whole flock to the stew pot? I did a bit of research online and found out that chickens hate mustard. So I grabbed an eggshell from the trash and coated the inside with mustard. I took it out to the chickens and put it cracked side down on the ground. Again 4 or 5 hens dove for it. This time I let them have it. Each hen in turn pecked the egg and got a mouthful of mustard! They really do hate it! They shook their heads and rubbed their beaks on the ground. Usually one bite and they made no further attempt to eat the egg. Soon none of the chickens would even look at the egg. So I moved the egg to a different spot. Again the girls went for it, though not quite as enthusiastically. Another taste sent them to rubbing their beaks. I moved it around several times until no one wanted any more to do with the egg.

I also added three ceramic eggs to the nest box, expecting that this morning they would try to eat them and find it very difficult. I was hopeful that by the time somebody laid an egg, they would have given up trying to eat the ceramic ones and the real egg will be intact when I went to look.

So today I kept the chickens cooped up so I would be sure to have any eggs that were laid today. I checked around 5 this morning (I was up anyway for a few minutes ;) ) and no eggs. When I fed them around 8, nothing. Lunch?.... nope. I went to give them dinner and YES! An egg! And it was intact! Fantastic! The egg was small, light colored, and speckled.It looks more like a Welsummer egg than a Marans egg. But it's an egg! So we are happy!  :)

Eating With Purpose

  It seems people often wonder why they are not getting healthier when they start adding a lot of vitamins, herbal supplements, and even fresh raw food to their diet. "I'm eating all this healthy stuff! Why am I still not healthy?"
  It's not what you're eating,
  it's what you're not eating.
Let me offer a bit of perspective. I think every mother realizes that a few infrequent sweet treats are not going to make her children fat or rot all their teeth. We need to realize that the reverse is also true. Eating a healthy treat every now and then is not going to make you healthy and cure all your illnesses. Neither will taking vitamins, herbal supplements, green smoothies, or eating the latest fad superfood, or counting calories, or balancing pH, or juicing, etc, etc, etc. There is no magic pill or food that will ever make you healthy. PERIOD.

Health does not come in a pill. Health  is a LIFESTYLE.
It's great that you are eating healthy food some of the time. Thats's a good start, and you're on the right track. The problem is you are not eating healthy food ALL the time. We have been trained to eat for pleasure, not health, and as a result, our only intention when we eat is to experience taste sensation and fill our belly. How often do you grab food and think, "is this what my body needs right now?" Or do we really think, "oh, that sounds yummy!"
Every time you eat processed, de-germed, over cooked, chemically preserved sugar, starch, and fat, you are filling your stomach and body with empty calories, allergens, and even poisonous chemicals. That is a big enough problem, but that's not the only problem. The bigger problem is that each time you eat junk, you did NOT eat food rich in nutrients. And now that your belly is full, you are not Going to eat anything nutritious until you feel hungry again... And then what? Will you eat nutrition? Or more junk and a pill to fix it?
Your body NEEDS healthy, vitamin rich food EVERY time you feel hungry. Every time you replace nutritious food with something to "tide you over" or "kill the munchies", you starve your body and weaken its immunity and ability to repair itself TWICE. Once to "tide you over" and again when your body really needed the nutrition and now can't have it. You might even be hungry but you can't eat because you are still full of fluff! Have you ever had that happen? Have you ever eaten a large meal and felt stuffed, but still felt hungry? Not really satisfied? Still craving something, but you just can't quite put your finger on it? Sometimes you keep eating, even though you are full. I can tell you what your body is asking for- vitamins!! Real nutrients!
You can eat box after box of crackers, mac-n-cheese, cereal, pasta, and you will be completely stuffed while totally starving. Generally, if it comes in a package, it is nutritionally worthless. You might as well eat the box. At least in the case of cardboard you'd get a little fiber out of it.

Learn to read the FRONT of the label, the part with all the important information. The BACK of the label is the part with the big pictures and advertising hype. And when you read the front of the label, the part that tells you what's IN this thing you are about to eat- again, pay close attention to what is NOT in it. So this thing contains 30% of the daily recommendation of calcium. That sounds nice. But does this calcium come with magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin D to allow your body to absorb that calcium? You can add all the calcium you want to a bowl of cereal and still not absorb a bit of it. And chemically created "nutrients" without all the natural phytochemicals that buffer, enhance, and aid in digestion and absorption, can be treated by your body as foreign material and even in many cases cause allergic reaction!
Food does not grow in a box. Food grows in the earth. You pick it, and then you eat it. If you don't eat it, something soon will! Bugs, mold, bacteria.... But wait. What about the stuff in the box? Why doesn't anything eat it while it is sitting there on the shelf? Because it CAN'T. Think about it. If something is preserved well enough to keep a cockroach from digesting it....how the heck are we supposed to?
I know boxes are easy and convenient, and preparing a healthy dinner is hard.
Wait.... Really?

