Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[Bettacreek]

We really didn't get too much up here at all, but just an hour or so south of us (my mother's place) got several inches. We had a really dry winter. I'm waiting for one more storm to pass everyone else up and really nail us, lol.

I sold off two pairs of button quail and will be selling another tomorrow. One pair was sold for $10 and a heat lamp bulb, the other pair was traded for a 2'x2' cage (and accessories). The pair tomorrow will go for $20, but I have to use $6.24 in gas to meet the guy. I was advertising the quail at $3 per male and $5 per female. I was only selling females in pairs (had to get a male in order to get a female), but I've been making out better than I had thought.
I'll also be hatching out guineas and maybe peafowl for the guys' grandparents. Will give me some experience under my belt, plus I'm going to see if I can tap some of their trees in exchange.

 

[Bettacreek]

After checking my animal budgets, I realised that my rabbit venture is only eating up money. Nothing has come of it yet. So, I decided to hit the sale barn today to get some breeding does. I saw a few that I wanted, but ended up getting five young californians (2-3 months old, my uneducated/unexperienced guess). I bought them figuring that there would probably be mostly bucks, so I was just going to butcher them and hope for 1-2 does. After paying for them, I sexed them out... four does and one buck. I'm actually pretty stunned. I only paid a total of $16.25 for all five, so $3.25 per rabbit, for a whole breeding group of young, healthy, meat breeders. I will of course have to invest some time/feed/hay into them to get them to actual breeding age, but, it's well worth it in my opinion. I did have to stop and buy my cage wire today, since I only have one extra cage (I had left home today expecting to bring home one rabbit, if that). That was $38. Plus the three extra water bottles that I had to buy, at $7. I would have bought a cage or two at the sale, but I missed them. They were the first auction, and there were 10 of them all in one fell swoop. I heard the auctioneer, and came out from peeking at rabbits, only to have them say "Number 17 takes the rest of the cages" Bah! I don't even know how much they went for, but they were nice and big cages. So, at least I get to design them exactly as I want them. I also bought some socks, two sets of 3 pair camoflauge ankle socks and a five pack of regular white/pink socks. Plus I bought the kids some of those jiggly "hair" ball yoyos. I had a ton of fun, and I got a great deal on the rabbits. I just need to finish up the rabbit cages. :/ I got home late, so I had to quit after only finishing up a quarter of the entire set-up (it's all going to be one big huge unit). The rabbits won't be super comfortable, but we'll all have to make-do until tomorrow morning.

 

[Bettacreek]

I put a random ad up for two of the Californian does. I wanted to see if it generated much interest. At $10 per doe, someone wants to pick them up today. I think I'll do it, since I plan to attend the sale barn after easter. I can always pick up two more does for under $5 each. I could also wait and see what two does do for me, and increase only if needed. If two meat does fit the family meat needs just fine, I think I'll try for a dutch doe or maybe another really cute breed just for fun and pet sales.
I also ordered several things today. I feel like I spent a fortune, but I believe that I made my decisions very carefully. I spent $218 on non-essentials. Hopefully everything pans out and the investment is worth it. I bought 16lbs of lye, culture cups for insects (fruitflies mainly), a Sam's Club membership renewal and my weeping mulberry tree. Andy and I are going to try to make soap molds that fit what I want. Since everyone seemed to really like the soap from my last batch, hopefully I can make a lot more of it and maybe even set up a little stand here locally to sell some eggs, birds, rabbits, soaps and produce. Even if I have to hit the farmer's market down in another town, I think it may be worth it. The culture cups will help me cut down on pet feed bills. My frogs, salamanders and quail will all eat the insects that I plan to use the culture cups for. Plus, I hope to sell some of the insects as starter cultures for other people, including culture cups as a part of a kit. This one is actually a little more iffy, but I think it may pan out in the long run. My Sam's club membership is an obvious save. When we buy bulk items at Wal-mart, we use a whole bulk item in one meal. Buying larger bulk items at Sam's club should help, and should eventually save us a good bit of money. I'm waiting on my checks to arrive so that I can send my $50 application fee in for nursing school. My mother is switching from the 2pm-10pm shift to the 6am-2pm shift so that she can help out with the boys after daycare. Nursing school is going to be a massive expense, and I'm diving in with both feet and keeping my eyes closed tight. I don't know how I'll pay for everything, but plan to do it as it comes, because I *HAVE* to go through nursing school. I need this in order to keep my family going. I just hope that I still have the energy to keep up with everything at home.

 

[Wifezilla]

No bunny photos??

 

[Bettacreek]

Oh, if you insist! Lol. I'll get one up for now, then work on getting the rest edited and posted.

Please nevermind the dirty fingers, I was planting some new stuff when I had grabbed the camera to take pictures of my plants, then decided to take this pic too.

 

[Bettacreek]

Just a pic of the wood we have ready for next winter:

Some of the seed starter things that I made with recycled egg cartons and recycled plastic.

Daffodils I think, out in the yard:

One of my 6 week old golden coturnix roos. Already at 6oz!

Unfinished cage unit. Nevermind my car, it was my sawhorse, and the pants were my seat, lol.

Some of the buttons. They're HARD to get good pictures of

Rabbit's face

All cramped into the traded-for cage. Poor buggers!

And, last, but of course not least, the Z bunny

 

[Bettacreek]

Later tonight, I'll be two bunnies less. :/ I decided to go ahead and sell two of my does. I'm not super thrilled about it, but it will give me a chance to see what it's like to breed for meat bunnies. That, and, if I see something that I like at the sale, I can get it. Still, nice little bunnies, they'll make this lady some excellent pets.

 

[Wifezilla]

Great pics

 

[MorelCabin]

Neat idea for seed starters...never seen it done that way before...and I have 6 empty egg cartons I can use! Thanks for posting that!
Love the bunnies, I had the same breed and when the babies came they were so cute I couldn't kill them so I gave them all away instead! I'm thinking of maybe trying it again either this summer or next summer...my neighbor is a hunter and says he'll do the deed for me

 

[Bettacreek]

I was starting to get desperate to plant seeds without spending a bunch of money on starting supplies. I had to cut the top out and put plastic in later, because the water evaporates too quickly when you open them and try to give them some sun, and I actually lost a LOT of seedlings from this. :/ The plastic is just the plastic wrapping that came on the wire that I bought to build the rabbit cages. Cling wrap would probably work just as well.

The two bunnies are now gone. $20 for them, plus the gas fees were paid by the buyer. Now I just need to wait, get something in this place to breed and hopefully get out of the red in the animals, or at least in one species. The buttons will probably be the first. They actually would be, if I were calculating the traded items (cage and brooder lamp), but I'm not, lol.

I also candled the eggs in the incubator. Seems like none of the guinea eggs were fertile. Three out of six chicken eggs were fertile. Not too bad for being the very first eggs of the season, IMO.