Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

Well, the neighbor brought over her old rabbit cage and I was excited cause it had a water bottle in it....yeah, broken...dang. The holland lop, which is a boy incidentally, is much happier in her cage than he was in my critter catcher. He seems pretty nice, definitely someone's pet at one time. C probably picked him up at a swap somewhere for a few bucks when someone decided to get rid of him. I may see if cousin S wants him cause he will clean up nicely and she already has the cage.

Also went to visit Aunt and Uncle next door last night and lo and behold! They have a rabbit hutch out in the barn that we can have!!! Hubby is going to dispose of some feral cats that have taken up residence in her barn in exchange for the hutch this afternoon. That will help out a lot cause I have at least one cage that has to go back to C. I'm still trying to get water bottles for everyone so for now some of them have bowls and that just sucks cause they keep flipping them over. Chad is going to pick up some rabbit feed on his way home.

I just got done ordering some supers, frames, foundation, queen excluders, pollen patties, cold knife, and capping thingy from Brushy Mountain Bee Supply. They are having a cyber monday sale and offering free shipping on orders over $100 with the coupon code PCCM. I spent $175 but at least I know I am ready for spring. I didn't have anything other than the hive bodies so I needed to get all of that stuff to get set up for honey for next year. I am going to see if someone from our club will let me use their extractor or rent it out for a couple days this summer. Eventually we may get an extractor but we'll see. Not this year.
 
Okay....so yesterday we had meltdown over addition. Killing me. After a week of no structured activities due to the holiday, guests, and my back injury, reality hit hard today. My son LOST IT. He ended up apologizing in tears and I agreed to let him pick what pages of math problems he wanted to do every day. I don't know any other way to get him to practice every day unless we do it this way and after explaining to him again, that he has to take a test at the end if the year and mommy can't help him, he straightened up. He explained to me that he just hates to do writing....I know that. I still have to make him do some every day and I keep it fun and to a minimum.

Anyway, after the meltdown we did some schoolwork and then read Wind in the Willows some more and did some computer games, then played outside and had gymnastics.

Today it is pouring down rain and they are both in separate rooms for now watching a movie....Maddie is watching Space Chimps and Tyler is watching Milo and Otis. Then we will eat lunch and do some schoolwork and I have to go into town for crickets and to deposit a check from some side work Chad did. I am also planning on looking at a fish tank for Maddie for xmas. She wants googly eyed black goldfish and since my son has THREE aquariums in his room I am inclined to let her have a couple.

We have a friend that wants to buy our atv. Tyler is hit or miss about riding it and now we are considering selling it with the equipment for $1100 and paying down the credit card. Chad is thinking that we rushed into it and is considering looking for a gas powered golf cart with a dump bed instead. We shall see. I don't know if we will do anything right now. We are also still waiting for the guy to get the exercise equipment we sold him. He is still trying to sell his current equipment to make room for ours so we are in limbo. He definitely wants it but can't get it until his old one is gone.

Chad got another free hutch yesterday and we separated some of the babies. We had 7 in one section so we moved 4 into the new hutch. He managed to kill 4 feral cats yesterday for Aunt and Uncle so that will help them out. We are discussing what we want to do with the animals. This is the time of year we tend to strategize the future year's plans.

He now has people at work that want meat chickens again so we are considering doing another batch come spring after ours are done. I just can't do 60 at a time anymore. 40 is about the limit on our tractor. We also have to see if BIL next door will let us move it over one strip on his field next door. I don't think he'll have too much to say about it.....:fl

We are also trying to figure out what to do with the bunnies. We want to build a pole shed in the edge of the woods and either move the current hutches inside it or sell the current hutches and go to all wire ones. I would rather do that. I don't like the wooden hutches cause they are harder to keep clean. The wire is just so much more sanitary and really keeps the smell down. I am more inclined to sell some for breeding stock cause I can get more for a live rabbit than I can a dead one. If we can't sell them then we'll slaughter them and put them in the freezer. I just want everything to be self sufficient and break even on everything. If I can sell enough goat babies to pay for feed/hay/straw/breeding for the next year then I'm good. We also have people that want to buy milk from us but for now we don't have enough extra for that. I have to sit down and crunch numbers for feed expenses for the year....I have to be better about keeping track of it.

I figure that the goats are costing us like $200-$250 for hay/straw, and then about $20 per month or less on feed and $100 per year for breeding fees. The chickens/ducks are about $15-20 per month for feed/shavings. I'm not selling eggs like I want to but come spring time hopefully my egg sales will pick up. If the goats have babies that I can sell for $500-600 total then I should be okay for the year. Hopefully we can get enough for them that we can get at least that. If they have more babies than that then any extra is just more for unexpected expenses. I would like to keep one doeling if we get lucky but if not then I am happy with our 3 current does for now.

The bees are hopefully gonna produce for us well this coming summer cause we have standing orders for honey and at $9 per quart we should be able to recoup some of our expenses on that too.

