Michigan

[SillyChicken]

I came home lastnight, let all the dogs out..... came inside and my male dog is looking out the back patio door whining. So I go take a looksie... and what do I see?

..Mom rabbit and 8 of her 9 babies running around loose!!! I actually managed to catch them all! I was just glad my dogs (or anything else) didn't catch any of them. The door to the hutch was closed still... she must have pushed her way out.. the hutch is now locked up (hopefully)!!

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

Morning! Well Michiganders Mother Nature LOVES to tease us, they are calling for another Snow Storm for next Monday PM.

I'm so ready for spring, I just put my 4mth old ducklings outside getting the use to being outdoors, and will be buying a large dog kennel, then this! Oh well, they have to live and learn, it's time to leave the luxury "Nest".

 

[Olive Hill]

Looks like another beautiful day out there today, almost 40 and sunny! I'll take it!

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

..Mom rabbit and 8 of her 9 babies running around loose!!! I actually managed to catch them all! I was just glad my dogs (or anything else) didn't catch any of them. The door to the hutch was closed still... she must have pushed her way out.. the hutch is now

I have bunnies also, but they are pet house rabbits but not for meat. But what kind are yours? I have 3 English Lops, 2 Mini Rex, Champaign, 1 Holland Lop, 1 Holland Lop/mix, 3 basic brown rabbits, 1 Flemish Giant. All spayed and neutered. Well a couple of them are/were fosters that I'm trying to find homes for. But only as pets, they are middle age.​

 

[chikkaboomboom]

All the animals are acting wild here, spring fever!!!! Kids are acting wilder then normal.....I think its a little early for me to get my hopes up that old man winter is done with us Michiganders, saw a coyote behind my barn and the deer are coming right up to the house to pick thru my flowers beds, and eating all my nut trees, my poor apple trees are just about stripped naked. Im so anxious to start hatching some eggs but waiting a few more weeks I really dont want baby chicks in the house for longer then a week.
Good morning all heres hoping the weather holds!...

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
We've got a farrier appt for the horses tonight. I'm going out armed with carrots when it comes time to catch them because they have been absolute fruit loops lately. I'm not above shameless bribery if it means not having to lay down the law in 4 inches of slushy snow, ice and mud with a 1200 lb horse galloping circles around me.

 

[SillyChicken]

Quote:
I have bunnies also, but they are pet house rabbits but not for meat. But what kind are yours? I have 3 English Lops, 2 Mini Rex, Champaign, 1 Holland Lop, 1 Holland Lop/mix, 3 basic brown rabbits, 1 Flemish Giant. All spayed and neutered. Well a couple of them are/were fosters that I'm trying to find homes for. But only as pets, they are middle age.

Mine are NZ (mutts) and CA meat rabbits. We're trying to be fairly self sufficent, growing, preserving most of our own food etc.

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

That is fantastic, I don't judge people who raise their own animals for food, or go hunting to provide food for their family, now to go out and kill an animal for the "Fun" of it and let that God given food/meat and not use it and let it go to waste, that is just plain WRONG! I personally could not, that is just me, but there are days where I wish I could and not let it bother me. The furthest thing I can do to bring food to my family from my animals is my ducks laying eggs and we eat the eggs, viable or not. I will pull my ducks egg as soon as she lays it and leaves before she goes broody. When I crack it, and I see that fertility disk, I think of my ducklings I incubated and hatched and felt bad at 1st, but then I think there is no development, nothing is there, she hasn't gone broody, so there is no "life" yet until she does and I see veins. Now if I miss an egg and find that she is broody, and I see development I won't be able to crack it. I just can't do it! But that is just me. But good for you and those who provide for their family food naturally and can do it.

 

[AuntJenny]

Finally......2 green/blue eggs this morning. They made a nest in the cows wall feeder. One after another they are lining up to hop in. I was able to grab 2 eggs before I left. I am so excited!!!!!! I lined all the nests with the same grass they are laying in. Hopefully they get the hint and lay with the rest of the hens. I am filling the incubator today!!! My orps are getting broody so the EE's are laying just in time. Just as planned!!! Trying to get an egg from my broody orpington hens is a pain. One hen is hiding them somewhere in the barn!!



The warm up in the next couple of days is going to be awesome. Can't wait to get everything to the compost pile!!!!

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

My Rouen just started laying AGAIN yesterday morning, I found 2 eggs today so I know she started yesterday after laying 2wks ago. She goes in 2wk cycles of laying, lays for 1wk takes a lay break but drake continues to mate her, then within 1 1/2-2wks she is laying again. I usually jinx myself, my son LOVES to eat duck eggs and I love to bake with them, and when I run out of duck eggs, she doesn't lay so then I have to go to the store and buy chicken eggs (dh absolutely puts his foot down in having chickens, he will NOT have chickens) and usually that day or the next when i don't need eggs right away my Rouen will start laying. LOL! I have 7 4mth old girls that I'm waiting to come of age to start their laying as well. So, probably within the next 8wks. My Rouen started laying at 20-22wks. As tempted as I am to have my girls lay and go broody, where I live, I'm lucky that I've gotten away with 2 ducks, I live in a small 9 house, cul-de-sac Association here in Cedar Springs, but so far no one has made any fuss about them, they are quiet and they stay in their yard, but because I now have a total of 11 ducks I've bought 2 large dog kennels to keep them confined rather then free range, don't want to give the neighbors something to complain about this year.