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griggy said:
We got our garden in this weekend and my husband just put the nesting boxes in the big coop. Our oldest teenagers are 15 weeks old with the others not far behind so we are looking forward to some eggs!

My eggs from Wingstone and CC are doing great so far. Yesterday was day 7, and out of the 46 I started with, I still have 44 going. Was able to clearly see embryos moving in almost 30 of them yesterday. Very cool. I hope it still keeps going good!

Does anyone raise turkeys? My husband wants to raise turkeys!
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I have a few poults available but my girls are taking a break right now & I'm only getting a few eggs per week. I have a couple batches in the bator though. I have slates & mottleds.

fisherlady said:
OK... I am on another egg search, though this time it is not for me, but I have been requested to find some eggs for a relative of a good friend.  Apparently this lady is trying to find Americauna eggs (they are the blue egg layer, right?)

So... does anyone here have Americauna eggs or know someone who does so that I can help her make a connection to get her eggs?  
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I have lots of blue & green available if she just wants colored eggs.
 
fisherlady said:
Not to sound morbid... but I think the Calcium precautions are due to organ damage that affects the longevity of the chicks (not sure on turkey though) If you are planning to butcher them still it probably won't have any noticeable affect.
But with that being said, I agree with Dheltzel...if there isn't a specific reason for her to have a calcium supplement right now then I wouldn't worry about giving it to her yet.
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** she is laying now ..sorry, i didn't say that. ...that is the only reason i would throw that shell in there. I just didn't know if it would be harmful to the chicks..if they ate a bunch of it...I don't think they are, but who knows.
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.they are eating everything....I am feeding them twice a day...or three smalls -"meals".....then they have their grass mounds/sod and whatever tidbits of kitchen stuff i throw out there...I do believe they are doing well, right at the proper weight. The meats have about 4 weeks to go...the turkey, about 3-months.
dheltzel said:
Until she starts laying again, she doesn't need the extra calcium. I would withhold it for a while and let her eat the starter the chicks eat.
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LisaYolkUm said:
Hey you all..................what do you think about my potato tower problem or question?


the stems and leaves of the potato plants are growing great just outside of the the cylindrical tower I made.............out of chicken wire..............so if I add straw and dirt it wont really be covering the plants.................so how am I gonna get more potatoes

I will try to post a picture later this week...............

I want this to succeed.............it sure looks like they are growing well enough!
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Mine is doing the same thing...coming out all over the place. Get a pic please...I will get one of mine on here ....i thought that each potato piece makes a plant that produces a bunch of other potatoes...am i completely off on this??
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..i didn't think we had to keep putting dirt on them cause they were planted in layers to begin with...now you have got me confused....going to have to re-read...
caf.gif
...
fisherlady said:
Thanks for the Americaunas tips McC!

I didn't realize Hen-Bree is laying again, our hens usually leave the chicks within a few days of laying again.... but all hens follow their own little set of rules, they wouldn't want to make it easy on us!
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They most certainly do not make it easy sometimes!! hahaha..but i really can't complain too much on this girl, she has saved us from running a heat lamp and now she is laying!!
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..now, it have to get that "other" girl back into shape(Ginger)!!
MotorcycleChick said:
Hen-Bree is laying again.
Danielle, I was reading an article today about the egg shell calcium. The shells don't have the high amount of calcium that oyster shell has(it also tastes better!). I wouldn't worry if the babies eat it. Like Fisherlasy said, they are meat birds. It wouldn't have time to do damage anyway.

Fishy woman, Heather Scooby has Ameraucanas, Ray has them, and Beaglady may still have them.
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hahhaa, helps if i were to read all the way through before i post stuff..hahaha Thanks !!!
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LittleMissPurdy said:
Mine is doing the same thing...coming out all over the place. Get a pic please...I will get one of mine on here ....i thought that each potato piece makes a plant that produces a bunch of other potatoes...am i completely off on this??
hu.gif
..i didn't think we had to keep putting dirt on them cause they were planted in layers to begin with...now you have got me confused....going to have to re-read...
caf.gif
...
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I was going to reply to the orig post, but got behind in our busy thread.

