The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

Showgirls! Showgirls! Showgirls!

I got a couple of those one year (it was a weak moment) and they turned out to be not very nice. It turned out though, that they were both boys! Figures!

I might need a showgirl for a house pet!

I would love to get a few more but I'm not sure I can handle the 'tude.

Miss Piggy rules our lives at bedtime. She squawks to be picked up and hand delivered into the coop and onto HER roost. If you put her in the wrong spot she will jump down, give you a verbal lashing and start the routine all over again. I got home late last Thursday night and she was at the gate, making a racket and stomping her feet.

 

[bamadude]

Garlic "seed"?  are we talking about the same plant?  I've grown garlic for most of 20 years as a cash crop (my own strain of German Porcelain) and never heard of starting garlic from seed.  

the only thing i know about garlic is that its delicious. I especially like elephant garlic. I have grown onions from seeds tho but idk about garlic.

 

[Alaskan]

@Wisher1000

Maybe you are looking at walking onions.

My grandmother had those all along the northern fence line of her garden.

They grow a bunch of little onion bulbs at the top of a stalk. When the bulbs get too big and heavy, the stalk falls over, and those little bulbs plant themselves.

Anyway, they are very tasty and perfect in lots of dishes, but labor intensive, since each one must be washed then peeled.

 

[chickisoup]

I'd love to have a bulb of that if you're selling... or swapping! Last year I wasn't diligent in weeding (I abhor weeding) and I ended up leaving many cloves in the ground by accident. They resprouted and I ended up with nice bulbs this year when I did an early harvest. They're small but they didn't get any extra fertilizer. And they're delicious.

See what I can do. Having trouble coming up with good re-plant bulbs. They're running really small this year because of the super cruddy weather, the tons of rain washed everything right out of the soil, but I should be able to find you a decent one. PM me your address

 

[ozexpat]

Holy Smokes!  Be sure and let us know what all you catch!

I don't have time to read all that so would you mind enlightening me?  What would dipping eggs in vit c do prior to hatching?  Is that when they go into lock down or on the 20th day?

Here is the last post on the subject


#10792 of 10800
07/25/14
ozexpat
Platinum Poultry
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penny Hen View Post


The link was actually to using a Vitamin C dip. I decided to substitute vinegar. Here are some of the links to this:

http://www.epsaegypt.com/pdf/2011_june/15- 1271.pdf This link is about dipping the eggs in Vitamin C.
http://www.arsveterinaria.org.br/index.php/ars/article/viewFile/515/857 This link is about injecting the eggs with the Vitamin C.
http://ejfa.info/index.php/ejfa/article/viewFile/12010/6146 This was about injecting Vitamins C and E in Muscovy eggs.
http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/84953.pdf This is about feeding Vitamin C and selenium to layer hens.
http://cabdirect.org/abstracts/20113110385.html;jsessionid=A7661977F1DF4BF48A62DCF1EB514283 This one compares dipping and spraying the eggs with Vitamin C.

When you read these you will find that the Vitamin C is doing more than getting the eggs clean. Significant weight gains and food conversion is noted in the young animals. I was substituting vinegar because my main goal was to stop bacteria. I knew that if the eggs in the studies stood up to 5% acidity of the Vitamin C then they could take the same level of acidity from the vinegar. I also knew that that level of acidity would kill most of the bacterias out there.

In the future I would like to do a comparitive study between regular vinegar and ACV. I would also like to compare Vitamin C with vinegar both on hatchability and in weight gains and food conversion. First though I need a reliable incubator that won't muddle the data by killing my eggs. So that is my first goal.


My response


Fascinating stuff. I love reading research articles. I spent most of my adult life promoting evidence based healthcare in the cardiology sector. A long way from chickens. Since I became an incubator addict, I dove right into research of chickens. I have read hundreds and hundreds of full print articles. Thanks for these links.


So here is my take on the research.

All the articles are looking at Ascorbic Acid (AA) as a nutrient rather than a cleaner. The first article shows statistically significant improvement of hatchability by dipping eggs in a solution of 5g AA per Liter and 10g AA per Liter pre setting. The final article looks at dipping or spraying with AA in concentrations of 20g/L and 30g/L respectively buy in the latter part of a Muscovy Duck egg hatch

5g AA/L = (weight of solute/volume of solutionx100) 5g/1000mlx100= 0.5% AA solution
10g AA/L = 1.0% AA solution

The concentration of AA is significantly less than 5%.

The results are quite interesting. A 3.6% increase in hatchability is significant for me - My goal is to get up to 1000 chicks per week so 36 chicks is another employee's salary. Its $150/kg of 100% Ascorbic Acid on ebay. A little goes a long way.

There is nothing in the research that discusses Ascorbic Acid as an egg cleaner/sanitizer.

I googled acids as egg cleaners.

Manna Pro Egg Cleanser contains (In order of concentration) Water, Yeast, Citric Acid and Potassium Sorbate. As Citric Acid is third on the list, mathematically it can not be greater than 33% solution.
The instructions advise to use 2 caps in a fallon of water. Presuming a cap is 1/2 an Oz and there are 128 Oz in a gallon - the final solution is 0.4% Manna Pro Egg Cleanser and at a maximum possible citric acid concentration of 0.13%.

I could find nothing on Acetic Acid as an egg cleaner. Vinegar at 5% Acetic Acid is very corrosive. I would strongly recommend not using it - especially at full concentration but look forward to your research either way.

Cheers

 

[Lacy Blues]

That is pretty interesting. I wonder about doing the vinegar dip when you start the eggs and then the vit C dip like on day 18? Very interesting information. Thank you.

 

[ozexpat]

I can't see the value in vinegar at all.

 

[ronott1]

That is pretty interesting. I wonder about doing the vinegar dip when you start the eggs and then the vit C dip like on day 18? Very interesting information. Thank you.

I have used the manna pro egg cleanser this year for dirty eggs and the chicks hatched fine using it.
It is not expensive and lasts a long time.

 

[Sylviaanne]

I would love to get a few more but I'm not sure I can handle the 'tude.

Miss Piggy rules our lives at bedtime. She squawks to be picked up and hand delivered into the coop and onto HER roost. If you put her in the wrong spot she will jump down, give you a verbal lashing and start the routine all over again. I got home late last Thursday night and she was at the gate, making a racket and stomping her feet.

Oh, how adorable that pita is! LOL She's so cute, she just wants mama to tuck her in every night.
(No disrespect meant)

 

[ronott1]

Oh, how adorable that pita is! LOL She's so cute, she just wants mama to tuck her in every night.
(No disrespect meant)

this is me with my Pita (pita pinta) Rooster!