Illinois...

[homeschoolin momma]

@Justso do you have a delivery time frame for picking upnyour order from sunset farm? Im trying to figure out if i should just get hatching eggs or wait for chicks. Shes really behind on the ones i want.

 

[Justso]

@Justso do you have a delivery time frame for picking upnyour order from sunset farm? Im trying to figure out if i should just get hatching eggs or wait for chicks. Shes really behind on the ones i want.

Well I'm not in a big hurry. She did say that she just started to set one of the breeds I want. I'm okay with waiting a while. Gives me time to consider adding more. Like that midget white turkey.

 

[Justso]

@Justso do you have a delivery time frame for picking upnyour order from sunset farm? Im trying to figure out if i should just get hatching eggs or wait for chicks. Shes really behind on the ones i want.

Which ones did you want?

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Im looking at a pair of opal legbars and a ccl. Marans and the quail arent a problem.

 

[BReeder!]

How is everybody doing? I hope you all are doing well through the outbreak and shelter-in-place mandate. This snow has us really cooped up now. I don't even want to go in the yard. I swear if this weather doesn't let up I'm going to have a permanent imprint of of butt in my leather recliner.
Additionally, we plant seed starts for the garden the other day. They'll be coming up between this weekend and next. I also started slips on some store bought sweet potatoes about three weeks ago. They are growing like mad now. I may end up with 40 slips (I only need 20 though). I'm worried we will not be clear of frost and have the ground prepared when they need to get planted. I might have to plant them in cups of soil indoors for two weeks and then transplant. Nothing I've researched addresses that situation though.
We have our three chicks hanging out right in the dining/living room. They are growing and doing well. The keep spilling water though... I never constructed a nipple waterer for the brooder so I use one of those cheap plastic 1 quart jar waterers the stores usually sell right by the chicks. The bedding soaks it up and then dries thanks to the heat lamp, but I'm refilling the waterer every day with only 3 chicks.
Other than all that, the family is doing well. DS is taking full advantage of all this dad time. DD is always sleeping, playing or milk drunk so nothing changed for her. DW is getting through all this chaos. I'd like to think that me being home helps to carry the burden of managing the house, but I'm probably just getting in her way. All in all, we are having a lot of family time and home cooked meals.

 

[Molpet]

How is everybody doing? I hope you all are doing well through the outbreak and shelter-in-place mandate. This snow has us really cooped up now. I don't even want to go in the yard. I swear if this weather doesn't let up I'm going to have a permanent imprint of of butt in my leather recliner.
Additionally, we plant seed starts for the garden the other day. They'll be coming up between this weekend and next. I also started slips on some store bought sweet potatoes about three weeks ago. They are growing like mad now. I may end up with 40 slips (I only need 20 though). I'm worried we will not be clear of frost and have the ground prepared when they need to get planted. I might have to plant them in cups of soil indoors for two weeks and then transplant. Nothing I've researched addresses that situation though.
We have our three chicks hanging out right in the dining/living room. They are growing and doing well. The keep spilling water though... I never constructed a nipple waterer for the brooder so I use one of those cheap plastic 1 quart jar waterers the stores usually sell right by the chicks. The bedding soaks it up and then dries thanks to the heat lamp, but I'm refilling the waterer every day with only 3 chicks.
Other than all that, the family is doing well. DS is taking full advantage of all this dad time. DD is always sleeping, playing or milk drunk so nothing changed for her. DW is getting through all this chaos. I'd like to think that me being home helps to carry the burden of managing the house, but I'm probably just getting in her way. All in all, we are having a lot of family time and home cooked meals.

Glad you are doing well
Plant them in cups.
Sweet potatoes go out after tomatoes, like the first of June. They really need the heat.
https://extension.illinois.edu/blog...t-repeat/2017-05-24-sweet-potatoes-right-time
And after harvest some variety need to be be stored for month to develop taste

 

[BReeder!]

Glad you are doing well
Plant them in cups.
Sweet potatoes go out after tomatoes, like the first of June. They really need the heat.
https://extension.illinois.edu/blog...t-repeat/2017-05-24-sweet-potatoes-right-time
And after harvest some variety need to be be stored for month to develop taste

That article says the frost free date for northern IL is around first week of June. I've always gone with first week of May (around Mother's Day) as frost free. That's when I was intending to put these sweet potatoes in the ground. Now I'm really worried about them. I cut some of the long sprouts off the tubers and placed in a separate cup of water to grow roots the other day. They'll have root systems that can be planted in soil in about two weeks. Right around then I should have several more sprouts ready to be cut and put in water to grow roots as well. I could toss these first few, and then I would be into the end of April with the next round of slips being ready. I could put those in dirt then for a little while to get into May and hope the frost is over. That's what I'm thinking I'll end up doing and use these first slips as tests since it's the first time I've done this.

 

[jerryse]

That article says the frost free date for northern IL is around first week of June. I've always gone with first week of May (around Mother's Day) as frost free. That's when I was intending to put these sweet potatoes in the ground. Now I'm really worried about them. I cut some of the long sprouts off the tubers and placed in a separate cup of water to grow roots the other day. They'll have root systems that can be planted in soil in about two weeks. Right around then I should have several more sprouts ready to be cut and put in water to grow roots as well. I could toss these first few, and then I would be into the end of April with the next round of slips being ready. I could put those in dirt then for a little while to get into May and hope the frost is over. That's what I'm thinking I'll end up doing and use these first slips as tests since it's the first time I've done this.

I consider May 15 frost free in central Illinois . No mater what they say . I often plant a little ahead of that if the forecast is good . I have also had to cover tomatoes when the weather dorks are wrong .

 

[Molpet]

That article says the frost free date for northern IL is around first week of June. I've always gone with first week of May (around Mother's Day) as frost free. That's when I was intending to put these sweet potatoes in the ground. Now I'm really worried about them. I cut some of the long sprouts off the tubers and placed in a separate cup of water to grow roots the other day. They'll have root systems that can be planted in soil in about two weeks. Right around then I should have several more sprouts ready to be cut and put in water to grow roots as well. I could toss these first few, and then I would be into the end of April with the next round of slips being ready. I could put those in dirt then for a little while to get into May and hope the frost is over. That's what I'm thinking I'll end up doing and use these first slips as tests since it's the first time I've done this.

Get 5 gallon buckets , you could put them in those and see how much harvest from them.
They seem to be more temp sensitive than tomatoes... BTW also ground hogs like the plants

 

[BReeder!]

Get 5 gallon buckets , you could put them in those and see how much harvest from them.
They seem to be more temp sensitive than tomatoes... BTW also ground hogs like the plants

I may try the 5 gallon buckets for the earliest slips. There's just 5 that I've cut so far. There are a lot more growing though. I counted at least 40 this morning so I'm not too worried if these first 5 don't work out.

Groundhogs haven't been a problem for us here. The only tunneling animals I've had are voles. They eat insects though I believe.