Baymule
Herd Master
Love the pictures, looks like a good time. That is a winter sport not seen in Texas. LOL Even though we had a week and a half of real winter weather, I don’t think many of us enjoyed it. Haha
Promise Acre: Our Journey
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Bruce
Herd Master
Not bad for going up and down hills on wet ice!!
You don't have enough winter to get cabin fever!
I had to shovel some snow yesterday so I could open the gates to the fenced pasture area. Amazing how hot you can get at 35°F. Had to take my coat off.
Baymule
Herd Master
I actually broke out in a sweat in 20 degree cold, had to come in and change my shirt, it was wet and cold.
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promiseacres
Herd Master
So have been hoping to get back out to the farm to work.... so far haven't made it this week. But next week we should have time... I think. We did put up a couple of trail cameras... but they need moved as they just made a white photo through the windows where we had them. Still was seeing signs of the dogs last week. My friend's husband is a sheriff... he's willing to go talk to the owners. Took update photos... it looks awful. I hope we can get them stopped. We were able to thaw out the sump pump pipe, bought a new pump too. Need to figure out how to make that work better. DH is getting a bit disheartened about getting it done... I keep pointing out things that have been difficult by two properties. I also haven't made any more camping plans... we just need to focus. We do need some breaks BUT.... we need to get moved too.
We have 13 baby rabbits, 4 litters so not huge litters but that's ok. The biggest was 6 for a FT VL doe, so we moved kits around to get the runt better fed. I even held the foster mama and the kit the first day to get his belly filled. Such an awesome doe. The Polish are doing great, need some Mini rex babies for DS's 4H project. Going after more NZ and possibly Cali does tomorrow. I've been offered some cages too... so may have some outdoor grow out cages. Which means less selling. Which is good as the west part of the US is really getting bad with RHDV. I'll probably start butchering any VL we can't sell or the borderline pets. So grow out pens will help that goal. My meat rabbit supplier is down sizing, so she's offering the cages/does for free. We might even take on some Californians too. As long as 4H keeps going we could sell meat pens to 4Hers. Her stock are all nationally shown and good show stock. Not great timing before we move BUT I think we can at least start and see how often I want to butcher and all that. I've thought about seeing if some of the local butcher shops would have a market for rabbit too. Just some thoughts.
We have 13 baby rabbits, 4 litters so not huge litters but that's ok. The biggest was 6 for a FT VL doe, so we moved kits around to get the runt better fed. I even held the foster mama and the kit the first day to get his belly filled. Such an awesome doe. The Polish are doing great, need some Mini rex babies for DS's 4H project. Going after more NZ and possibly Cali does tomorrow. I've been offered some cages too... so may have some outdoor grow out cages. Which means less selling. Which is good as the west part of the US is really getting bad with RHDV. I'll probably start butchering any VL we can't sell or the borderline pets. So grow out pens will help that goal. My meat rabbit supplier is down sizing, so she's offering the cages/does for free. We might even take on some Californians too. As long as 4H keeps going we could sell meat pens to 4Hers. Her stock are all nationally shown and good show stock. Not great timing before we move BUT I think we can at least start and see how often I want to butcher and all that. I've thought about seeing if some of the local butcher shops would have a market for rabbit too. Just some thoughts.
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Baymule
Herd Master
What is RHDV?
Butcher shops cannot sell any meat that isn't USDA inspected. You can legally sell live rabbits on your property, then process the rabbit for free as a favor. Or at least we can here in Texas. Check out your state laws on that. Some states are incredibly stupid and against small farmers.
Butcher shops cannot sell any meat that isn't USDA inspected. You can legally sell live rabbits on your property, then process the rabbit for free as a favor. Or at least we can here in Texas. Check out your state laws on that. Some states are incredibly stupid and against small farmers.
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promiseacres
Herd Master
RHDV is a nasty rabbit virus... makes them bleed out....
I know people who sell live to to the shops. The shops then butcher and sell. I can't legally process any and sell, unless I had them processed at a USDA approved shop.
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promiseacres
Herd Master
Or maybe I can? https://www.in.gov/boah/meat-and-poultry-inspection/processing-rabbits-for-meat/
but the wording is very ambiguous... you can sell but not for human consumption? IDK... we'll see
Does sound as if rules have been relaxed a bit since I last looked.
but the wording is very ambiguous... you can sell but not for human consumption? IDK... we'll see
Does sound as if rules have been relaxed a bit since I last looked.
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Baymule
Herd Master
According to USDA, you can register to be an approved facility and butcher up to 2,000 chickens per year. But you have to have an "approved" butcher facility. Since we butcher chickens outside under the shade of 2 big oak trees where we can catch a nice breeze, I doubt that we would qualify. LOL So far, we sell to about a half dozen people. So I don't think we are in any big hurry to lay out the cash for an approved facility. I don't even have a chicken plucker, other than BJ. Hahaha!
