sleep, auction, bunnies! *update! 11/24*

so I had a weird day. I have issues sleeping and quite often I go a looong time between sleeping and sleeping for short periods and then sleeping freakishly long time. but yesterday I fell asleep around 5PM and even woke up and went from the living room to bed and slept until 4AM! :shock: which is long but I did wake up on my own at 4AM.

so I have been up since then. doing some reading online, checkin forums, feed the rabbit, make a small breakfast,... Dad gets up at 9AM and says he wanted to take some of the hay we did to the sale. cool. so by 11AM we are out the door, truck loaded with hay, and on the road to the auction. there we get things signed in and unload the truck, grab a drink and check out the junk sales in the ring, and wait a bit for the hay sales which start at noon. go down to the stalls and walk around seeing whats in today. was actually some nice goats in and several in milk. one had the worst split udders I have ever seen! oy vey! for non-goat people, a split is extra teats. its pretty common in boers (meat breed) and they have a rating of splits and some lesser ones are allowed and other bad ones are show disqualifiers and the worst of em you cant even have that goat registered.
Well this girl looked like a dairy/boer cross and several had lesser splits. but this one. good heaven. she had big o wide conical teats. one side was nice and other than being so dang wide and long. but then they moved and I saw the other side :shock: :x :| I did a triple take! she had the regular big wide conical teat, then high on the teat/udder area she had a so-so split that for milkin would be annoying but fine really, but then about half way down the regular teat it pretty much split into two teats! I will have to doodle it out for yall because I couldn't believe it!
anyway they did have a couple with nice body shape and decent udders and teats for milkin. even one really really lovely la mancha that was a dark chocolate color with her twin kids. all looked lovely and healthy and she had the best udder shape of any there, even if her teats were a bit low and close in the middle.

anyhow... :roll:
so of course after the junk and veggie sale in the ring they come outside and do the rabbits and poultry. ohio is one of the states to halt all sales and shows of poultry with the bird flu and all going on. so right to the rabbits. at this sale I have never seen or sold a rabbit for over $10. and even then only the biggest meat rabbits of breeding age/size. anything else youre lucky to get $4 each. usually most of the rabbits are scrawny and a lot of sickly lookin or obvious sores. and usually several boxes with small breed young barely weaned size litters in boxes and they go from 25cent through $1 each or sometimes $1-$3 for the whole box of em.
well not today! the local fair was like a week or so ago and I guess this was most all of the meat pen rabbits that didn't sell at fair. most of the bigger/older calis went for $6-$9. then there was a row of single minirex, couldn't be more than 8wks old, and each went for $8-$10! then the meat pen rabbits, 3 to a pen and probably 8-12wks old. about 17 pens total and 3 of those were black NZs. most of the pens went for $4.75-$9 per rabbit! only two went for $4! and each of the black NZ pens went for $9-$10! one breeding age good lookin and good size cali went for $12! and another pretty good lookin cali doe went for $10.

so of course what did I come home with... :twisted:
two pens of the best looking calis! the one pen (3 rabbits) seem to be 8wks-ish and the other pen (3 rabbits) seem to be 10wks-ish. all look quite good shape wise and nice dark brown markings. all have good muscle on em and none feel skinny at all. fed enough. one pen was $4.75 each (the younger ones) and the other was one of the last two pens and $4 each. pretty darn glad since they definitely looked like the best two pens there except maybe one or two of the bigger single caged ones.

I did feel bad for one woman who was buying several pens of what she knew to be good placing at the fair. she bought a nice cali doe that placed grand champ reserve among them. it was the one that went for $10. just in the time she got carriers out of her vehicle and had her kids bring em to the pens area, then go up to sort out paying in the office, and come back out to the pens area.. the doe was dead.. just being out in the pens with it being hot and not hardly a breeze. and of course there isn't any bowls or anything for water. couldn't've been more than 10 minutes.

so I have 6 nice calis! :mrgreen: they were being pretty antsy so best I could do was 2 looked like does but not sure on the others. got em in one of the big growout cages (5ft long, 30in deep, 2ft tall). gonna give em a few days to adjust and see if I can sex and marker them then. probably will keep the nicest doe or two for breeding and then eat the rest. SHHHHH!! as far as dad knows I am feedin them up and butcherin em! :mrgreen:

