And...... We're Back To Cages

As you know I recently decided to move my does to our barn, which is really just a series of 4 enclosed stalls.  You can read about it here.

About two weeks ago, Bunny gave birth to eight beautiful kits, finishing out my kindling for the time being.  At the time, I had 9 four week old kits with Zelda, 9 two week old kits with Mimi, and Bunny's newborn kits.  One day last week something told me to go check on everyone, so I started with Bunny's stall.  As you can see, she has a fabulous covered nest box with a hinged door.  She built a beautiful nest and things were going swimmingly.

When I lifted up the door, this is what I found, a big fat beautiful black rat snake.

It was coiled around the nest.  I freaked!  I ran and grabbed a rake and poked at it until it slid to the back of the nest where it is in the photo.  I started frantically pulling back fur to find babies.  I only found four of the eight.  There were three days' old and the perfect size for snake snacking.  One of them was slimy as if the snake had started eating it but spit it out.  Everyone was gathered and put in a nest box and along with Bunny, put in a cage.

I then went to Mimi's cage to gather her two week old kits, and they were not in their kennel.  I think I almost had a heart attack.  But, I pulled the kennel away from the wall and they were all piled up atop one another asleep behind the kennel.  I gathered them and Mimi and also put them in a cage. At two weeks' old, they were still a great size for a snake to tackle.

Even though Zelda's babies were four weeks old, I put them and Zelda in a cage as well, just to be safe.

My nerves were shot by then, and even though I knew it was non-venomous, I didn't want to tackle capturing the snake by myself.  Neither my husband nor my neighbor were home, so I let it hang out where it was.  If I were a drinking person, a good stiff one would have been next on the agenda.

I wiped off the kit that was slimy and I worried that moving Bunny and her nest would confuse her and maybe she would not know where her kits were.  Fortunately I had some of her fur saved from her last litter, so I lined the nest with it and covered the kits.  The next day I saw her feeding the kits so I knew she knew where they were; however, the one kit did not look like it had eaten.  So I took it out of the cage along with Bunny and held her while it nursed.  I did this for a few days to make sure it was eating.  It is growing so I know it's being fed, but it's not growing at the rate of the other ones. Honestly I don't know if it was a runt to start with or if maybe the snake damaged it in some way, but it is active and its eyes opened on schedule.

We've had several cool, rainy days lately and a few mornings ago, I went out to feed and water everyone and it was on the cage floor, out of the nest box, barely moving, likely dying from hypothermia.  I brought it inside and warmed it up and put it back in the nest box.  I checked on it later and it was warm and snuggled up with its litter mate.  It was probably still attached to Bunny when she finished feeding and got pulled out of the box with her.  I will give it credit; it's a survivor!

They should hit two weeks' old in a few days, and at that point, they will start to munch on hay and get their legs under them.  I'll be curious to see how it progresses from there.

So, back to the snake.  It hung around the stall for a while and left at some point.  I'm sure it didn't go far being weighted down with rabbit kits.  Non-venomous snakes serve a valuable role in our eco-system.  They provide rodent control and protect their territory from venomous snakes.  I would never kill a non-venomous snake.  In this situation, I have only myself to blame.  I set up a perfect buffet for that snake.  Because my stalls are predator proof in terms of raccoons and opposums, I never imagined a snake causing havoc, even though it makes perfect sense.  I know we have snakes as I see them every year and occasionally they eat some of my eggs.

So for the last week, I've been very diligent about collecting eggs as soon as possible.  And low and behold, I went to put up the chickens one evening and found a grey rat snake in the chicken coop.  It had indulged on one of my eggs, so Nate loaded it up in the truck and took it down to the canal and released it.  I hated relocating it but I also don't want it eating all of my eggs.  I'm sure the black rat snake is still around so I know we still have a snake coverage.

Zelda's babies just hit six weeks and have pretty good size to them now, so I plan to move them and Zelda back to one of the stalls once it stops raining non-stop.  And, I'll do the same with each subsequent litter until I figure out how to snake-proof the stalls.  I won't be breeding again until the fall so I have some time to work on it.

Happy homesteading,

Candace

By the Phase of the Moon

I seem to be writing more about the rabbits than anything else lately although I do have other things happening.  I suppose the reason is because I have been giving them more attention than I normally do in terms of bettering my rabbitry and getting better breeding results.  Several months ago I came across the practice of breeding by the phases of the moon.  And it started with this blog post.

