Alabama Relief

Alabama has been hit hard by the storms day before yesterday. Many towns in north Alabama are just about wiped out and all of north Alabama is without power. There are over 200 dead and many still missing so that number is expected to continue rising. I don't know what this spells for many people and especially many small family farms like ours. So to help out I am taking monetary donations that I can send to the Red Cross for the relief effort of the storm. Please consider helping in any way that you can. If you can't help out financially then please help with your prayers as they are much needed right now. If you do choose to donate then please use the button in this blog post as it is marked for Alabama relief and separate from by blog donation button. This will allow me to know exactly which monies are to go to the red cross. Blessings to all, Kat

Fences and Livestock

Fences and fencing. The most important and probably one of the most expensive aspects of having livestock on a farm. The fence needs to be put in, then it needs to be maintained and then it needs to be repaired....and repaired again....and then repaired again. Usually my rooster wakes me up about 4 am, but this morning I was awoken to the sounds of hoofbeats running past my bedroom window. Yep you guessed it, the horse was out again. BC is determined not to stay in the fence, doesn't matter which pasture you put him in. He is tearing down fences right and left. Last week he tore a hole in the big pasture fence and spent a few days in the yard with the driveway gate shut while we had a chance to find the hole that he made and get it fixed. On one night in the yard he opened the feed room door (yes he has been undoing gate latches since he was little) and the goat barn door. Feed room a mess the next morning and some sick goats for a few days. Fortunately most of the feed was stored in barrels which no one got into. But what little was out of the barrels was eaten. So that night we put him in the front goat pasture where he promptly kicked down a portion of the garden fence. It has been two days since we put him back in his pasture with Whisper, who by the way has not taken one step outside her fence despite the opening that BC created. Well, as I said I woke up to hoofbeats. Yep his is out again, and as I am getting up and trying to get my husband who has to work late tonight back into bed we hear him trying to tear down the gate to the garden. Hooves hitting chain link. Fortunately the chain held that holds the gate closed held up under the assault. So now, I just got back inside from going around the yard to catch the horse and secure him, for a few minutes anyway. He is in the pasture with his dad, Thunder. Thunder by the way is a stallion and not once in the 14 years we've had him has he torn down a fence, not even when there has been a mare in heat in the next field. Yet, BC is a gelding and tearing down fences seems to be his hobby. We will see if he stays in with Dad right now while we find the hole that he made and get it fixed. We already know that the outside fencing needs to be replaced around most of the farm. The goats have new fencing but the horse fencing is well aged. However, I really don't need him reminding me every couple of days or making the fencing situation worse. Friday is not the day to do this, it is my busiest day of the week and now he just made it worse. Really folks, that is not a horse! Somebody stole my horse and gave me a cow disguised as a horse!If I wanted to be out in the dark chasing down loose critters I would have a herd of cows. Needless to say this critter is driving me batty. He is worse than the goats! Well, I better get a move on. I need to get the baking that has to go to town done right now so that at daylight I can go find a hole in the fence and try to fix it. Note to self.....pick up more barbed wire while in town! Blessings from the farm, Kat

The economics of rabbits

Good morning! I thought I would talk a little bit about raising rabbits for meat. I know many people can't get over the cute fluffy bunny pet thing, but for those of you who think you might be able to give this a try then this post is for you. Even if you have a hard time getting around the cute fluffy bunny, that's ok...you can read along too just in case. All rabbits can be used for meat, but some breeds tend to be better suited for such a purpose. The most common meat breeds are New Zealands and Californians. There are other breeds such as the Florida white, but they tend to be harder to find when looking for breeders to start with. The Dutch is also a good little meat rabbit even though it is a medium size rabbit. It tends to have a really nice meat to bone ratio. Usually you can pick up a trio of rabbits, one male and two females, to start with for about 30-40 dollars. Rabbits can be housed in a colony setting or in separate cages. Colony settings provide a more natural environment for the rabbits, but disease spreads easily and it is hard to keep up with litters. To me cages are easier. You can either purchase cages, cage kits or make your own with cage wire. Or you can do like I did and mix it up a bit. I have a couple wire dog kennels that work just fine as grow out cages for weaned bunnies and I have some homemade hutches that are made from wood and wire. Wood floored hutches truly are not the most desirable and need to be cleaned and disinfected quite often. However, if you are working on a budget start with what you have and replace as funds become available. For my rabbits that are in the wood hutches I have litter boxes available which helps to keep the cage cleaner and more sanitary. I started my rabbits with one buck and one doe. My doe had two litters by that buck of which I kept a doe to add to the herd. Then I had to replace the first buck because he died due to an impaction. I purchased another buck and bred him to the two does. I now currently have 5 does, 4 in production and the one buck. I have kept a replacement buck and doe from a couple of this springs litters to add to the herd. So my breeders will be 7, two are still little and with their mama. The cost of feeding these breeders is not much compared to the amount of meat. My does that are in production consistently give me 7-8 offspring in each litter. Gestation period for a rabbit is 31 days and I leave my babies with their mom's until they are 6 weeks old. At week 5 I rebreed mama so she has a new litter 3 weeks after the previous litter has moved to the grow out cage. Since I grain and natural feed my rabbits they do take a little longer to grow out than pellet raised rabbits, about 16 weeks. One rabbit provides enough meat for our family of 4. Last year my girls provided enough meat so that we had rabbit 2-3 times a month. This year with a few more breeders we can increase that amount. The rabbits breed heavily in the spring starting about February and ending with the last litters born in June. Then they get the summer off and in October I will breed each girl for one more litter of the year. I don't breed through the winter because I don't want to worry about babies getting too cold. Now what are the benefits of rabbit meat? Well, first it is a white meat that is very lean. In fact a diet of only rabbit could lead to what is called "rabbit starvation" because there simply is no fat in the meat and our bodies need some fat. But if you are looking to add a low fat meat to your diet then you can't beat rabbit. Rabbit is also very high in protein. Having a 20.8 % protein, which is easily digestible it beats out any other type of meat on the market. Being low in fat it is low in cholesterol and also low in sodium, so for folks concerned about these things that is a definite benefit. Rabbit meat has a fine texture and can be cooked just about anyway that you wish. My children love fried rabbit, just like you would fry chicken. Feeding the rabbits doesn't cost much either. I estimate that the rabbits cost me about 20 dollars a month to feed and that is with the grow out cages full. In the winter I have been having to buy hay, but this year I am hoping to eliminate or at least reduce that cost due to making my own hay for the rabbits. During the winter months I buy about 1 bale of hay per month just for the rabbits so that is usually about 6.00 a bale. Total winter cost for hay is about 30.00. Rabbits are also easy to process. I can process from kill to freezer a litter of rabbits in about an hour and a half. Chickens take me longer. Then if you are really industrious you can learn to tan the hides and make things with them. We haven't done this yet, but would like to learn and do plan to in the near future. One more advantage of rabbits is that they don't take up much room. You can raise them anywhere. Some folks even raise them in their basement. Rabbits are also something that can be raised in the city since they are typically not considered livestock. Just a few rabbits and small investment can provide a family with a great source of meat relatively cheaply. Rabbits don't require too much in the way of veterinary care as long as they are fed well and kept in a clean environment they stay pretty healthy. Sometimes there are issues and I have had my fair share of first time mothers losing their litters or rabbits dying, like my first buck. But the benefits do outweigh those things. So think about rabbits as you are planning your journey towards self sufficiency, they can definitely be a benefit to any plan. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Raising hay for the Bunnies

