Karen Lee Mack

Kathleen Marshall wrote:I realize this is an older thread, but I have been doing a lot of research into raising rabbits for meat (with my biggest hang up being the dispatching). I found a newish YouTube channel with some excellent info on "ditching the feed store."

Here is her video on rabbits and growing their food: https://youtu.be/65FFzkr1NI8?si=E5ty64GqqN1_T-Sr

I'd love to know everyone's thoughts on this. 🙂

I've started watching. Might take me a little while to get through the whole thing (interruptions).

At the hay vs pellets part, I had to laugh for myself. Where I live, it is actually cheaper to feed pellets because hay is so darn expensive.
That will change dramatically when we get to GA.

So far the info goes along with my experience other than I fee more pellets than the video suggests for same size rabbit.
Trying to remember if it gives protein % of pellets - that could be the difference. The most cost effective pellet I can get is 16% protein.

We definitely have a pellitizer on our Must Get list.

I love that she is not making it sound like you have to do one way or the other.

I agree that happy healthy rabbits can easily rebreed immediately. I haven't done that myself very often up to this point,
but I have done that some with no issues with mama in good condition (I mostly assess condition by how much I can feel
the backbone - I want to feel it very well but not be ridged plus also bright eyes, good coat, moves well and easily).

So far, I find her information and averages quite spot on.

Very interesting about balancing the diet differently for pregnant/nursing does rather than feeding more.
I guess I am sort of doing that by giving a mommy supplement (black oil sunflower seeds, calf manna and crimped oats)
which would have a higher carb component than the pellets or forage, but I am giving them more. This is definitely
food for thought for me.

It's interesting that corn, as a whole plant if I understood correctly, is different from feeding rabbits corn as a grain.
Let me know if that is how you understood the forage part.

I did not know about having food in front of them all the time. I do feed AM and PM right now.
Pellets in the morning and hay or forage in the evening. So they have hay most of the night I think.
I'm not sure how you would have food in front of them all the time without overfeeding?

My forage plan for the future includes tree hay - not sure that video addresses that.
But I am definitely learning more about how to look at this and a start on calculating.

You may want to think about what it is you really want insured.
Perhaps you already have, but, for example, if you really need the
contents insured more than the building, that may be easier and cheaper to accomplish.
Also what are you insuring against? Fire, flood, etc. Some dangers may be less
expensive than others depending on location.
Finally, how much is the point at which you are better off just
saving the money rather than buying insurance?

Welcome to Permies! Although I have had chickens, my duck experience wouldn't fill a thimble but I think others will be along to offer helpful suggestions.

Someone on here just published a duck book I think, off to find the link.

Duck Book

I would start with what is available to me locally where i know the source and I like the way it is grown.
That is what I am going to do when we finally get to Georgia.

Jack Edmondson wrote:I have heard Greg Judy talk about it as well.  But if cattle kill mesquite by grazing near them, Ranchers all over Texas will be celebrating tonight!  

I think it is something to be aware of and manage for, but killing mesquite is a stretch.

My thought exactly!!!

Mesquite is really truly hard to kill.

And you can drive by plenty of mesquite filled cow pastures where I am.

Of course, the stretches of land are big as well but we have one mesquite in our small cow paddock and even with them eating it as far up as they can reach, it is alive and well.

Pete is a homesteader with a Youtube channel that recently went carnivore.

In this video, he discusses the health benefits that he and his wife (and dogs) have experienced.

Unexpected benefits from carnivore diet

I read this thread as a "get out of my bubble" exercise because at one point in my life, I would have said I can't imagine not having a driver's license.

However, due to a retinal condition, I may not always have mine. As it is, I avoid night driving as much as possible.

I have driven in many areas in the US and in various rural, suburban and city environments including several memorable forays through NYC.

For me, having a driver's license has always equally freedom. I get that from my mom who passed last month.
She had had dementia for 2 years and was so unhappy. She went from being on her own to not in a matter of weeks.
She never did get okay with not being able to drive!

I'm tall enough, and now just wide enough, to make flying miserable so I prefer driving and I have oftened lived
miles and miles from family. And in my preferred state, I live away from shopping. We are more and more self
sufficient but we like our little treats. I can be hermit like for 90% of the time. LOL

Texas was the hardest state to get a license - had to prove I was born, that I got married, that I got divorced, that my husband died,
that I changed my name back to maiden, and it took fully three trips to have all the necessary documents. This after a life in which
I had already had licenses in 7 other states and thought myself highly competent in re-documenting myself in the US.

I suspect it will be fairly simply getting my Georgia license and I will be more rural than in the whole rest of my life.
But I will get my license as long as I can see well enough. When I can't, I will give it up unhappily but willingly.

Kelly Pfitzer wrote:New to rabbits this year and just got 3 does and 1 buck.   I have them in a community setup aproximately 22x9 enclosure.   Bucks from 1 litter, the does from another all born first week of January.

Fast forward today and they are approaching breeding age.   I plan on building a 10x3 hutch for the grow outs (1 doe and her litter) and will billed additional when needed.  

The pen they are in has a skirt of chicken wire and hog wire on both the inside and outside, HOWEVER, the center of my pen doesn't have chicken wire to prevent them from burrowing.   It's natural for them and it allows them to escape the hot or cold.   It's 9' deep then it turns so i have no idea how long it goes on for.   I'm not sure they will burrow out because the hole leads under a slab that my garage sits on.   My concern is that they will have the litter down there and i wouldn't know until i see some new Peeps hopping around.   Should i stop them from burrowing or let them do their thing?

Also, wasn't sure how/when to seperate the breeders from each other.   Should i leave them in their current state until i think one is preggers?

Open to any suggestions.

Thank you,
k

I have raised meat rabbits for four years in cages. Colony would not be a good idea for my location.
However, I listen and read about colonies. One good idea I have seen is to make a pile of dirt in the middle of the space. '
This way they can dig a lot without necessarily going that far down.
If you try this and it works, please report back!

Zeus forero wrote:I didn't have to bury the fence and the rabbits made an amazing burrow at the base of three in their enclosure, after two months I started letting the rabbits free range through the farm and they always return to their burrow.
I guess I got lucky with well behaved rabbits but it could also be that they realized the only water nearby is inside the fenced area.

Wow, I am very impressed!

Elissa Ward wrote:I have had a Breville Pro air fryer for several years (3 of them actually). About every two years something goes wrong. Generally Customer service will take care of it but this last time, it was the door just flopping down. They said they won't cover it and I would have to buy a new one. It worked fabulously until this happened. Apparently, if the door spring no longer works, the rest of the appliance won't work either. It basically needs to be taken napart and an O ring replaced. It is a cheap fix, just not easy for me. I just can't see spending the bucks to keep purchasing new ones- planned obscolescence, or some form of it.

So if you or hubby is handy enough to replace the O ring, might be a good buy?