New Life

It's been a long time since I've posted on the blog so thought I would do that today.

We have settled in to a new way of life here. Dewayne not working any more due to the damage to his knee 28 years ago and the severe arthritis that he has now, has changed things tremendously. We consider ourselves "retired" now. Dewayne just turned 50 last month and I will be 49 in December. We still have rabbits, we still have our two goats and we have Knox, our dog. We do not have chickens any more and really don't plan to get them any more. We don't see the reason to have them. We are on a limited budget and quite frankly, I want to buy food for me instead of animals. The rabbits are still frustrating at times. We downsized on them. We only have a few Cals left, a few Rex, a few White New Zealands and several Havanas. We decided to shift our focus on the rabbits from meat to fur. The Havanas are not letting us down right now. We can't seem to get the older Cals and NZ to breed but the Havanas have had a couple litters this year. We are keeping most of the babies to grow out as breeders and the ones that need to be culled will be for meat and fur. One thing about rabbits, they have awesome poop! At least that's something. With accepting the fact that they are still producing something (poop and fur) has helped. It's not so stressful when they won't breed. They will produce one way or the other.

We stay busy around here still. We have a lot of hobbies. We know we can make things to keep from getting cabin fever. We also are going to start being volunteers at Lincolns New Salem soon. I have a few clothing orders right now. I just finished a capote and I'm working on a frock for my dad. I also have an order for a boys shirt and pants that I will get to soon.

We enjoy having our grand kids on the weekends. We had them stay last weekend. They are getting so big it's scary. We have also found out that we will have a new gradbaby in 2018. We are so excited!

Our new way of life keeps us busy.........and happy and fulfilled.

Discouraging!

Rabbits can be such a pain to raise. Sometimes they're awesome, but sometimes, not so much! Out of five boxes that went in last week, only two had some bunnies. One doe had four  and a first timer had three, with no nest. We warmed the new three, made a nest for them and watched them for the rest of the day. She didn't act like she was interested in taking care of them at all. The doe that had four has been a foster mom before so the babies were added to her litter. This morning, all 7 are clean, fed and looking great. The first timer will be bred again and given another shot at being a good mom. Raising rabbits can be discouraging at times, especially when you hear so many others saying how many bunnies they have, but they are usually worth it in the end.

Should get some bunnies in the boxes today. Two Cal litters and a Havana litter. Getting excited to have bunnies again. It's been a long time!

We've started the rabbit breeding for the season. Two Havanas, one Rex and five Cals bred so far. Boxes start going in next week. Got several more to breed yet but this time, we are doing a few at a time in batches.
We had our worst year ever for losing stock this past winter. We had no idea what was going on until we read on some facebook groups and forums that other people also were losing rabbits. Apparently, there was an issue with an additive put in the Pen Pals rabbit food. It was way too much Vitamin D. We went out one morning and both of my Havanas bucks were dead. They were fine the day before. We also lost our best Cal buck. He started getting a little thin and we increased his food and water, checked on him several times through the day, even wormed him, which we never do. Nothing worked and he died. A couple of our Cal does dropped weight but nothing serious and they are fine now. We hardly ever lose an animal and it really sucks when you do and don't know why....or find out why too late to do anything about it.

We got the rabbitry cleaned out today. It's been a while but the hard work is done for now.

We tattooed a few Cal does and sold them today as well. We don't sell a lot of rabbits, but it was good timing for these two. We got 21 processed last weekend and I felt these two as I was loading up the cart and liked what I felt. If the customer changed his mind, they would have stayed in our herd.

Rabbit Miscarriage

We have a doe that I have been keeping a close eye on for several weeks. She's been eating very little and not even drinking much considering how hot it's been.

I went to the rabbitry this morning and saw she had about five clumps of afterbirth under her pen. I also found a rabbit fetus. She was 23 days along. Obviously there was something wring with this pregnancy since they should have been a lot further developed than this.

Hopefully she passed everything she needed too so she doesn't have any further problems. 

I will put her box in when she was supposed to have it in and I will continue to watch her. 

The good news though, as soon as I put feed in her feeder she got right up to it and started eating.

June update

It has been really hard to keep up with things around here. I need to paint the barn and rabbitry this summer but things keep coming up.

We need rain! It's been a month since we have had any significant rain. I feel like I spend most of my time trying to keep our garden from dying. The zucchini are about done in. We've gotten maybe a dozen zucchini but the plants are done. The cucumbers are coming on but not enough all at once yet to make any pickles. The green beans are coming on nicely. I may be picking them in the next few days and the tomatoes, I have to say, look awesome! We should get plenty of produce from them (knock on wood!)

Dewayne has had a few health issues the last few weeks and he's been home a lot. I'm not complaining, just wish it wasn't due to his health.

We have been spending more time with our kids and grandkids.  We went on a fishing/camping weekend a few weeks ago and all had a lot of fun. Hoping to do it again real soon.

We have 31 fryer rabbits we need to get processed. We need this meat for the freezers. As soon as Dewayne is feeling better, that is the top priority. It gets expensive feeding all of these rabbits longer than we need too. We should also get some nice hides to do up.

It's almost July and I am praying for a better month....at least a healthier one!

I see it's been a while since I posted on here so thought I would give an update.

Our first Farm Stand in May went really well. I sold a lot of plants and goat milk soap. It actually surprised me to see how many people came to it with hardly any advertising done. The second sale in June didn't go as well since I only had the soap to sell, but It was pretty much what I expected.

