Dixie Chicks

[vehve]

She's crazy for fresh grass. Some of the wild grass varieties growing on the border are growing like crazy already.

 

[Beer can]

Have you ever heard of free range rabbits? Think of the cost savings there! I know my father fed his mostly timothy grass, alfalfa and clover in the summer but can you imagine a field full of free range rabbits lol.

 

[vehve]

Beer, they would escape, and I don't want to add to the feral population. Helsinki has gotten the situation under control, but 5-7 years ago the feral bunny population was pretty large. They mostly originated from pet rabbits. I'm going to keep the boy bunnies in a tractor though, it will be an interesting experiment in meat taste comparison, the boys will mostly eat fresh grass along with my own feed, while the girls will be kept on a diet that has more hay and branches in it. That's the plan at least.

 

[minihorse927]

Have you ever heard of free range rabbits? Think of the cost savings there! I know my father fed his mostly timothy grass, alfalfa and clover in the summer but can you imagine a field full of free range rabbits lol.

Beer, they would escape, and I don't want to add to the feral population. Helsinki has gotten the situation under control, but 5-7 years ago the feral bunny population was pretty large. They mostly originated from pet rabbits. I'm going to keep the boy bunnies in a tractor though, it will be an interesting experiment in meat taste comparison, the boys will mostly eat fresh grass along with my own feed, while the girls will be kept on a diet that has more hay and branches in it. That's the plan at least.

our neighbors has done the free range rabbit thing and they escape. Right now I have a white new Zealand and a broken new Zealand that I'm trying to catch cause they're destroying my property. He thinks it's no big deal but we don't need them interbreeding with the the wild population. We didn't see wild rabbits around forever and we started building then natural nesting areas and good ground cover and they started to come back heavy around our place. People have over hunted them over the years and killed most off.

 

[Ravynscroft]

I have found 1 thing that doesn't hatch in a sportsman...my dang call ducks. So far I'm 1 for 6, and I had to help that 1.

call are notorious to be hard hatchers. Last year I hand turned all calls and had 80% hatches. This year, not so much. Think I'm going back to hand turning.

Oh, ugh... sorry, hon... I think my last batch of calls the humidity was too much, but idk...

 

[Beer can]

Yeah, free range rabbits would probably be hard to contain.
I've found were we have hunted wild rabbits hard with beagles for years you'd think we would have seen a population decline, but we never did. And we would get many dozens from our favorite areas, they were always there the next year. Must breed like rabbits lol. Where we did find small game scarce, rabbits, squirrels, grouse, we usually saw a lot of hawks. Must be they are better hunters than us.
We have a problem with feral pigs in NY. We were always told there would be here eventually, migrating from down south were they have become a big problem, but apparently we had some escape from a hunting preserve here. There isn't any around where I live but must be they are a problem further north. DEC opened the season
Oops hit post edit; DEC put a open season on them all year any number. Last year they closed the season they said because hunting them has made them smarter and harder to eradicate. The DEC is going to try to get rid of them with helicopters.

 

[minihorse927]

Oh, ugh... sorry, hon... I think my last batch of calls the humidity was too much, but idk...

the air cells were great and everyone was great. 2 popped externally and 1 was trying to get out and the other pipped, was alive 24 hours later and died. The other was internally pipped for 12 hours and when I went to see if I needed to intervene it was gone. :/ I'm going to try something a little different as the big timers say they incubate them air cell up and lay them on their sides. I tried hatching them in cartons and it's not working. If that doesn't help then it's back to hand turning them.

 

[hennible]

Holy poop!
I'm 100% sure I have 6 females and one male amoung my duckling (4 are pretty close to identical, the boy is one of them). Crazy odds... That's a lot of duck eggs... I'm keeping the young drake too, no need for my older fellow to use any thing until it falls off...

 

[minihorse927]

Holy poop!
I'm 100% sure I have 6 females and one male amoung my duckling (4 are pretty close to identical, the boy is one of them). Crazy odds... That's a lot of duck eggs... I'm keeping the young drake too, no need for my older fellow to use any thing until it falls off...

haha, poor old drake. That'd be uhm, interesting as a story!

 

[hennible]

Oh lord... Gross, gross, gross...
"what's that weird tube thingy in the duck pen mommy?!"
"Oh god no Lilly! (one of the hens) don't eat it!!"
The older guy is still a few weeks away from a year old, but 9 hens is more than enough for two drakes... Or it should be...