Oh not to mention I totally wasn't thinking and we didn't have anything to put them in! :lol: so here I am with 6 rabbits... They have more junk in rows outside by the rabbit and poultry cages. luckily there was two really big dog cages. I mean like great dane dog cages! and then one short-ish beagle sized cage. well... they each went for $16, $13, then $12 and I didn't get any of em... so right before the last cage went there was this cute little desk and some junk that no one was bidding and Dad got for $1. then some junk.. then some junk, some chicken feeder and waterer, and a milk crate with some pint jars and junk. and its right before the last cage. so I think, yanno I could put the rabbits in the milk crate... and no ones bidding... so the auction guy is lookin around and tryin to get anyone to go for it $1.. no one, and most of the little crowd is lookin at whats on down the row.. so I buy it for $1.. then of course the last cage, the smaller one went for $12.

so I came home with 3 rabbits in a milk crate at my feet, 3 rabbits in a little desk drawer on my lap, and a bunch of junk in the back of the truck! :lol: lucky for me I can use the chicken feeder with the rabbits because its shaped right that its one the pellets will still move and they will be able to eat from.. plus a nice chick feeder, the long one and the top even pops off for cleaning.. plus three pint jars.. plus there is antique shears! didn't even see em in there until I dumped the crate for the rabbits! and then some different car fluid and stuff and junk that i'm sure dad will know what it is. haha. he keeps all that stuff anyhow.

and we made $50 on the hay! Woohoo! got $1.25 per bale. one stack of square bales there went high as $2 per bale and the rest went about same as us or lower from what dad talked to people. I couldn't believe the round bales! good heaven the highest the round bales went was $6! :x geez!
comparing the amount of hay that's crazy cheap compared to the square bales! really I think the thing is that so many of the farmers and stuff is because, 1) the women and kids are doing a lot of the work and want ones they can handle and feed out, 2) its older farmer men who don't want to bother with the round bales, 3) people don't have the trucks and trailers and tractors to move the darn things, 4) even if ya want the round bales ya gotta have a way to unload em and feed em out once yer home!

whats everyone else paying for farm hay? I didn't see any that were alfalfa or anything. all looked like grass and mix hay. some was dang weedy rather than hay. and none of it was good grassy hay. its been so dang wet that no one could get out for early hay and so its all quite stemmy. I know ours was a lot stemmy-er than usual. only now is things drying up. and it stays here so even to work anything you gotta wait until later in the morning because the grass is wet as if it just rained.

ok I am gonna wrap up this post now.. hahaha..
gonna get pics a bit later. tryin to cool off. letting the rabbits settle in. dad wants to go to town (opposite way of the auction) and pick up parts for his water system and darn cat food and I want to go by rural king and TSC with the few dollars I got left
Better sleep good tonight! hahaha.


EDIT: should I pick up some of the oral ivomec to worm them? I know about using it and did before. but would you get it to worm them? at least the does I decide to keep for breeding?
I don't like the idea of worming the ones i'd butcher but wondering about the keepers. I don't want to keep stock that gets worms really but don't know what they could pick up at fair and auction. /: what say you?

Okay, I have several things to say.
1. Congrats on all the animals! :clap2:
2. Yes, that is a freakishly long time to be sleeping. :shock:
3. Pics, or nothing happened! :twisted:

opcorn:

I am so jealous of your hay prices! I grew up in Ohio and I always got great hay for the horses. When I moved to Arizona it was a TOTAL shock! Alfalfa hay here goes for $16 to $18 per bale (100 pound square bales). Higher for grass or timothy hay.

thanks. ya I have slept almost 20 hours straight before. its weird. I forget the term but basically my natural sleep day/night cycle decides it wants to change every day. so bedtime could be 2PM and 'morning' is 6PM. then I am awake all night and the next day I don't sleep at all. then the next day its 1PM and I conk out until 2AM.

