Saturday, March 16, 2013

Scratching and Clawing My Way Out

Looking at the date of my last post, I see to my amazement that I've taken a nice LONG winter break.  But spring is in the air, and I am going to claw my way out of my winter blogging den and try to get back on task.  So, I thought the easiest way to do that would be to bring you up-to-date on some of my animals.














Big Boy; A beautiful rooster, and he was great with the girls, but he and I just could not get along.  It got to where I had to carry a small rake with me to fend him off whenever I stepped out the back door.  Big Boy was my first meat chicken.  I got teary-eyed when I did the deed.  It's hard taking a life, and it certainly causes one to take a moment and give reverence to the food on your plate.

















I got this motley crew of birds about a month or so ago, and they will be my first intentional venture into meat birds.  Wow, eight whole birds.  Don't go overboard!  Really, I like to start things slow and get used to something before I jump in whole hog.  The girls will be kept for eggs, and the boys will go to freezer camp. 


 
This is Belinda, our new American Chinchilla doe.  She will be one of my breeder rabbits for meat.  I had her bred before the breeder brought her so I would have a separate gene line from her babies.  Well, she had one baby!  She took excellent care of it, and let me tell you, it was fat, fat, fat!  I will be breeding Belinda again soon.  Hopefully she'll give me more than one baby next time.



This is Belinda's Baby.  Can you believe she is only a few months old?  I told you she was a healthy girl.  We're keeping her, which will give me three American Chinchilla does for breeding when she comes of age.  

 
This is Buck Nasty, my new American Chinchilla buck.  Okay, Nate named him after a charactor on Dave Chapelle's Show.  When I first got him and Belinda, I was showing the pedigrees to Nate and I told him that the boy rabbit at the time was only called Buck and that he needed a name.  Well, Buck Nasty has stuck so far, but I told Nate I didn't know if I wanted to put that on a pedigree.  So, we'll see.

 
This is a litter belonging to Bunny and Jack, my other two American Chinchilla rabbits.  They are starting to venture out of the nest box, so it's fun to watch them frolic together.  They are my first meat litter for this year.      

Well, that's it, folks.  Thanks for being patient and sticking around and checking up on me!

Happy homesteading,

Candace

10 comments:

  1. So glad to see you back! I'm new to your blog. Read ALL your posts and I'm inspired to try some new things this year in my garden.

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    1. Thanks for reading all of my posts. I'm impressed! Good luck with your garden. I would love to hear what you try.

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  2. Rabbits for meat is one I'd love to try but I think I need to lessen the numbers on the fields first! glad your back!

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    1. Thanks. Last year was my first year with meat rabbits, and I didn't know how I would feel about having them. They're great animals, and they finish out so quickly. I've found I prefer eating rabbit over chicken.

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  3. Candace, so glad you're back to blogging! I'd say 8 chickens is pretty much jumping in, unless you end up with only one rooster. :) Speaking of not-so-nice roosters, we had the same situation with the same result. I really like seeing your rabbits too.

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    1. I feel sure at least 3 of them are roos and I was estimating having at least 4, so it will be a good learning experience and will add some meat to to the freezer. Next time I hope to increase the numbers.

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  4. I found your blog last week, and finally read through every post! Thank you so much for sharing your journey!

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    1. You're welcome! And, wow, thanks for reading every post!

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  5. The rabbitsare so cuteand good luck with meat chickens that'd are goal next year, so would love to see how itworks for you:)

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    1. Thanks! I love having rabbits. I would probably like more meat chickens next time, but these were given to me, so I can't complain.

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