elevan
Critter Addict ♥
I love my bucks. Not all of them are poop heads.
SuburbanFarmChic Journal - update and rant 5/5
- Thread starter SuburbanFarmChic
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- #122
SuburbanFarmChic
Overrun with beasties
I have been crazy crazy crazy busy. And totally slacking on this journal thingie.
Helping to settle my grandmother's estate up in NJ. We have 15 babies at the moment and 12 of them are bottle fed. I have been networking like crazy to get the connections lined up for 4h sales and CSA stuff. We're also luring our friends to a "no grocery stores" challenge for the next year. Helping them find CSA's and Coops and such. I wish I could make a % of every sale I engineer because I'd have much better fences and a fixed car if I did Lol. I am a finder. Unfortunately it's rarely a paid gig.
We also just picked up a full size Nubian and her daughter last night. The daughter is for a 4h friend and the big girl is going to get a little TLC and R&R and when she's in fighting form again she's getting crossed with my Nigerian for 1st gen Minis. She's going to live at a friend's farm though. The one that bought my Nubians last year.
We also scored a Flemish giant doe and her litter of 9 4wk old kits for $100 for everything. I'm terribly happy about that. I want to try some meat rabbits that are 1/4 Chin, 1/4 FG and 1/2 NZ. I have read good things about the mix.
The Nigerian buck is still wonderful. I adore him. I can't wait to have lots of babies later this year.
We also bottle fed 4 lambs for a friend. I am horrified that 1 came w/ Tetanus and I couldn't save it and the other (upon necropsy) was discovered to have a liver disorder of some kind. I hate when babies die, especially someone else's babies. The liver one had been fairly small from the beginning and just never grew. I thought it was competition and even gave him extra bottles and put heavy cream in as a booster. Went out last Monday and he was just gone. Did a necropsy and found hemorrhagic tissue on the liver and his white tissues were yellowed so there was something going on. Probably congenital. The other two are perfectly fine. No issues. Of course I get 2 duds...
Oh well.
We processed out 3 bunnies and 2 hens last week. Thinning out some eating and breeding and non laying stock. Taking a load of lamancha babies to Chickenstock on Saturday. Unless it is pouring down rain.
Sold the girl of the Mini Nubian triplets. She gets picked up eh.. in about 2 weeks. Have the boys listed for sale. I need to post them here too. I am REALLY happy with how they turned out. They are definitely taking after the Nubian character and the Nigerian size. Very nice looking. And chubby little buggers too.
Destroying garden beds that were "rock gardens" when we bought the place and turned into "weed infested shovel wrecking pits of evil" while we had it rented out for 2 years. Basically I'm weeding down everything I can, laying down cardboard and then a layer of weed barrier and then mulch. I may at some point put some pavers on the mulch and some containers in there but w/o earth moving equipment, I'm not getting them dug out ever again.
Helping to settle my grandmother's estate up in NJ. We have 15 babies at the moment and 12 of them are bottle fed. I have been networking like crazy to get the connections lined up for 4h sales and CSA stuff. We're also luring our friends to a "no grocery stores" challenge for the next year. Helping them find CSA's and Coops and such. I wish I could make a % of every sale I engineer because I'd have much better fences and a fixed car if I did Lol. I am a finder. Unfortunately it's rarely a paid gig.
We also just picked up a full size Nubian and her daughter last night. The daughter is for a 4h friend and the big girl is going to get a little TLC and R&R and when she's in fighting form again she's getting crossed with my Nigerian for 1st gen Minis. She's going to live at a friend's farm though. The one that bought my Nubians last year.
We also scored a Flemish giant doe and her litter of 9 4wk old kits for $100 for everything. I'm terribly happy about that. I want to try some meat rabbits that are 1/4 Chin, 1/4 FG and 1/2 NZ. I have read good things about the mix.
The Nigerian buck is still wonderful. I adore him. I can't wait to have lots of babies later this year.
We also bottle fed 4 lambs for a friend. I am horrified that 1 came w/ Tetanus and I couldn't save it and the other (upon necropsy) was discovered to have a liver disorder of some kind. I hate when babies die, especially someone else's babies. The liver one had been fairly small from the beginning and just never grew. I thought it was competition and even gave him extra bottles and put heavy cream in as a booster. Went out last Monday and he was just gone. Did a necropsy and found hemorrhagic tissue on the liver and his white tissues were yellowed so there was something going on. Probably congenital. The other two are perfectly fine. No issues. Of course I get 2 duds...