luckily I have been able to work the animals around it. I go out several times and they don't seem to mind not having a set feeding time. they still get the same amount of feed per day and varying amounts of cut forage. and they never get hungry that I can tell. actually the buck rabbit is snubbing pellets right now. dumped his full bowl two days in a row for no reason. and he doesn't eat almost any of his forage. very picky about forage. weirdo.

wow Sunrise! that's nuts. geez I cant imagine paying more than $8 for the good grass alfalfa here. except that's always over 1.5hr away so I never get it :roll: but I hope to plant in some alfalfa and more goodies in the close hand-harvestable areas. <br /><br /> __________ Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:31 pm __________ <br /><br /> I didn't end up picking up any ivomec or anything at the store. I will just wait and see if any come up with symptoms for anything and watch poops. me and dad ended up being a lot longer in town than planned so no pics until tomorrow because its 11:30 PM now. so pics in the morning! fingers crossed I can get to sleep easily and soon and actually wake up at a good time! wouldn't that be nice hahaha.

I wanted to ask real quick what weights yall would expect from the guessed age cali rabbits? I mean what would you look for in a good cali at 8wks and 10wks?
can anyone tell me what the ages are supposed to be for 4H meat pen rabbits? because that's what it seemed most or all of them were and I honestly have no idea about it. heck maybe they are all closer in age and the bigger ones are just bigger?

also I feed forage. hoping that putting out some hay for them next to the forage that they will eat some of both and even things out to keep em from getting the runs. gonna work em up slowly. we will see. the pellets are 15% and my best rabbits in the past did the best on this (and it's the cheaper pellet) so this is what I hope to stick to. lots of forage and some pellets.
tomorrow I will probably have em in a cage on the ground to graze while I fix up the big cage. its not in a good spot and I am really really really worried about raccoons. actually it crossed my mind to stay up and make sure the coons don't hassle/eat them through the cage. ugh. the more I think about it the more I want to go move the cage and all right now! /:

I pay $4 a bale for mixed grass hay.

One of the disadvantages of living in the southwest. Lots of perks though, just need to keep more rabbits and less horses! Lol

ok so guess who woke up on her own at 8:30? hahaha I know its a small win but i'll take it. still yawnin like Sleepy lol.

anyhow.. the rabbits are all alive and well. no sign of coon activity out there last night.
but the darn things dumped two of the feed bowls :evil: so this morning they got water, a LITTLE bit of feed in two bowls, and a handful of grass. gonna go out in a bit after I grab my camera and a marker. then I will give em a little more pellets and cut forage before I come down. I just don't want to put in a bulk feeder before I get the cage arranged.

the rabbits seem to be adjusting well though. a couple did the crazy cage run when I got near the cage last night when I checked before bed. but they will get used to me walkin up and being in a big cage. :bunnyhop:

and with the other thread on pinched hips makes me want to look at em good for body type.

@ Sunrise, lol yup horses do eat a lot! lol.

__________ Tue Jul 28, 2015 11:00 am __________

looks like I have a little bit of luck. 3 does, 3 bucks. the best lookin one right now is a buck of course. I marked him and consider keepin him if he looks good come time. but not sure, I already have a buck i'd like to use /: the SF buck.

the does are the smaller ones it seems. the bucks are dropping so I will be needing to separate and/or cull them. hmm... wonder if I could put the regular size cage in the SF bucks cage and have the bigger cali buck in there. the SF cage is another 5ft by 30in and 2ft tall. it'll fit in there i know. that way he would be safe from coons and all but not with the cali does. then just have to hurry and feed up the two cali bucks and butcher em before they get the chance of wanting to breed. crossin my fingers its not been too late as it is /: hmm...

I could only get one to sit still enough for a picture alone.






om nom I see grass



this one that's scratchin is the buck that seemed the better of the group.
<br /><br /> __________ Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:37 am __________ <br /><br /> apparently rabbits don't like radishes. they eat the tops but not the actual radish. and Mr Rabbit the SF buck wont touch em at all. well now I am not so upset that they didn't develop very well! after the rest of the radishes are harvested and the few carrots that grew I will probably plant more radish in among the other plants just to harvest for the tops.

