Thursday, January 9, 2014

Bunnies

Hope all my blog friends had a great Christmas. I have been super busy trying to keep my animals warm and alive in this cold weather. My Fall garden didn't make it this year. The chickens have demolished the greens in the raised beds. I'm hoping my garlic and onions survive their wrath. They have ate the tops off everything. My cauliflower died after the first couple freezes. My broccoli survived the snow and then died the first night it got down to 22* The only thing I have left is my brussel sprouts. I planted them early enough to have harvested by now but my soil is still not that great so I think it hinders their growth. After the ice storm I cut down my asparagus ferns and saved some seeds from them. I am also attempting to grow persimmons from seed and two new grape vines from cuttings. I'm hoping the grape vines work :)
Hubs didn't have much luck hunting. I had grown fond of mamma deer and her twins and of course they were the only ones he had in his sights at the beginning of the season and because he loves me he didn't kill them ♥ I'm afraid someone else killed them since I haven't seen them in a couple of months, so next year, if it's brown it's down. We did hunt one evening after a snow storm, it was so bright outside we could see perfectly and we got a fox. The hubs has tanned it's hide and a deer hide his friend brought him. I plan on keeping the pelts off our meat rabbits when we start to butcher them too.
The ice storm caused a lot of trees to fall. One landed on my daughters car. $5000 in damage :/ The hubs has been burning the downed trees this week since we had another snow. He had quite the bonfire going and the yard is looking less messy.
Two days after Christmas I went out to feed the animals and my doe Baby Ruth was pulling fur. I shuffled all the buns around and got her settled in just in time for her to birth my first litter of meat rabbits :) They are so cute, I'm already having a hard time thinking about eating them. One of the babies had crawled to the corner of the nest box and was cold when I found it I brought it in and warmed it up and took it back to mamma. They are both doing great now. After that birth we finally got the rabbit hutch situation fixed. We spent all that weekend adding two more hutches. We put floor mats, rugs, feed sacks, and a heat lamp for the babies to protect them from this cold snap. During the coldest day. I was on my third trip out to thaw rabbit waters and found that my other doe Watchamacallit had eight babies. They were scattered and frozen to death. It was soo sad. I tried to warm them up and hoped for a miracle but we lost them all. The cold was too much for tiny wet babies. The only way I could have saved them was to have been out there the second they were born. The hubs is wanting to install light sockets in each hutch for cold weather. I'm thinking we don't have babies in the heart of Winter, who knew it would be this cold :/ We are expecting one more litter in two weeks from Jelly. She is huge! I can't wait to see how many she has.
My chicken situation is out of control!!!! My babies have grown up and there is way too many roosters. They aren't big enough to butcher yet but they are annoying. I'm going to put some of my chickens up for sale. I have 44 and they eat too much. My Tom turkey has also taken a liking to me and follows me everywhere and then proceeds to hump the air, it's weird. I'm hoping him and Tilley figure out the birds and the bees soon.
My little one got a guinea pig for Christmas. His name is Cheese. I never had a guinea pig before. They are fun to watch and the noises they make are adorable. We've had Cheese since he was 25 days old, he is soo cute but he has started to bite. I'm hoping it's like a puppy and he will grow out of it.
There has been so much going on, I hope to post more often this year. Have a great day ya'll!

13 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your lost litter. 44 chickens?!?! Wow!! And I thought I deserved the Crazy Chicken Lady shirt at 23... :) They are so hard to say no to though. Your Tom is hilarious! I'm sure he will figure it out sooner rather than later. Glad to see you back on! Hope you have a great start to the year! Are you already planning your Spring garden?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm crazy for letting them keep sitting on eggs!!!! I love the babies and then they grow and then I have like a gazillion chickens lol!!!!
      Tom is weird, he's not very smart either. I need to video his air humping.
      I haven't planned the garden yet..... I need to figure it out and start some seeds. I'm ready for some tomatoes :)

      Delete
  2. Kelly,

    Happy New Year!!! I'm so sorry to hear about your litter of rabbits not making it. With all those critters, I can see why you're so busy. It's fun raising and taking care of them. The big question, will you be able to eat them later? I hope you hubby gets a deer this upcoming season. Enjoy the new guinea pig :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy New Year Sandy! I'm hoping we will be able to eat them.......I play with the baby buns every time I'm outside. They are just soo adorable :)
      I hope he gets a deer too. I feel like I messed this season up for him :/

