Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long! - Page 682

I NEED ducks for a customer he wants what he calls "Buffs" how do get those much less incubate them...how cute would that be?

Here is a pic of what I set, though it may be hard to count them. I'll take another when I get them separated into the now empty incubator.

ETA: 22 are eggs from the swap and 23 are from my Violet Laced Wyandotte project.

Most Ingenious Chicken Design Contest

It's a couple of inches of black foam pipe insulation.  It slips right over the end of the flashlight and the egg just barely fits into the hole so I get a good seal to the egg.  It cost .97 cents for a six foot length, so the piece I used costs about .04 cents.  It cuts easily with scissors and literally took a second to fashion into what I needed.

The insulation comes in many sizes, I plan to experiment with using it to cushion eggs for shipment.

Deb

Oh I just remembered.  Someone had asked about my starting Cantaloupe and Pumpkins inside this year and I meant to explain that when I had more time but got distracted and forgot.

My plan, which may not be successful (this will be an experiment), is to build a cold-frame with "heat sinks" in the corners that will warm up the plants enough to give them their early start.  My season is even shorter up here in Red Rock than it was down in Reno proper so finding a way to get an early start is important to me.  Plus I would like to extend my harvest time so I can enjoy fresh produce even longer.

I'm going to build a few raised beds this weekend with bales of straw (which I can wet and cover with plastic to produce composting heat later if needed).  I will line them with plastic, punch holes in the bottom, fill them halfway with our cruddy DG soil, put a couple inches of chicken manure mixed with shavings on top of this and then fill the rest of the way with cheap potting soil.  In the corners I plan to place jugs of water, painted black or covered with black garbage bags, as solar collectors.  Depending on how big my cold frames are I may place a collector in the middle too.  Then the whole thing will be covered with either polycarbonate sheets or with a clear fiberglass composite material.

There are some fantastic ideas like this on the net but I got this particular design from Mother Earth News - Wiser Living Series (Spring 2012).  I decided I better figure out a different method for getting an early start to my gardening since with my back I just can't be hauling pots or buckets in and out of the house like I tried to do when we first moved here.  And waiting for Hubby to get home to do it when it's starting to snow at 11am just doesn't cut it either.  A friend said they had their last "hard" freeze up here on June 26th last year!!!  It killed all of her tomato plants which she had in large heat collecting buckets so that would not be enough protection out here for sure.

The frames will be BIG!  Big enough to leave the pumpkins and cantaloupes in for the remainder of the season.  Unless it's freezing the panels will be left off.  It is easier to put them back on than to haul buckets or pots in and out of the house for months!  The seedlings I just planted should germinate in 5-10 days and then they will go right outside to the cold frame since these types of plants need lots of sun and get "leggy" quite fast if left inside.  The plants can just spill over the sides of the bales as they get bigger.

Hope this explains my silly notion of planting squash and melons inside.  I'm pretty tired so I hope it made sense.  Hope the person that asked me about it reads this post...    

Anyway goodnight all!  Sleep tight!