"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[Celie]

I agree with mbmess2003, don't jump the gun.chicks are easy to come by. Get their house ready, before you bring them home.

 

[Celie]

Celie, I've been reading your posts about "holes" in rabbit cages. What does that mean?

Most rabbit cages are built in groupings, I have 8 to a group, 30"x30", back to back, 4 to a row, so the group measures 5'x10', and they are a total of 8 holes, for 8 individual cages in the group. Some or the cages may have common walls or wire, where they are attached to one another. Most transport cages are built as single cages. Most cages are all metal as rabbits chew on or through most other materials.
Here is a picture. Note that each doe has her own hole.

I use built in nest boxes, so I don't have to store them and when not in use, I cover them with a large ceramic floor tile, that helps to keep the rabbits cooler in the summer. You can lower the rabbit's core temp. with ceramic tiles, and other methods, such as gallon jugs filled with water and frozen, during triple digit temps, in the summer, to keep from losing your stock and it will prevent your bucks from going sterile ! A lot of people had to buy new bucks this fall, because they did not know this. I could have sold 10 times the amount of males than I was able to produce. Maybe next week, I can get around to posting a list of rabbit "things to know" or you will see, when you visit this spring.

 

[mbmess2003]

Eventually I want to come check out your place Celie....sounds like you have a great set up. I can't imagine doing chicken chores for all your birds and animals. 20 minutes in the morning and 20 in the evening is long enough for me right now

 

[mbmess2003]

Double post :/

 

[mzstre]

I agree with mbmess2003, don't jump the gun.chicks are easy to come by. Get their house ready, before you bring them home.

X3

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I love that. Is that yours?

No, that belongs to CelticOaks Farm in Florida, but I saved the picture. It is a great idea not only for chickens, but could be used as a quick greenhouse, or to house one of my aquaponics set-ups.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

x2. Throw some eggs under that girl.

x3. I had a Naked Neck that acted like that. Last year she took up residence in a small kennel I use as a hospital...not an egg under her. After a week of trying to break her, I gave in and threw some eggs under her. Three weeks later she was a very happy mother of three chicks, none of them from her own eggs!

 

[chickenbelle]

I have 5 pullets that have reached laying age, but the weather/sunlight has slowed them. The past two weeks those crazy girls have started digging huge holes in their run to sit in. No eggs from them yet. I have put them in their nests, added fake eggs to the nests...everything...and those goofy girls just DON'T GET IT!

Any other suggestions?

50 eggs going in the incubator tomorrow! Whoot! Excited for more babies!

 

[kuntrygirl]

No, Julie no extras here! In fact, I will be making more myself, since I am increasing my breeding does from 10 to 16. I'll have 40 holes for New Zealand White meat rabbits and 8 for little Mini Rex pet rabbits for kids. I just can't, in good conscious, sell a meat rabbit, as a pet, for a child. Big rabbits have large sharp claws, and any rabbit, if frightened, will scratch. I would never condone declawing either! I think that is cruel.
Let me change the subject, for a minute, 
I wanted to ask you about turning eggs before incubation: You said the turkey eggs were in the fridge for 2 weeks before you started incubation? Did you turn them during incubation, or is this really necessary? I put eggs into cartons for customer pickup and turn them several times a day, always an odd number of times, but is that necessary or what? I also had a customer who bought hatching eggs from me 3 times, twice without success, because he listened to someone on the net, that was teaching people to lower humidity to have a "dry hatch" to increase air space. I think I finally talked some sense into him to up the humidity, because he finally got a good hatch and didn't need any more eggs. I don't know why, but common sense just isn't very common anymore! I don't mean to be so gruff, but some people keep hitting the"A" and think they will eventually Get a "B" to print!!! 

I will have to add on to my rabbit shed for more rabbits. I don't do "outside" rabbits. They have to be inside in an enclosed and protected area. I need to get some new stock and I hope to find several does and a buck. All of my cages are double holes and they are hanging cages (well at least we hang them). I think I may have 1 single compartment and someone gave that to me. All of my cages were made by this older man that lives in my area. He has some of the best cages. The only thing is, is that he is getting old and is having a lot of health issues. I got him to build me a cage last year and wish he could build more in the event he is not around. So, I'm on the look out for a few more cages. I think my max for rabbits will be 12 perhaps but no more than 15. I only want them for meat for the freezer. If I have any extras to sell to people who want them for breeding, then I will sometimes sell them to other people.

Oh and as far as declawing rabbits.... Do people really do that? OUCH! I don't do that. :/

 

[kuntrygirl]

I wanted to ask you about turning eggs before incubation: You said the turkey eggs were in the fridge for 2 weeks before you started incubation? Did you turn them during incubation, or is this really necessary? I put eggs into cartons for customer pickup and turn them several times a day, always an odd number of times, but is that necessary or what? I also had a customer who bought hatching eggs from me 3 times, twice without success, because he listened to someone on the net, that was teaching people to lower humidity to have a "dry hatch" to increase air space. I think I finally talked some sense into him to up the humidity, because he finally got a good hatch and didn't need any more eggs. I don't know why, but common sense just isn't very common anymore! I don't mean to be so gruff, but some people keep hitting the"A" and think they will eventually Get a "B" to print!!! 

As far as the turkey eggs, no I didn't turn them. They were originally in there because I was going to eat them. Remember? So, no turning took place. Some people say that you HAVE to turn eggs but look at what I did. Those eggs stayed in one place for 2 weeks with no turning and ALL of them hatched. How do you explain that? So, my experiment leads me to believe that you don't have to turn eggs. :/

What was his humidity reading? What humidity do you hatch your eggs Celie? I keep mine at a steady number of 40. I'm not sure about that "dry hatch" stuff.