2dreams - Its Spring In Mississippi w/pallet bed pic

[lorihadams]

Oh my, we had to kill our roo cause he kept beating up the ladies and scrappin' with our little banty roo. Now our "little guy" rules the roost!!!

What kind of rabbits do you have? We have 3 holland lops but I would love to raise some bigger meat rabbits. We've never done babies but there's a first time for everything, right?

 

[2dream]

Lori, I have just plain ole rabbits. I have no clue what breed they are. I wanted New Zealand Whites but at the time could not find any. The ones I have now were freebies from one of my daughters friends who raised rabbits to feed their Boa and Python collection. YUCK.

Two of my does are much smaller than I would have purchased if I had had to buy them. One of my bucks looks like a New Zealand. I also have some type of flop eared very large doe that someone on Freecycle was giving away because her son no longer wanted it. (My guess is it was an Easter impulse buy). Anyway, I give her a good home and bred her this time to see what I get. All my breeding stock are pets. I never get attached to the offspring. They are for eating.

I spent my day building my first wire rabbit cage.
Not pretty but will work. I learned a lot. Like - Don't use cheap crooked wire. Next time I build a rabbit cage I promise I will purchase better wire.

 

[2dream]

Been a busy month so far. So much going on. With the garden and work and just keeping up with the reading on SS can get overwhelming sometimes much less posting anywhere.

Lost all but one of my kazillion baby rabbits. Don't know whats up with that. I have never lost 2 whole litters. Out of 16 babies in the the two litters yesterday I was down to one baby rabbit and it was looking pretty ho-hum. This was both does first litter so I am blaming it on them at this point. I have bred one more doe since I lost all those future meals. We will see. All my rabbits are healthy and I guess you could say realatively happy. (I mean just how happy can you be in a cage?) But I made sure they had as large a cage as possible, fresh greens daily along with their other food, parasite free as far as I can tell without actually going to the vet.

I guess just frustrated since I have never had this happen before. Never more than a loss or two out of any litter.

Got my first english peas. This was my first year to plant them so I was mostly just checking to see how they would do. Note to self: Next year plant more. I only have three short rows with about 20 plants. I have discovered that will not be enough to make even a couple of meals. LOL I used the ones I had in a Macaroni salad.

 

[keljonma]

Sorry to hear about your rabbits and kits. It could be a first time mama problem.

One of our friends uses cages that can be used as tractors during warm weather, and then he stacks them in winter inside the animal shed. His rabbits *seem* pretty happy.....

Nothing better than fresh peas! YUM!

 

[Aidenbaby]

With peas, I've read that the more you harvest the more they will provide. I agree with Kel. I used to think that peas were only decent when cooked until I grew one last year (clearance plant). It only produced two pods (not the healthiest of plants) but those were the best peas I've ever eaten and they were RAW.

 

[2dream]

I did not eat them completely raw. I lightly sauted them in garlic and olive oil just for a few minutes. They were very crunchy and good.

 

[modern_pioneer]

Wanda, your raising rabbits for good eats?

Have you ever heard of bartering???? I like to barter, can you think of anything that I can barter for rabbit???

 

[2dream]

I am trying to raise rabbits to eat. LOL Not having much luck with this last batch. I also want to learn to tan the hides.

I am sure hopeing for a better litter survival rate than these last to litters. I will try again this fall. Its getting kind of warm here and rabbits are pretty heat sensitive so I don't want to breed again until then. I have one doe that should have a litter in a few weeks. Keeping my fingers cross that I will get a good litter.

We can barter for that increase you threw at me on my stay there. LOL I will bring you canned rabbits for a reduction.

 

[modern_pioneer]

Take what I am going to mention from my past days on the farm when I was young with a grain of salt.

Mom bred rabbits as well to eat, along with the wild ones we'd hunt and harvest. In the back pages of my memory I could swear we had the same problem, liter kills. It seems that what I am thinking is that it was always a new mother, and it happened more than a few times over the years.

Naw, don't go through all the effert of canning them. Pop them in the freezer, than when G swings by and picks you up, put then in a cooler with some ice.

When yaw get here, I'll have my tub-o-lard and skillet waiting, nothing like good ole fried rabbit from a cast iron skillet. If you don't mind whipping up a batch of biscuts when you get here, I'll make the gravy. We'll have fried rabbit n gravy over biscuts, fried green mators, and fresh veggies from the garden. For desert, I'll treat yuns to my homemade berry cobbler and ice cream.

 

[2dream]

When yaw get here, I'll have my tub-o-lard and skillet waiting, nothing like good ole fried rabbit from a cast iron skillet. If you don't mind whipping up a batch of biscuts when you get here, I'll make the gravy. We'll have fried rabbit n gravy over biscuts, fried green mators, and fresh veggies from the garden. For desert, I'll treat yuns to my homemade berry cobbler and ice cream.

Thanks for the info. One of the does was a new mom but the other should have been an old hand at the litter thing. This was her 3rd and she only had one survivor. I have them all on DE just in case it was worms. I will know when this 3rd has her kits. If they survive I will assume it was not worms since she was already bred and I did not want to worm her.

GINA - Where are you? I have frozen rabbit thawing out in the cooler....That dry ice won't last forever. Bisquit flour is packed. As soon as Gina gets here I will let you know and you can hot up the grease, baking that cobbler and cranking that ice cream out.