I have been giving em pellets and a little hay and then a medium handful of forage every couple hours. one had a few sticky poops stuck to its butt. I will feed a little less forage and a little more pellets tomorrow.
how long and slow should I be working on them with forage? lol its been a couple days and I am already wanting to just get a small armload to put in!
and I need to work on a forage feeder because these guys sit on plenty of it and then of course don't want to eat what they sat on.

Pretty Rabbits! Congratz on the good deals.

this morning I dragged myself out to rearrange things for the rabbits. the Mr Rabbit the SF buck is in his cage, 5ft x 30in x 2ft tall. on top of his cage over on the end I set the smaller 30in x 30in cage which the 3 cali bucks went into. there is tin roof overtop the cages and gives me a nice little covered area to set stuff. then the cali does stayed in the other cage, same size as Mr Rabbit's.
Mr Rabbit was.. er, excited, to have neighbors.. :roll: I told him to chill they are boys and not interested! and he will have a girlfriend soon enough! :lol:
I need to clean one of my bulk feeders for the does cage. they step in and dump the long feeder I have in there and I don't want to always be putting in a little feed throughout the day, especially if I need to be away.

I hope tomorrow the weather is less icky than today was. I want to go collecting a bunch of things to dry for the rabbits. theres several big willow trees and I want to collect a bunch of branches and leaves. and gonna make sure dad didn't spray my area :evil: so I can glove myself and cut nettles to dry and see if they like those. and I want to search out more yarrow now that I know what it is. <br /><br /> __________ Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:48 am __________ <br /><br /> now I have rabbits... what do I find.. hmmm?! what do I find?! ...dutch. I finally find dutch within reasonable distance plus they are from the same line (sweet pea) as the dutch pair I had, which I really really liked. person said the doe never had anything but blacks and greys with the buck so all should be.

so now I gotta figure would I keep the SF buck, the best cali doe, and then get a dutch doe? i'd need to take the one big cage and put wire down the middle, make it 2.5ft by 30in deep and 2ft tall. oorrrrr find out a better way for the 30x30in cage than it is now and have the buck in there and have a doe each in the big cages.

or do I just keep the best of the cali does and I can worry about that all later if I can expand. i'd really like to try the dutch but I cant afford a lot of rabbits right now either. ugh.

Nice job on the auction fair rabbits!!

Stay with current Plan A of Cali's til you have everything sorted out--feeders, caging, Plan of Attack, etc before jumping into the Dutches, IMO. I have found that switching from Plan A to Plan B in mid-Plan, generally you get results from neither plan. If you're set with what you're doing with the Cali's go for the Dutchies. Worst case scenario is you eat most everyone, yeah?

the cali rabbits are doing fine. i'm not gonna bother with thinking about the dutch right now. I could run both at the same time, I already know what i'd do for both lines. but I just don't have the space or anything right now.

that said... dad and me took more hay to the auction and there was a pen of rabbits not getting bid on at all and I hate to see em not bid on because they'd sit there until the junk rows of stuff are done then the auctioneer would try and wrangle some people back over to the area and get someone to buy em. and usually that means they sit there and the sun kills em before they get back around or they forget all together and I've heard they'll just let em go (the rabbits) down the railroad tracks and put in the papers etc that they sold for 50cent each and take it as a loss. which is no good and this place isn't run the best so it's not far from the realm of belief at all.
soooo I got the bid on em for $1 each, pen of 3. then waitin with dad for two junk things he wanted to bid on so sittin there by the pens and this little family comes by and the girl was upset because she wanted to get a rabbit but they missed it. they'd done em about 1pm and it was then goin on 2pm. so i'd let the girl and the two real little boys pet two of the rabbits (with the rabbits on my lap) and after the girl talked to her parents/grandparents whoever it was I sold her one of the three for $1.50 and tried to pass on some care info to the adults as nicely as I could. they are little mutt dutch something and small, probably 6wks old. not like I need em really lol. so the little girl got her pet and I hope they take care of it. I did talk her into getting the friendliest one of the bunch. luckily because she wanted the one with the nicer white blaze face but it was really skittish and jumpy and didn't want to be held or anything so I think she understood picking it up and then the friendly one what I meant. and I showed her how to hold em correctly and pick em up correctly and made triple sure it was a girl and that I told her and the adults it was a girl and looks like they'll max out at 5 or 6 pounds.

so now I really need to butcher out the cali bucks and put the two mutts in that cage to feed em up. they don't look very nice so I wont mess with em. I highly doubt either of em will fatten up and look awesome within a couple weeks feedin up to be worth keeping. plus they are GTS with very little white marking and not really worth messing with for the upbred size dutch colored line i would like to do. so gonna stay on my idea with the best cali doe and my SF buck then the second big cage for growouts.
and the two big cages are plenty big enough that I can fairly easy insert a wire wall in the middle and make it two hole.