I was tired of trying to get my does in the mood as they never seemed to want to lift for my bucks, no matter who I paired with whom.  So, I decided to try this idea of breeding by the moon cycle.  The first full moon for me at that point was February 2nd.  I put Zelda in with Buck Nasty, and she immediately lifted.  I've never had a doe lift so quickly.  And she lifted for him several times.  Today she is the mama of a beautiful litter of nine kits.  Now according to legend since I bred her on the full moon, she should have more bucks than does in her litter.  

  

The new moon was on February 18th, so I decided to breed Mimi on this day.  She also immediately lifted and Jack was able to get more than one fall off.  She gave birth several days ago and built one of the prettiest nests I've ever seen.  Because they are tucked in the back of the dog crate I haven't counted them yet.  But when I stick my hand down in the crate I can feel the warmth radiating off them and when I lift the fur, they pop up and down like popcorn kernels, so I know they are okay. Since she was bred on the new moon, she should have more does in her litter.    

My last breeding was Bunny on the full moon of March 4th.  She didn't lift immediately but she did lift and she tends to be slightly stubborn so we'll see what happens with her.  She is due starting next week.  

I do know when I see a full moon, but other than that, I'm not one who can tell the difference between a waning or waxing moon or even know when there's a new moon, so I've been using the Farmers' Almanac website to schedule my breedings.

Now, if you really want to get crazy and even determine the quality of your bucks and does, you can breed based on the moon phases combined with the zodiac calendar.  This post does a great job of explaining that.

So here is to some successful breeding by the phase of the moon.  

Happy homesteading,

Candace

  

Feeding Rabbits Naturally

Within the last 18 months, I've transitioned my animals off commercial feed.  It's full of GMOs, and I want nothing to do with them.  I wrote about the chickens here.  But I have also transitioned my rabbits to a whole grain mix, forage, and hay.  One of my goals this year on the homestead is to beef up my rabbit forage in the yard.  There are already several native weeds and cultivated perrenial plants growing in and around my yard that the rabbits love.  I just have to harvest them.  Some of them are

Henbit

Purple Dead Nettle

Dandelion

Wild Violet

White Clover

Plantain

Yarrow

Comfrey

My rabbits also get to take advantage of my garden plants, like basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, marigolds, borage, mint, lemon balm. thyme, echinacea, fennel, various greens, and carrot tops.  They get clippings from the thornless blackberry brambles and the willow and apple trees.

Though these plants/weeds grow wild in my area, I don't have any in my yard, so I bought seeds this year to grow them.

Purslane

Sorrel

Stinging Nettle

Whenever I get the opportunity I put my rabbits out to forage for themselves.  This is my rabbit run area, and I plant it with PlotSpike Clover Blend, a deer forage.  I like this blend because it does not contain any rapeseed, which is the basis for canola, another GMO product.  While this photo does not show forage, the one below it is the same area once I seeded it.  It was full of clover and other good weeds.  Not only does letting the rabbits forage save me time, but it gives them the change to exercise and dig holes and be rabbits.  

I also cut out the bottoms of some old rabbit cages and am able to move them around to different areas of my yard for additional forage.

One plant I really hope to get going this year is Moringa.  It is a powerhouse of nutrients and will be an excellent protein source for the rabbits.  My region is borderline on successfully growing it, so we'll see how it goes.

If you want a more extensive list of rabbit safe plants, vegetables, and fruit, take a look at this one.

Rabbit Safe Plants, Fruits, and Vegetables
 
Some of what I grow is considered medicinal so I always check this list if I'm unsure of what I'm feeding, especially with nursing does as some of these can impact milk flow.

Medicinal Herbs for Rabbits

As always, when introducing a new food, do it gradually!  Rabbits have very sensitive digestive systems and even a small amount may be too much for your rabbit.

I'll leave you with some of my grow-outs munching at the bunny salad bar.

 













Happy homesteading,

Candace

The Babies of Bottle Tree Farm

This has definitely been the year of babies on the farm! Rabbits and chicks and ducklings, oh my! 

In December/January, Bunny and Sophia gave us seven and eight kits respectively.  I sold a few and kept one, but the rest are gracing our table. 

I fell in love with Mimi and decided to keep her.  She's only five months old, but isn't she a big girl already!

In March, Belinda gave me two kits.  Not the best litter in the world in terms of numbers, but they sure were cuties. 

Belinda's litter consisted of a buck and a doe.  I sold the buck and traded the doe for this cutie patootie.  She is part Silver Fox, New Zealand, and Californian, so she should be a big girl as well.  I've only had her a few days, so I haven't chosen a name yet.  I have some good options rolling around in my head though.