Oh well. We processed out 3 bunnies and 2 hens last week. Thinning out some eating and breeding and non laying stock. Taking a load of lamancha babies to Chickenstock on Saturday. Unless it is pouring down rain.
Sold the girl of the Mini Nubian triplets. She gets picked up eh.. in about 2 weeks. Have the boys listed for sale. I need to post them here too. I am REALLY happy with how they turned out. They are definitely taking after the Nubian character and the Nigerian size. Very nice looking. And chubby little buggers too.
Destroying garden beds that were "rock gardens" when we bought the place and turned into "weed infested shovel wrecking pits of evil" while we had it rented out for 2 years. Basically I'm weeding down everything I can, laying down cardboard and then a layer of weed barrier and then mulch. I may at some point put some pavers on the mulch and some containers in there but w/o earth moving equipment, I'm not getting them dug out ever again.
- Thread starter
- #123
SuburbanFarmChic
Overrun with beasties
Update and a bit of a rant.
Babies are selling like hot cakes. I think I have 1 that is not sold and we are considering retaining him for breeding. There is one baby technically unsold but he's set aside for a bbq this summer.
As far as rabbits... I have 6 FG does and 1 buck. What are people asking for? Bucks. Gahhh..
For the rant. We took in a batch of rabbits (they are on the other side of our property in quarantine) and their hutches and supplies came with them. Their nails have grown so long that they are curling around again. They have patchy fur, some look just inbred and "wrong". You know the look. They are underweight and nearly all have nasty temperaments. Every fiber of my being tells me that the kindest thing to do is to put them all down. I hate putting down animals for stupid owner reasons though. It makes me sick and I cry and it's just a mess. I can kill and butcher ANYTHING if I know it had a good life and it's a clean kill and this is its purpose and I can deal with any vet procedure under the sun if it is in the actual best interest of the animal.
I won't post pictures or any identifying details. The cages are disgusting. Only the solid metal one is reusable and that will be bleached and put out in the sun for 6 weeks. We're trashing the other ones. I hate when I have to put on my big girl panties and do the right thing. This kind of stuff just sucks.
Babies are selling like hot cakes. I think I have 1 that is not sold and we are considering retaining him for breeding. There is one baby technically unsold but he's set aside for a bbq this summer.
As far as rabbits... I have 6 FG does and 1 buck. What are people asking for? Bucks. Gahhh..
For the rant. We took in a batch of rabbits (they are on the other side of our property in quarantine) and their hutches and supplies came with them. Their nails have grown so long that they are curling around again. They have patchy fur, some look just inbred and "wrong". You know the look. They are underweight and nearly all have nasty temperaments. Every fiber of my being tells me that the kindest thing to do is to put them all down. I hate putting down animals for stupid owner reasons though. It makes me sick and I cry and it's just a mess. I can kill and butcher ANYTHING if I know it had a good life and it's a clean kill and this is its purpose and I can deal with any vet procedure under the sun if it is in the actual best interest of the animal.
I won't post pictures or any identifying details. The cages are disgusting. Only the solid metal one is reusable and that will be bleached and put out in the sun for 6 weeks. We're trashing the other ones. I hate when I have to put on my big girl panties and do the right thing. This kind of stuff just sucks.
ksalvagno
Alpaca Master
That is awful. I guess you can look at it as putting these poor rabbits out of their misery. Why do people bother owning animals if they aren't going to take care of them. Why would you want to eat anything that isn't properly taken care of (I'm assuming the people you got them from were using them for meat too).
- Thread starter
- #125
SuburbanFarmChic
Overrun with beasties
No, they were "beloved pets". We're going to put them all down and I'm giving the carcasses to a friend that makes her own dog food. And I don't know if I'd even make stock out of them for people. They are all off in one way or another. There is 2 females that might be ok but going on 3 so are probably done breeding. And I feel bad using them after their previous treatment. It would be like breeding a bitch from a puppy mill. Just wrong. I can't in good conscience put them on Cl or such because I don't know how they'd be treated where they go. And I don't have the space to keep them here.
The boys are all goners. They are nasty to a one. 2 of the girls are scrawny, nasty and look weird. The other two girls are "ok" but really, I risk being bitten when handling them and I don't want to breed off stock. And after the stress of the past year or so I can't imagine they'd be good mothers. Some of my well cared for girls go nutso on litters.
The boys are all goners. They are nasty to a one. 2 of the girls are scrawny, nasty and look weird. The other two girls are "ok" but really, I risk being bitten when handling them and I don't want to breed off stock. And after the stress of the past year or so I can't imagine they'd be good mothers. Some of my well cared for girls go nutso on litters.
