I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!One of my rabbits, Phoebe, kindled yesterday. It was an accidental mating that we thought we had interrupted in time, because she was a little young. But just to be on the safe side I gave her a nesting box a few days ago. A good thing I did, too, because she had nine kits. One was born on the wire, but I must have come in within minutes so we were able to rescue it and get it safely tucked in with its siblings. Despite being not quite 6 months old (she will be on the 2nd) she has done very well for her first litter.
That is going to be about 30 pounds of pasture raised meat for us when they grow out, since we have them in the rabbit tractors on any day it isn't raining. They'll eat about $30 worth of feed in those 14 weeks as well as all the fresh grass, herbs, and berry leaves I can harvest from around the lot and a few veggies like chard that are growing in the garden. That is going to work out to be $1 a pound. This is starting to pay for itself now.
We also bred Piper today. Her seven kits will be weaned starting next Sunday and will be out of her cage by the time she is two weeks pregnant. Her current kits will be ready to harvest in 7 weeks.
Our new cages came and we will start assembling those on Wednesday when DH gets home. We spent $305 for three cages, a stacking frame, 3 feeders, and a couple more nest boxes plus shipping. We will likely spend $200 more to make 4 more rabbit tractors. Then hopefully we won't have to spend any more on housing this year.
It was very hot yesterday, it got up to 90 degrees F. I had to spend a lot of time checking on the rabbits as they don't do over 80 very well. I've got two circulating fans in the shed, and they have frozen water bottles that go into their cages and they lay against them to help cool off. Rabbits only lose heat through their ears, so they need help in keeping cool when the weather is like this. It's supposed to be like this all week so I won't be going anywhere for very long. I do hope to get some swimming in though.
Yesterday was Eventful
July 1st, 2013 at 08:40 am
July 1st, 2013 at 12:18 pm 1372681096
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