      Delete
  3. Glad you made it through the cold, we had it but no snow so it was easier here. Don't let the roosters get too big, harvest them early and call them cornish hens, I think the ones in the store are just young birds and not actually a conish game bird by breed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I actually liked the snow. The animals thought it sucked and wouldn't come out of their homes lol! The cold was too much. The coldest day when the babies were born/died you couldn't be outside without gloves. Your hands would turn bright pink and freeze up within minutes.
      I like your idea. I told the hubs the same thing. Everybody can have their own chicken for dinner one night. Sounds like a good plan to me :)

      Delete
  4. Okay, I'm gonna start calling you Ellie May Clappet if you get any more animals. You are certainly not lacking in the meat department for self-sufficiency.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! My MIL calls me that when I bring animals in the house. I actually named my rabbit Ellie, her b-day is tomorrow, she will be 1 :)
      I wish we had our chicken plucker built. I could reduce the flock faster and fill the freezer up!

      Delete
  5. Hey Kelly, which rabbit kindled? Was it one you got from me? If so did you have any calico ones? We are selling out of rabbits... as of Saturday ours will all be gone...It is just to much to take care of in the dead of winter and the heat of summer...We are simply staying with goats, birds and our garden...The turkeys you got from me will probably not begin laying before spring...Mine are not laying yet either...Does your Tom fluff out all his feathers yet? Ours do and they are gorgeous...We have 2 Toms and 2 Hens...I am going to build them pens this year and put a tom and hen in each one so there is no fighting and I can gather the eggs and not have to worry about preditors getting to them...You do know those turkeys are on the endangered list right?...Anyway...I am going to sell some poults this year but also try to keep several of the poults to sell when they are older...anyway Congrats on the kits...always so much fun when they are born!! We have 2 little ones here, but I don't typically breed in the winter...its really hard on the babies...We keep a heat light on ours and they are doing great...Take care and stay warm!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Both the girls I got from you kindled. First was the little one she had an orange baby and a blackish grey one. The bigger girl is the one that lost eight. Three of them were black and the rest were pink which would have been orange since the dad is orange. One had the cutest black spot on one eye :(
      I think Tom is practicing with the air now, lol. He stays fluffed up for most of the day it is pretty neat. He also stands guard in the driveway. I will probably build them a pen too, depending on how everything goes. Tilley gets mad at the chickens sometimes. I've seen her jump in the middle of a cockerel fight and give them the evil eye until they stop, it's pretty funny.
      I had a heat lamp on in the hutch with the babies. I wasn't expecting the other one to kindle that day. She didn't build a very good nest and barely pulled fur. Once I took the babies away she built an awesome nest and pulled tons of fur :/ Next time will be better. I can't believe she had eight!!!! My big girl that I thought was pregnant a few months ago is due in two weeks. I will breed the big calico again in a month for March babies. I won't ever let pregnant does go without a heat lamp in the cold again. That was soo heartbreaking :(

      Delete
  6. HI Kelly...last winter I lost several babies due to the cold...So it happens...The rabbits you got from me are known for their big litters, which is why we raised them and they are known to be good mothers..with having the big litters it doesn't take long to fill a freezer!...They are good eating for sure...I am glad they finally had babies for you, just sorry they all didn't make it...We love our Turkeys...our 2 hens fight more than the 2 toms...Our toms are very docile and nice...the hens, not so much...they seem to be very territorial...maybe they are just in a constant state of PMS...LOL...or should I say "TMS"...heeheehee

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will need rabbit recipes, if you have any to share :)

      Delete
  7. I'm sorry to hear about the frozen bunnies and DD's car. Eek! That has to be about the cutest picture ever. I don't have rabbits because they're so cute I might never kill them. My last goose put a big bruise on my calf this week so I am finally ready to send "Christmas" to freezer camp. The bunnies would have to bite, or scratch, or stink like meaty chickens for me to kill them. :/

    ReplyDelete