Help I think Ive been HAD!

I am in NC but its been a cold summer. I actually need the heat and sunshine for my garden, too much cloud rain and cold this year. I want to raise Rabbits for what ever I can get out of them. I do not like Rabbit meat but I would sell or barter meat. If I like doing fur production I will take that up as a hobby as well. I know that you harvest at different times for each so if a Rabbit I raise for fur will have old meat. Edible but not really marketable. If I process a rabbit for its meat its fur will not have matured enough to have that high Rex value. I can do both if I am willing to sacrifice the quality of one over the other. I might just keep one Rex as a pet and get no more rabbits. I am not sure where I am going to go. I have had Rabbits before but I got too far ahead of myself and was turning into a rabbit mill. Of course I was raising rabbits for meat back then so over production is fine until I tasted rabbit meat and realized I wouldn't be eating rabbit again. Ended up selling all the rabbits real cheap to someone. This time I am going to slow down with production and wait until there is a demand before I make fur or meat. New Zealands are better for meat however they are not as fun to pet and hold as the Rex.
I did the exact same thing as you, I've been raising rabbits and chickens for about 25 years since I was 8 years old and usually I switched on and off at one point I was Raising Silver Fox rabbits and I build my own hutches pretty well and at one point I had six breeding does, I'm Italian and do enjoy eating rabbit meat but not every single day of the week I enjoy it on the weekends or on special occasions that's why I breed once a year and I enjoy the different colors oh, I also turned into a rabbit Mill and ended up selling off so many rabbits at such a cheap price it almost hurt me real hard and the gut to let them go at that price!!!! I have one or two females at a time at the most and I breed once a year and that's it... and one of my females gives me 7 every single time.... I shocked myself when I counted eight yesterday but it was actually 7 haha which are great numbers to me because they only have 8 teats, My Silver Fox were giving me 10 12 and even 13 at a time it was horrible because the mom couldn't keep up with the milk production and I had way too many rabbits my other female gave me eight and eight and that's perfect
20200620_194304.jpg
 
So how about the guy that originally contacted me about the chickens that I got the two girls from message me and asked me if I was looking to get any more, hahaha oh, I didn't even know what to say to him first well I did know oh, I told him no thank you I'm at my limit and I'm still waiting to get eggs from tvhe ones I got from him a week ago and I can't afford them anyway, if you offered them for free I may have taken them just to rehabilitate them and possibly get some stew chickens in the future and that's a huge Maybe. But I am very happy with my new baby bun buns, I may be getting another Rex from one of my friends to grow out different color type possibly otter or something. :wee:bun:woot
 
I know this happens to the best of us even myself after keeping chickens for 30 some odd years it's happened to me here and there and I'm embarrassed to say it's happened to me today.🤧. I think I bought 2 spent hens!!!!! I don't know how I feel about this or what to do hopefully you guys can help me NOT feel like an idiot , here is the backstory. The week covid broke out mid-march there was an ad on Craigslist someone selling Easter Eggers $20 each they said they were about a year-and-a-half to two years old and still laying well. 😒🤞I messaged the person and they said they didn't want to do anything yet because of this covid-19 and they didn't want people around which is understandable. Fast forward 3 months I got a random text from the person saying they're selling their chickens again and if I'd still be interested in getting the couple of Easter Eggers, and I said oh my goodness I can't believe he remembered and sure why not.. they said okay $60 for the pair !!!!!!! and I sent back a screenshot of the original Craigslist post that I thankfully took and not deleted at the time advertising them for $20 each hahaha so thankfully the person honored it.... I got to the house today and the guy is outside throwing scratch grains on the ground so the chickens he had would come running up and I would be able to pick the ones I wanted, I should have known right there and then and walked away!!!!!!!😫😫😱🤬 6 out of 8 of his chickens looked like they were 100 years old going through molt no back feathers no tail feathers I even asked if he had a rooster he said no... I mean they looked terrible, pitiful there werent even pin feathers growing!!!!there were some barred rocks mixed in and their Combs were complete pale pink and the Easter Egger Combs I couldn't really see but they all looked horrible!!!! and I looked at him and asked if they were still laying and he said yeah I started panicking and out of the corner of my eye I saw an Easter Egger and a Rhode Island red fully feathered with bright red Combs on the kther side if the property...and I askes if they were for sale also (which seems.like a dumb question, but the diff. Was so drastic) and he said yes and I said I'll take them real fast because they looked night and day from the ones. I threw them in the box got in the car and was trying to shake off the horrible experience, I got home as I'm putting them in quarantine I'm checking over for lice just in case that's why all the other ones lost their feathers. I was checking the vents which looked fine but when I measure their hip bones I could barely fit three fingers... and the Keel was about three fingers both were the same and what struck me was they were eating like there was no tomorrow, he told me he only feeds them cracked corn and scratch grains he doesn't have them on layer feed and was getting rid of them because he was moving. I'm praying I'm praying that they improve with real quality food and possibly give me a couple eggs a week..... so that's the whole sordid story!

