RABBIT KINDLING. BEFORE...AFTER...NOW WHAT?

Animal Husbandry.

Just the idea gives me butterflies in my growing baby bump. And no its not my second baby girl doing somersaults! 

The words take me to a nostalgic time of old fashioned men and women heading out to the barn in hope of what treasures they may find. The gift of new life and the promise of food to come for their families table. Oh the excitement of attempting to catch these mamas to be as they welcome their young into the world. I imagine old flannel blankets wrapped around an orphaned lamb, a proud first time cow cleaning her stumbling calve, or a farmer peaking into the nest in search of fresh hatch lings. The practice of breeding ones farm animals for production is an old and true trade.

As I stepped into my muck boots, tucking my sweat pants in oh so fashionably, I was overcome with excitement! Get me outside ASAP! I quickly tucked my messy bun into Carhartt hood as I strode outside. No matter what I'd find, I was looking good..... 

Okay, back to the task at hand...

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

after months of anticipation...........

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CHESTER IS FERTILE AFTER ALL!!! Now a daddy of seven New Zealand kits.

WOO HOO! I knew ya had it in ya buddy!

As many of our readers already know, on Tuesday we welcomed a bundle of new babies onto the homestead! They weren't as cute as some we've seen but they've certainly been anxiously and at times impatiently awaited. If you need a little background on my rabbit breeding mishaps check out this post! Quincy the rabbit pimp, the struggle is real.... trust me. Rabbits bredding like, well rabbits, was not as easily achieved as I anticipated. So, as you can guess I was more than insanely excited when my friend Lexi noticed our rabbit Belle had pulled a substantial amount of fur Monday afternoon..... You can also guess why the blog has been neglected this week....

DUDE!..... that's A LOT of fur......

Yessssssss!............ victory dance commencing.....

By the crack of dawn Tuesday morning we had 7 healthy kits. Squirmin' and a squeakin'! Since this is my first kindling experience I spent a matter of a few hours on Monday and Tuesday reading up on kindling and kit care. For those of you who don't know, to kindle is the act of the doe giving birth to kits, or baby rabbits. Just as cows calve, horses foal, sheep lamb, and rabbits kindle. So... I have all these kits... Now what?

Belle is a great mama, I was told this by her previous owner, and am happy to now be experiencing her calm and cool technique. She had no problem with me reaching right into the nest box to check her babies out. It is important to check for any cold or even dead kits, to either make an attempt at saving or be remove from the nest, if you don't the mama could eat them. It is imperative that the kits stay close together and properly insulated with enough of mamas fur and whatever bedding material you chose. We have been giving her fresh hay daily to maintain the nest and for intermittent munching. Bottomless food and fresh water are paramount for a nursing mama and provided daily, in addition to rations of alfalfa which we incorporated after the hair pulling was noticed.

This may seem crazy but does only nurse their young once or twice every 24 hours. The proteins in their milk increase with the age of the kits, giving them enough for energy and growth. Other than the daily checks I've been performing, and since Belle is an attentive mother, no interventions or special treatment of the kits is needed until weaning. In just 5 days of life, I have been amazed at how exponentially they grew from just one feeding a day. Born pink and virtually hairless, they are now getting whiter and accumulate more fur everyday. And boy are they ever getting cuter! For now I will just be doing my routine daily checks and let mama do her thing.

The babies eyes will open in a week or so (about 12 days old) and in just a few short weeks they will be jumping in and out of the nest box independently. At that time they will begin wandering out to eat some pellets and whatever leafy greens (fodder or weeds) I've given them. At 6 to 8  weeks the kits will be weaned and moved into their nursery where they will plumpen up for an additional 4 to 6 more weeks until proper butcher age. Their nursery will hopefully consist of whatever pastured pen we've thrown together to allow grazing on the tons of grass sprouting all over the property. Hopefully it will be devised to be moved to a new location daily. As you can see I've put great thought into it...... More on that later.

I'll post about here on the blog about all my haps and mishaps, let me be your trial run! It's always nice to watch someone else screw up so ya know what do avoid right?