A few weeks ago, Vanilli, our super mama hen, hatched out ten chicks.  This is her third year hatching eggs, and she is the best!  And, I have two more broody hens sitting on six eggs each.  This year should be my best one yet for putting chicken in the freezer. 

We got Muscovy ducks late last year, so this is my first year of duck eggs.  I was advised to let the duck eggs collect and that the ducks would know when the time is right to go broody.  Well, the chickens kept trying to go broody on the duck eggs, so I thought for sure they had gotten the clock going on incubation and nothing was going to happen because they were on and off the nest.  Finally Coco, my chocolate hen, decided to get in on the action and she took over.  Out of 26 eggs, 13 hatched.  We've lost two, so we are down to 11.  I think she either stepped on them, because I saw her step on one a time or two, or our drake had something to do with their deaths.  I saw him pick up one in his bill one day and shake it.  I saved that one, and since then I have kept them separated.  All of the ducklings are slated for processing in the fall, but things could change between now and then.

Between rabbits, chickens and ducklings, my freezer should be overflowing.  I couldn't be more proud!  We don't eat meat everyday, but when we do, it's with reverence, gratitude and appreciation.

As a side note, I invite you to like Bottle Tree Farm on Facebook to witness the day-to-day activities on the farm. 

Happy homesteading,

Candace

Ever Evolving

It seems like it has been forever and a day since I last posted.  We've had some major projects happening here so I've been busier than a one-armed paper hanger lately.  If I've said it once, I've said it one thousand times.  I am always looking for ways to make my space more efficient.  Therefore, I am always assessing whether a project done in the past works for me today, especially as I expand, and how a project on my to-do list will make things run a little more smoothly.  Late winter to early spring seems to be our time for big projects.  I don't have too much going in the garden and it's not 100 degrees outside.

So, here is a run-down of this year's projects.

The GA Henitentiary came down.  The run portion was in prime growing territory, and since I made the decision a few years ago to move all of the animals to the back half of the yard, having animal housing here just didn't make sense anymore.  Plus the termites were having a field day with it, and it was only a matter of time before it came down on its own. 

In its place went a new 10x12 greenhouse.  Doing this opened up the bed where the run used to be and also freed up my smaller greenhouse, which is actually in the animal yard, for feed storage.  This greenhouse was almost grounds for divorce at our house!  Ha, ha!  It will have to last forever because Nate will NEVER construct one for me again. 

And, as if the greenhouse wasn't a big enough chore, it was followed by another whopper.  What was originally my rabbitry and then storage was converted to a four stall barn.  This was my major expansion project for this year giving me greater versatility in animal housing.  The raccoons had figured out that the lattice was easily ripped off and they were helping themselves to the feed, removing the lids from the containers, and making a huge mess in the process. I was limited by the henitentiary because I could only grow-out one rabbit litter at a time.  Now I can breed more than one rabbit at once and not worry about grow-out space.  Plus, it gives me the option for separating animals when needed.  The really fun part of this was digging out all of the stalls to a foot depth, in the Georgia clay mud I might add, laying down chicken wire and stapling it around the perimeter and then back filling with mulch.  The mulch has been wonderful for providing drainage.  Because of the density of the clay and the high water table of this area, it was always muddy.  I've noticed a huge difference now after a big rain storm.  The chicken wire serves two purposes, to keep predators from digging in and baby bunnies from digging out.  By the way, a stackable organizer from the Dollar Tree flipped sideways and screwed to the wall makes an excellent hay feeder.

Since I lost my feed storage area, my old 6x8 greenhouse became my feed storage shed.  Nate finished the shelving for it, and it is perfect.  It sits in deep shade during the summer so with the ventilation windows and the door open during the day, I'm not too concerned about the feed getting too hot.

And, here are a few photos of the animal yard as it is today.  The rabbits are to the right.  My feed storage is above that.  The chicken coop is just behind the barn.  I'm digging it!

