Cleo x Moose

This litter turned out super nice - out of the 5 babies 2 of the passed away. These two below are up for sale and we are retaining a nice Vienna marked doe who we are calling Cocco. I will put pictures of Cocco up soon. 

Just Bits and Pieces

Baby Red played with my digital camera yesterday and took this oh so cute photo of herself and her little buddy Moose. She just loves him and she carries him everywhere with her :)

I started work on the second rabbit hutch, for this rabbit hutch I have scavenged wood from the first one that I started building. I have decided for the design layout I want in the rabbit area the first one would have been way to large. This one will be 8 feet long - by 3 feet wide by 46 inches tall. It will have 4 pens that are 2 feet wide by 3 feet long.

This is Bump's ever loyal companion Thunder. He s a Mastiff/ Rottweiler mix. Where Bump can be found rest assured that this boy is not far away. 

Yesterday my new shed got put into place. We had a car that I blew the engine in so it was just sitting in the driveway until I got around to haling it to the scrap yard. Neighbor Earl traded me the car for a very nice 10x10' shed that he built. I am really beginning to like bartering.

This is as far as we managed to get with the rabbit hutch yesterday. Rain set in and cut us a bit short as I was hoping to be able to get all the walls in place. It is raining this morning also - I know the garden can really use the rain but I have so much work to do outside that I really hope the rain does not last long today.

Growing Up

The babies are growing up so fast. This is Moose a little Lionhead black tort doe. She is now almost 3 months old. I am really loving how she is growing up, looks like she will have nice size to her even though she was the runt of her litter. She is sister to Pee Wee, they look so different, hard to imagine that they are full siblings.

I really hope that she hits 8 to 9 pounds as an adult. I am working on a large breed Lionhead project. My goal with this project is to have a 9 to 11 pound Lionhead with the nice double mane and full skirting. I receive so many e-mails and calls about people wanting larger lionheads, lots of people in this area want beauty and good meat production.

Pee Wee gets more beautiful every day. I just love the Harlequin color! Pee Wee gives me fits though - one day looking like a female and the next looking like a male. However when I flip Pee Wee the other day I believe that I saw the start of testicles.

I really hope that Pee Wee turns out to be a little boy. Pee Wee and Moose are 1/2 standard Rex and 1/2 Lionhead. I really need Pee Wee to be a boy as I had plans to replace Sir Poops A Lot with him. 

This is White Toes. He is son to Cleo and Bob. White toes carries the Vienna gene. He is 3/4 California and 1/4 lionhead.He is growing out so well, I am loving his development, he will be a future herd sire and replace his daddy Bob.

I am not sure which of his parents carry the Vienna gene , though I am beginning to think that it may very well be his father Bob. When Cleo was bred to Sir Poops A Lot she had no Vienna marked kits but when bred to Bob she had 3 out of 8 Vienna marked kits. I bred Bob to Spotted Momma and she is due on the 6th of this month so I will she if she has any kits with the Vienna markings. To the best of my knowledge she carries no Vienna gene.

This is Sammie. She is the daughter of Fern my Flemish doe and an unknown California buck. I bought fern already bred, Sammie was the only Harlequin marked kit in Fern's litter of 11. Fern is now bred to Sir Poops A Lot who also carries the Harlequin gene so I hope that this go around she has lots of Harlequin marked babies. Fern is due on the 12th of this month. 

Sammie has a beautiful body and should produce some great meat rabbits for me. She is now 3 months old and I will breed her in October to Pee Wee. I can't wait to see what they produce!

Bunny Update

Just a little rabbit update, as you can see I really need to get off of my behind and get out there and clean today. I also need to get some nest boxes filled and ready to be put into cages as I have 3 does that are due on the 6th.

This is Fern, my Flemish/Californian cross. She is due to kindle the 12th of July. The last time I bred her she missed so I am really looking forward to some babies from her this time. She was bred to Sir Poops A Lot, my Flemish/Lop cross.

This is Bob my California buck, he is such a sweetie pie :) He always runs up to the front of his kennel wanting chin rubs.

This is Hershey, a chocolate doe of unknown parentage. I picked her up from the local feed store last month as an 8 week old kit.She will be 4 months old on July 15th, I am really liking her growth. She looks like she will be about 10 pounds full grown. I will get some better photo's of her for my next post.

This is Sir Poops A Lot, he really is much larger then he appears in this photo. He is 6 months old and about 8 pounds.As soon as I can find a nice buck to replace him I will be doing so. He tend to throw all Agouti and REW babies and I was hoping he would have a bit more color in the babies. I really am not a fan of Augouti or REW.

If you notice in this picture his cage is falling apart. I bought several cages from Tractor Supply and they just do not hold up. For 30.00 you would think they would last longer than a couple of months! 

Cleo's babies are doing so good! They are now almost 3 weeks old and I am puling the nest box today.In the next post I will get some close ups of the babies, she has 1 little black baby in this litter that I am just in love with. If it is a doe I very well may keep it.

In this pen we have Sammie ( from Fern's last litter - only Harlequin in the litter, doe), White Toe's ( from Cleo's last litter, buck), Pee Wee and Moose ( two babies I bought last month) and 1 left over from Spotted Momma's litter ( white buck). I am separating them out today and they will all be going into their own cages.

I am pretty disappointed as it turns out Pee Wee is not the buck that I thought, but instead a doe. I was really hoping that Pee Wee would be my replacement for Sir Poops A Lot but I guess I will just have to keep on searching!

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Raising Rabbits

Moose - 6 week old female Lionhead Cross

Pee Wee - Brother to Moose and largest of litter

     A lot of people have asked me why rabbits.I personally hate plucking a chicken or duck, it is so much easier for me to take 10 minutes and skin out a rabbit than to fuss around forever plucking poultry.Not only are they easier to dress out but their poo makes wonderful fertilizer for my garden, no sitting it on the compost pile waiting for it to cool down.

     Last year I purchased this little trailer and 4 acres with the thought of getting back some of the old ways and maybe living a bit healthier in the process. I come from a very long line of farmer's and I really don't want that to slip away. When I was younger we lived on the family farm for a short while until my great-grandmother passed away. That farm was sold off and our family has nothing to show for it. 

     When I was first looking at purchasing land I went down to Augusta to see if there was anything left of the old farm. Sadly where the farm once sat so grandly there now sits a tidy sub division. So I went further north and was able to get this small amount of land for a very god price. It will be paid off in 4 years :)

     Process here is a bit slow as I am trying to pay this off as quickly as possible. A little bit at a time is my motto. I have my garden in and have started fencing it in. I have bought all of the lumber to build a 12x12 bunny shed to house the rabbits. And out of pallets we have a very nice 8'x16' pig palace that holds Bacon and Porkchop.

     We currently have 5 mix breed chickens (4 hens and a rooster), 3 Maran chickens,1 duck,2 dogs,3 Black Spanish Turkey's, 2 mix breed pigs that will go into the freezer this fall and 9 rabbits with one having a litter of 10 in the nestbox.