Ok, I have done the silage experiment and well that just didn't work out real well. I don't have a lot of property that I can grow hay, but I do have patches here and there in the garden area that I can grow small amounts. So, one of my experiments this year is raising hay for the rabbits this winter. One thing that is really making this an experiment is that rabbits aren't just grass eaters, they really like their diversity. Not a problem as right now I have tons of "weeds" just waiting to be eaten. Right now they get all the fresh weeds that I can harvest for them and each morning do the happy bunny dance when they see me coming with the green bucket. So my summer experiment is to dry grasses that I grow in combination with weeds that I pick and to store the dried materials in an old trash can that I have "aerated" by drilling holes around the sides. I figure storing it loose this way would be best due to the very different sizes and such of the weeds and the grass and storing loose will better prevent mold which I will have to be diligent about watching for. So I am starting to harvest not only fresh stuff to give the bunnies, bunnies fresh stuff to be dried. I am drying in the sun on a screen frame that I made. I simply harvest my weeds, place on the screen in the sun. After 24 hours I turn them and let them dry another day in the sun. Since the weeds are different diameters and different moisture content I want to make sure that I am drying thoroughly so that I don't have a mold problem in storage. No sense going to this trouble only to have it ruin. Now here are some of the most common weeds that our rabbits love to eat:
Dandelion
shepherd's purse
purslane
creeping charlie
honeysuckle
plantain (not the banana thing)
curly dock
clover
kudzu
morning glory vine
wild blackberry leaves
chicory leaves

I also mix in extra herbs I happen to have like lemon balm, catnip, parsley. Then there are the excess veggie greens. I toss those in there also. So lots of variety being set out to be dried for winter feeding the bunnies. I know it it is time consuming to do this, but definitely cheaper than hay. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Yippeeee! It's fixed!

Yes, it is fixed...my computer issues and the car. Finally my computer issues are resolved and I am no longer blocked from using anything powered by google. I am so excited as I can start blogging again. So much has been going on these days. Spring is definitely a busy time around here. A few of the goat girls are getting close to having babies and I am so looking forward to making more cheese around here. The garden is growing well and we have had some wonderful salads lately. I will be harvesting collards this week. Corn is going in in the next few days. Several families from the homeschool group are coming out for our once a month farm day and we will be going over french intensive gardening techniques. It is so much fun to have them out. The only really bad thing is the heat. It is a bit on the warm side for April and the arugula has already gone to seed...bummer. Oh well, fall will be here soon enough. The black seeded simpson and the red leaf lettuce are doing great though and holding their own. I planted bloomsdale longstanding spinach and it is doing nicely in this heat as well. The tomatoes are looking good and I have several volunteers that have come up in various places around the garden. I have also planted some new varieties so we will see how they do. We have been getting a good rain each week so only the new seeds and seedlings are needing watering more than that. I am not sure how our spring oats are going to do, the horse reached over the fence several time and chowed down so I don't know if they will recover. Milk production is up and the bunnies are breeding....well like bunnies. Lots of rabbit for meals this summer. I will try to get some pics posted this week if I can get petunia to let me borrow MY camera. She has become quite the shutter bug and working hard on her portfolio along with contest entries that will be coming up. I am just happy that she has found her niche. Anyway, blessings from the farm! Kat