And please by all means, feedback is warmly welcomed. Leave a comment or email me with your trial and error stories.

Fryer rabbit recipes???

Q

RABBIT MANURE TEA.

Sounds gross don't it?

Yeah yeah, well it is pure gold around this homestead!

Finding a fertilizer or composting agent that won't burn our plants but will also provide a good food source for them is key during these preparation months.

One great attribute of rabbit manure is that is is a cold manure. So, you can put it directly into your garden beds or onto your plants or via manure tea. The best part is, the process of obtaining manure is thoughtless. And better yet, the manure doesn't have much of an odor once its let to air dry, it can then easily be applied to indoor plants and not produce an odor.

Our rabbit hutches will soon hand a few feet off the ground so we simply situate Rubbermaid bins or a similar container below the hutches to catch the manure. At this point we simply move the cages out clean under and then replace them. New updated to the hutches coming very soon!!! It is fairly light weight manure when dry so we can let them fill and empty them maybe once a month. Conveniently our rabbits are situated quite close to  the compost and then the garden, so transporting the manure is virtually labor-less.

And this manure tea? Even easier!

Simply find an old milk jug or some other similar container. Transfer a couple tablespoons of manure into the container and fill it with water. You'll let this mixture sit for a couple weeks, agitating or shaking the container every couple days to breakdown the manure. And there you GO! Strain the water so the particles can be added back to the jug from there the mixture can be diluted farther if necessary or poured directly into the garden or onto your container plants.

Extra manure should be transferred into your compost or spread on your garden or fields. Rabbit manure is simply great! Especially since my fuzzy friends are fed an organic and non GMO diet, consisting mainly of sprouted fodder and feed pellets. I also gather them weeds and grass clippings as often as possible to incorporate some roughage into their diets.

Preparing our main garden and other garden beds is key this time of year. Trays and trays of starts are sitting under lights waiting for appropriate planting conditions. We have a great deal of work that still needs to be done so this week I plan to make 3 gallons of rabbits manure tea, some of which will be fed to my indoor plants.

Don't have any rabbit manure??? Worry no more, all you Central Oregon peeps yearning for some of this wonderful poo look no further! Head my way, I am more than willing to share. Heck! Take some horse manure for your compost pile while you're at it. For all you long distance folks, I doubt you want a pile of poo from yours truly gracing your mailbox. Take a look on Craigslist for your area or simply make a wanted add, easy peasy right? I'm sure you'll find a more than generous rabbit farmer to help you out.

In other news! I believe I have finally successfully bred Chester to our American cross doe, Snow. She displayed proper behavior leaning forward and pronouncing her vulva by lifting her tail, and after all was said, Chester fell off!!!!

Cool Q.... sounds like your rabbit STILL has no clue! 

No seriously though, I have read articles and books that all say that its easy to spot a successful breed if the buck freezes and falls off at the end. Is this true? Is it fiction? Who knows but it happened! Which is more than I can say for the last few breeds. After much praying I hope for Snow to kindle sometime the end of April.

Chester did perform in this same manner with our doe New Zealand doe, Belle, at this beginning of this month. She was not so intrigued but he performed as though he had made success, so if he did, then hopefully I will have a litter born this week. Here's hoping! I have yet to notice any signs of Belle's pregnancy or nesting for birthing. So we shall see, oh yes.

And finally coming end of April the other two girls, Rosie and Ginger, will be matured enough to start breeding! I cannot wait to see the babies Chester and Rosie will kindle, as they are both beautiful broken red New Zealands. It's safe to say I have baby fever, of all shapes and sizes. Did you see our new kittens? GAH, I almost die from their cuteness.... blah blah blah ha ha have a good day ya'll!

Considering rabbit stew.... Okay, maybe I'll give the ole girls a few more tries.


Q

PASTURED CHICKENS: WEEK 3

It has been a hustlin' bustlin' last two weeks on the homestead! We checked a few things off the task list and are happy to say were making progress early this Spring! The most exciting of which was getting the rangers outside into their new pasture pen!