I would love to do meaties for people in small batches if it ends up making a little money or at the very least breaking even. We also have a friend that wants us to raise some meat goats for him but I don't think that will happen.

I don't know what the bunnies are gonna end up costing us....when we get down to 5 we'll be able to see how much it will be consistently month to month. If we sell the babies for $15-20 per rabbit then we should at least be able to pay for feed for several months on one litter. As long as it doesn't cost us money to keep them then I am okay with it.

Today we are gonna hang out and read some and do some fun stuff later....I may get out some stuff to do some science experiments later.

I wanted to go hunting today but with the rain it ain't gonna happen!
 
A quart jar hold 3 pounds of honey. Are you sure $9 is the right selling price for that size container in your area??? Up here that size goes for $15 - $20, depending on the type of honey and when it was produced.
 
Really....maybe it was $9 a pint....store bought honey that is listed as "raw honey" is $9 for what looks like a quart jar but I'm sure I'm probably wrong about the price....I hope so at least! :P

Well, today is the day to check Aliana....it will be one week today from when she was bred. She didn't stand right away for Obadiah the last time so I am wondering if it was a false heat. She did stand for him twice but it looked reluctant. We definitely know he "got her" cause we saw it and she had discharge for the next several days. This morning she only gave me 6oz, didn't eat all her feed during milking, and seemed restless and flicked her tail some. She has had some crusty stuff on her tail all week but no fresh discharge this morning and she doesn't look swollen but it's early still. I'm gonna give her a couple hours and check her with the buck rag again and see if she is coming into heat again. God, I hope not....I don't want to have to load her up again by myself and drive up there again. I like not having a buck but come breeding time it sure would be convenient not to have to drive all over creation to get this done. I have to check Bethoron Dec 10, I hope she took and doesn't come back into heat again. She is sooooooo difficult to read.

I am thinking Aliana is gonna come back into heat again today though. The first time we bred her she stood immediately for Obadiah, no problems. This last time she was super vocal and showed all signs of being in standing heat but wasn't totally receptive when they were put together. I just have a sneaking suspicion that she was faking it. She kept hiding in the house inside the breeding pen. She came out twice that we saw and they were together but she just didn't warm up to him like she did the last time. I'm so mad that Beth hit her, I'm 99% sure she was pregnant and miscarried from those two blows to the side from Beth. It's irritating. Hopefully they will both be pregnant and all the fighting can stop. I just have this nagging feeling that Aliana is gonna go into heat today.
 
keljonma said:
A quart jar hold 3 pounds of honey. Are you sure $9 is the right selling price for that size container in your area??? Up here that size goes for $15 - $20, depending on the type of honey and when it was produced.
Click to expand...
The Garden Spot in MS has a quart mason jar for $7.99 Local. Getting some Sat.! I have seen it at farmers markets for $12. Same amt.
 
Well....after a lukewarm response to the buck rag yesterday Aliana is back to her normal self this morning. I checked her all day yesterday and she was interested in the rag, lots of tail flagging but she was very quiet and had no discharge or swollen vulva...she seemed a little restless but wasn't aggressive enough for me to take her to the breeders so I will check her for signs of heat in 2 more weeks. This breeding stuff is killing me. She wasn't interested in the rag at all this morning.

Today we have story time at the library and I need to go to the pet store for crickets. The kids are wild as ever this morning and driving me nuts. Tonight we are taking them to see a local high school's production of Beauty and the Beast. They have never been to a play before so we figured this would be a cheaper way to introduce them to theatre but it is still costing us $10 per ticket. The local children's theatre is doing A Year with Frog and Toad, stories that my children LOVE, but the tickets are $20 each. We may go to it if they do well at the high school tonight. I milked Aliana later than normal this morning cause I will end up milking her late tonight. The play doesn't start until 7 and I usually milk at 7:30 so I either milk her at 6 or wait until 9:30 tonight to milk her. I dunno, I may milk her early so I don't have to worry about it afterwards and then just lock everyone up so I don't have to do anything but get the kids straight when we get home.

All the rabbits are drinking enough water to make me crazy. I am having to water them twice a day. I'm thinking that winter is gonna be a beast if this keeps up. One of the waterers was cracked this morning. The lid is okay so I may be able to put it on a soda bottle and make it work. I hope so. It looks compatible.

The biggest meat birds will probably need one more week and the smallest will need at least 1-2 weeks after that and Chad has a fellow from work that wants to come watch us process them cause he wants to do some of his own but has never done them before so i am thinking next Sunday will be the day for the biggest ones. I can't remember when I ordered them so I don't know how old they are....gotta get more feed for them today too.

I went hunting yesterday evening and had 4 boys walk up on my stand....I didn't know them and they didn't seem to know where they were. Found out that one boy was given permission to hunt by uncle but he brought 3 friends with him and nobody bothered to call us to let us know they would be on the property. I am fine with that but they need to call and let us know they will be there and 2 of the boys weren't wearing blaze orange at all and I have a problem with that, especially during gun season. So I didn't see a dang thing but some very angry squirrels yesterday.

