FODDER: A beginning. It's comin' along. Final shots. : Natural Feeding for Rabbits - Page 6

maybe, - the single seeds that mold are the ones that were not viable, and did not grow, and molded after they began to decompose. -- when you soak the seed , do you skim off the seed that floats?

michaels4gardens wrote:maybe, - the single seeds that mold are the ones that were not viable, and did not grow, and molded after they began to decompose. -- when you soak the seed , do you skim off the seed that floats?

Yes...............Twice... I skim the seed after 18 hours of soak. Then stir it
up real well and skim it again after about 10 minutes before it goes into
the bucket with the agitator pump and clean fresh water with a capful of
bleach. It stays in that bucket for a couple of hours. More than that, I can
feel the water warming slightly because of the pumps' operating temp.
Even with a magnetic-drive pump, it does create a certain amount of
residual heat.

I've increased the bleach addition to the water. I've just started seeing
this problem within the last week or so.

grumpy.

will be interested to see what the extra bleach does...

michaels4gardens wrote:will be interested to see what the extra bleach does...

Me too.... The trouble is, it takes 6 or 7 days to see what the results are.

I had a DANDY bad spot on one biscuit yesterday evening. The worst yet!
The other two....started the same....everything the same...were perfect.

The "Only" thing I can figure is that a mouse got in and
pee'd in that one spot. I've been fighting them little @#@%$!'s since
day one. Poison, sticky traps-regular traps--bait boxes...You name it
I've tried it. I "thought" I had that room so tight, nothing could get in.

Obviously, I was wrong. I need to take everything out and check once
again for any small spots they can enter. Any hole bigger than a dime
needs to be filled with steel wool and covered with metal. AFTER I drop
some poisoned bait down the hole.

Grumpy.

Maybe alternate weeks using bleach one week and peroxide the next, to keep bacteria and mold from getting too used to either one?

Great thread!

grumpy wrote:I've been fighting them little @#@%$!'s since
day one. Poison, sticky traps-regular traps--bait boxes...You name it
I've tried it.

Have you tried a bucket trap? If you set the trap with peanut butter the mice should ignore your fodder in favor of the PB!

Edited to add: forgot the link:

http://fivegallonideas.com/bucket-mouse-trap/

Great set-up! I've started this on a MUCH smaller scale just to see if it's something I can keep up with for winter. So far, so good!

The "Only" thing I can figure is that a mouse got in and
pee'd in that one spot. I've been fighting them little @#@%$!'s since
day one. Poison, sticky traps-regular traps--bait boxes...You name it
I've tried it. I "thought" I had that room so tight, nothing could get in.

Any chance you could keep a couple of chickens in there for awhile? They will eat every last one of those buggers.

Miss M wrote:So, they're both barley, just one's a cheaper brand? It does look like it's got a bunch of stuff in it.

That's really odd about the single seeds molding... I'll be interested to see if the bleach increase stops that.

I'm slow responding to all of your posts.
My apologies. My reasons for this DON'T belong on this thread.
I may start one in "Around the Coffee-Table" It "won't be a short one". LOL.

Miss M.
The added bleach seems to have done the trick. I'm still cautious however
and check every portion before I feed it.

The extreme fluctuations in herd size makes it nearly impossible to predict
the exact amounts needed on a daily basis. It's a toughie...that's for sure.
Mary's old gelding "Kita" gets the leftovers....if there is any.

The mice appear to have dwindled in numbers.
I'm still AT WAR with those blasted fruit flies.
I call them by another name......when I'm all alone. LOL.
The words rhyme well.

Chickens......?? I'm not real whippy on mixing the two species.
Rabbits are messy as it is.
Chickens only exacerbate the problems with their continual scratching.

True......they're death on rodents, without a doubt. When I had my game
chickens, there wasn't a mouse to be found.........anywhere.

Again.....my apologies for responding so slowly. I'll try to do better.

Grumpy.

best of luck Grumpy, --- wish you well

True......they're death on rodents, without a doubt. When I had my game
chickens, there wasn't a mouse to be found.........anywhere.

Yep, my hubby calls them little dinosaurs. They see something and *zoom*... like velociraptors

grumpy wrote:I'm slow responding to all of your posts.
My apologies. My reasons for this DON'T belong on this thread.
I may start one in "Around the Coffee-Table" It "won't be a short one". LOL.

Everybody here has a life, and sometimes life gets nutty! And anybody who has been on here for any amount of time knows that you are pretty crazy busy!

grumpy wrote:Miss M.
The added bleach seems to have done the trick. I'm still cautious however
and check every portion before I feed it.

Okay, that's great to know! Thank you!

grumpy wrote:The extreme fluctuations in herd size makes it nearly impossible to predict
the exact amounts needed on a daily basis. It's a toughie...that's for sure.

We just went from over 50 to 9 (including house rabbits)! That's a pretty big fluctuation to us... obviously, we don't deal with the sorts of numbers you do!

jeannie wrote:Yep, my hubby calls them little dinosaurs. They see something and *zoom*... like velociraptors

Yep, pretty much!

Thanks everyone, for being so understanding.

It's 3:24 p.m. my time and I'm just now able to slow down enough to
check "here" and get myself a bite to eat.

Went to bed at 1:30 this morning....out of bed at 5:45 and have been
on a dead run.........................till now. I think I'm gonna eat and take a
NAP.

Grumpy.

A well-deserved one, sounds like!

"The extreme fluctuations in herd size makes it nearly impossible to predict
the exact amounts needed on a daily basis. It's a toughie...that's for sure.
Mary's old gelding "Kita" gets the leftovers....if there is any." -- Grumpy

Might I suggest an experiment on top of your experiment??

How about taking some of the excess fodder production and see if it could be turned into a `hay`? That way you have some backup in the event of a shortfall.