Don't touch my poo bucket

I should start this post by mentioning, in case you are not aware, that rabbit droppings are considered gardener's gold. It is classed as a "cool" fertilizer, which means you can put it immediately on your plants and it won't burn them, like so many other fertilizers do. 

Right now, I have a very small (2' x 4') square foot garden box. It came with us when we moved from the rental house we had prior to this property. I just have a few things planted that I am feebly trying to nurse through the colder months. I decided I would very much like to try "compost tea" made from my very own rabbit droppings which have until now been staring at me tauntingly from the dirt beneath the cages. 

Bunny Tea on the brain, I set to work raking the droppings into a pile and into a bucket. This I dumped over a piece of hardware cloth with very small holes, as our soil is incredibly sandy with the consistency of dust and I wanted my tea to be mostly bunny berries, not sand. I sifted like a gold prospector until I was satisfied that most of the dirt was gone. Not only did I have a bunch of poo, there was a ridiculous amount of wasted hay courtesy of the rabbits who think it is truly the greatest joy in life to pull all of the alfalfa from the feeder. This I picked through (yes, by hand!) the worst of before deciding that it was good enough, because I had a plan! 

The alfalfa/poo mix was returned to the bucket. I then filled it with water, and left it alone. For some reason I was deeply paranoid that an unknowing family member would come by, see poo in a bucket rather than beautiful tea steeping, and dump it out. They saw me filling the bucket with poo. They saw me picking pieces out of it with my bare hands. They did not, however, ask me what the Hell I was doing, which leads me to believe that they have accepted my sanity is not all there. I considered telling them not to touch my poo bucket, but decided that such a conversation would only end in my being laughed at. 

My tea went untouched and I came back to it around a day and a half later and decided it was time to try it out. Using my handy-dandy-super-small-squared hardware cloth as a filter (hubby held it, bless him), I poured the poo water into a new bucket and was delighted to find it quite near the color of the iced tea my grandmother serves for lunch each day. I am home most of the day completely by myself. Small things such as this make me happy. 

I fed it to the plants and hope that soon I will be able to report great progress in their growth. I'll let ya know. 

New Additions

We picked up two new hens last night. They are Isa Browns, 18 months old. 

They also gave us our first egg! The other hens are still currently freeloading, urgh!

Aaaaand today I picked up four new rabbits! They were free from a kid who is no longer showing them in 4H but they did really well for her last year and she won $800 with them so I guess they're pretty nice! Three bucks and a doe, I'd rather the ratio be flipped but that's okay. We are still hoping to keep a doe from each of the Satins so I will just do some crossbreeding. Originally I wanted to cull two of the Californian bucks and just keep one buck and one doe for that breed, but hubby really wants to keep all of them so we'll see how it goes. Definitely need more does though. Anyway, here they are!

Buck 1, related to the doe so he'll be a cross breeder.

Buck 1 again just 'cause I like the picture

Buck 2

The Doe

Buck 3, biggest of them so will probably breed him to the doe

They even gave me their huge cages which I was very excited about. I have them stacked right now but I need to hang them up, they're bigger than I was expecting so I'll have to rearrange the rabbitry a bit! 

Thanksgiving

The bunnies, ducks, and chickens are all thankful for fodder!

Missy the Brave is the first to check it out

Suspicious

In the end, Thelma got the first bite

It looks so vibrant against the dirt

Lovely Scarlett really enjoyed hers

Aero wants to see the rabbits

I'm currently working on getting the necessary materials to make fodder a full-time part of their diet. Thanksgiving was the day our practice tray was ready to feed so that's all gone now. 

New Additions

I have been wanting to add rabbits for quite some time and finally we were ready and an opportunity to get some good stock came along. We found a breeder in Waco who is getting out of the rabbit business. He had several breeds, including Satins. We brought home a buck and two does.

Blue doe. Bred to our buck, due date 12/19/12

Copper buck

White doe. She's bred to a broken black Satin buck.
Babies are due 12/16. 

The buck is a little shy still.  

They are too cute.

