Big dissapointment!

I got home from work yesterday and went to feed and water the rabbits and found that Alice had her litter! She had been bread two weeks before I got her. I had put a nesting box in the cage a couple days ago and I would find her in it each morning. There was only one kit in the box and Alice had used the box as a bathroom. So I removed the box and took the kit out (mistake?) and cleaned out the old nasty bedding, replaced it with new bedding, put the kit back in and placed the box back with Alice.
I went out later to check on them and Alice had killed and eaten the kit! All that was left was it's head! I was bummed, to say the least!

Why did this happen? She has had other litters and has done well with them. All I can say is that she was stressed and not use to me or the envioment yet! So I will let her settle in and not breed her again until Buck Henry is old enough to do the job. That will be in about 2 month's.

This is not the out come I had hoped for. But live and learn!
Tom

New Livestock

I have been on the homestead for over four years now and the only Livestock I have been able to get going with are the Worms. They did not coast a lot and I was able to start with 1,000 of them (approx. 1 lbs). And to feed them does not require an out lay of funds at all!

But Tuesday I added Rabbits! The manager/Chief at work raises Rabbits and Quail for his own freezer and to also sell on "Crag's List", dressed, frozen and vacume sealed.
He was the guy that I was getting the Rabbit manure from to feed to the Worms and he offered to sell me three of them to use as my breeders to get my own Rabbit herd going.

So here they are:

This is "Alice"

A 2 1/2 year old California. She will be the main breeding female for a while. She has had 5 litters to date, for a total of 14 kits. She is pretty lay'ed back and is a Chow Hound! She had her last litter on 14 December.

This one I do not have a name for yet. She is a "Black Silver Fox". 7 months old and has had one litter so far, with 4 kits from that one.

And this is "Buck Henry". A 2 1/2 month old male, "Black Silver Fox". He is going to be the Daddy of the Herd when he gets a little older!

The three of them will give me a cross-breed meat Rabbit that will put me one step closer to producing some of my own food. I have always though that I wouldn't have an animal that did not contrubute to the whole idea of the Homestead. And they will not only provide meat, But also manure for the Worms and the garden.

The feeding and mainteance will be more involved then what I have had to do with the Worms. But its not that hard a thing to do. I have them housed in a metal shed for right now, But plan on building them a hoop house to live in the near future.
I have done a lot of research and found out that Rabbit meat is leaner then Chicken and they atain market size pretty fast. They should dress out at around 2 1/2 lbs and are going for $2.25 a lb on "Crag's List". So maybe I will make a little on them some day!
And My Blogging friend Susan over at e-i-e-i-omg sent me three books on Rabbits a while ago, that really help me make up my mind to get started with them. Thanks again Susan!!!!!!

So there's the Livestock up-date! Talk to you later.
Tom