When we began this portion of our meat project it was our dream to pasture the broilers. In order to provide them with the most natural and peaceful habitat in their short lives this was non-negotiable. It is imperative that they are safe, well fed/watered, and provided enough space to grow, flourish, and play. The latter of which they wasted no time beginning, the second we released them into their new pen it was an immediate frenzy of pecking, flapping, and hopping about.

These littles will be roughly 4 weeks tomorrow! I admit in my excitement I forgot which day I actually purchased these kiddos, my pregnant brain just can't remember. So rough estimates it is!!! This month flew past me, especially these dudes first two weeks on the stead. Glad to say they have settled in well and now that they're past the funny fluffy phase and into the ugly feathering phase, we don't have to spend as much time caring for them. By now they're fine with their daily water/feedings, a heat lamp at night, and of course my mama bird checks every 5 minutes. Seriously, I check on them A LOT! Honestly sometimes in the morning I stand by the window, coffee in hand, just admiring them, one reason I demanded the pasture be visible from the house. Ok, I'm not obsessed and before you warn me not to get attached let me tell ya something.

Broilers are for meat, no one knows this better than me and the homestead fund. Case and point as to why I check on them so darn much! These birds are an investment, not some hobby backyard flock. My family is grateful for their presence and purpose on our farm. We show them thanks by caring and watching over them for about 11 weeks. They have roughly 8 weeks left. At that time, we will again give them thanks by showing them a peaceful and quick exit. Which reminds me! I need to get to work on making some home made kill cones for that day when it comes.

For now these feathered fellas are plumping up on natural organic diet provided from a local feed company, running around like crazy, and thank god I haven't seen a hawk in months! Luckily my fab farming friend Lexi put together an awesome roof to protect our little investments!

Shopping for a butcher kit!

Q

THE PIGS OUTTA THE BARN.... NO SERIOUSLY...

So there I was standing between a pig and the back door...

She jived to the left so I jumped in front of her.....

She goes the right, the dogs about pooped themselves....

Sometimes the pigs get out.... Its just a fact of life...

An entertaining one at that....

Did I mention this pig trapping occurred in my dining room??? O ya! I said it! the other night our female pig ran three laps through my house...

In through the sliding glass door into the living room through the kitchen and dining room... lap.... and again..... and again....

All the while I'm laughing hysterically and trying to forget how small my bladder feels with this pregnancy.... Not existent.... I practically have to drink my fluids on the toilet... too much?? But so so true... Ha!

Mind you, this all started with Dexter.... Yes the Showtime series which Spencer and I are sucked into this winter. There we are sitting watching, biting our fingernails, anticipating his next move when.....

What is that?

Do you hear that?

I look over at Spencer as he simply sighs and says, "Oh, babe..."

He paused the show and then I heard..... Pleasantly loud oinks coming from the back porch. We stood up walked into the dining room and there they were, standing calmly at our sliding glass window.

For whatever reason once the pigs had made it up on the deck they couldn't get back down. What you can go up stairs and not down?!?! Well apparently they couldn't, so around and around the deck we went trying to block them so as to push them towards the stairs....

Well right about that time little farm girl hears the commotion and comes to try and help mom and dad. She had good intentions which let to the great pig chase in the house. She opened the sliding glass door to see the commotion and right as I turn around to tell her to go back inside.... In darts the pig right past Ireland and into the house. At this point she so excited by the frenzy that she almost let the other one in!

Well we finally got everyone safely penned up for the night.... After a goat tying rope made it around the gilt so we could get a hand on her.... And boy was that a loud affair!

The horses must have been intrigued by the commotion as all 6 came over to stand in a perfect line and watch the show!

Let me just make it clear... if you're looking for entertainment just let a pig loose.... no grease necessary....

You see sometimes in the life we run into some not-so favorable situations. We could have panicked and argued about who checked on the pigs last instead we found this to be hilarious. This wasn't our first rodeo... Or better yet pig wrangling... In these times of stress it is best to just laugh...

