Alasguns Hopper Haven Rabbitry (Alaska)

Alasgun

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On second thought i might have something to offer for the scab, if your of an experimenting mind?
Both tomatoes and potatoes are in the nightshade family, just hold that thought.
last year i read about using salycic acid (aspirin) to prevent disease in tomatoes. Being the geek i am, i went on line and found some usp grade, bazillion percent pure stuff to try. Apparently its used in the cosmetic industry and is a plant hormonal exudate that is capable of making beautiful women more beautiful and it even will burn off a wart!
ok, back on track here, the article stressed only using a small amount and only treating the planting hole and once during flowering.
i only applied the stuff at planting, skipped the during flowering part and my greenhouse tomatoes went start to finish disease free this year, which was a first for me. Normally by the end of the season they’ve got little bits of this or that showing up, nothing that ever affected the production, they’d just look crappy.
well, we know scab is a bacterial problem, most of which are soil borne so why wouldnt it work for potatoes as well? It might be worth a try.

Remember the part about “plant hormonal exudate”? Plants make this stuff on they’re own once triggered to do so in defense against various pathogens. Problem is sometimes it’s a little late or for whatever reason the plant cant keep up or whatever, in our case the season’s not very long. From what i understand the Salycilic acid functions as an early warning to the plant which believes it’s under attack from some bad goobers and begins to emit the stuff in defense. By tricking the plant to produce this substance all the time the plant has more protection.
The technical papers i read cited studies on tomatoes, beans and cukes, all of which i grow in the greenhouse so i tried it on all three last year. I saw improvement on all three but the most on our Celebrity tomatoes, enough so to convince me to continue this experiment in coming years.

Remember the part about both being in the nightshade family? We’ll you get the idea.
please let me know if you try this and whether or not you see value.
 

thistlebloom

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Oh.... that is definitely worth some thought and research. Thank you for the fork in the road....

I have a smallish garden space and use more than half for tomatoes, peppers and (formerly) potatoes. Rotations to clean areas proves difficult since they are obviously all in the nightshade family. I sure would like to get a handle on this because I don't want to move my garden spot again.
 

Alasgun

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Getting back to the Rabbitry for a minute. Today was a milestone of sorts as i wade thru the new and un tried ideas (to me) i had when setting this thing up.
as mentioned earlier, once the foundation stock arrive i’ll have a nice little group of purebred Champagne d-Argents but not wanting to twiddle my thumbs till spring, i brought in some “test bunnies” last week to “prove up the systems”. The only two changes will be more ridgid door’s and frames, and a little bit of a backstop on my poop slide gutter. I’d have never imagined the velocity attainable for pellets rolling to the gutter, some of which must leap at that last second, clearing the gutter and landing on the floor. Very small corrections.

However my left brain man mind was struggling with the wiring of the percent cycle timer controlling the exhaust fan. Once it came to me it started and ran as intended, even going the right direction! This was a “thank you Lord” moment.

so all that’s left is to decide on flooring and base board trim. Yea i know, this is sounding like im setting up the nursery for my first child! Actually everything i do is geared toward lazy ness so any amount of work now that will allow the lazy to bloom later, im all for!

enjoy
 

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Alasgun

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Why do we do all this? It’s a simple enough question that will have many good and acceptable answers.

Reflecting on my own situation i’ve come to “my right answer” and am a not surprised by it. I’ve already mentioned, we’re some of them Organic only weirdlings who youd expect to say, “it’s outa Love Man”. But digging deeper i become aware of just how much Love and it’s many levels!

In our world everything supports something else and each element has an important part to play. Micro biologist like to say, “microbes function as team mates with one unlocking the others potential”. Well, if the one cell’ed critters got this figured out there’s probably a lesson in there for us big boys (and girls).

We started with the garden and are slowly getting to where we want to be as “new team mates” join our little circus. Current team mates include the Bee’s, a handsome compost arrangement, a good working knowledge of compost tea, lacto serum, fermented plant extracts etc. with the recently added Rabbitry we will be pretty complete and self sustaining for the most part. Each of the “team mates” require some attention and take time but it’s enjoyable time spent in pursuit of perfection. Some might say we Love what we’re doing and that would be correct. Digging a little deeper though, reveals other levels of Love not noticed by the casual bystander.

You see, my better half has some health issues, as many do and for many years we’ve worked on improving her quality of life using all the good resources we’re aware of. Diet is a huge factor and has gotten the most attention over the years. Take a look in my grocery cart and you’ll see what i mean when i tell you how serious we are about all this!

Our season is short but very capable of producing a lot of good produce, much of which is put up for winter use. Over the years i’ve noticed how giddy i can get when a new team mate comes on board and turns out to be a valuable player. Pondering all this i realize that giddyness is actually rooted in the Love i have for my Wife and the excitement i take from conquering some of the daily challenges we face. For us the “garden season” runs pretty well all year when you take in the edible House plants and the soon to start garden starts. All this keeps a retired guy very busy and thats a good thing too. Shortly the remainder of our “herd animals” will arrive and i cant wait to move into our next chapter which will now include an endless supply or Rabbit poop!

Not wanting to bore you with my incessant rambling, i’m going to bed now. Examine your own situation and ask yourself, “why do i do this”, the answer might put a smile on your face! If so, please share that with the rest of us, we still have time for a couple Rabbit trails before the spring season kicks off.

Good night.
 

Alasgun

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Cage building,
Just getting started on the last one which will span the end of the building once completed. (12x3 ft) I bought my wire rolls from the outfit in Wisconsin and had them shipped up. For Alaskans that‘s a literal thing. After rolling out, cutting and straightening the pieces i clip it all together so it can be moved from the floor to the more user friendly saw horses. It’s nice to be up off the big white bench!
As i go along i’ll show you the progress, the tools and little things that make the job somewhat easier, for someone contemplating a similar project!
 

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Alasgun

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Today i got the pen dividers in and the top on which is as far as i’ll go for now. I’m not overly happy with standard hutch door‘s, even the ones i built out of heavier ga. Wire. The plan is to weld up some aluminum angle door frames and use heavy wire shelving material for the actual door. With this arrangement i can use real hinges and latches as well.
that will push this pen out a month or so, which is fine it’s not needed to April.

The tools used for a project like this include a standard ringer, used for joining dividers to the pen and for attaching tops and bottoms which are next to impossible to use clips on out in the middle.
j-clip pliers for joining the sides / top and bottom around the edges.
needle nose and side cutter just because. Wooden wedge used to pry/position wire for clips etc.

when cutting wire from rolls, i use a jig saw, clean cuts - no raw edges - fast and much easier on my ole hands.
 

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animalmom

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Do your blue side walls connect to the flooring in a substantial way to help support the weight of the rabbit in each section? If so, good. If not you may want to consider adding "Z" bracing to the flooring so it does not sag over time. https://www.bassequipment.com/Shop/FLOOR-SPEADERS-1453

But then you probably have this all sorted out anyway. Construction looking good. Should have happy rabbits making happy babies for you when finished.
 

Alasgun

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Animalmom, thanks for the input! The pens are initially divided with the same 1x2 wire used on the sides and clipped in pretty well. Then the poly dividers are clipped in.
And yes, there are floor supports which will get installed, when i hang the cage to prevent damage, we still got a solid 3 months of winter and that cage is now residing behind the shop till then.

you may have also noticed i use 1/2 by 1 bottom wire for both the bottom and the top. It’s more solid and makes for a sturdier cage once you get thru all the clipping.
 

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