Happy homesteading,


Candace 

It's Pinterest's Fault

I remember a time when I told a friend, "I don't have time to add another thing to my list."  This was my response to her question about why I had not joined Pinterest.  I caved and joined and sold my soul to the virtual pinboard.  I recently joked to a friend that if I could knit as quickly as I pinned, I would be AMAZING!  I live in a small house, so Pinterest is a hoarder's dream tucked away in cyberspace.  It doesn't clutter my house with pages torn from magazines never to be looked at again, until I decide to get rid of the clutter in my house.  It feeds my OCD need for organization.  Pre-Pinterest, I would see an idea and think, "I want to do that."  Then I would forget it as soon as I saw the next clever idea.  Much to the chagrin of Nate, the ideas I've pinned have stuck, and I've actually done some of them.  One day, he was loading a pallet into the bed of his truck, and he said a co-worker just looked at him and asked, "Pinterest?"  Nate said he just nodded and threw the pallet into the bed.

A few months ago Nate built a new rabbitry for me.  I know, he just built one for me a year ago, but it didn't work for several reasons.  I hated the cage over cage set-up because of the poop boards, which just did not seem sanitary no matter how often I cleaned them, and the arrangement of the cages, which were either too high or too low for me to reach into comfortably.  Plus the height of the lower cages made cleaning beneath them difficult.  The old rabbitry is now being used for storage, which I desparately needed, so no great loss with some small gain.  I love my new rabbitry, and the cages hang so the poop and urine fall straight to the ground, and I can adjust them to a height that works for me. 

I've composted for years, but I've never had a great system.  One day, I was trolling Pinterest and I came across the idea of building compost bins under the rabbit cages.  Compost bins under my rabbit cages?  You don't say?  I do say, and I did!  Operation Compost Bins has been in full force and effect the past two weekends.  The backs and sides are 1/2" hardware cloth and the fronts are boards that fall into the slot with screws in each board to keep it slightly apart from the board below it.  The boards can be stacked close to the bottoms of the cages.  The chickens are already checking it out.  (You can click on any photo for a larger view.)

Another idea I recently found is growing celery from the cut base.  I never buy celery because I don't use much of it, and tf always goes bad before I can use it all.  Well, what do you think appeared in the compost box I get each week from the grocery store?  You got it, celery.  It was pretty limp and old, but I thought what the heck.  After about a week of sitting in a tray of water in the greenhouse, both pieces started growing from the center, and I potted them this weekend.

And, the next time Nate gives me the look when I broach a new project to him, I'm going to say, "It's Pinterest's fault."

Happy homesteading,

Candace

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

Protecting Your Animals and Human Error

Try as we might, we can't always protect our animals.  Weather and predators play a huge role, but at some point, human error comes into play as well.  Human error is the hardest to accept.

We are in the middle of a heat wave.  Yesterday at 5:00 p.m. my car thermometer registered 110.  At 9:00 p.m. the temperature was still 100, and the low last night I think was around 80.  Right now, at 1:35 p.m. it's 101, and the high is expected to be 105.  Tomorrow is expected to hit 103. 

At times like this, I am so thankful for the technology we have to predict the weather.  In anticipation of this week, I plucked Olivia and Blue Moon, my angora rabbits, and trimmed them down to the skin.  All of the rabbits got frozen 2 liter water bottles in their cages yesterday while I was at work.  The rabbit shed is in deep shade, so I know that helps.  They all made it through yesterday.  Today I am repeating the frozen water bottles, and I've brought Olivia and Blue Moon inside. 

The chickens seem to be holding their own against the weather; however, we lost our Pearl this week.  We are so sad because she was one of our original two chicks when we first started keeping chickens over 3 years ago.  She was the end of our beginning, and I love to say she was one tough bird.  She was our special needs chicken who hobbled around the animal yard on her deformed talon.  She got special preference from us.  She survived two night attacks when we were new to chicken keeping and a hawk attack.  We saved her about two weeks ago from drowning when the coop flooded.  She seemed to have as many lives as a cat.  So, to lose her because of our mistake is especially brutal to take.  We forgot to close the coop door last Sunday night and a night predator got her.  Only once before have we forgotten to lock them up at night, and that was at the beginning of our chicken keeping experience.  We could chalk that up to a beginner's mistake, but after three years, we have no excuse.  We just plain forgot.  And, because of her disability she would not have been able to run from it.  

RIP Pearl. We're sorry, and we love you.

Candace



Well, I Did It

Our little farm has raised its first meat.  Or rather, I should say I've raised our first meat.  No one thought I had it in me, including myself.  Nate said he didn't want to have anything to do with it.  And he didn't.  I reminded him that he spent hours fishing while growing up and that he cleaned and ate the fish he caught, but to him that isn't the same because he didn't know those fish.  True, but he still took life.  He didn't know the rabbits either.  He wasn't the one who fed, watered and petted them daily.  I don't blame him or think any less of him.  I certainly can't sit in judgement of him, because up until the moment, I didn't know if I could do it. 