The bottom-line is pigs escape. They're crafty, smart, and love testing the limits of their pens. The saving grace is that though they may escape from time to time, they're 100% food driven. They don't get out to escape and run away, they get out to explore and EAT! They're not wanders which I am so glad for.

Alas with a worry wart control freak like myself there is no rest! I simply couldn't stand the risk of something happening to our precious bacon or dealing with an angered neighbor whose garden was ruined. So, we rebuilt their new enclosure out in the barn near the other livestock. They aren't tiny babies anymore and need room to run, so yesterday they were moved from their baby brooder pen into the pig boy pig pen which was oinkers' humble abode last year.

Safely tucked away in their pen with no gate they will happily await their fate. After all we are raising these hogs to feed our family and a multitude of guests we will host throughout the summer season. They will be slaughtered the first week of June, humbly by our own hands, here on our homestead. We will give them thanks and not an ounce will go to waste.

I cannot wait to incorporate scraps and head cheese into our dogs diet to supplement their regular dog food diet as I slowly transition to feeding the dogs solely from our homestead meat projects or making all their food from within the homestead. This is a great way to use what we won't (or Spencer WILL NOT eat, namely headcheese) eat and leave nothing to waste!

As they say.... Waste Not Want Not!

So it goes!

Q

100th PAGE VIEW!

Hi Ya'll

When I began this endeavor I was worried that no one would ever find my meger little blog tucked away in cyber space.

Well that is inherently not so! Just today the HD Homestead blog hit its 100th page view! Woot Woot!

I am happy to say that I don't rely on page views to fuel my drive for this blog. I rely on the support of my family and friends, my handsome bearded fiance, our loving little Irish gem (and her soon to be little sister), and the piece of ground we have been so lucky to work and mold into the perfect setting for our budding homestead.

Thank you to all of those of you out there who may have passed over my blog intentionally or otherwise!

Stead updates:
This week we experienced some very unfortunate weather. What felt earily close to hurricane force winds swept across the property with a vengeance destroying most everything in its path.

We rose to quite a disaster. Several sheets of metal roofing had been ripped from the barn, esposing part of the hog pen to the elements, needless to say the pigs enjoyed a little mud play in the still quite warm blustery weather. Anything and everything that was ever left out anywhere on the property was plastered along our northern fence line. Six count em' six of our beautiful aspen trees met their demise, but will be salvaged, cut, and sold for firewood. That's a homestead homerun, free wood from a terrible storm? We'll take it! And one whole bale of hay cast to the 4 winds, my poor lover man did his best on that feeding disaster.

Other than the said state of our homestead from the storm we will be trying to cross a few more things off our list this week:

We will be moving the hogs into a larger pen out under the pole barn and setting up a permanent piped watering set up for them.

I am beginning to condition our two mares... from the ground that is, I can barely wait to throw my leg over ole Sweet Pea after baby girl Gardner makes her appearance in late May.

Continuing our general yard work is a must, as we have so many leaves and other debris to clear out of the garden beds and the water feature.

I have accumulated a large amount of cardboard boxes in order to start creating some new garden beds which I will begin working on this week.... I will be sure to make a full posting on my progress.

I also want to start some seeds indoor this week, our fodder room... which isnt currently growing any fodder.... but has a great deal of open counter space and great window with sufficient sun exposure... If anything I'll set up a grow light to help germinate the seeds.

Holy cow its already February! Much to be done...

Dreaming of Summer riding...
Quincy

RABBIT GESTATION: TRIALS. ERRORS.

Disclaimer: This post contains photos of rabbit genitals, read on if you dare!!!

Any day now we will see if in fact ole Chester rabbit got our first doe pregnant. If she did conceive that means she's on day 28 of her cycle and those kits could be here any day!

So I thought I would spend a little time talking about a rabbits gestation cycle and give you some insider tips from our rabbit experiment!  

