Learning Curves

We are raising our second batch of bunnies having eaten all of the previous batch and having learned a lot. We have learned to keep better records and to sex the rabbit offspring earlier, before they begin mating! We have learned some mother rabbits do not automatically know how to care for their offspring and that we were lucky and spoiled by Jill who seems to be an expert even during this very challenging winter. She birthed 7 rabbits in minus 18 degree Celsius (around 0 F) weather and all of her babies are thriving! We have learned that rabbits you raise yourself are more difficult, emotionally,  to kill because they try and cuddle you and they are so cute and soft but that they are physically easier to kill and their skin comes off easily once you know how. In fact much easier than plucking a chicken.

We have learned how to prepare rabbit dishes and that in general, people are turned off from eating anything cute, which seems shallow and warped but whether I blame cute Disney cartoons or some other unknown reason, I too find it more difficult. However, cute factor aside, rabbits are ridiculously easy and cheap  to raise, feed, keep and process and if you ate rabbit you would save a whole lot of money and feed a whole lot of people a good source of cheap, available and prolific protein! We spent too much on wood shavings and pellets for the winter but I figure we can feed them mostly on outdoor forage and maybe use dry weeds for bedding for the summer as well and our costs will be almost nothing. Can you imagine raising animals at no cost?! I look forward to the challenge.

As we head into out third year of keeping laying hens (and a rooster) we are faced with a cull. We have barely had enough eggs for ourselves and no extras to sell to neighbors or friends since last August. It is not the cold, it is not molting. Some of these chickens are just not laying. they are healthy. We are keeping the Colonel, (Chantecler) and his favorite, Nuala (our one remaining Chantecler Hen form our very first flock), our excellent mother who raised two clutches last year and we hope more (though is she could please not hatch so many roosters!). We will most likely keep Big Fat Hen even though she isn't the best mother and eats a lot, she still did raise a brood. We will keep the hens from each of the mothers as they have started laying eggs everyday! We have to cull our beloved and last Ameraucana, Beta who is no longer laying her pretty blue eggs and several of our Sheilas (they are Australorps), including Baldy(the very lowest hen in the Pecking Order).  We are discussing what and how many new hens to welcome into our flock.

It would be perfect if a hen or two of ours would go broody in time with getting out meat chicks so we could have her raise them. It is so much easier for us to simply let the mother hen show them the way and they are so much smarter later on when it comes time for them to forage. The meat birds have been bred to grow not forage. They always learn eventually because they can't help but try and eat everything in their path but it would be nice if they got there more easily. We have read that you simply take out the five or so eggs the broody hen is sitting on, in the middle of the night and add into her pen, any chicks you want raising and she just assumes they are hers and raised them, no question asked. I read of one woman who added 25 chicks to one broody mama bird! She raised them all. I would add a heat lamp to help with the warming because you know they can't all fit under that one bird, well maybe under Big Fat Hen...

The house is on the market. We are hoping it sells this year after several other attempts and that we can move to our smaller house, more land, scenario and become more self sufficient but if we don't sell, I will just have to become more creative in my economic contributions while adding goats, and more chickens. I would love a sheep too. This year, I refuse to waste any more time worrying about what I have no control over. Spring has sprung and even tho there is yet another big storm coming, I can't complain about that, what can you do? I am happy to sit by the fire, reading, writing, sipping coffee, and playing cards on this cold, wet Sunday. To me, this is the life.