Overall I'm really happy with them. I've been handling them on a daily basis so they'll be nice and friendly. Their babies are mostly destined to be meat to feed our family. I am hoping to get a nice buck and doe to keep out of my white doe. If I do that will bring in some more genetic diversity since she's bred to a buck I don't own. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a safe delivery to a bunch of healthy kits. These guys won't be eaten since they're breeders, so at some point they'll get some names.

Cooped Up

I didn't have time to let the girls out to free range today as we had to go into town. However, I found something special in the front yard for them.

Dandelions! Yum.

I was expecting them to like them, but they absolutely POUNCED on them. Even the ducks had a sample, but Missy was even a little territorial of "her" dandelions. Unfortunately there are none growing where they can free range, but I don't mind picking them and performing room service. :)

Lazy Day

We got exactly nothing accomplished today! Oh well. I think the hubby needed a break, anyway. 
The girls got to free range for a couple of hours today. It was a little rainy and I wasn't expecting the chickens to venture far, but hanging out with the ducks seems to have taught them that water isn't so bad. 

Bottoms up!

In other news.. Money is tight right now but I'm really looking forward to finishing the coop. Scouring craigslist for free plywood is fast becoming an obsession. Here's a badly drawn "plan" for how we want the coop to be. The grey represents where the wire will be, the brown is plywood. There will be a door but I left that out of the drawing. You can see where we already have the pallets up. 

Don't be too jealous of my artistic nature

I'm still on the hunt for more hens to add to the flock. I really wanted to raise a few from chickhood so they'd be nice and friendly, but I think that will wait til I make my meat bird order in the spring, that way I can order some more laying babies at the same time.

Enough musings for now, I'll leave you with a portrait of the chickens. 

Emmy

Missy

Adventures in Poultry

We are new to chickens but I'm already hooked. We've started with just two chickens and two ducks. 
The chickens are Missy the Barred Rock and Emmy the Easter Egger

The ducks are Thelma and Louise, both Muscovies. 

I'm looking to buy a few more hens right now, at laying age. Hopefully I can find some that are relatively tame. Emmy is a nutcase. She finds the silliest things to be scared of. She sure is cute, though.

Thanks to Backyard Chicken Forum I have been doing a lot of research on how to be viewed by  friends and family as extra crazy. So naturally I have started a mealworm farm to provide the ladies with delicious buggy goodness. 

Mealworms are high in protein, and for whatever reason, they are like crack for chickens. I started with 500 (minus some dead ones and some samples for the girls) and hope that soon I will have some beetles to lay eggs and perpetuate the cycle. 

Missy seems to think this mealworm venture suits me just fine.

My Canine Family

I thought I'd go ahead and introduce my beloved pups. 

Kitty is an Aussie born 6/29/2008. She is the boss around here. Maybe its not nice to have favorites but I can't help it, Kitty is the best!

Riot is assumed to be an Aussie/Border Collie mix. We're guessing he was born sometime in 2008. He's super happy-go-lucky and is the "easy" dog. Everyone loves him for his ridiculously upbeat nature. 

Breeze is a Border Collie, born 7/4/2009. She is your typical BC- energetic, work driven, and somewhat obsessive. She tends to be bottom of the totem pole around here but she doesn't mind as long as a tennis ball gets thrown for her. 

Aero is a Chinese Crested. He was born 3/29/2010 in Georgia. He's a powderpuff which is why he has hair, but we keep him clipped down pretty short now since there are so many sticker burrs all over the property. 

The Farm Without a Name

I've decided to start a blog to document the ups and downs of this tiny four-acre homestead. Currently it has no name, but hopefully it will name itself, in time. We just bought this place, it is a narrow strip of land that ends in a pond. Lots of trees and potential. Annoyingly nosy neighbor on one side and a nice, keeps-to-herself type on the other.  

This blog will likely cover the topic of our four dogs, our chickens, our [future] goats, and maybe even the cat. I'll have to do an introduction of all the critters. I'm blogging for myself, but if you've found your way here, I hope that you'll enjoy yourself.