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You mention the seedling tomatoes. Tomatoes tend to self pollinate and seedling tomatoes usually are usually true to the parent especially if another variety is not planted too near.

I always start tomatoes in flats. They seem to do better for me that way. When we do out ten variety clinical trial, I will have a small amount of separation between each batch so the seeds are true.
 
almost lunchtime

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ChickenCanoe, a friend of mine built stacks of 2x2 or maybe 1.5x1.5 cages for his annual testing. The morning of, he goes out before light and removes each from the roost and places in a cage. He is possibly the most organized person I know when it comes to chickens.

My birds are mostly docile, they don't like being caught but they can be. The Silkies are easy. Last time mine were tested, last fall, I had most of them out in smaller runs so there wasn't a lot of room to escape. The only ones I had at the time that gave me trouble were the Fayoumis, which are probably most like the Penes in temperament with regard to being caught, and I was glad I only had the pair at the time (I don't have them any longer, had to make some room and sold them to someone who wanted birds well suited to free ranging - they most certainly are). I had them in a 3x8 run with a roof, they flung themselves against a corner, and as I would reach for them they would try to fly over my head - one managed to do so twice, the hen.

The less space they have and the calmer I stay, the easier it is on the birds and me. They don't test birds younger than 4 months, and here at least, they won't disturb nesting hens or hens raising chicks. They are usually easy to work with and very good at handling birds. In CO they are not allowed to own their own birds, and suit up with boot covers and the like.
 
Thanks for the ideas.
I've confined some in a chicken tractor before when I had to catch a few during the day. A friend that's a vet tech crawled into the tractor to catch them and I had to call it off because I was sure the birds would kill themselves. I'm not real sensitive (go figure), but they fling themselves into the wire with such force trying to escape that I'm really surprised I haven't had any broken necks - yet.,
I'll figure out how to do the stacked cage thing. I'll probably be able to figure that out but the trauma for the birds I suppose will be worth it.
 

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