The next tier of USDA approved chicken slaughter is 20,000 per year. We are in no danger of that!
I don't know if they have rules for rabbits. I know they count ducks and turkeys as per so many chickens. It might be something to look into.
I have 50 CCX chicks we got 2 days ago, so my madness has begun. We do make some good money selling the chicken, but have to find the people who want to spend the money on speciality meat. I feed them out on buttermilk fermented feed, move their tractor daily to fresh grass, feed and water twice a day, it is a lot of work. Then I custom package to the customer's wants. And THAT is a lot of work.
The "chicken money" comes in handy. One year we used it to buy the sheep working equipment we now have. LOL Counting up what we have pre-sold, we may have enough to buy a plucker, I want the drum type and they are expensive. Since most of this order is pre-sold, I have another order of 50 for March 24. That will go in our and our DD's freezers, plus we give meat to friends and barter with it. One of our neighbors has an ice machine and we get all we want. One year it was broke and he was in a sweat to get the parts and fix it so we could have ice! We always "pay" for the ice with a big plump chicken. LOL
The next tier of USDA approved chicken slaughter is 20,000 per year. We are in no danger of that!
I don't know if they have rules for rabbits. I know they count ducks and turkeys as per so many chickens. It might be something to look into.
I have 50 CCX chicks we got 2 days ago, so my madness has begun. We do make some good money selling the chicken, but have to find the people who want to spend the money on speciality meat. I feed them out on buttermilk fermented feed, move their tractor daily to fresh grass, feed and water twice a day, it is a lot of work. Then I custom package to the customer's wants. And THAT is a lot of work.
The "chicken money" comes in handy. One year we used it to buy the sheep working equipment we now have. LOL Counting up what we have pre-sold, we may have enough to buy a plucker, I want the drum type and they are expensive. Since most of this order is pre-sold, I have another order of 50 for March 24. That will go in our and our DD's freezers, plus we give meat to friends and barter with it. One of our neighbors has an ice machine and we get all we want. One year it was broke and he was in a sweat to get the parts and fix it so we could have ice! We always "pay" for the ice with a big plump chicken. LOL
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Here we can't sell butchered rabbits unless you are licensed. However you can get around that by selling live by the head and then doing a "favor" and butchering for the buyer AFTER they have bought the live rabbits. Some of the places we sold our live rabbits to that did butchering were pretty bad looking so don't know how hard they inspect.
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- #2,080
promiseacres
Herd Master
So got out to the farm to work on the house both Friday and Saturday. Lathe is down well enough we can see through one side of the house, 3 bedrooms walls worth. We're focusing on the inside walls a this time, then we'll do the outer walls. I'll add some photos in a little bit.
Pretty exhausted about the horse situation. DD1's pony we got last summer has quite the attitude. He threw me last week, gave me a very nasty rope burn on my finger and extremely pushy on the ground. He's back on his ulcer supplement, called the local horse chiropractor and on we are on his list. Just wishing I hadn't gotten him. He's got a month to shape up. He's by himself now, I'm working with him but IDK. I want to send him to a trainer but not sure we have the funds or time right now.
DD1 is going to ride my Richie for now. Hoping she gets two rides in this week and maybe next Monday take him over to the lesson barn. I wonder if I should just give him to her....sell the naughty pony and I can share Daisy with ds, who doesn't want to ride much anyways.... We always has Mom's gelding as an extra too, he's a pokey butt but both DS and I can ride him without too much fussing.
Spring weather is here so lots of clean up projects and things like planning the garden, planting the fields DH plowed, all that good stuff. Hoping we can get the horse pens all cleaned.
Anyone have a good dry lot size for 4-5 horses as we're planning at the farm?
Pretty exhausted about the horse situation. DD1's pony we got last summer has quite the attitude. He threw me last week, gave me a very nasty rope burn on my finger and extremely pushy on the ground. He's back on his ulcer supplement, called the local horse chiropractor and on we are on his list. Just wishing I hadn't gotten him. He's got a month to shape up. He's by himself now, I'm working with him but IDK. I want to send him to a trainer but not sure we have the funds or time right now.
DD1 is going to ride my Richie for now. Hoping she gets two rides in this week and maybe next Monday take him over to the lesson barn. I wonder if I should just give him to her....sell the naughty pony and I can share Daisy with ds, who doesn't want to ride much anyways.... We always has Mom's gelding as an extra too, he's a pokey butt but both DS and I can ride him without too much fussing.
Spring weather is here so lots of clean up projects and things like planning the garden, planting the fields DH plowed, all that good stuff. Hoping we can get the horse pens all cleaned.
Anyone have a good dry lot size for 4-5 horses as we're planning at the farm?