How hard can it be to put some raw nuts, grapes, spinach, and carrots on a plate? Isn't that easier than boiling water and dumping a box of goo in it and waiting and draining it and mixing it with some other slimy goo and then splatting that on a plate?
Well there's no variety or flavor in raw food.... Really? I beg to differ! Sadly we have been lied to! Now I must agree that a tomato or peach from your local grocer is not likely to have a heap of flavor. This is where the lifestyle change really comes in. Consider this a challenge to reach to your primitive hunting and gathering instincts. Real food is out there. You just have to know where to look. Farmers markets are a great place to start. Also try ethnic markets and try new fruits and veggies you may not have seen before. Find out what it is and google to see how to prepare or eat it.
Grow you own food. It's really not that hard. The key is to make healthy soil. More on that in another post. You can grow food in the desert if you have a way to water. You can grow food in the winter if you have a greenhouse. You can grow enough food for yourself and the whole neighborhood in your backyard! Lots of urban homesteaders are doing it!
Eat your weeds! Plants grow all around us and MOST of them are edible food packed with nutrition. There are lots of books out there on the subject to help you get started.
The key to life is health. The key to health is life! To live a life of health, we must consume food that is ALIVE and bursting with vitamins and nutrition. You cannot put LIFE in a pill. It simply cannot be done. In order to gain life, you have to put life into your body. The ONLY way to do that is by eating fresh, raw, living food right off God's table, i.e. the ground under your feet. The variety is endless. The flavors; sweet, spicy, savory, mild, hot, fresh, calming, invigorating... The colors; a complete rainbow and treat for the eyes as well as the tummy.
"Eat to live. Don't live to eat." --Dinotopia 

Real food.
Real nutrition.
Simple.
Period.

Honey Locust

Yikes! Ouch!

Is this where they got the idea?

We have been clearing brush behind the house, slowly digging our way to a small pond that I know is buried back here someplace. I can see the cypress trees that grow on the edges of the pond, but so far, no pond! So, anyway, while we are bushwhacking, I ran across a tree with spikes sticking out all over it! It's like someone wrapped barbed wire and razor wire all around it! I had to think and dig in my memory about what kind of tree this might be, and after a couple of guesses, I came up with Locust. A bit of Googling, and I found it,

Here's the leaves

This is lumber from a local grower

Honey Locust. Turns out this is an amazing tree! Not only is the fast growing hardwood amazingly beautiful for stunning furniture making,but the tree pods are edible, sweet like candy, and the bark is amazing medicine, for arthritis, cancer, and more! Another wonderful find on our gone wild acreage! Just a super cool tree! I hope we find more! And I intend to plant some too! :)

That's a lot of spines!

Cool links:
Locust pods- wild candy:  http://firstways.com/2011/11/01/wild-candy-in-the-honey-locust-tree/
Scientific research into Locust as medicine: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Gleditsia_triacanthos.html
Wiki has a lot to say about it-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_locust

Initial Observations

Now that the initial excitement and shock of moving has begun to wear off, I have begun observing my surroundings and started making a few notes.
My mother has continued many of the same traditions on this farm that her mother passed on to her, as did her mother before her. However, each generation ads new ideas and new techniques and drops outdated concepts and undesired projects. I continue the tradition of change. For a couple generations, the idea was, "out with the old, in with the new." But to quote one of my favorite bands, Abney Park, my motto is "Out with the new! In with the old!" Out with commercial chemicals and gasoline powered equipment! In with hand tools and compost and natural solutions for garden pests and problems.
Observation #1
Gas powered rototiller is loud, stinky, and difficult to muscle around the garden.


Whoever runs the tiller comes out smelling like they bathed in gasoline! How much of all the gas exhaust is getting inhaled into their lungs? How much exhaust soot is settling on the garden? And the noise! Who can enjoy a garden when you can hardly hear yourself scream? These modern gadgets are supposed to make the work easier, but considering exhaustion levels and buckets of sweat,... I'm not buying that it is all that much easier than the traditional plow! Now... There's been a few modern tweaks to the old fashioned plow. As soon as money allows, I plan to try out one of these modern antiques.
Observation #2
Commercial fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide: Ick. Yuck. Barf!
Not in my garden! I am growing my own food to eliminate toxic chemicals from my diet.  If I put any of this garbage on my food... Then what was the point of all this work?! I can go to the grocery store and buy pesticide enriched produce and save myself the money, time, and trouble!

Organic is the only way to go. It's the only thing that makes sense! But even buying organic stuff is not the best way to go. You still can't be sure what ends up in your bag of manure, for instance. The term "manure" sounds great until you wonder what the cows were eating that made the manure. Were they grass fed? Or did they eat the usual blend of cooked chemical, hormone, and antibiotic enriched genetically modified corn slurry most of our commercial cattle eat? Garbage in, garbage out. And the packaging on commercial "organic", "natural" stuff is usually non-compostable and difficult or impossible to recycle! So how do we avoid adding all the chemicals to the garden and more garbage to our landfills? Two words- com post!! Compost by the truckload! Get organic matter into the soil. Healthy soil equals healthy crops. Period. Dig it in. Mulch the top for weed control and water efficiency. Use compost tea for nutrient boost during peak growing season. Forget the crap! No, wait. Add the crap. Forget the chemicals!!!
Observation #3:
We need companion planting.

