Golden laced Wyandotte
Some pictures of our beautiful Golden Laced Wyandotte rooster.
Rabbit labels
Hey everyone,
When you first start your rabbitry you only have a few and so it’s easy to tell who is who. Than you try to move them around to get the best setting and who sits best next to who (because not all rabbits get along). Than you get to the point where rabbits breed like rabbits, you buy more rabbits, and you soon find yourself asking the dangerous question: which rabbit is this?!
Don’t get to that point. It’s not fun.
The easiest way to identify your rabbits is to use rabbit labels. These can be as simple as index cards or card stock and writing the gender and name on them. You could include more info such as the tattoo number, birthdate, or anything else you may want at a glance but most of the information should be kept on your rabbit records so it isn’t easily lost.
For our label system all the rabbits have if they are bucks or does. We keep the bucks labels pretty simple: tattoo number, name, birthday. Breeding does have everything listed above and a simple breeding record; all other details on breeding does are on the rabbit record on our computer. When the kits are old enough to be separated from the mother they are sexed, put in their own cages, and their card is a basic gender and birthday and a star if we intent on showing the rabbit.
The label system really helps you see at a glance who it is, what it is, and how old it is. The labels can be as simple as an index card that slides in and out of the J- feeder and can be moved to a transport cage so you never lose track of your rabbits.
We have also used clear name tag sleeves with metal clip tags and those work even better for keeping them dry in the elements and also easily moved.
Thank you for visiting. We hope you enjoyed this post. If you want to see more please follow us. If you have any questions please post in the comments below.
God Bless,
Darrick and Kay
The best wild rice recipe
Hello everyone,
Every September Darrick and a friend went out and harvested the wild rice on our lake with a canoe and a long stick. It was hard work and a long day but we ended up with 20lbs of wild rice from our own land!
With all this wild rice we tried several recipes but this is our favorite.
1 cup Wild rice (rinsed well)
2 cups water
2 tsp chicken or beef broth
1 carrot (cut up)
1 celery (cut up)
1/2 onion (chopped)
Add all ingredients to a sauce pan (big enough for some expansion as the rice soaks up water) and bring to a boil. Cover and turn off heat. Let sit for 15-20 minutes (see note) until all the water is absorbed.
Note- Our rice doesn’t have the black hull, so it cooks much faster than store bought wild rice. This recipe makes about 4 servings.
Thank you for visiting us and we hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you like what you see, please follow us. If you have questions, or you tried the recipe please let us know what you thought.
God bless,
Darrick and Kay
He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.
-Proverbs 10: 5
How to make Hummingbird nectar
Spring is here, and so are the birds!
We currently have a black bear in our land so to not encourage him too much to visit we don’t put bird feeders out, except for the hummingbird feeder. Nectar in the store can be a little expensive for basically just colored sugar water. The red dye in the liquid might not be so healthy for the birds either. Luckily, it’s so easy to make your own in less than 5 minutes!
What you will need is:
- 1 cup of water
- 1/4 cup sugar (regular white baking sugar)
- Cup and spoon
- Hummingbird feeder
Simply pour your sugar into your water (it helps if it’s room temperature or warm) and stir until all the crystals dissolve. Pour in your feeder, hang it up, and enjoy your birds! It’s that simple!
Make sure you clean it weekly as can get sticky and icky.
God bless!
Darrick and Kay
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
-Song of Solomon 2:12
Building a chicken coop
We are building our first chicken coop! When we were starting out we intended to colonize the rabbits and chickens together, but decided against it as rabbits can get sick, dirty with chicken poop, and the chickens might peck at the baby bunnies. In cages the rabbits are kept safe and clean.
We wanted to share our experience with building our first coop.
The area was previously used to store firewood. It had a roof and simple vertical framing.
After day one of the build: March 17, 2019
Structure is framed in on 2 sides and siding placed on one side. We picked red because we loved the idea of it looking like a little barn. We are so grateful for several good friends who really helped with this project.
Burning holes in ground to dig in posts !!! What we do to survive in northern Minnesota!
One more step closer… windows. we found these windows at Menards and liked that they had a screen and could open to let in fresh air.
Darrick had to take a pick axe to the ground- it was still frozen but needed those bottom boards to be level!!
March 22: One more day along the process. We had to figure out how to do j-trim but once we figured it out it went pretty good. Set the posts for the main door. It’ll be two 3 foot doors that are Dutch doors, so the top can open up to let air in.
Got the posts set for the double Dutch door. We got the j-trim around the windows done. That was a learning experience
Darrick’s task this week is to build the two Dutch doors and hopefully get them stained too. If we can get the siding started this week that should put us in a good spot to finish insulating by the following week and move the birds and rabbits in.
March 30: Darrick built the doors and moved them inside so Kay and her friend could paint them.
The Doors are finished.
Looking like a barn!! Darrick and his friend have been working tirelessly to enclose the siding on the coop. Next is insulation, plywood, and putting the doors on. Nearly done!
Two wall panels up. Styrofoam behind the plywood.
April 7: Doors hung and plywood on the back wall. The left door will be a Dutch door but that will be finished at a later date.
April 10: insulation and framing by the door.
Next step is to add handles, latches, locking mechanisms, and bury chicken wire on the outside so animals don’t try to dig in. We also added lights to keep the chicks warm if needed.
Last step: add chickens (and a mini farmer)
Thank you for following our journey. Our next step will be to add rabbit cages to the chicken coop (we have a small stackable in the right side of this photo) and turn one of the doors into a Dutch door.
God Bless,
Darrick and Kay
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