Michigan

[fuzzybutt love]

Well, thanks for the thoughts, guys. So age was not an issue. Probably never know why. She was such a NICE broody, too. No biting even.

My next question is, would it be a bad idea to try to hatch any of her eggs? My friend has an incubator that she bought for turtle eggs, and never used. It's just one of those cheap (er) still-air incubators from TSC. Two of her eggs are in my room, and are a month old. The others have been in the fridge for a while, too. Probably zero chance, anyway. But i am wanting to try, at least.
I didn't use it before cause i wanted my birds to be broody raised, i want to encourage broody behavior in my breeding efforts.

 

[Chickmate]

Fuzzy, I'm so sorry about Rose. You tried to save her, don't beat yourself up. Some of them just aren't strong enough to make it through difficulties.

I never learned to can but my daughter keeps a huge garden and cans and freezes. So proud of that girl, she learned so much in spite of me. The only thing I ever did was make and freeze applesauce. I have wonderful memories of helping my grandfather can peaches in the basement though. My job was to take the peaches out of the hot water and slide the skin off. Grandpa would cut them into pieces and put them in the jars then take them upstairs to Grandma who would finish the process with the hot water bath and whatever else was involved. I loved my part because you never knew how beautiful the fruit was going to be until you slid the skin off. Sometimes the skin was plain old yellow but when you slid it off the flesh was beautiful! Yellow, gold, peach, rose, hot pink all running together. And the aroma was wonderful! The whole house smelled like warm peaches. They also did pears, tomatoes, plums, carrots, applesauce, applebutter, peas, beans, sauerkraut, etc. My favorite was peaches. But talk about good German sauerkraut! Grandpa's was the best. Made you pucker up! Now I wish I had paid more attention to the process.

 

[1muttsfan]

Fuzzy, after 10 days the hatchability of eggs starts dropping. If you do try to hatch them don't be disappointed if it doesn't go well. And watch out for stinkers!

 

[Olive Hill]

I'm thinking with that combination -- still air + old + refrigerated eggs -- it would be a miracle to have one hatch, but it can't hurt to try. I just wouldn't get my hopes up.

 

[RaZ]

Quote:

Which reminds me, the other week, when you posted pictures of your hops, I ran out with a flashlight to see what mine were up to because I hadn't gone to look at them yet and I was excited by your hops progress. They weren't there.

I am not sure what happened, they were fine last year.

I'll have to take a picture tomorrow. A few of mine are over 10 feet tall now. The hops that the chickens ate last year have come back but they are only about 6 inches tall. So don't give up. If, for some reason, yours don't come back send me a PM and I dig up a few rhizomes for you.

 

[chicken grandma]

On the other hand, if anyone has the insatiable urge to learn how to build a barn, you should feel free to stop by and absolutely bring your own materials. I'll be happy to supervise.

Next you will invite us over to bale hay. Now that is a hot and miserable day!

 

[RaZ]

Next you will invite us over to bale hay. Now that is a hot and miserable day!

Are you kidding? I loved baling hay. Some of my most favourite memories when I was young (and able).

 

[chicken grandma]

Are you kidding? I loved baling hay. Some of my most favourite memories when I was young (and able).

Are YOU kidding? We baled hay twice a year when I was growing up. I was poked full of holes by the hay and suffering from heat stroke every year! Yuck!

 

[RIRJen]

Quote:

I know. It's one of my super powers.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I'll have to take a picture tomorrow. A few of mine are over 10 feet tall now. The hops that the chickens ate last year have come back but they are only about 6 inches tall. So don't give up. If, for some reason, yours don't come back send me a PM and I dig up a few rhizomes for you.

Raz...I need to shade one wall of my barn and thought about using hops to grow on a lattice (sp?) wall. I need something super fast and thick growing. Do you think it would work? Needs to get about 8-10 ft tall asap.

 

[RaZ]

Are YOU kidding? We baled hay twice a year when I was growing up. I was poked full of holes by the hay and suffering from heat stroke every year! Yuck!

I grew up in PA where we had a small farm with fields, orchards, chickens and such. My uncle had a huge farm and even rented other fields that had to be harvested to feed his dairy operation. I absolutely loved riding the hay wagons as we went from field to field to bale hay. The best part was riding the elevator up to the loft where we stacked the bales at each mowing. The only time I didn't like baling was when a black snake got caught in the twine and I grabbed the darn thing picking up the bale.

Other than that, I loved working the fields. Except when the baler shot the bale over the trailer and we had to jump down and fetch it before the next bale came shooting out. All in all it was more fun than work.