Congratulations on the new birds. If both your chicks turn out to be males, they will tussle, but only a little. It won't take long for one to establish himself as Boss and the other will; be second in command. They'll more than likely end up patrolling together, the dominant male will breed a hen first, then the second in command. (if he's lucky). Otherwise, #2 will try to woo away a few hens for himself. But they won't be having very many (if any) knockdown, drag out bloody battles once they've established the pecking order. You don't need any roosters to get eggs, but you do need them if you want chicks. You can also run the boys with the girls, it's actually interesting the way the males take care of "their" ladies, watching out for danger, calling them over to eat first when they find a treat. The hens will seek him out and want to hang around him all day. But, if the two males start seriously ganging up on one or two hens, or spend all their time chasing girls and breeding, then you can get rid of one of them. One rooster can easily take care of at least ten hens, but I wouldn't keep more than two roosters per dozen hens because they'll harass the ladies constantly and you'll end up with fewer eggs unless you keep them in separate breeding pens.

Hi Whiteoakian - gardening brings me much solace and joy too. A few thoughts on your questions... 1) Mostly I avoid tape. Duct tape is difficult to get off; clear plastic tape works okay when container is bone dry, but is still difficult to remove; masking tape probably wouldn't stay adhered to plastic containers. 2) My best guess is that the only seeds that need to be sowed early, are seeds that require cold stratification (or warm-cold). I can't think of any annuals that require it, so there's no need to sow any earlier than the temps they would normally sprout. Some annuals are very cold hardy, like Poppies and Snapdragons, so you can sow those pretty early 4) I've tried many different ways of making holes - an awl, ice pick, drill, and soldering iron. Haven't really found any easy way yet! 5) I have a Sowing Chart - I keep records on seed germination tests, Winter sowing, & Direct sowing...this year I've already sowed 3 containers (2 trees and 1 shrub) I guess that would be fall sowing. It is an Excel chart and looks like this. I've made a few edits since this pic. You or anyone else is welcome to a copy of blank chart -

Hey steve. it is a bit quiet this time of year. things pick up around fall and early spring when everyone who has to overwinter trees is dealing with bugs, leaf drop, lack of sun, re-potting, etc. is this happening on the older leaves. I have an armstrong satsuma mandarin that will brown on half then die off on the oldest leaves. mike

Mark, You're welcome. I can't say if the small habanero peppers on your plants are likely to ripen before frost because there's no way to know when your first frost will occur. In the 12 years we've lived in southern OK, our first frost has occurred as early as Sept. 29th (I think that was in either 1999 or 2000) and as late as December 17th or 18th around 2005 or so. However, the first frost is normally in early November for much of the state, so your peppers have a chance of maturing. There are a couple of ways to give the green habs a chance to mature if a frost or freeze is forecast for your area and you are pretty sure your plants are about to die: (1) You can pull up the plants, roots and all, and hang them upside down in a non-freezing location, like in a closet, a tornado shelter or a well-insulated outbuilding like a barn or garage. The plants likely will drop leaves, but the peppers often stay on the plant and color up/finish maturing over a period of several weeks. (This often works with tomato plants that have small bite-sized tomatoes too.) (2) You can harvest all the peppers, placing them in a single layer on a cookie sheet or small cardboard box (like the flat boxes cases of bottled water come in, for example) lined with newspaper. They can be very close to one another but not touching one another to allow good air flow. Place in a cool, dry location where humidity does not fluctuate wildly, and they often will mature and color up over a period of days, but generally won't last as long as peppers on a plant treated as described in item (1) above. (3) You can dig up the plants, place in a pot with a high-quality soilless potting mix and bring them inside the house or place them in a warm sunny location like a patio where they can continue to receive sunlight and heat during the day and can be carried inside at night to avoid freezing weather. With peppers, I've been doing a little experimentation with overwintering them in pots in my insulated but unheated garage to see if I get earlier production from plants that are more than 1 year old. So far, it seems I do. Last year, a potted red sweet bell pepper overwintered successfully despite dropping all its leaves following a night when the lows dropped into the single digits either in late Dec. or early January. It began leafing out again within a few days of the leaf drop, bloomed and had formed small fruit by latest January or earliest February. I began harvesting those red sweet bells beginning in late April, which I think is before I even had my new pepper plants in the ground. All I did was keep it in our large barn-style garage, dragging it out into the sunlight on warm days and leaving it inside the garage on cold days and cold nights. I pretty much took it inside on all nights even if they weren't forecast to drop down into freezing temps because I knew the deer would eat the potted pepper plants if I left them out at night. I have some pepper plants that are now 3 years old in pots and they produce very early harvests----generally producing mature peppers before Memorial Day. So far I've done this with ornamental peppers of all kinds, jalapeno peppers, fish pepper (a variegated hot pepper that's great for a fermented pepper sauce) and several kinds of sweet bell and non-bell peppers. This year I intend to overwinter some habanero peppers if I manage to dig them up and pot them up before our first frost. I am not sure why your habaneros were so slow to produce this year. I planted my orange habanero plants in May (I am sure it was not earlier than May because we had a temp of 39 degrees and patchy frost on May 3, 2010, for about the 3rd or 4th year in a row, so I no longer set out pepper plants before about May 5th thru 10th at the earliest) and was harvesting ripe, orange habaneros in July. I was, in fact, a little shocked that they matured so early, but suspect the beastly heat/drought/heat indices in June pushed them to mature quickly. You know what, as I was typing that I did have a thought on pepper production. Hot peppers are not affected negatively by high heat as sweet peppers often are, but they are negatively affected by high humidity. That could explain late pollination/fertilization/fruit set. If I were you and I wanted habs this year, I'd carefully dig up the plants soon, put them in pots with good soil and put them in a sunny location that stays hot. In my particular case, I'd put them on the concrete apron alongside the south-facing garage wall so they could soak up heat and light not only from the sun but also reflected heat/sunlight from the south-facing wall and the concrete apron. If cold threatens, carry them inside to protect them. Often, you know, we'll have a cold night or two in Oct. or Nov., and then it will be followed by another 4 to 6 weeks of decent gardening weather. You also could leave the plants in the ground and cover them up REALLY well anytime forecast lows are expected to drop below 40 degrees. When I want to cover up a plant under those conditions, I put a 5 gallon or larger bucket over it and then put a big sleeping bag or old comforter over the bucket. You have to remember to uncover them in the morning though, or they can roast in the heat once the sun comes up. Dawn