Pick up tips from readers for building a small hatchery business, selling cut flowers, companion planting with calendula, DIY braided rugs, a cheap greenhouse, and a repurposed rake.
With current egg prices at the grocery store, there’s heightened interest in keeping a personal flock of egg-laying hens. I’ve been incubating eggs collected from my backyard flock to sell to local folks who want to start or build their own flocks. I tried a new smart incubator from Brinsea, and it’s performing well. I set eggs for the next round as soon as the incubator is chick-free and cleaned up. It takes 21 days, give or take, to hatch chicken eggs. Some come early and some are late. Here are some tips to keep your incubator running, as well as desired breeds, brooder ideas, and where to find buyers.
- Keep an eye on the humidity and watch your reservoir water level. Humidity is more important than you might think. It works hand in hand with the incubator temperature. Try cutting up and using a humidifier filter as an evaporation block.
- Hatch colorful eggs; folks want rainbow eggs, so keep Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, Cream Leg Bars, or Marans, to mention a few breeds. Sell laying hens that you don’t need or will be replacing. Some buyers don’t want to raise chicks and would rather buy hens that are already laying. Construct a hardwire cloth box to keep different breeds separated while hatching.
- Keep notes on when you set them, including expected hatch dates, and notes on other details, such as power outages. If you lose power, drape a blanket over the incubator to keep it warm. Keep in mind that broody hens do get up to eat and drink. Make notes on how many eggs hatched to determine your hatch rate and make improvements in the future.
- Candle eggs to look for underdeveloped, unfertilized, or cracked eggs. Use a pencil to mark the shells of any you’re not sure about.
- Be prepared a day early. If you have egg holders in your incubator, remove them and place the eggs on a hatch mat. Have the brooder and a heat source prepared for the cute fluffballs. I use a huge plastic tote with a hole cut in the lid and hardwire cloth stapled over the hole for the brooder. I find totes easy to clean between hatches, and a lid helps keep nosy pets out.
- To help or not to help a hatch is the question. I gently help if I see a chick pipped but not zipping after a few hours, or I’ll help if I’ve just opened the incubator. Each time the incubator is opened, you lose the high humidity that chicks need to hatch. Humidity loss can cause the membrane around the chicks to act as shrink-wrap. Keep the incubator closed as much as possible once hatching has begun.
- When you’re ready to sell your chicks, find local and state poultry or homesteading groups on social media. When listing chicks, stick to group rules. Most require you to discuss compensation details through a private message. Make sure to mention it’s a straight run if you’re selling unsexed chicks. Take a trip to the farm store to price what chicks sell for.
Tonya, Kansas
Sell Cut Flowers to Fund the Garden
I’ve been growing cut flowers and selling bouquets at the end of my driveway for a couple of years now and have made enough to cover all the seeds for my vegetable garden. I reuse glass olive jars and tomato-sauce jars and put the flowers in there. I set them out on a table in the shade of a tree on the side of the road and sell out each time. Some varieties that have worked well for me include sweet peas, zinnias, Celosia, cosmos, dahlias, and sunflowers.
Vivian, Minnesota
Pest-Repelling, Colorful Calendula
Hornworms were once a problem for our tomato plants, and, if left undetected, they’d sometimes decimate an entire plant in a day or two. Since we’ve been planting calendula among our tomato plants, we haven’t had a hornworm problem, even when our neighbors have reported hornworms in their gardens.
I’ve read that while calendula is good at repelling pests, it’s also a good attractor of beneficial insects. This has been our experience. Last summer, I found a hornworm on a pepper plant. That was the first time I’d ever found a hornworm on a pepper plant. The hornworm was covered with braconid wasp eggs. It wasn’t eating the pepper plant. I didn’t dispose of the hornworm, because I wanted the braconid wasp eggs to hatch. We like to have braconid wasps in our gardens. They’re great pollinators and good for pest control.
The tomato plants were growing nearby, with the calendula growing underneath. Apparently, the hornworm hadn’t wanted to go near the calendula.
Calendula doesn’t take up a lot of room. I’ve planted it between rows of tomato plants. Its vibrant yellow color stands out and looks beautiful interspersed throughout the bright and deep greens of tomato plants.
Additionally, calendula petals can be made into a soothing, antibacterial skin salve, and, once dried, can be used to make a tea for various ailments.
Audra, Kansas
Pants Planter
Discarded blue jeans, a basket, and an old bowl can be repurposed as an herb garden. To make mine, I used upholstery thread to secure the basket inside the waist of the jeans for structure. I stuffed the legs with a blend of soil, sand, coconut coir, and sphagnum moss, and then knotted them together near the cuffs. Next, I filled the jean pockets, waist, and the bowl with the soil blend. Large herbs, such as basil, dill, and sage, lent themselves to planting in the waist, and smaller herbs, such as parsley and thyme, worked well in the pockets. I planted small and medium-sized herbs in the bowl.
