The Front Porch Swing

[Triple Willow]

It's raining here and sending warm little thrills up my spine from the sound on the tin roof.  I love that sound and it never ceases to give me the warm fuzzies.  Spring will soon be here! 

I'm going to keep that heating pad busy this spring with incubating, brooding and also for warming my seed tray.  My brother is going to loan me his mold for forming seed pots/plugs and I'm going to make my own mix this year out of peat moss, potting soil, and my soil and leaf litter from my coop floor...it is rich and black with nutrients. 

I've got that spring fever too! Also been picking up seeds lately. I hope I use them!

...oh and I bought a new book today, "Ball, Complete Book of Home Preserving, 400 delicious and creative recipes for today"! Can't wait to find some good things to can!

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks Bee.

How is the nest doing?

I don't know! It seems to be going well, though I candled a few eggs on day 5 and didn't see anything remarkable going on. Only time will tell but that nest holds a steady temp when the ambient temps stay around 40 or above. Below that they will drop a little. They dropped down to 94 when I was gone for two days, so they said it would extend my hatch time.

I do note that the yolks in these eggs are much darker than in fresh eggs and the air cells are larger, but that would probably also be congruent with any egg this old that has been super warmed for almost a week. I don't see any blood vessels forming at all.

 

[IAFarmGirl]

It's raining here and sending warm little thrills up my spine from the sound on the tin roof. I love that sound and it never ceases to give me the warm fuzzies. Spring will soon be here!

I'm going to keep that heating pad busy this spring with incubating, brooding and also for warming my seed tray. My brother is going to loan me his mold for forming seed pots/plugs and I'm going to make my own mix this year out of peat moss, potting soil, and my soil and leaf litter from my coop floor...it is rich and black with nutrients.

Bee,

You also might check out U-tube for the newspaper pots. It shows you how to fold them to make small or large pots for your plants and then you just plant them in the ground in the pots. The newspaper just decomposes in the ground as the plant grows. I have made several and they work great!

 

[Beekissed]

Bee,

You also might check out U-tube for the newspaper pots. It shows you how to fold them to make small or large pots for your plants and then you just plant them in the ground in the pots. The newspaper just decomposes in the ground as the plant grows. I have made several and they work great!

I've seen those before. What his contraption does is just forms the actual soil medium into blocks that you plant the seed directly into, so when they are ready you just pop them into the ground, no pot needed. You just put them into your seed trays as is...they crumble a little on the edges but stay together very well considering they don't have any pot around them.

 

[Triple Willow]

Where do you guys order your "chicken supplies" from? My local farm supply stores don't have much to choose from at all. A friend of mine works in one of the stores and I so wanted to walk in and ask him if he had "chicken nipples". I know it would have left him in the floor rolling. hehehe Bummer, he wasn't working. Maybe I'll text him and ask him...? LOL

 

[Beekissed]

Where do you guys order your "chicken supplies" from? My local farm supply stores don't have much to choose from at all. A friend of mine works in one of the stores and I so wanted to walk in and ask him if he had "chicken nipples". I know it would have left him in the floor rolling. hehehe Bummer, he wasn't working. Maybe I'll text him and ask him...? LOL

Amazon.com for nipples...cheap and they get here fast.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I don't know! It seems to be going well, though I candled a few eggs on day 5 and didn't see anything remarkable going on. Only time will tell but that nest holds a steady temp when the ambient temps stay around 40 or above. Below that they will drop a little. They dropped down to 94 when I was gone for two days, so they said it would extend my hatch time.

I do note that the yolks in these eggs are much darker than in fresh eggs and the air cells are larger, but that would probably also be congruent with any egg this old that has been super warmed for almost a week. I don't see any blood vessels forming at all.

How old are those eggs Bee?

 

[Beekissed]

I collected eggs for nearly a week before starting the hatch, so they are now approx. 2 wks old.

 

[Lacy Blues]

At a week, they should have been ok. If you had a lot of snow on the ground during the time you were collecting eggs, they may not have been fertilized. How is your weather now? Is it warming up? If you don't see veins forming you may need a brighter light or a little more patience. They all have brown shells, right? Those are harder to see through but a couple more days ought to tell for sure. If your light is bright enough you need to candle in a very dark room. Pretty soon you should be able to see some movement in there.

 

[RachaelS]

I would like to ask everyone to send a prayer up for my sister. She is having a really tough time, odd financial issues, lost 2 babies last year (she was 6 weeks along each time). She had to put her older boxer down at the end of last year and recently took in her younger one to have gallstones removed, he did great for the first 3 days after and now all the sudden his kidneys are failing so he has been at the vets for the past week and she is not sure he is going to make it. Please keep her in your thoughts, thank you.

Please add my mom and dad to that list, their adopted kitten that had some genetic issues, just suddenly passed away. They are heart broken.