Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I took some pics but my phone is not cooperating. Toffee's 2 kits look like little roly poly castors. Sugar's 7 kits look like castors and opals. Will need another week to see if we get an odd dark one like Cinnamon's kit.

All bunnies are doing ok. It's definitely heading towards summer, it was hot during the day this week.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

All the kits from the first two rabbit litters have been weaned. They will be 8 weeks old this week so they are ready for new homes. 5 are reserved already, I just need to list the others and hopefully they will go quickly. I need their cages so I can start weaning the next two litters. I have more cages but I don't want to set them up if possible. I've been trying to pet and handle the bunnies daily so they could possibly be sold as pets, that earns more money than selling them for meat or eating them myself.

Incubation of the coturnix eggs is going well, 22 eggs went into lockdown and there were 15 chicks out this morning. I thought I screwed up the humidity but I guess I didn't. Trying something new and leaving the chicks in for most of a day, I'm hoping that the last eggs will hatch before I get home. Usually I open the incubator and pull chicks out every couple of hours. I tried a drier incubation this time and had lower humidity at the beginning, increased to about 40 % at lockdown.

I have a second incubator set up and there's turkey, chicken, and coturnix eggs all set to hatch on the same day. Hatch day is two Fridays from now if I recall correctly. I also have a second set of turkey eggs that will hatch about two weeks later. It's been interesting playing musical incubators and hand turning all the eggs.

House sale is progressing, we are in escrow and closing is set for the 25th. Last Thursday was inspections and today is appraisal. I hope everything goes smoothly.

I've been wanting to get more into spinning but am finding the cost of a spinning wheel prohibitive. I found some diy YouTube videos so now I've been trying to design my own wheel. We have plenty of lumber and some hardware, so I probably won't have to buy many parts.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Oh, and last night was the second night in a row I went to feed the bunnies and Sugar's babies were out of the nestbox. They are still too small so I think they stayed attached when she jumped out. They were all curled up in a ball together. The previous night 4/7 were out, last night 5/7 were out. She still has all 7 though, so she's being an excellent mom. I need to figure out a better nest box design so they can get back in. Their eyes are open, but they aren't very active yet.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Sold one bunny over the weekend, four more lined up for next weekend. I need to move the last 5, so I can wean the 3rd and 4th litters. They are getting big.

It's raining now, which is a welcome break from the almost 100 degree heat. Hopefully it doesn't rain for too long, we are having a shipping container delivered Friday and will be converting it to live in after the house sale. We will definitely be installing an AC unit of some sort.

 

[Bruce]

Where are you putting this shipping container?

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Where are you putting this shipping container?

At my parent's place in their field. It's a 40' shipping container, we are going to insulate and plywood the inside. Fiance is going to install lighting and electricity, and an ac. We will still have to hike up to the house for bathroom use, but we might be able to pipe some of the well water over for gray water use.

 

[Bruce]

Windows? Kitchen?

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

We are planning to install windows, ac, man door, and some interior walls. Meals will be had up at the house. I think we will probably have some cabinets and the microwave, so can fix some limited meals inside. We have been tossing ideas around for outdoor kitchen zone.

 

[Bruce]

When you find a new place is the container going with you? Would make a nice "farm office" and tool storage "shed".

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Yes, when we get the new place, it will come with us. The idea was to get a second container and a roof beam kit to use both containers as the sides of the structure. Then add the roof and we will have a barn/storage zone. The shipping container would become storage/office/workshop.