All is going very well in the rabbitry. Litters from the first breedings have all been weaned and all does are bred for the second litters that will be coming soon. We have some nice bunnies out there! I am especially happy with the litter of Chocolate Havanas. Show potential in that bunch:) We will be looking and sorting through all bunnies for show potentials that will be shown this Fall, then added to the herd. We have several Cal does that need replacing.

The garden is in and growing nicely. We have a smaller garden this year so hopefully will be able to keep up with it better. Hoping for a productive year.

I've been selling eggs like crazy. The flock is doing wonderful. I sold the Buff Orpington rooster cause I got tired of him coming after me. He didn't do it all the time so I always had my guard up with him. I don't like that so he found a new home. I don't plan to raise Buffs anyway. The Columbian Wyandotte rooster has taken his place as the top guy of the flock. He is a really nice guy and handsome! I need to name him. The Cuckoo Marans are getting big. Turns out we had 3 pullets and 3 cockerals. They are NOT a smart bird. Hopefully it's just because they are still young. We have 5 new chicks that we hatched. First time hatching our own and it sort of flopped. Five is better than none. We will try again later on but I have enough to do around here and really don't want to mess with anything else.

On the personal side of our family, our youngest son just moved to the same county as us. I am very excited to have him closer to home. Half an hour drive is better than that 1-1/2 like before. We are all hoping we can do more camping and fishing soon as schedules allow.

Well, I guess that about sums things up for the last few months. The same ol thing around here....work, work, work.

What the Crap??

Doing morning chores yesterday, Dewayne found a litter of new Cals that were cold. The mother had not made a nest or pulled fur. She just had them, in the box which was a plus, but still had not covered them. He promptly got them in the house and tried to warm them. He got 2 back but lost the other three. We kept the two that came back in the house for a few hours to make sure they were good and warm. Later, I went out and made a nest in her box and put the babies in. Fingers crossed that she would take care of them.
This morning, both babies are dead, but now she is building a nest. She pulled fur and everything. What the crap?? This is the second doe this Spring to do the exact same thing. None of the does were bred over the winter so it was early last fall that we had any babies. I wonder if their instincts get messed up or something. Maybe their memory sucks or something; they haven't done it in awhile so they forgot the steps involved. Regardless of why it happened, we will rebreed and give them another chance. Both of these does have had litters before so hopefully all will be normal again the next time.

The Little Green Wagon

Our little green wagon is hands down the most used piece of equipment on this farm. We use the wagon for EVERYTHING!!!
I would highly recommend getting at least one of these and if you can afford it, get three, lol.

Here is just a sample of its uses:
**Taking nest boxes from the rabbitry to the barn to get them ready for the does.
**Hauling feed, potting soil, etc
**Bringing firewood from the wood pile to the cabin
**Moving landscaping rocks
**Gathering rabbit bowls and feeders to be washed
**Hauling trash
**We put a carry cage on it to take animals to the butchering area

You get the idea. Don't waste time...go buy one right now. You'll be glad you did.

NEW BUNNIES!!

NEW BUNNIES BORN 3/23 AND 3/24


HAVANAS
Katie -- Wildfire's LC16(broken chocolate) x Bo-- Meyer's 5CB1 (chocolate)
Kindled 3/23/16
3 solids

Gemini--Dawnbeats Gemeni 2DH2T (broken black) x Wildfire--Wildfire's W193F (black)
kindled 3/24/16
2 solid, 2 broken

I'VE MISSED THIS!

OH HOW I'VE MISSED the sight of a momma rabbit stashing. I put the box in for Gemini, our broken black Havana, and she started her hay stashing for her nest. Woo hoo!

The Rabbits Think It's Spring

The rabbits must think it's Spring. I got 7 of the Cals bred today. All 3 of the Havana does were already bred and 7 other Cals were already done. One left to go!

We brought home some new Havana rabbits yesterday from the Pekin show. We didn't show anything and really didn't take any time to meet anyone else, since we had a lot to do at home.
We now have a black buck, a broken black doe and a broken chocolate doe to add to our little Havana herd. Looking forward to building on our Havanas. Thank you to Katie and Brad Boyce, and Tiffany Bohlmann!

We've been contacted recently about buying rabbits from us. We do not currently have any rabbits for sale. I will list them on this website and our Changing Winds Farm facebook page when/if we decide to sell any.

We are trying a new breeding program with our rabbits this year. We are putting one doe with one buck for a week, then taking them out. The date the box will go in is noted for the first day the pair is put together and we will watch them for the week they are due. We've never done things this way before, but know a lot of breeders that do this, so thought we would try it. It will save me a LOT of time trying to breed when they are not really in the mood, lol.

I've been trying to breed the Californians again. They should have already been on their next litters, but they don't seem to be too interested. Processing will be this weekend of the last litters. Maybe the does need to be put on diets. Honestly I think we feed them too much. Even though we've been raising rabbits for years, there's always improvements and learning. For us, the management part is trying and a challenge. How much to feed so they don't get too fat and still do there job, without them losing condition when they eat with their young. I would love to go to a rabbit producer and see in person how they do there management: feed rationing, etc

I went back through our records from May of last year to see what our baby total was. It was 58 for the one weeks kindling.

This years total for May 7-May 16.....88! We've only lost 8 total out of all litters. Add the live ones to the babies kindled last month, our total baby count is at 96!!! Only 2 does missed out of all 17 does that we have. That is amazing and makes us VERY happy!!

It's been a busy week in the rabbitry.  Total baby count coming soon.

It was a disappointing week in the rabbitry. Out of 13 does, only 2 had babies. Most of them are rebred, so we'll try it again. I really need to start palpating them to check for pregnancy instead of waiting for the full month.