Rabbit Tractor

With some help from the wife and the oldest daughter, I was able to get the Rabbit Tractor project completed this weekend.

If you have been reading MDR for a while then you know every project I do starts in my head then a while later gets onto paper. From there it gets redesigned several times before any materials are acquired. Sometimes it will sit in my thoughts for almost a year and then once I figure out all the details, I start it.
The Rabbit Tractor project was no different. This started as a thought several months ago and was redesigned at least twenty times. Material lists were made and even a budget line item was created to fund this project.

Finally, here it is and it's nothing like I had planned, let me explain.

The idea for this is the same concept as a Chicken Tractor by moving it around providing the rabbits with continued pasture and at the same time fertilizing. The cage will have to be moved every couple of days to insure fresh grass. This initial design was going to be made out of wood and was going to be too heavy to move with the lawn mower, so I designed a wheel lift system to help it along.
Here's where it all changed. I told the wife I was ready to pull the trigger on this and Saturday morning we went and bought some meat rabbits. After that, I was going to the store to buy the material to make the movable cage (rabbit tractor).
That's when the wife decided to ask me, "Why don't you use the kennel panels?" I just smiled, bless her heart, she tries.   
My design was set and I was really wanting to build this huge heavy monstrosity I have spent so much time designing. It was going to be the state of the art in rabbit hutches with automatic this and easy to handle that.
I decided to entertain the thought of using the kennel panels because number one, we already had them. So with help from the wife and the oldest daughter we went to the barn and drug them all out, laid them on the ground and started brain storming.

This is what we came up with, a six sided rabbit cage on wheels. There's nothing fancy here but, then again I think it will work out better. I can at least walk in this one compared to the other design where I was going to have to crawl.
After we put two of the rabbits in there as a "Just in case they get out" trial run we saw that they loved it. They were still in there this morning so I think this may actually work.
Total cost for the first design was $400.00
Total cost for this design was $58.00

 Here is a picture of the watering system I made so I would not have to fill up so many little bottles everyday. I am hoping the tarp I have for shade will keep the water cool enough.

This pen will be able to hold eight does. When they are ready I will bring them to the buck. When they are a week from having babies I will put them in another pen until the babies are ready to be taken off and then they go back out to the colony. I have not figured out what I am going to do with all the babies yet. I hope to sell or eat them before I have to house them for too long.
I never really had to worry about it with show rabbits, they all sold quick enough.

We ended up driving for almost an hour and a half to find these rabbits. There is none around here so I am hoping this low feed cost way of raising them will pay off and I can establish a small market up my way.

Other than that, we had a full weekend. I made the neatest little thing to use at outdoor parties. I will show that tomorrow. Plus, the oldest girl needed some furniture for her house when she goes back to college in August so she raided the barn and refurbished, redesigned and reused some old stuff just taking up space. You will not believe how good this stuff looks. I will show those this week as well.

Until then, have a good one,
MDR     

Sunday Around The Mini Farm

The Calm Before The Storm

Here is a shot inside the little garden area of the Mini Farm and of the finished greenhouse we recently assembled. It is smaller than the one I was going to build but the wife says it will do just fine.
If you were wondering, yes that is the garden solar bathhouse to the right.






The potatoes have grown and now all the levels have been placed on the bins. All together they are five 2X6's high. One problem we are having is the potato bugs now.



This big boy to the right is the new and up and coming rooster who will replace the one we have if he does not start doing his job a little better. Even though we continue to hatch every month, the fertile percentages are only at about fifty percent with the other rooster. He can only find that right spot half the time. This one here is a little younger but he has already started topping the hens like a pro.

A friend of mine stopped by last night and brought me some more windows. Even thought the greenhouse is done, I still have a use for windows.
The two tall ones here in the picture will be used for the next project I just started, the solar dehydrator.
 Another friend of mine gave me this 1940's commercial incubator a few months ago and I did not have a clue what I was going to do with it until now.
This old non working incubator will be stripped of all the hardware and the windows pictured above will be set off to the side longways in a triangle type fashion to collect the heat. A little solar fan will draw the heated air through the windows, up through the box and out the top at hopefully around 140 degrees .
If you can't picture it then just wait. It should be done by next weekend.    If it don't work then I haven't lost nothing. I have everything to do this little project on hand.

The youngest girl "Wee" is a new momma. She is really excited about her new little bundles of joy.
They are baby rabbits if you don't know what they are.  

   




Huge storms are moving in tonight and the wife is getting ready to bug out as we speak. The wind is blowing so hard I feel like I am in a ship at sea with all the house movement going on.
If you don't hear from us for a few days then we will be in the van down by the river.
(If any of you ever watched Saturday night live back in the day then you would have thought that was funny)

Soggy Sunday

It has been raining here for the past couple of days and it ain't right. I had plans this weekend but had to settle for almost doing nothing.

I took advantage of some of the down time to do some major cleaning and scrubbing of the house. I love the smell of bleach in the morning.

Another rainy day activity me and the youngest did was get her rabbits all tattooed up and ready for next weeks show.

All I have is this old eighties model tattoo gun that we used on goats way back then. It still works and does a good job.

 Nothing fancy here. We just wrapped them in a towel and poked the ears through. The girl held them close and tight while I did the deed.

 After rubbing the left ear with alcohol, I had to find the main veins and avoid them.


The tattoo has to legible in the left ear, right side up so it's always good to punch though a piece of paper before the doing the ear just to make sure you are holding the tool right and the letters or numbers are in right. 

 After the the tattooing, I rubbed in the ink with a trimmed toothbrush.
I trimmed the toothbrush so the bristles were stiffer and would push the ink into the open holes better.

In a couple of days the ink will be gone leaving a pretty little green F2 behind on this rabbit.

The main reason we have to do this is because if we plan to show them, they have to be marked. Another reason is to identify who is from who.



There you go, a little bit of Animal Husbandry at it's finest

It's Just What Rednecks Do On Our Days Off

First off I want to say Howdy and Welcome to Sissy over at http://musingsbythecreekside.blogspot.com/ for becoming the newest member of MDR. She has a real nice blog and I encourage you to take a look.
Thank you Sissy and again welcome.

New Years Eve came with clear skies, cool temperatures  and and little windy plus it did not take much to convince me I needed to do other things than work around here. For the last two months it has been cold and rainy so I guess with a day like that I wanted to do something else rather than what I needed to be doing.
So a whole bunch of us including my four girls, got together over at my dad's and threw some massive lead down range.
It was a good way to end a not so good year.



We even had a first timer join in on the fun. On the left here is my little six year old niece shooting her first pistol for the first time. Her daddy and old uncle were so proud.      






Speaking of Rabbits, the youngest girl got three more breeders to add to her stock. They are of the Satin breed.
If you are wondering the rabbits she raises are for showing and not meat. Yes, they could be eaten if need be, but meat rabbits do not go over too well here as do show rabbits.







For New Years day we did something a little different then we normally would. All my life I have had the traditional dinner with all the fixins but this year we went to an old friends daughters wedding. I have know this girl back when she was just walking and me and her daddy have been really good friends all these years. When he thanked me for coming I told him I would not have missed it for the world.  

Once back home I could not let such a beautiful day go to waste without doing something outside so me and the oldest (BEB) went out and built stuff. I will let her tell you about it on her blog but it was cool. Please check it out, here in a little bit, and tell her just how cool it really is.

I did some more stuff but will post about it later. Tomorrow will be a production day here at the Mini Farm so hold on to your hats folks.