Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Woke up running late, ran outside to check the animals and the temperature controller said it was 99???! That doesn't seem right.. it was hot but not that hot. I moved the end of the wire into the shade instead of direct sun and made sure everybody had water. I got one egg from the chickens! The rabbit waters got refilled and I took away the feed they didn't eat. Looks like I fed about 1/3 too much last night, I'm going to get a smaller scoop tonight. Maybe my rabbits will slim down and be better breeders on this new diet. After getting the misters on and doing all the feed/water I checked the temperature controller again, now it said 92. That feels more believable. I think today is supposed to be hotter than yesterday.

 

[Ridgetop]

I need to get a few different sized scoops and figure out how much each rabbit eats and only give that daily so I won't have to remove the feeders.

You can use an empty tuna fish can for a scoop. Just the right size. Or at least it was for me. Free feed builds up fat on their insides.

For the meat breeds (NZ, Cals, etc.) feed 1 cup of d16% pellet per rabbit per day. If you are challenge breeding or have fur or wool rabbits that you plan to use for pelts or spinning, use 18% pellet. If there is feed left in the morning, check it for rat poop and give it to your chickens. Our chickens used to range in the rabbit barn under the cages eating spilled feed, scratching in the worm beds, and eating fly larvae. If you don't have chickens, you can just dump it in the worm beds underneath the hanging cages.

When kindling I don't increase the feed much before kindling. Maybe a heaping cup measure instead of a straight cup. Then I start to increase gradually as the doe cleans it all up. Once the kits are eating you will have to increase gradually again until butchering/weaning age at 8 weeks. Go up to 1 cup for each rabbit in the cage and 1 additional cup for spillage as they jostle to eat. Only feed once a day.

You are too young to remember those old Tupperware 2 ounce round containers in pastel colors. They were for individual salad dressing, spices, etc. in fact, useless. EXCEPT they were exactly the right size for measuring out 2 ounces of rolled oats. We fed our meat rabbits 2 ounces of oats in the morning. It puts on hard flesh. DH also put together a complicated show ration of oats, barley, sweet feed, calf manna, sunflower seeds, etc. We mixed it in Daddy's old cement mixer. LOL However, just feeding the 2 ounces of oats in the morning works very well. I used rolled oats because the straight oats would fall through the screen bottom feeders.
Free feeding attracts rats. When rats eat any feed they pee and poo on the rest. In the rabbit feeders that means that the rabbits won't eat the soiled feed. By feeding once a day at night you can also keep track if the rabbits go off feed for any reason (like no water, etc.)

Hay is not necessary for rabbits unless you like feeding it as a treat. When we tried feeding hay it just fell through the wires of the hanging cages and was a waste of money. A good quality 16% pellet is fine with 18% if you are driving them hard to produce. I can't remember what we ended up using - we tried several brands. DH preferred Kruse but it is a soft milled pellet with a lot of fines. A lot of fines, a lot of waste.

Also with over 100 cages to deal with - feeding, breeding, palpating, kindling, weaning, sorting, tattooing, butchering, sanitizing nest boxes, etc. I didn't have time to waste with hay. I did cut each rabbit an 8" x 14" piece of plain drywall to sit on, and a 4" chunk of 2x4 pine to chew on and play with. The bucks would toss it around in their cages. I used scrap drywall and pine 2x4s from our remodeling. You can also get broken pieces of drywall from Lowes for free or $1 by asking. Score it with a utility knife and snap it off. I usually cut the entire piece at once and stacked the pieces of drywall ready for use. Same with nest boxes. Daddy made out first ones for me. Then I made all the rest using them as a pattern. I cut all the pieces at one time, then assembled them. I used small L brackets to stabiize the corners.

 

[SageHill]

I'm also thinking about buying a squirrelenator, I saw at least 3 ground squirrels this morning. Something, probably rats, is eating the rabbit food from the j feeders, only one has a lid, the rest didn't come with lids.

Those work great. Make sure you get the pan that goes with it. It's sold separately I think, or maybe you get one as a set?? I found out the guy that makes/invented them lives somewhere near me. LOL - but I still had to go to the feed store to get it.

 

[Ridgetop]

They work great but make sure the dogs can't get to the cage or it will be train wreck! I think the pan is sold separately because our Squirrelinator came without the pan but the Ratinator came with.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Rabbits survived today. All plants from the patio area have been moved to the new garden zone. Hubby tilled part of the in ground planting zone before snapping a belt on the tiller yesterday. Need to get the rest tilled, rake out the weeds/vegetation, get plants/seeds in the ground and get water system set up. I think we still have about 110-120 days before average first frost. I might try to start some more seeds tomorrow.

The big blue watering trough thingy has been rolled to the front patio zone. Once we spread some sand out we can start filling it and then we'll have a pool!

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

It's already in the 80s, phone says we should get up to 94-96 today. Yay, it's cooling off! Rabbits doing ok, still not figured out the correct amount of feed, but less left behind than last night. I got 3 eggs from the chickens today!!

Pic of the future pool zone. I think once we get it installed we are going to put up some kind of poles and stretch another shade cloth over this area. That should shade the side of the house too.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Assembled and installed a shelving unit in the bathroom to get toiletries and towels organized. Then I anger-cleaned and organized all the bathroom cabinets. Good news is I found a lot of stuff I haven't seen since we moved, and got rid of a half trash bag of trash/stuff we'll never use. Plus I packed up a grocery store bag of stuff still brand new that I can donate somewhere. Bad news is my hands hurt and I'm still not happy with husband.

 

[Baymule]

Y’all have plans for a pool? That’s something that you will truly enjoy. Shard cloth over it is a good idea.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Hubby needs to put a layer of sand down and then we can get the livestock tank started filling. We will need to get some chemicals to keep it from turning green and a pool skimmer.

The shade cloth for the rabbit zone arrived, need to install it tonight or first thing tomorrow so the rabbits have double shade. They are doing much better with the misters and the decrease in temperature the last few days.

I watered all the plants this morning after I sprayed anti deer and anti rabbit spray around the perimeter of the new garden. As I was putting the hose away I looked up and saw a cute little mille fleur hen near the gate by the south neighbor. I carefully snuck up to her and grabbed her, she was pretty tame and was clearly used to being held. I then called the south neighbor since she knows everyone in the area and she came out and confirmed the hen belonged to the neighbor kitty corner. She contacted them to let them know we found the chicken. I then got to meet the neighbor, who was very nice. I'm not good at being social but I think I did pretty good today.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I ordered a squirrelinator, to be picked up at the store in a couple of days. I'm thinking if I can get a bunch of the squirrels gone, I can then ask the in-laws to swap it with their ratinator, and get rid of rats while they decrease their squirrels. They have them really bad and the squirrels get a lot of the peaches each year just before they ripen.