Stephanie, Pennsylvania
Turn Old Clothes into Rugs
Cut old clothes into strips about 2 inches wide and then braid them into strands; the longer the better. Next, sew these braided strands into round or oval rugs with the strongest thread you can find. The creations can serve as a reminder to your family of clothes that were worn through the years. I use these mostly as carpets, but the small ones serve well as hot mats for pots off the stove. The more colorful ones can even be used as wall hangings!
Hester, Ontario
Power of Planning
Whether the snow is swirling, the leaves are piling up, fresh sprouts are emerging, or the summer heat is pounding down, I’m planning my garden for the next season. I’m looking at potential new crops, monitoring and improving established crops, and figuring out landscaping strategies. One of the greatest tools a gardener can use for this is a journal, because research and documentation is the key to success.
I have a yard that includes full and partial sun areas, which allows me to adjust planting spaces and seasons. I continue to learn optimal planting areas as I experiment through trial and error and document each season. This documentation includes where the soil is too clay-based to really support many plants, especially root vegetables (which I learned the hard way). As a result, I have my blueberries and strawberries in the ground while carrots and radishes are grown in pots. I have a well-drained little patch where I grow potatoes and garlic with great results. Garlic is a good pest deterrent, so growing it seemed like a good decision, but, as with all growing possibilities, I went in with an open mind and a hopeful stomach.
Once the warmer summer days arrive, we grow peppers, herbs, and sometimes something in the melon family. Two years ago, we grew cantaloupes, which was exciting if nothing else. We got three little melons, which I still consider a victory.
Walking through a garden center early last summer, I was stunned to see little citrus plants. So, of course, I bought a lemon plant and a lime plant, because why not give it a try? Living in a Rust Belt state, growing citrus never crossed my mind. As the summer progressed, I kept them in big pots on the full-shade part of the yard. When the evenings started to get cooler, I knew it was time to bring them inside and place them on a shelf under a sun-facing window. As of Christmas, they were flowering. I can’t wait to get them back outside to see where this growing adventure takes me.
As summer turns into fall, I add a few fall crops, such as peas and beans, to some pots. I dig up the potatoes and store them in brown bags in a separate section of the basement to keep them cool.
As I continue to learn from the yard, I’m incorporating some flowering bulbs. Last fall, a friend had some extra bulbs that she had no place to plant. As luck would have it, I had a little hill that was perfect for the bulbs, which included daffodils, tulips, and hyacinth. The splash of color that came up in spring was such an amazing complement to the yard. I also grew some wildflowers to give pollinators more places to rest and replenish.
This year, I’m including beekeeping. I’ve researched, studied, and learned. Now, I’ll be a proud keeper of bees. Creating a self-sufficient oasis for bees, birds, butterflies, and my family is a work in progress. A working oasis.
Throughout my 30 years of gardening, I’ve learned through trial and error, failures, and successes. Through it all, I’ve kept a journal and records of what worked and what didn’t, and possible reasons for each crop turnout. Journals, notes, and even calendars to record planting dates are all essential gardening tools for me.
Heidi, via email
Protect Tomatoes from Squirrels
I’ve had trouble with squirrels eating my tomatoes. Protecting the whole plant with fencing or netting is laborious and makes both harvesting and fall cleanup more difficult. Now, I repurpose berry boxes for protection just where it’s needed, snapping the plastic carton around each tomato or cluster of cherry tomatoes. The gap between the lid and bottom provides space for the stem. That, along with the other slits, allow for pollinators and airflow so moisture doesn’t build up. The boxes are easy to remove when needed, but otherwise, the snaps hold tight. I haven’t had a squirrel get in yet!
Kara, Illinois
Free Chicken Food
All summer long, I gather apples, plums, and apricots that fall from my fruit trees and aren’t salvageable for other use. I drop these bags into an old chest freezer to have on hand to toss to my chickens each day in winter for a healthy and entertaining treat that lasts for hours.
Andrew, Oregon
Greenhouse on the Cheap
Although I live on a small urban plot, I still try to grow a significant amount of food while spending as little as possible. I repurposed a plastic tub with no lid into a mini greenhouse. I put a layer of bricks down to give it some thermal mass, set my seedlings in pots on top of the bricks, and then put the plastic tub upside down over all of it. My arugula is doing well, even though we’ve had below-freezing temperatures and hard frosts. This is the easiest small-space greenhouse setup I’ve ever had. And it was zero cost, because I already had the bricks and tub on hand!
Karen, California
Repurposed Rake
I used to keep my dog leashes hanging on two nails by the back door. This meant sorting through the leashes to find the one I needed. I found this old rake head at a thrift store and replaced the nails with it. Now, the leashes hang beside each other, and it’s easy to find the one I want. This is so handy I plan to put one in the barn.
Marilyn, Oregon
We Pay for Top Tips
Do you have handy home, farm, or garden advice? We’ll pay you $25 for each tip we publish, plus another $25 if we use your photos. So, send your niftiest tips to us at Letters@MotherEarthNews.com.
