Nevadans?

[laceynoelle]

Well, there are at least 6 chicks!! They arent any breed. Just mutts, this go around. Wierd enough, most of them look like huge silkies. The lady I got the dad from said he was a silkie Wyandotte cross, and I've got chicks that look silkie, but the size of a wyandotte. I cant wait to see how they start feathering out, lol.

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Can't wait to see pictures of these over sized Silkies!

Well, there are at least 6 chicks!! They arent any breed. Just mutts, this go around. Wierd enough, most of them look like huge silkies. The lady I got the dad from said he was a silkie Wyandotte cross, and I've got chicks that look silkie, but the size of a wyandotte. I cant wait to see how they start feathering out, lol.

 

[2seth2]

that would be great lacey

 

[laceynoelle]

Seth, last year with the same chickens, I never got a silkie feathered chicken, but they had many of the othere genes. Maybe we got luck this time. It's probably a gene tha doesnt hardly ever happen in random breeding like this, but I am ignorant in the fact, so you never know! It would be cool. :] I'll put pic up as soon as the hatch it done.

 

[SunnyDawn]

...Great news, the chicks are hatching!!! I have four from overnight, I'll check in when I get back from work.

Whoo hoo!!!

Can't wait to see pics of the fluffy giants!

Ok, gardening question. It appears that my seedling heat mats are not working any more. Is that a problem? I'm thinking it may be a good idea to replace for at least my tomato and pepper seeds. Any advice on that is appreciated.

I never use heat mats. Especially on tomatoes. Tomato plants grow to be stronger overall when they are started at cooler temperatures. They germinate and grow quickly under higher temps but they are not hardened and don't do as well after being transplanted when they are started at the higher temps. I always try to start them between 55 and 70 degrees for this reason (house gets down as low as 55 at night but the seeds are under plastic so the temps are probably not quite that low and up to as high as 70 during the day). This, of course, is my opinion and you will find lots of articles that say 75 to 80 is optimum but this works quite well for me.

Almost all of my tomatoes are starting to come up now and so is just about everything else. At those temps. There are a couple of things that don't do well started at cooler temps but they are few. I'm going to try to find a website that talks about this. I have an article somewhere on this topic but who knows where it is right now. My old neighbor that started her plants in a greenhouse and babied them along complained to me about how much more fruit my plants had when mature. Her plants were huge as babies but did not produce well at all once mature.
Here's a short article that speaks of this but it is not anywhere near as detailed as the study I first researched on this topic.
http://growingredtomatos.com/

And you are correct on the vitamin deficiency as being one of the most common reasons for curled toes. The deficiency is present in the mother when she lays the egg. Another reason is an injury during hatch and/or too high or too low incubator temps. The vitamins (and splints) work best when the chick is just a day or two old but it wouldn't hurt to try it now Seth. Good luck! http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Chick_curled_toe/

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Whenever I start to freak out that I don't have the right "grow equipment," I remind myself... it's not like tomatoes are a 50-year-old invention. Ok, so maybe they weren't grown in the Yukon before electricity, but Italy isn't always prime temperature at all times either. All these plants were grown by generations of people who had to work with their local climates, and still manage not to starve to death. And every single year I fret over my garden, wondering if the seeds will sprout or temperatures will snap or crickets will move in. And every year, we've still managed to feed ourselves.

My tomatoes aren't growing particularly fast, with all the trips they've been taking outside in 50-degree weather. But they're growing. And they're not leggy. And I've only lost 10 seedlings out of 500 to damping off. That's good enough for me so far.

And hopefully I didn't jinx myself for bragging.

 

[Rikoshe]

Hello Everyone;
I would like to have an Ameraucana Roo I lost mine to a predator. I am not sure if it was a hawk (I did find a hawk in the chicken run, it tore through the wire on top of the run) or a coyote. but anyway i lost my Roo. If anyone in the Dayton/Carson City/Reno area has an extra one I have a home for him.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Hello Everyone;
I would like to have an Ameraucana Roo I lost mine to a predator. I am not sure if it was a hawk (I did find a hawk in the chicken run, it tore through the wire on top of the run) or a coyote. but anyway i lost my Roo. If anyone in the Dayton/Carson City/Reno area has an extra one I have a home for him.

There is an abundance of Ameraucana roos on this thread. A lot of them are chicks, though, and some of us are still trying to determine if ours are pullets or cockerels. If nobody else has one for you, then I know I'll have a few, but it will take a few more weeks to determine whether or not they are roos.

 

[Rikoshe]

There is an abundance of Ameraucana roos on this thread. A lot of them are chicks, though, and some of us are still trying to determine if ours are pullets or cockerels. If nobody else has one for you, then I know I'll have a few, but it will take a few more weeks to determine whether or not they are roos.

Thank you for the offer. If I can not find a mature Roo that will help out.

 

[chicharomirinda]

Well, there are at least 6 chicks!! They arent any breed. Just mutts, this go around. Wierd enough, most of them look like huge silkies. The lady I got the dad from said he was a silkie Wyandotte cross, and I've got chicks that look silkie, but the size of a wyandotte. I cant wait to see how they start feathering out, lol.

those sound cool, Lacey!

Whoo hoo!!!

Can't wait to see pics of the fluffy giants!



I never use heat mats. Especially on tomatoes. Tomato plants grow to be stronger overall when they are started at cooler temperatures. They germinate and grow quickly under higher temps but they are not hardened and don't do as well after being transplanted when they are started at the higher temps. I always try to start them between 55 and 70 degrees for this reason (house gets down as low as 55 at night but the seeds are under plastic so the temps are probably not quite that low and up to as high as 70 during the day). This, of course, is my opinion and you will find lots of articles that say 75 to 80 is optimum but this works quite well for me.

Almost all of my tomatoes are starting to come up now and so is just about everything else. At those temps. There are a couple of things that don't do well started at cooler temps but they are few. I'm going to try to find a website that talks about this. I have an article somewhere on this topic but who knows where it is right now. My old neighbor that started her plants in a greenhouse and babied them along complained to me about how much more fruit my plants had when mature. Her plants were huge as babies but did not produce well at all once mature.
Here's a short article that speaks of this but it is not anywhere near as detailed as the study I first researched on this topic.
http://growingredtomatos.com/

And you are correct on the vitamin deficiency as being one of the most common reasons for curled toes. The deficiency is present in the mother when she lays the egg. Another reason is an injury during hatch and/or too high or too low incubator temps. The vitamins (and splints) work best when the chick is just a day or two old but it wouldn't hurt to try it now Seth. Good luck! http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Chick_curled_toe/

Ok, good to know. I will forget about heat mats.

Hello Everyone;
I would like to have an Ameraucana Roo I lost mine to a predator. I am not sure if it was a hawk (I did find a hawk in the chicken run, it tore through the wire on top of the run) or a coyote. but anyway i lost my Roo. If anyone in the Dayton/Carson City/Reno area has an extra one I have a home for him.

Sorry you lost your roo. I have several 5 1/2 week old Am roos right now. One black/lavender split (feather color is black but has lav genes), one lavender and one wheaten/blue wheaten. so, as Missy said, there are plenty around if you end up not finding a grown one.