Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[Javamama]

Oh those are beautiful! good job on the uploading!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

They are GORGEOUS! I love the fur
All my bunnies are mixed breed of Cali & NZ, so I've got white & black & white. Oh, and black

Oh, and YAY you!

 

[savingdogs]

Couldn't have done it without you guys!

 

[Denim Deb]

They're beautiful! I've thought about raising bunnies for food, but I have a feeling I'd get too attacked too quickly. :/

 

[MsPony]

I don't knopw whether to say "yummy" or "how warm!" First lol!! I want meat & hide rabbits, but shh, don't tell my super soft chinchilla furred pet house rabbit that!!

 

[framing fowl]

They're so pretty! Yum!

 

[savingdogs]

Well we are still working on the rabbit hutches. Or actually my hubby is, he has them all designed now and most of the materials. Looks like we are giving each other rabbits and hutches for Christmas! I'm really excited about it though, even though they are to raise some to eat. I love animals and love taking care of animals. If I can feed my family taking care of animals, it will be a lot happier way of putting food on the table than what I'm doing now, taking care of someone ELSEs animals. We decided our goal will be to stop buying meat this year except possibly a little bit of ground beef and italian sausage and bacon. If anyone knows how to make italian sausage from chicken, duck or rabbit, please let me know. Maybe we do need to rethink the pigs.....

The four rabbits we are getting are taking on personalities from my friend's descriptions, they didn't have names so I'm calling them Gramps, Nana, Junior and Sister for the moment at least, so that she and I can discuss who does what. Gramps isn't old but he has white around his eyes so that name just popped out at me, and he is older than Junior certainly. Nana is the show bunny, she is 3 but I'd really like to try to sell some of hers as pets or show bunnies since she has won a best of show, it seems logical that her offspring would be the ones to contribute to the gene pool (these are very uncommon rabbits, only 1,000 estimated worldwide population). I also read this breed is popular with homesteaders....which made me giggle, I do think they would appeal to people like me. Meat rabbit plus those beautiful skins, friendly and large....I am not confident I would sell many as pets as this is not the right economy for it, but maybe a few. If I could sell some to offset the price of feed it would be awesome, because I just imagine we will be going through a bit more hay. I'm just going to switch to orchard hay for everyone. But I'll have to buy pellets.
Since we had trouble killing our egg eating chickens, I sure hope my hubby is UP for this like he says. When it came time to kill the hens we kinda chickened out.
But frankly, I hate plucking!

 

[Blackbird]

Wow!
I had no idea they were THAT pretty!

I looked at the photos of your goats on FB. I LOVE your blue-ish gray colored one! I hope to have a goat that color some day.

 

[savingdogs]

That is Molly, our favorite! Those pictures were from when she was a teenager, she is now almost halfway through her pregnancy. We are hoping she has at least one doeling somewhat like her.
Our goats are siblings, tripets from one mom. I'm glad you like the pictures. We'd like to breed a few mini nubians from them, but I realize that they don't have beautiful ears like your goats, Blackbird.

 

[savingdogs]

Well it is snowing here today. This year we have had the earliest snow. The ducks are HILARIOUS. This is their first winter and they (unlike the goats and chickens) do not run for cover. They seem to really think it is fun, kind of like the dogs. We had flurries coming down a few hours ago and I was laughing watching them try to catch the flakes, like they thought it was a new branch of the mosquito family.
The chickens and goats were much more sensible, hiding in their shelters and imploring us to bring their food inside, which of course we did. I've had a bad cold so I've been staying inside where it is nice and warm. My half grown chicks did think the snow was something interesting to peck at though.
My hubby is never cold, right now he is working in the yard wearing shorts and sandals, just like we were stll in L.A. Trouble inherited this trait and chases chickens into the coop in bare feet in the snow. Rather brave because this is also the dog potty designated area so there are hidden poops under the crust of snow of all animal varieties. I can barely bear to watch, much less go out there without shoes. Apparently there was a sheet of ice out on the chicken deck and hubby fell on his arse. He wasn't hurt so it becomes funny. I think we need some handrails though and that was a good illustration! Maybe his sandals aren't the best choice, either.

Had a lot of fun last night with the thread Beekissed started about all of us....very interesting! I had really not thought much about what everyone looked like, but I found out I didn't have the GENDER right in many cases as well as age guesses. Level of experience does not seem to match age when it comes to being self sufficient. Many of my helpful experts are folks young enough to be my children.
I may be one of the older people on this forum, but us old dogs can still learn new tricks!
And sometimes those younger dogs are the right ones to lead us.