I've never grown potatoes in a tower like this, but my "gut feeling" it the more leaves you having making starch from the sun, the bigger crop you will get. As long as it's not trying to make potatoes in places that are exposed to the sun (the dreaded green potatoes are from that), I would not worry about trying to cover up anything. I think the reason you add soil over the existing roots is to get the top into a mode of "thinking" it needs to make more tubers higher up near the surface.
 
dheltzel said:
LittleMissPurdy said:
 
Mine is doing the same thing...coming out all over the place. Get a pic please...I will get one of mine on here ....i thought that each potato piece makes a plant that produces a bunch of other potatoes...am i completely off on this??:confused: ..i didn't think we had to keep putting dirt on them cause they were planted in layers to begin with...now you have got me confused....going to have to re-read...:caf ...
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I was going to reply to the orig post, but got behind in our busy thread.

I've never grown potatoes in a tower like this, but my "gut feeling" it the more leaves you having making starch from the sun, the bigger crop you will get. As long as it's not trying to make potatoes in places that are exposed to the sun (the dreaded green potatoes are from that), I would not worry about trying to cover up anything. I think the reason you add soil over the existing roots is to get the top into a mode of "thinking" it needs to make more tubers higher up near the surface.
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Potatoes actually grow from the stem of the plant, not the roots. That is why you keep burying the stems. It's to give them more space to make potatoes along the stems.
 
SilkieSensation said:
Potatoes actually grow from the stem of the plant, not the roots. That is why you keep burying the stems. It's to give them more space to make potatoes along the stems.
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so I wonder how I am going to cover the stems that are growing outside of the tower of chicken wire? I wonder if I should wrap another layer around the outside and put some straw? this seems rather weird logistically................

or maybe trim the wire so that I can redirect the stems to the middle and then cover with soil and straw?

has anyone done this ?

I know people use grower bags
and laundry baskets etc

I hate for these vigoursously growning plants to not produce well..............they seem happy!
 
LisaYolkUm said:
so I wonder how I am going to cover the stems that are growing outside of the tower of chicken wire? I wonder if I should wrap another layer around the outside and put some straw? this seems rather weird logistically................

or maybe trim the wire so that I can redirect the stems to the middle and then cover with soil and straw?

has anyone done this ?

I know people use grower bags
and laundry baskets etc

I hate for these vigoursously growning plants to not produce well..............they seem happy!
Click to expand...

Just leave them grow where they are. The limiting factor for how many pounds of potatoes you get is the amount of sun the leaves can collect and use to fix carbon (to make starch, which they store in the tubers for energy to produce next year's plants. Growing out the side will help that, the bushier the better.

Though potato tubers are in fact stems, as SS noted, they do not produce potatoes directly off the stem, but rather produce side stems to grow horizontally and then swell at the end to produce the actual potato. Burying the stems just puts the potatoes into layers in the tower instead of a single horizontal layer underground.

A tower might yield a slightly higher harvest per square ft than growing the plant in the ground, I think this could be mostly accounted for by the additional mulching and watering people tend to do with the towers. Potatoes in a row in the ground are incredibly productive (that is why they are fairly cheap in the market). My advice is "don't sweat it", just let them do their thing, those plants have been producing well for centuries without anyone fussing over them.
 
dheltzel said:
Just leave them grow where they are. The limiting factor for how many pounds of potatoes you get is the amount of sun the leaves can collect and use to fix carbon (to make starch, which they store in the tubers for energy to produce next year's plants. Growing out the side will help that, the bushier the better.

Though potato tubers are in fact stems, as SS noted, they do not produce potatoes directly off the stem, but rather produce side stems to grow horizontally and then swell at the end to produce the actual potato. Burying the stems just puts the potatoes into layers in the tower instead of a single horizontal layer underground.

A tower might yield a slightly higher harvest per square ft than growing the plant in the ground, I think this could be mostly accounted for by the additional mulching and watering people tend to do with the towers. Potatoes in a row in the ground are incredibly productive (that is why they are fairly cheap in the market). My advice is "don't sweat it", just let them do their thing, those plants have been producing well for centuries without anyone fussing over them.
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Oh I love this approach....................don't sweat it! Yeah..............and thanks!
 
Muscovy ducks take so long to hatch!

I'm not sure if I have the patience to hatch ducks. Hatching chicks has me spoiled, I guess. Friday night I found 2 muscovies had pipped. Since then, I've got at least one more pipped, but no ducklings out. In the mean time, many chicks have piped, hatched, and dried, while the ducklings are still contemplating their next move.
 

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