Firstly, when I began this rabbit endeavor just a few months ago I didn't have a clue..... Literally, I had no idea about rabbits other than that they do the horizontal mambo aaalot! And I can cheaply raise their offspring as a sustainable meat source?!? Fuh get about it! I was hooked to say the least. It was all Spencer could do to hold me back from going out any buying them the instant I knew possible. I prevailed.... For a little bit before eventually buying our rabbits. But I digress, I have learned so much in these last few months that I feel it won't be long before we're in a consistent pattern with the rabbits.

Lets talk testicles... Rabbits testicles that is.... I am such a newb that these necessary entities never once crossed my mind until handling Chester at home for the first time. It was at that moment when I turned him over and was horrified at what I saw...

Initially I was filled with confusion as to the looks of those.... things, was this normal? Does he have an infection?!? Wow those are really red.... Is he even a male, or are these huge rabbit labias.... sorry too much info.... Anyhow, after my initial awe had passed my friend Sheree suggested we use that all too powerful tool, the internet. Needless to say I learned a great deal that day, yes this was normal, no there's no infection, redness is normal, and no Quincy rabbits do not have labias....

Well there you go!

Rabbits, like most mammals carry their testicles on the outside of their bodies, unless they are under certain stressors. Their fight or flight mechanism always leans towards flight as speed is their only mode of escape, in these times flee rabbits can pull or tuck their testicles up inside their bodies to protect them.... weird huh?

Well you learn something you everyday!!!

As I mentioned before, my rabbit, Snow, is in her 28th day of a 31-day gestation cycle and I just saw evidence of either hair pulling or shedding in her and Belle's pen this morning. So tomorrow I will pull Belle out into a clean separate enclosure and put a best box in with Snow. I'll fill the next box with hay, she will will add to it by pulling her hair to make a nest in prep for her kits. 

Update:

Unfortunately, Snow did not kit this past weekend....

So as was planned we have bred Chester to our second doe, Belle. She will be due to kit anywhere in the first week of March, since she is a larger rabbit breed their gestation can last anywhere from 31-35 days, where as smaller breeds kit between 28-33 days, every woman is different!

Since I was flabbergasted at having no kits on the homestead this month I decided to do another experiment to ensure our does get bred. As I have stated before, I'm basically a novice at these obsessions I blabber on about, and being such a newb when I bred Chester and Snow I did as I have seen many of my fellow homesteaders do on YouTube and other blogs. And that is let the buck cover the doe a few times, maybe 3-5 times, then remove the doe once again (Did I mention it is always smart to breed them inside the bucks pen? Does can become very territorial of their home and may become to stressed refuse to mate, so always take the doe to the buck..). Well for whatever reason they did not conceive and this mama is baby bunny-less (sigh)

Back to the experiment...

Since it was time to breed Belle I decided to monitor their breeding session closer. It occured to me at about the time he was mounting her the first time that this is only the second breed he has ever performed.... Chester was only 6 months old when I brought him home, old enough to breed but did he even know what he was doing??? I quickly realized that no he did not.... Rabbits don't have the most romantic mating ritual to begin with but poor Chester didn't have a clue....

He was mounting her face, her side, and the correct way.... But was anything happening!!? I finally got the rabbits to turn around so I could assess the situation and it looked as though Chester meant well and was very excited but was just not properly engaging the doe...

So I figured, heck! Lets let em shack up for the night and Belle can show Chester how its done! Hes just a young buck and I think he may have just needed some time for romance and practice. We are now anxiously awaiting some early spring kits and making all the proper preparations. A word from the not so wise, when breeding your rabbits keep a close eye on their water. Pregnant and nursing does need roughly twice as much water as their counterparts. Make sure you're checking often. Keep their water bottles full and make lots of bedding available to them, especially the closer they get to kitting time. I myself am out to the barn checking on animals all through out the day in order to ensure their proper care, usually once in the morning like 6 or 7, once around noon, and at least once more before dinner, and maybe once again before bed. After all that is why I dropped hours at work, to give in full time to my homesteadin' country gal routine.

I can't wait to get this rabbit journey underway and really begin maintaining a sustainable meat source.

Dreaming of Rabbit stew..

Quincy