Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Bubba Fig

Maple with Lefty

Maple with all her kits

Willow's opal kit

Willow and some of her kits

Sage kits

 

[Ridgetop]

So cute.

 

[Baymule]

Puppy breath!

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Finally caught up on most of the threads I'm watching, guess I haven't been on for almost a week.

Kits are growing well and I need to weigh and separate Sage's kits. They are running through their whole water bottle by the end of each day, and they feel pretty meaty although they are still half the size of mom. I've been trying to remember to mess with them each time I go past their pen so they are less skittish. They are starting to get used to it, but will probably backslide when I try to tattoo their ears and take them from mom.

New buck is almost through his quarantine, no issues so far. He lets me pet him and he's very soft. I keep promising him he will get a date once quarantine is over. I think I'll breed him to Maple, Juniper, and Parsley. I'll breed Sage and Willow to Bubba Fig again.

 

[Baymule]

You almost have me wanting rabbits again. Almost.

 

[SageHill]

You almost have me wanting rabbits again. Almost.

You're not the only one!!!

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Bunnies are still growing, they don't look big enough yet but we need to weigh them. Feed is getting ridiculous. I think I'm going through 2 bags of feed in almost 2 weeks, at least I hope it lasts so long. I feel like I'm always at the dang feed store. There's 26 bunnies growing out. 21 are definitely going, there's 5 potential keepers but will depend on gender and attitude. Need to get more of the cages set up to spread them out more but need to fix the bottom on several so the rabbits don't fall out. The joy of used cages. I also discovered that someone has destroyed most of the spare water bottles, so now I need to order more of those. Grr. There's 2-3 adult rabbits that need to go too, and that will open up more cage space. They don't eat as much as the growing kits so not saving too much on feed by getting rid of them but everything will help.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

The leghorns I got from the neighbor are laying consistently now, and whomever was eating the eggs seems to have mostly stopped, or is only eating some. I have picked up 4 eggs daily several days in a row now, from 6 hens. Pretty decent, especially with egg prices being crazy. I brought a dozen to my parents and need to bring a dozen to the neighbor, maybe the south neighbor too. I have over 2 dozen in my fridge now. We are not eating them as fast as they are laying.

I have the two Easter egger hens I hatched last year, they are laying consistently but their run is a huge muddy mess so I don't feel comfortable eating the mud encrusted eggs. I need to move their pen so it has better drainage, or maybe just list them for sale since their eggs are smaller than I'd like. The eggs are a pretty green color though.

We have been talking about getting meat chickens but we don't currently have anywhere to brood them and no pen to grow them out. I almost ordered from Hoover's hatchery, but the hatch date is in May, so we'd be butchering in July which doesn't seem like a great idea. They also have BBQ meat special chicks, heavy breed all males no choice for breed. I'm tempted to get some to try to caponize, but I've only read how never actually seen it done, plus I'm not sure I have all the tools needed.

The Cornish cross chicks would have been about $3.01 each for 40, the BBQ chicks were less than $3 each. I went to the feed store: to order meat chicks it would be $4.50 each. Regular chicks are $5.20. just ridiculous. Last time I bought chicks they were around $4 each. Need to see what TSC is charging, and the other feed stores in the area.

A lady in the FB chicken group I'm in listed Bresse chicks, I messaged her and she is asking $7/chick for straight run. I am tempted but I'd want to have everything set up first. Argh. Chick fever but no space to put them. I wonder if she would trade for a rabbit or two?

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Oh, and speaking of rabbits, Bubba Fig is on the naughty list. I pulled the tattoo kit out of storage because I am planning to mark ears soon and stupidly placed it on top of his cage as I thought it would be safe there. WRONG! I saw something weird on the ground below his cage last night and grabbed it, it was half the stuff that normally lives in the tattoo kit. I grabbed the stuff off the top of his cage and it was all chewed up, over half the bag is missing. I hope he doesn't get a blockage.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

The 5 potential keeper rabbits are the three purebred Rex from Maple and one chinchilla Rex each from Willow and Parsley. It's really going to depend if those two are girls, I'll keep one to replace Pepper and possibly try to get a showable chinchilla. The three from Maple are two black and a castor. Lefty, Licorice, and I haven't come up with a name for the castor yet.

I like the colors I get from Bubba Fig, but he looks a lot smaller than the new buck. His name from the breeder is Jerky. Which I'm not fond of because he has been very sweet so far. So I'm thinking of updating his name to Smoked Jerky, so we can call him Smoke or Smokey.