Slaughtering an animal for food, especially one that you've raised, takes not only physical preparedness, but also mental preparedness.  The physical preparedness was no problem.  I knew I could assemble everything I needed to do the job.  The mental preparedness was a little more difficult to wrap my mind around.  To prepare myself, I watched videos online, I read the Rabbit chapter of Novella Carpenter's "Farm City," and I went and sat with the rabbits and thought long and hard about the task at hand.  I thought of my beekeeping too.  Some days when it's hot and sticky outside, like today, I really don't want to put on all of my equipment and go check the beehive.  I know I'm going to sweat and the potential is there for getting stung.  I hate getting stung.  But, I know I have to check the hive for several reasons, mainly the health and maintenance of the hive.  So, I do it.  I go outside, and I get the job done.  So, if I sometimes hate checking the hive, why keep bees?  For the pleasure and reward I get when I extract honey.  Several of my friends told me before I slaughtered the rabbits that they would only do something like that if they were starving and they had no other choice.  If it boils down to choice, I feel like I have no other choice.  I have grave concerns about the meat industry and how it treats its animals, and while I've been a vegetarian in the past, I enjoy eating meat.  So, the answer to my dilemma was to raise my own.

On the day at hand, Nate's friend, Aaron, came over with his two kids to help.  He has experience with rabbits, so I felt like he would be the best person for the job of helping me.  What amazed me was the reaction of his two kids, a son and daughter.  They were fascinated with the process.  I mentioned to Aaron my awe, and he said he had been talking to them all week about it.  I like to think they embraced it in their childhood innocence because they haven't been stigmatized yet by the void the meat industry and society have created with regard to how an animal is raised for the table.  We are so separated from this experience that all most of us knows is the packaged meat at the grocery store that looks nothing like the animal itself.  I'm honored and humbled to have had this experience, and just like when I eat a vegetable I've grown myself or an egg one of my chickens has laid, I felt equally so when we ate the first rabbit because I know what it took to raise it in a clean healthy environment, to show reverence for a life, and to dispatch it humanely and with thanks.

Happy homesteading,

Candace     

Truck Rally Anyone?

We've been getting some good rain lately, and for that I've been very thankful.  It has taken the pressure off of me to keep everything watered and the garden is looking lush and green.  Until Sunday, the rain has been just enough but not too much.  The animal yard sits in the low part of our yard and a few days of rain makes it wet and somewhat muddy, but nothing too bad.  Well, Sunday was a nightmare.  It had already been raining throughout the week, but the bottom fell out on Sunday.  I'm talking serious flash flood rain.  I was putting everyone up for the evening when it really let go, and I mentioned to Nate that I saw some standing water in the coop, which I had never seen before.  At the point where our front ditch started flooding, I asked Nate to go out and check on everyone.  He was gone for longer than I expected, so I went outside to make sure he was okay.  He had been digging a drainage hole in the coop because it had filled with water.  The worst part is he found Pearl, our handicapped chicken, up to her neck in the water.  She can't get up high on the roost like the rest of the birds, so she stays on the bottom rung.  I guess the water overwhelmed her and she couldn't even get on the bottom rung.  She was close to drowning.  We brought her inside and put her in the bathtub  with a heat lamp over her.  She was soaking wet and shivering.  I thought if she makes it through the night, she's going to have some respiratory issues, so I went ahead and put some VetRx in some water for her.  The next morning I awoke to her clucking in the bathroom.  She is one tough bird!  So far she seems to be fine; however, the animal yard isn't.  It rained again most of Monday, and yesterday was clear, but it rained again last night.  Enough already!  The animal yard is a serious mud bog right now.  We could hold a major league truck rally.  Bigfoot?  You out there?  You want to have some fun, boy?  Since the yard is pretty shady, it's going to take several days to dry out.  Until then, I'll have to sink in the mud. 

Oh, and today is the day the meat rabbits will be harvested.  Stay tuned!

Happy homesteading,

Candace     

Sugar, Sugar, Ahhh, Honey Honey, Ahh, Bunny Bunny, Ahh, Berry Berry

We're going into our third year of beekeeping.  The first year was a total failure for several reasons.  We didn't even make it to winter with the two hives.  Last spring we started over with one hive and while we had some honey at the end of summer, we left it for the bees to help them through the winter.  I am pleased to say that over the last two weekends we have extracted our first honey.  We've processed one full super consisting of ten frames and four frames from another super.  We still have six frames in the 2nd super that are almost capped so we expect to harvest them in the near future.  Additionally we have another 10 frame super that is full of honey but yet to be capped.  I cannot express how utterly excited and pleased I am about this.  All of our frustration, disappointment, sweat, bee stings and tears have come to fruition in the form of 28 pints of honey so far.  We are averaging two pints per frame, so if we harvest the six frames that are almost capped, we should get another 10-12 pints of honey.

