Introducing the Floracona Chicken!

Move over Bielefelders, there's a new Uber Chicken on the horizon!
 Introducing the Floracana!
The Goal of this new breed project:

• Extremely Hardy - almost no comb or waddles, like Buckeye or Chantecler
• True Dual Purpose - fast growing roos, daily layer hens, like Bielefelders
• Great Forager - a must for sustainable homestead flocks
• Gentlemen Roosters - fierce protectors, kind to people and hens
• Striking Floral Feathers - fun for humans, great camouflage, like Mille Fleurs
• Rainbow of Egg Color - bonus fun for humans, like Easter Eggers
• Quiet - roos crow very little and hens don't fuss about eggs, like.... quail?

This breed is still in the fledgling stage, but I am so excited to share that I could not wait another season to go public with my project! So much has already gone into the gene pool of my flock I just have to spill the beans! Here's the breed list to date:

Bielefelder was my starting point. They were going to be the last breed I ever needed, as the sounded like the perfect chicken. Huge gentle roos, hens that popped out a big, beautiful, heavy (not kidding) egg a day, and autosexing to top it off. So why was this not my last chicken? Three reasons. First, they ate like pigs and were lazy. They would rather stand around the feeder and chow down and get fat than patrol the countryside to feed themselves. Maybe it was just my flock, but this was not working out for me at all. Second, though they are hardy, the tall comb and large waddles are a problem in the north where temperatures are just too cold to flaunt such accessories. Even with a rose comb, floppy waddles are just not ideal. Reason number three, they all look exactly the same. Maybe that's great if you can't stand to get attached to your food, but I love to get to know individuals, so for me, short of always having a mixed flock, I need something with speckles or other unique markings.

Easter Egger-  I was given 4 EE hens, which seemed like a great idea because their eggs would be our eating eggs as they were completely different than those of the Bielefelder and would be easy to spot. But they were so beautifully blue! Being the diversity loving gene-happy breeder that I am, of course it didn't take long for me to see a blending of the gene pool. Who knows what breeds went in to create those Easter Eggers? But a little bit of a mystery is a fun thing! So into the incubator went my first Easterfelders!

Speckled Sussex and Mille Fleur d'Uccles-  I needed flowers. I had regained a few of my original Mille Fleur d'Uccles from  my daughter, but I wanted large fowl flowers, So we got Speckled Sussex. Loved loved loved the breed! I would still go back to them in a heartbeat! Great foragers, sweet, curious, ...Shortcomings? Large comb and waddles in the boys, and not quite enough eggs, though I knew good breeding could fix that. But I can't let go of the blue eggs. I just love colored eggs!

  Meanwhile...

Easterfelder Gen 2-  Two of my second generation Easterfelder chicks grew into incredible roosters that made me rethink everything. I have never seen such a rich rainbow of iridescent color in a chicken! This got me to thinking about the possibility of creating my own breed. But it would take me a while to really decide where I would truly go with the idea.

Buckeyes- Hardy! Still not satisfied with finding a true cold hardy breed, I derided on adding buckeyes to the zoo. Noisiest chicks I ever had! But they grew into the quietest chickens I ever had, go figure. Buckeyes are Great foragers and can even teach other chickens how to forage too! And they thrived in the cold weather with no complaints. But...They all look alike, and egg laying is the average every other day, and of course, are not blue.

Mille-Speckles- All these crazy chickens went together in the same pen over winter 2016, so silly me, I put eggs in the incubator. Out of that batch popped two of the most incredible roosters I have ever seen!  They appeared to be Speckled Sussex/Mille Fleur/ Bielefelder!

Ameraucanas- I officially set off on a mission. At first, this mission was to breed Speckled Ameraucanas using Speckled Sussex and Ameraucanas. But I soon decided that all these wonderful traits I had collected could be combined to create a whole new breed of chicken! I made two breeding pens. In one pen I had Ameraucana roos over my various spotted mixed hens. In the other pen were my four splendid spotted roosters over Ameraucana hens. The first generation I selected only chicks that had a pea comb or close to a pea comb. I let all these select chicks grow up and then I selected the roosters based on form. Big, proud, strong legs, alert. Those that were obnoxious with the ladies, too noisy, small, thin, were omitted. The 4 selected roos look mostly Ameraucana in form. All hens were allowed to breed, but large eggs are the ones incubated. Most of the eggs are blue or minty green, since they are all half Ameraucana, but we do have a couple that skipped the blue egg gene and lay cream and brown. my favorite color is from my two girls that lay an olive-tan egg.

Floracana!- So here is the first hatch of this year's generation! Egg colors are fantastic! Chick colors are all over the board, blue, black, white, quite a few mottled, and some are indeed looking speckled!  I am really excited to watch them grow up and see how they feather out this year!    Stay tuned for updates! :)

New Name! Big Changes!

Yes, you're in the right place, but it's time for a change!
             Hawanasa
Our name is from two Cherokee words, Hawa, meaning "Welcome", and Awanasa, meaning "My Home" So our little homestead name means "Welcome to 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.
I will also be adding my heartfelt spiritual side to the blog. No religion, as I rather detest what modern religion has done to true WORTHship. As I bring in my Life Coaching facets into the mix, look for uplifting messages, posts on simplifying,  reducing waste, getting back to nature, reducing the clutter in our physical and spiritual lives. It is all connected!  :0)
My home to your home! 
Welcome to Hawanasa! :)

EGGS OF BLUE!

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

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

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

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

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? :)