Thank you to anyone who is reading this or could give me any advice or comforting words LOL oh, and I hope everyone is doing very well through this whole ordeal and everyone's animals are doing very well.
Aldo
Dang, I’m so sorry, the whole thing makes me sick about his poor chickens. Have your two improved since posting?
 
Dang, I’m so sorry, the whole thing makes me sick about his poor chickens. Have your two improved since posting?
Since I've gotten to chickens the one Easter Egger has laid one egg the Rhode Island red I don't think has laid any it's kind of hard to tell because I have two other brown egg layers who just started laying a week or two ago so their eggs shapes are a little different every time so far there hasn't been a day where I've gotten an egg each from all of them to be able to tell the most I got in one day was 4 eggs from my 6 hen's.... I'm averaging about three a day.....
 
Update: the Easter Egger has laid another egg :ya I don't think the production Rhode Island red has laid any as of yet, it's kind of hard to tell since I have two other brown egg layers and their eggs shape always very since they just started laying...with my experience Rhode Island lay a longer egg:duc..... I'm not expecting Miracles I do enjoy the chickens themselves, but I also would like an egg here and there from these gals. I don't mind getting a couple abweek as I have others that lay everyday , also I bought two more pullets they are Dixie rainbows, don't know if anyone's ever heard of them. I got to post pictures later. I also have my rabbits keeping me busy hahaha:bun:bun:jumpy:bun
 
The production rir with the long spurs.... I think I'm going to name her Sheriff... I believe she was in the nest box this morning and laid the brown egg I found ...she came running out when she heard me putting down feed and the egg that was in the nest box was brown and warm still not a solid confirmation but pretty close if it all pans out, I'll keep them even though they only give me a couple eggs a week... just for entertainment the best day will be when they all sync up and lay on the same day. Still trying to get the pictures out of the Dixie rainbows!!! :cool: :yesss:
 
Ok.... so the sheriff my production Rhode Island red with the long Spurs was in the nest box again this morning, it seems that all these girls needed was some better nutrition then the guy who was selling them was giving, I'm actually really shocked in a good way because I thought I had bought really old chickens I mean they could still be a couple years old but compared to the other ones with huge patches of missing feathers and being told he only give them scratch grains I guess coming to my house and eating like it's the Last Supper every day has really helped them! LOL
 
Ok.... so the sheriff my production Rhode Island red with the long Spurs was in the nest box again this morning, it seems that all these girls needed was some better nutrition then the guy who was selling them was giving, I'm actually really shocked in a good way because I thought I had bought really old chickens I mean they could still be a couple years old but compared to the other ones with huge patches of missing feathers and being told he only give them scratch grains I guess coming to my house and eating like it's the Last Supper every day has really helped them! LOL
I just got caught up on this entire thread. I'm glad they turned out to have a few more eggs to give!
 
I just got caught up on this entire thread. I'm glad they turned out to have a few more eggs to give!
A roller coaster ride let me tell you when I showed up at that house and the guy was feeding them cracked corn so I can choose which ones I wanted and they all were basically featherless besides their necks and tail feathers I didn't know what to do because I had driven about 30 minutes one way to get them... so I kind of felt pressured, so when I saw that only to feathered ones come out I grabbed them and hoped for the best! Lol
 
I just rehomed our high school's FFA flock that was being totally neglected. I took two home myself. Sounds like both groups were in similarly horrible shape. The Golden Comet I brought home had an impacted crop and was about half the weight she should be. Both hens had bumblefoot, worm overloads, and bad lice infestations. Now the Golden Comet is dealing with persistent vent gleet. I've had them 3 weeks now. If I can get that vent problem cleared up (I'm starting medistatin tomorrow,), I'll begin integrating them next week.

The stress of the move stopped them from laying, but the Australorp lays daily. The Golden Comet was laying daily, until the vent gleet got worse. Maybe your girls just needed to settle in and get dome good food to get them back to laying condition. I'm just glad they're working out now!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom