Category: Homesteading / Farming

Naughty Baby Lagomorphs: The Real Story

~ Carrie

Silver Fox Rabbit Kit

The rabbit kits are 2 weeks old now, and their eyes are open. What does that mean? Trouble.

Once they realize they can get out of the nest box, they go pretty much everywhere in the kindling cage. And they constantly harass the does, trying to crawl under them for a meal. Sometimes the mothers look like they’ve just gone to their “happy place”, ignoring the squirmy, hyper kits.

There’s no denying that the kits are incredibly cute at this age. They have fur now, and they check the world out with their bright eyes…eyes full of mischief. They’re deceptively fast, too – they can evade capture like you wouldn’t believe. Once captured, though, you have to cuddle them a little – we like for ours to be used to handling from an early age. Continue reading “Naughty Baby Lagomorphs: The Real Story” →

One Of These Does Not Belong

~ Carrie

Giant egg

The girls are in great egglaying form, now that the weather has been nicer. Their eggs vary in size, shape, and color, so finding a bullet-shaped,  spherical, or speckled egg now just elicits a chuckle. Pullet eggs (from new layers) are tiny, and we jokingly call them “jellybeans”.

Sometimes, however, we find eggs that can only be described as disturbing….like the one we collected today. Yes, the shape is a bit unusual (torpedo-like), but the really scary part is the sheer size. It’s enormous. Continue reading “One Of These Does Not Belong” →

Farm Construction Project: Chicken Breeding Pens

~ Carrie ~ 1 Comment

Chicken Breeding Pens

Spring is in the air and it’s time to get those constructions projects completed. The weather is just right: not too cold and not too warm, conditions that likely won’t last long. We needed to get the American Bresse and Black Copper Marans pullets and cockerels into breeding pens, so we broke out the new table saw and starting creating a lot of sawdust.

We used our plans for rabbit tractors as our template, but as with the rabbit tractor iterations, we modified the plans slightly to better suit our goals. These pens are wider and longer than the rabbit tractors, though they share the same general design (plus, if the breeding pens don’t work out the way we intended, we can easily convert them into rabbit tractors). Another difference is that the breeding pens are open on the bottom so the chickens can scratch in the grass – the rabbit tractors are wired all around to prevent digging out. Continue reading “Farm Construction Project: Chicken Breeding Pens” →

A New Litter of Rabbit Kits

~ Carrie

American Chinchilla/New Zealand Cross Rabbit Kits

After a month of anticipation, both of our selected does kindled on Monday the 13th. Sometimes, kindling goes smoothly and both mother and babies are fine…other times, it doesn’t go so well. Happily, we only have good news to share.

Our American Chinchilla doe, Siobhán, kindled first. She had one litter previously, and half of the litter didn’t survive; naturally, we were concerned that it might happen again. Fortunately, she exhibited behaviors this time that showed that she was preparing for the births (like haystaching) and she pulled fur prior to kindling. She had seven healthy, vigorous kits, and they were nestled into a nice bed of fur…on the cage floor. Silly girl! Continue reading “A New Litter of Rabbit Kits” →

Chicken Chat: Girls With Spurs

~ Carrie

Brown Leghorn Hen with Spurs

Most roosters have spurs, but what about hens? Ever seen a hen with spurs? Look no further.

One of our hens has spurs – big ones. Fortunately, it’s sweet, friendly Tatiana (Tati), one of our Brown Leghorn hens. She’s a curious, talkative girl who will let you give her a pat on her back. She’ll even tolerate being picked up and carried around for a bit. You know – she’s the hen with the awesome 80’s bangs! Many girls (and guys) sprayed their hair liberally with fine products like Aqua Net back in those days to get bangs like hers. Continue reading “Chicken Chat: Girls With Spurs” →