That was so kind of you!!!!

I butchered one of the cali bucks the other day and got some of it cooked and makin rice in the broth. i unthinkingly used way too much water though. smells good.
I had forgot how much I hate butchering. its just highly annoying to me. plus its hot and humid here and I am not a heat tolerant person. but I will get the other two bucks done.. eventually..

the two little mutts are even tinier looking when I got em home and could see em next to the calis. ugh. definitely wouldn't want em as breed stock. they will be fattened up though.

I am trying to think of how to turn at least the one big cage into a tractor. the thing really being making a box that's predator safe. then I could easily have the mutts in it and they'd have way more than they need to graze and space.

4H meat pen rabbits are supposed to be max 70 days (10 wks) old for fair so going to go with them at this age. making them 16wks on sept 10 for estimated earliest breeding. at least to look for readiness.

__________ Mon Nov 02, 2015 11:56 pm __________

Ok yall finally an update. Been busy here.

I ended up with just one doe of the lot of auction rabbits. She is now nearing 6mo and fingers crossed she is bred to the SF buck. I will be palpating on the 9th and tentative due date of 11-24-15. I wanted to be thorough and with Mr Rabbit being older aged (i think he is 5yr or so) and hadnt bred except the one try in sept with her that i posted about... so she was covered 3x.. the next day covered 2x in the morning and 3x in the evening.. the next day covered 4x in the morning and 3x in the evening.. the next day covered 3x in the morning and 2x in the evening.
So if she isnt pregnant then i got problems with her or him. But due to her odd change in attitude (for the better) that i am crossing my fingers that i will soon have a litter.

I still have the one mutt buck. He is sweet andwas tryin to sell him as a pet bc he is quite small. But no luck so he may go to the stew pot.. or he will stare into my soul again and beg for bets and get nother stay of execution...

I also still have two of the cali bucks. Because i dont tolerate heat.. and i just didnt wanna hahaha.. So they have been moving around the yard by the barn in the big dog cage. They do well actually. Getting one bowl of feed and eating the grass/weeds. And the pellets they get for both of em is what i normally feed one rabbit but they eat the lawn down alot. They have *zero* interest in breeding even at 6mo or otherwise i would be tempted to keep the better shaped one.


If things go as i am hoping i may be able to buy a bunch of used cages and a couple rabbits for $100. The cages would get cleaned and in addition to my cages make a cage colony. On the other hand i could take that money and make a differently shaped cage colony more hutch like on legs.. and use the rest of the $100 after buying some materials to buy a second doe or something.

I dunno but i hope i can make myself butcher those rabbits this week......... Maybe my old 4H buddy family would wanna trade them butcher ready for a lionhead doe? Hmm.. lol.. <br /><br /> __________ Tue Nov 24, 2015 10:21 pm __________ <br /><br /> arrrrggghhhh! **grumbles!**

so I am now 98% sure that my old SF buck is sterile or the young cali doe hates me. maybe both. whatever it is she was covered AT LEAST TWENTY TIMES! AGGHH!! NO BABIES!!

Its officially cold here. I am hoping tomorrow it doesn't rain etc and I can talk myself into going outside and butchering those three bucks. I am probably going to put the doe with the cali bucks before though and see if they want a go at her. not like I have anything to lose at this point. although last time I checked they had no interest.
depending on what I hear back from the old 4H buddy family I may take the bucks out there for them to eat and bring back a couple LH does. maybe i'll take the stupid cali doe too and try her with any of their bucks! hmph... and she is not skinny. and she's doesn't seem to be fat. i'm definitely not giving her more feed then the others and she would gladly eat a lot more but doesn't act starved.