My broody hen's reaction to strange chicks has been panic--as if they have suddenly been thrust into another hen's nest full of chicks, and any minute the REAL momma is going to return and give them a trouncing. I HAVE had luck with having a broody hen who hatched out three chicks accept 4 more chicks the next day that I hatched from the incubator. As each one hatched I placed it under her, while taking one of her dud eggs away. They are at this minute 1 week old and progressing normally, momma is great. :) Here's what might work: let her brood some eggs for a few days, then one NIGHT while she is asleep and groggy, without turning on any lights (or as few as possible), gently and quietly slip the eggs out and the chicks under her. When done make things dark and quiet again so she'll settle down and sleep (babies too). But stay close and keep an ear out for screaming chicks if she isn't fooled, and have a brooder box standing by that night and well into the next day or so just in case. That may fool her into thinking she's hatched them. Needless to say, the chicks need to be very young, freshly hatched or just a few days old--no older, feathered out chicks. Just today I had ANOTHER banty hen go broody--one of my little old lady cochin girls, who really is too old for that kind of nonsense. Now I have 8 broodies! *whimper* Velvet ~:>

Thanks for the info. It sounds like the growth is a good thing (it is growing from the top of the tree and not the rootstock). It has continued to grow and it approximately 24" tall now. It is coming directly out of the top of the tree and straight up, so I think I will keep it around. Until now, the tree had mostly grown out instead of up. I had planned to repot the tree in the next few weeks, so hopefully my much bigger tree will be happy in its much bigger pot. I don't know why it picked now in the middle of winter while sitting in a mostly shady alcove to explode, but I'm not complaining.

Quite often, bare roots dry out before they have a chance to develop the feeder roots so they can absorb sufficient water. Grab a bag of planting mix and dump it over the rose so you bury the green canes almost their entire length. Keep that mound of soil over the plant damp when you water until new growth begins showing, when you can gradually uncover the plant. You can make cylinders of card board or many layers of news paper stapled into the size cylinder necessary to permit filling it with soil so only the top two or so inches of the canes are exposed. Water into the cylinder so the contained soil remains damp. It isn't necessary every time to mound newly planted bare roots like this, but where it's likely to be windy, arid, warm, brilliantly sunny where the plant is going to have to battle being pushed into growth too early before it can generate roots, it helps greatly. It's the same theory as planting the callused, wrapped cuttings deeply in pots or cups to prevent them from drying out or being pushed into too early growth before they can grow roots. Bare root body bags used to have those instructions on them. It's been so long since I've even looked at rose a body bag, I don't know if they're still there or not. The main causes of bare root failure are receiving or buying dried out, nearly dead plants and exposing them to desiccating conditions without proper protection against drying out before they can grow roots. Trevor Griffiths, the nurseryman from New Zealand, wrote in one of his books of people who would bring back "dead" bare roots. He would bury them under soil to rehydrate them then pot them to take to speaking engagements to show how "dead" they were. I frequently bought "dead" returned bare roots for fifty cents from work years ago because I knew I could bury them a few weeks, then plant and nearly every one of them lived to become decent plants. It honestly IS hard to kill a rose...as long as you know what you're doing. Kim

Not sure what I should do. First time gardening and didnt realize cucumber plants grew so fast and big. Please suggest what i should do. Cut them? Move all my tomatoe plants which are approx 4 feet or less??