There is a really great book called Carrots Love Tomatoes. This is one of my favorite reference books. No plant in nature just grows out in a little space all by itself. Sometimes it might seem that way, say in the desert, but if you look closely, that little cactus growing in the crack in the rock will have a friend or two. Perhaps lichen. Perhaps a tiny bit of grass. Plants grow together to offer support and mutual benefits to each other. It's a yin/yang thing. For instance, if you find a poisonous plant in nature, you usually find its cure growing right next to it. (Scratches poison ivy and wonders where the jewel weed is)
The same is true in the garden. A well known favorite companion planting handed down from Native Americans is known as "the three sisters". Corn, beans, and pumpkins or other winter squash are all planted together. The corn gives poles for the beans to climb. The beans help anchor the corn and fix nitrogen to feed the corn and squash. The large leaves of the squash shade the ground and conserve water for the corn and beans. Usually when grown this way, all are allowed to mature and then all are harvested at the same time. Natural companions help reduce the need for weed and pest killers, water, and fertilizer.
Observation #4:
The rabbits are eating the scorpions! Kimosabe, nature is out of balance! Here in the South we seem to have an ongoing plague of ticks, chiggers, poison ivy, mosquitoes, fire ants, termites, horse flies, kudzu, etc.
Most of the South is part of what used to be a deep, dark, lush forest of huge pine trees. This is still the land's natural state of being. We will always be in a battle against Mother Nature here if we prevent her from returning to her desired state of being. If we wish to use this land to grow crops other than giant pine trees, then we will have to reach a compromise with Nature.  When a forest is cut down, there are several stages the land goes through to return itself to forest.

The first stage is the meadow.  All kinds of grasses, herbs and wildflowers grow in abundance to enrich the soil, break down any dead wood, and prepare shelter for young tree seeds to sprout and grow. This is the stage we want as this is the stage that will help our vegetables thrive. However, if left unchecked, in no time at all, taller woody plants, shrubs, and young deciduous trees of all kinds spring up everywhere.

Many young trees grow fast and compete for space, growing so dense sometimes that larger animals (like people) simply cannot move around through them. (By the way, someone asked me why we mow our yard rather than let it grow wild into a meadow. Well, if you do not mow, in two months your yard looks like this picture. -> The problem is, in less than a year, it can look like the bottom picture!) This is the thicket stage. When this stage occurs naturally, in the spaces left by a few fallen trees, all is well in the forest. But this thicket stage, on a massive scale, is where things get out of hand. Everything that grows in the thicket is built for aggressive competition. Thorns, vines, shrubs, and trees. The bugs that grow here are just as
aggressive. They grab anything that
passes by, aggressively feeding and then jumping back into the thicket to breed. Most parasitic plants and bugs thrive best in the thicket. When over half the countryside is in a state of thicket, it is easy to see how parasites can become plagues! Sadly our plot of land was left in a thicket state after our timber was sold a number of years ago. What used to be a mix of deep wooded areas and open fields is now an impenetrable mass of tangled underbrush and sapling trees 10-15 feet high brimming over with ticks, poison ivy and thorns, oh my!! It is going to require a massive amount of work to reclaim our land! ... Time to hire a herd of hungry goats! Goats eat everything including thickets! I hear they even love poison ivy!
*searches Craigslist for goats*

Welcome to the all new Qwatra Gardens! From MISSISSIPPI! Right on the farm where I grew up!

And Now For Something Completely Different!

Hello! Once again it has been quite some time since I posted. My life has been crazy with ups and downs. Unfortunately, gardening had been pushed to the back burner in favor of emotional and financial survival. Speaking of which... I have a new perspective on money and just how much it can impact our lives, but also, just how little it really matters!

Such an illusion! *rolls eyes* But, sadly, in order to play Monopoly, you have to play along with the pretend money. Like it or not, we need a few green floppy papers with ugly faces to trade for things we don't yet produce for ourselves. It has become a new challenge of mine to not only earn a little more, but to spend (and waste)  a lot less. After all, if one can save $300 a month, isn't that like getting a $300 raise?
Also, during my time of silence I have been thinking about my post a couple spots back about how I was going to make some money with my blog.  I found my solution!  :) 

Drum roll.........

I am going to begin writing a Magazine!  :D    *party and fanfare noise*

Qwatra Magazine will be a quarterly magazine featuring all kinds of stuff, just like on my blog. Herbs, gardening, sustainability, raising farm animals, household tips, homesteading, survival tips, canning, nature and wildlife, and who knows!  It's my magazine and I will write about whatever pops into my head! :D  I am thinking I will make each issue available online to download for a one-time flat fee (saving trees :) yay
). And also available to order in print for a larger fee (doesn't save trees :( boo).  I have not decided completely what I will allow for advertising in the magazine. On the one hand, it would be nice to make a bit more money, but on the other hand, I don't want to promote something I don't absolutely believe in. One thing for sure is I want my magazine to contain useful and interesting information, not a bunch of fluffy ads promoting plastic poisonous crap made on the other side of the planet! I can promise right now that if you see something I promote or recommend, it is something I use myself. I'm super excited and can't wait to get started! So keep your eyes open for the first issue of Qwatra Magazine!