Hello From Springfield, Oregon

[rdocr]

By way of introduction, I maintained a rabbitry of about 500 rabbits, From which we shipped approx 1000 pounds , live, per month.
Our entire herd was NZ whites. At the end of ten years we had a fifty generation breeding history. In production, a does was bred every 39 days. Here in Oregon, they breed for six litters a year rather than five- like we did.

None of our rabbits were papered and they were not entered in shows. In fact, none of our rabbits would have qualified for show standards, but they produced well. Besides, taking a rabbit out of production to get ready for a show was not what we are about. We produced about two tons of fertilizer a month and sold some, used the rest.
I built a solar heated, methane generator that produced a good quality gas. and used the effluent to fertilize our avocado orchard. We produce two-pound avos that way. This was about thirty years ago and now I am back into rabbits again.

This time, my concentration is Back Yard Rabbits and A Sustainable Garden. To this end, I have written two ebooks- one on raising and one on recipes. They are free for the asking I will say this ony once:
http://www.ritchieunlimitedpublications.com/

I anticipate a food shortage in this country due to the loss of cheap fuel. It will affect everything and your best hope is growing your own food. Raabbits are the key.

Greetings to all

Ralph- aka rdocr

 

[ksalvagno]

 

[GeeseRCool]

 

[michickenwrangler]

 

[glenolam]

Welcome! It sure sounds like you've had a successful rabbit breeding program!

 

[rdocr]

I appreicaate all the welcomes.
Michick- we had a few other critters: 4 goats-Nubuans, six chickens, a dozen geese- free ranging as watch geese, a garden pig.
Our reason for being there on an acre was to have an art studio. We did architectural sculpture mainly, although my wife, Fern is a professional artist. later we added a gallery and sculpture garden. There was also an avocado orchard, peach, pear, and walnut trees.

We were a half mile from the beach in north San Diego county, long enough ago that there were about 1500 people ( mainly artists,) living along fifteen miles of beautiful coast line- Now it is wall to wall houses and people. That is why we moved to Oregon, and that was over twenty years ago.

We had a five acre piece up here. At that time five acres was the minimum land upon which a house could be built. We kept a half-dozen sheep for wool, raised four steers each year in our four acre pasture, along with four goats. The geese had a ball here, especially when I dug a pond.

Enough for now.

Ralph