Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

There's a rabbit show in Vallejo next Saturday, I'm excited to go and hopefully get some good info. I found a lady who shows Rex and she may have a rabbit for sale that would help improve my herd. I think I'm going to focus on the castor and opal colors. I'd love to get some magpies but I don't think my current breeders would complement that coloration.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Sage kits. Tried holding one last night and the little bugger jumped out of my hands. Thankfully I grabbed it as it was falling and put it back. They definitely need some socializing. Not quite sure about the color of the light kits, could be shaded or could be chinchilla, or could just be baby fur and need to get a little older. They look mostly normal fur and not Rex but I haven't pulled them all out to check. The color looks too even to be shaded but I didn't think there was any chinchilla genes. I need to double check the pedigree for mom and assumed pedigree for dad - I only know the dad's parents not the grandparents.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Found one dead opal kit on the ground so I pulled everybody to check kits.

Juniper has 5 healthy black kits.

Willow has 6 kits, mostly castor/chestnut and two opals. One opal was very runty and thin, so I moved to Juniper's nest since her kits are about the same size (younger).

Sage has 7 kits, 4 chestnut, 1 castor (Rex), and the two that look chinchilla

Maple has 4 healthy kits, 3 black one castor. Two dead black and one blue kits. One of the black kits is now "Lefty", as it's the one she over groomed and it is missing it's right ear.

Parsley is the one I couldn't get a count originally because she was so aggressive. I couldn't see any nest in the part of the box I could see and she kept jumping into the box and just sitting there so I assumed she lost them. I pulled the whole box up to the front of the cage and she has a decent nest right at the front! So when she gets in the box the babies are in front of her. I counted 8!!!! Live and looked healthy, a bunch of different colors, need more fur to tell. This is the youngest litter. I'm assuming the dead kit came from her since all the others are accounted for.

 

[Baymule]

Awesome bunch of babies! Congratulations on the litters.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Mom watched munchkin last night so hubby and I could have a date night and early start this morning to go to the rabbit show. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed talking to several of the Rex breeders. One had an opal buck she said wasn't great but he's at least the right color and unrelated to my buns. He is going to go into quarantine for a month and then will get a date with Maple and possibly a few of the others too.

There's another show in Gridley in 2 weeks.

 

[Baymule]

That is awesome! You got an Opal Rex buck! Picture please? A date night too!

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Super windy with rain last night. Rabbit structure looked like this when I got out there this morning:

Thankfully the rabbits were ok, except we lost the runt and one of Maple's kits got out of the nest box and died. I hope she does better her next litter otherwise she's not going to stick around. She's down to 3 babies right now. If I were more confident with Willow and Juniper I would foster over to them and rebreed Maple. Hmm. I could try that..

Fixed shelter:

 

[Baymule]

It was looking rather droopy. Good job on getting it back together and making it right.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

We said a prayer thanking God for the great weather we had Sunday; while it was overcast it didn't start raining until around sunset when we were wrapping up our project.

So Sunday morning we fixed the rabbit shelter, then ran to harbor freight and bought the fancier version of the carport, the one with ends and sides so it's completely enclosed. The framing seemed really sturdy, it's a heavier tube metal and the spans are shorter. There's also 6 cross frames instead of just 3 in the 20 foot span. Plus it bolts together instead of just slotting the pipes together. Hubby also added some self tapping screws as well for the parts which didn't have bolts.

Once we got home we disassembled the just-repaired structure and moved everything around so we'd have enough flat space. The new structure is 2 feet wider at the base. We spent most of the day on the rabbits, over 3.5 hours on the new structure alone. The main thing I'm concerned about with this structure so far is the end pieces and the roof are held on with straps and ratchets. Two ratchet hooks had popped off by this morning, they were a pain to get reattached. It warns you not to over tighten and it's hard to tell if it's tight enough.

The bunnies are now in two rows facing a middle aisle instead of in the center facing two outside aisles. It is SO much easier to walk around and tend everyone. I also rearranged the order of rabbits to put all the nursing does in the center away from the ends; Pepper and Bubba Fig had to change cages so he's on the end again, he was very excited hopping around smelling Pepper's scent. I have three empty holes (each cage has two sides, or holes) for grow outs currently set up, and have decided to cull Vanilla and Pepper, so that will be two more holes available. There's a smaller single hole cage I had set up but took down during the move since it needs to be cleaned and I need to find the hardware to fix it so it doesn't collapse. I also have four more holes the same cage type I'm using but the floors need to be replaced. I have the wire but I think I need to buy more j clips and possibly the pliers as my supply stash wandered off.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

@Ridgetop , should we move Maple's kits to Juniper and rebreed Maple? She has three, two blacks and a castor, pure Rex. Juniper has 5, all black and I can't tell if they have Rex or regular fur yet. Both litters are still in box with eyes closed, although they'll be opening soon. I'd like to be able to track which ones are fostered though, how do you mark the kits when they are so small? I've done sharpie in the ears before but the foster mom usually cleans it off pretty quickly.

Edit: I have a tattoo pen, I've just never tattooed a kit that small so wasn't sure if that was a possibility.