Hubby went to take C a check for the rabbits and he said he would come over in 2 weeks and help us process and sort everybody out. He also said he has a buyer for meat chickens but he will only pay $7 per bird....we charged $10 per bird processed last year and if we do it again we will go up to $12 per bird cause of the rising cost of feed. The going rate is $4 per pound for pasture raised chicken around here and ours average at 4-5 lbs each so we are under the average cost. We usually end up at about $1-1.30 per pound for our birds total cost. Not too bad, I think.

Yesterday I went up in the barn loft and got down my old Barbie pool for the kids to play with so when Chad got home Tyler told him we had a pool in the bathroom...they are playing with their littlest pet shops in it. I can't believe that they want to play with something I played with over 25 years ago. Crazy.

Gonna be another busy day....better go get dressed and finish my coffee!
 
Wednesday....so today I am feeding the rabbits and notice a ruckus in the pen where I have the 3 in together....the black buck is trying to breed the red doe. :barnie So, I am gonna keep watching them and mark my calendar and palpate her later on. I don't mind having more litters but I just don't have the space to separate everyone until we process the 11 from the other litters. AAAAAAAAA, what have I gotten myself into.

I wanted to breed those two anyway but I was looking to do it after I got everyone else processed and shifted everyone around. Grrrrrrr. Last night I moved the other black buck into the smaller cage and the one I think is a flemish into his larger hutch space cause I went in there and there was hair everywhere that had fallen through her cage. So, I made up a nesting box for her and put it in with her just in case she is pregnant and ready to kindle. When I picked her up she was plump.....I have never palpated a rabbit before but I guess I need to take the plunge now and see if she is pregnant. Chad informed me that when he went to pick up the rabbits that they were all mixed up willy nilly so I have no idea if anyone is bred or not and to whom and apparantly neither does anyone else. Great.

Hubby went down to a neighbor's farm to see if he would lease his 4 acre pasture with barns to us. His friend is pestering him for meat goats. I keep telling him that it will cost us more to start a herd than we can make back but he won't listen to me. You can make more money selling breeding stock than you can selling them for meat but he just won't listen to me. That's why I wanted to buy registered dairy goats from good dairy stock to start with. More investment upfront but better prices on babies in the future.

I'm exhausted....I have a science lesson on astronomy for the kids to watch but it is loading now so I'm waiting for it. I'm letting them play for now until I can get it up and running and then we will get lessons started. Tyler is doing pretty well with his schoolwork but still hates to write. I have been working on some comprehension exercises with him where he reads a passage and then has to write the answer for questions about what we read. We played guess who this morning and he did a good job reading the names for the people. Yesterday we practiced telling time and writing fractions from diagrams and counting and adding up money. That is what he struggles with the most. I can't get him to understand that he can take his largest number and then start counting from that number and add the smaller number to it. He wants to count everything all over again so money is a challenge cause he doesn't get that yet. So starting with a nickel and adding 3 pennies to it is too abstract for him. He won't start at 5 and then add the 3. He also forgets that different coins have different values so he wants to make it 4 instead of 8. He adds the coins instead of the values. Gonna have to practice a little everyday I think. I cannot get him to understand line counting. If he had to add pennies to a quarter he would be lost cause he won't start from 25. I want to get a set of cuisenerre rods for xmas to help with place value...we have started that but he is still "cloudy" on it. Maddie is doing very well and gets concepts very easily....she is gonna be just like me....book smart but weaker when it comes to practicality and putting things into practice. Tyler is the exact opposite.


On the goat front, I am proud of myself because I trimmed hooves all by myself this morning!!!! I managed to get everyone up on the milk stand and scrape out and trim their hooves. Bethoron was the worst but once she realized there was food involved if she got her arse up on the stand she did pretty well. Aliana tries to lay down as soon as I pick up her feet but I got everyone done and they look sooooooo much better. We have really soft ground here and even though I have cinderblocks in front of the hay rack but it doesn't do much for them with the ground being so soft. Still, this is the first time I have trimmed everyone's hooves without Chad helping me so I am very proud of myself and I know that I need to do everyone's hooves about every 2 weeks now to keep it in check. I need to check Bethoron for signs of heat Friday/saturday as well and hopefully she took and won't need to be rebred. Aliana will have to be checked 10 days after her and I am suspicious of her....I'm thinking we will have to rebreed her. She showed some signs of interest in the buck rag at 7 days but wasn't totally gung ho so I just let it go and decided to check her at 21 days instead. Its getting old and I will be happy when everyone is pregnant for sure. Tally is being a butthead as usual and bullying everyone around. Silly goats. :P
 
good job on the hooves.
they are a backbreaker. Be sure to have BloodStop on hand. We needed it a few times when they pull away or whatever and you gotta stop that bleeding. good stuff.

when we had 120 does it was a nightmare for hubby. (see I said hubby) I didn't help much LOL
 
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