MtViking- A little piece of paradise.

[MtViking]

Just to put the “20 chicks” into prospective. The original plan was to have SIX hens. Hahahaha. I’m pretty sure someone on here warned me that this was going to happen. Granted some of those 20 are from straight runs so some roosters are bound to be in there and I’m pretty sure we have a rooster from the first batch of 12 for which only 6 survived. I think it was too cold for them to be shipped 4 died in the first two days and 2 more within the first week or two. This new batch all seem very healthy and hopefully we won’t lose anymore.

 

[Bruce]

apparently wives are addicted to chickens once they’ve seen one baby chick.

Chicken math!!! Better send her over to BYC so she can hang with the chicken enablers

Sorry just been busy with the warm weather.

Yep, it is harder to check in and keep up on the forums when it is finally warm enough to do outside work.

 

[MtViking]

Built a rabbit tractor for my grow outs. And man what a difference, those little bunnies are so happy in there. I’m thinking of building one for each of my breeders. They might have to live in the hutch during the winter but they would sure be happy in the tractors all summer.

 

[MtViking]

And our farm cat had babies this afternoon! We had her locked into the garage the last week and made a nice bed and a little house to give birth. Nope she found an old box and had her babies in it. Hahahaha.

 

[MtViking]

And our farm cat had babies this afternoon! We had her locked into the garage the last week and made a nice bed and a little house to give birth. Nope she found an old box and had her babies in it. Hahahaha. View attachment 74211

She sure is a proud momma. She’s purring and needing and cleaning her babies.

 

[MtViking]

This is all the wood needed for the tractor. All free wood from pallets I collect around town. There’s several businesses that are more than happy to give them to me. I ripped them down to 2x2 boards to help keep the tractor a little liter to move around. I did have to put in extra bracing doing it this way but it’s still lighter than 2x4s and used half the lumber. I did have to buy the hardware cloth and a couple hinges. And a 2x3 fencing material for the bottoms of the cage. I went with a bigger wire on bottom to make sure plenty of grass pokes through but still keeps the rabbits from digging out or a critter from getting in. In the back 2 feet I put four sides so they have a great dark area to hide and keep out of the wind. I left an inch or two on the bottom of one of those sides for some extra ventilation we will see if that’s needed or not. I can easily cover it if I need to but with summer coming I thought it might be needed. I also completely covered the roof so no birds of prey will try and scare them to death and also keeps the rain out so they can feed at all times. I don’t think these tractors will work in the winter months even if I’m supplementing extra food for the lack of fresh forage I just don’t know if they would be able to stay warm enough being on the ground the hole time. My building a little “loft” in the back would help. They sure are a lot happier though so I’m going to brain storm some ideas. My breeder hutches are pretty big 3x3x3 I think might be 4x3 either way they have room but having a 7x3 run to live in would be a lot better for them.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Nice job on the tractor.... ....I like repurposing material....and at this "stage" of life....lighter is Better.....

 

[MtViking]

Got some veggies going in the greenhouse and also in the big outside garden, still have more to plant outside but that will be next weekend. I planted earlier in the month and we got a cold spell and killed off some of my new growth so I’m waiting until June to plant the rest and hope for the best.

 

[Bruce]

Do you have one of those pallet buster tools? I'd never heard of them until I saw mention on another forum. Looked them up and they seem to make the job of taking apart pallets without damaging the wood very easy AND fast.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Do you have one of those pallet buster tools? I'd never heard of them until I saw mention on another forum. Looked them up and they seem to make the job of taking apart pallets without damaging the wood very easy AND fast.

Can you provide more info on that, Mr. @Bruce?