All of the angora babies have new homes.  I'm always sad to see them go, but I'm happy with the people who bought them so that makes the letting go easier.  Both of the does went to the same home, so they get to be sisters together.  The new owner emailed me a few days ago with photos and told me they have personalities plus.  She has named them Lucy and Ethel because of their craziness.  She said they have already been to show and tell for three different classes at school. 

the blue tort doe

   












the blue-pointed white doe (She was our absolute favorite, and I almost kept her.  I mean, look at that pose.  She knows she's cute.)

the blue-pointed white buck

This mess of bunnies is my first meat rabbit litter.  They just hit six weeks old and are growing well.  It's time to wean them from mama. 

Yesterday, I was given a huge bucket of organic strawberries, so canning season started early this year.  I put up (12) 12 oz. and (7) 8 oz. jars of Strawberry Ginger Jam today.  It is so freakin' delicious!  It has been ages since we had strawberry jam mainly because my strawberry growing skills are less than ideal, and I don't buy strawberries because I worry about the chemicals that have been used on them. 

That's it for now, folks!

Happy homesteading,

Candace

Playtime

One thing that is important to me is giving the rabbits an opportunity to exercise and play.  The old chicken run is the perfect arena for playtime.  Jack always has the best time when I put him in the run.  He frisks about and bucks like a little rodeo broncho.  He ricochets himself off the wall, and runs laps of utter joy.  But, his favorite activity by far is digging holes.  He never digs too deep, but even if he did, the whole run is surrounded by buried chicken wire and bricks.  He's not going anywhere, so I let him dig to his heart's content.  He is such a wonderful rabbit with the best personality.  Here are some photos I snapped yesterday.  If you want to see a close-up of a photo, just click on it and a slideshow will pop up.  Enjoy!



Happy homesteading,


Candace

Bunny's Babies

Pardon my absence, but work has been a literal nightmare lately.  It has totally sapped my energy and desire to do anything other than the basics and vegetating on the sofa.  Plus, getting those beds filled on top of everything else almost killed me.  Hopefully things are settling down now, and I can get back on the right path.

A few weeks ago, Bunny, my American Chinchilla rabbit gave birth to five kits.  I wasn't sure if she was pregnant, but I placed the nest box on day 28 anyway.  She did look rounder in the belly, but my only experience with pregnant rabbits is Olivia, and her wool totally disguises any belly roundness.  I also noticed Bunny moving the hay around in the nest box, and she ate plenty of it as well, so that really didn't help me decide.  I found her toys in the nest box more than once, so I thought she was playing around.  Then, one evening, when I was returning the angora kits to their mama, I noticed Bunny had totally outfitted her nest box with enough fur to choke a mule, and it was moving.  She didn't play around.  Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.  Her nest box was not like that a few hours prior. 

I've had Bunny for several months now, and I bought her as an adult.  I don't really know her background, but she has never warmed up to me.  She's not mean, just very timid around me.  Jack, my AC buck, whom I bought from the same place, also as an adult, is as friendly as can be.  So, knowing Bunny's timidness and not really wanting to stress her out too much, I left the kits alone and decided to check on them the next morning.  They were all fine the next day, and each morning since, I've been peaking in the nest box without touching them. 

I have trusted Bunny to be a good mama, and she has risen to the occasion.  I have pretty much left them alone until I needed to make sure their eyes opened.  So, here are the first pictures.  I have to say, they were really ugly until a few days ago. 

You will notice the fat white one on top of its siblings.  So I have four babies that look just like mama and daddy and one albino. 

I was curious about how a white one ended up in the mix, and while I know it's based on genetics because of my angoras, I didn't realize Bunny and Jack could produce a white baby.  The other four are the spitting image of mama and daddy.  Here is an interesting article on ruby-eyed whites and the genetics behind them.

http://www.fuzzylop.com/News_10_REW.htm

Technically, these are my first meat rabbits.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with them yet.  I may sell this bunch to help recuperate some of the cost of the rabbitry or even pay for the rest of the cages I need.  So, we'll see. 

Happy homesteading,

Candace