45 Head to Market. Feed Bin construction. Visitor.

[grumpy]

Three-thirty came early yesterday morning. I was sound asleep, then came wide awake.
I do that sometimes. Especially when I've got a lot on my mind. "Time to start my day."
Got my inside duties out of the way....""quietly"". I didn't want to wake anyone.

Then, it was off to the barn. My buyer was scheduled at 5:30 and she's usually on time.
We loaded up 45 head of fryers that averaged 5 pounds, 9.5 ounces. A nice group of youngsters.
At 7:00 a.m. it was back to the house to get the family up and started on their day.
8:00 a.m. found me back at the barn checking nest-boxes, counting young, filling out hutch cards.
9:30 a.m. headed to town, deposited rabbit check, and ran a few errands.
10:15 a.m. doctor's appointment. Biopsied a spot on my arm, and did blood work.

11:25 back home and took a short nap. Up at noon, new cup of hot coffee, back to the barn.
Started working on the feed storage cabinet. Being Wednesday, it was also breeding day.
Got six or seven does bred and moved some youngsters to the grow out pens.
Culled a couple of really nice looking young does. They'd missed their 3rd time.
"Sorry girls, you're pretty, but you gotta go."
Got the base built and installed for the cabinet. Took one pic.

About that time, I heard someone holler....Hmmm. "Wonder who the #### that is."
I don't like strangers walking up on me, but he looked a little familiar.
He works with the county extension office and wanted a couple of dressed rabbits.
"Good, I could use some pocket money." We got to visiting.
He was interested in the rabbitry, and wanted a trio this coming April.

Then, he asked if I'd be interested in putting on a seminar
about raising meat rabbits. "No one, other than you, raises rabbits
for consumption on the scale that you do."

I could feel my heels beginning to instantly, "dig-in", I told him,
"I'm not real whippy about a bunch of people snoopin' around my barn."

All the while, I'm mentally checking off the amount of work
it would take to get everything ready.

"How many people?" I asked.

"No more than 10, and you'd be paid a stipend for your trouble."

It got a little more interesting...LOL.
We set the seminar up for after the first of the year. He left a little after 5:30 p.m.
I worked a little more on the cabinet and started doing chores, finishing up around 8:00 p.m.
Turned out the lights and headed for the house. Then, I remembered.
"Dang it! I forgot to eat. No wonder I'm hungry."

Had some peanut butter and crackers, returned several phone calls,
watched TV, and got to bed around midnight.

A "normal" day.

 

[MaggieJ]

My hat's off to you, Grumpy! :cowboy:

We're the same age but there is no way I can handle that kind of activity level. :doc:

 

[grumpy]

:lol: :lol: BTW: I overslept this morning. :x :x
Wonder why...LOL.
Headed back down to the barn and work on the cabinet.
I'll try to get some pics as it progresses along.

I sure hated culling those young does.
They are dandies. But, "looks" aren't putting kits in the boxes.

grumpy.

 

[dayna]

Grumpy, sounds a lot like my day yesterday. I'm tired too. Woke up this morning at 4am though.

I feel for ya, having to cull those pretty girls. I hate it when I have a nice, or good looking rabbit that just won't produce! Makes me mad.

 

[PSFAngoras]

In the same boat, hoping the new little NZR doe will help end the meat popple drought. The SF mix doe only takes about every third time, and I have to hold her for breeding, which if successful only produces about 5 kits. She's still on the payroll though until the NZR is old enough. Maybe I'll get a litter before then, I'd hate to eat my angora kits!

Can't wait to see you cabinet grumpy, your projects are always pretty awesome (thinking back specifically to the hay bale storage rack...).

 

[camanojim]

Now I feel like a lazy slob

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

Man are you busy.. but peanut butter and crackers...

 

[grumpy]

Man are you busy.. but peanut butter and crackers...

Peanut butter and crackers have been one of my favorite evening snacks for years.
A lot of times I'll finish up my day and realize it's too late for a full evening meal.
So, I'll have my snack followed by a small bowl of ice cream and call it good.
I need to lose a few pounds anyways.

I should come close to completing the feed cabinet sometime today.
I've taken a few pics to follow the progress. It's lookin' pretty good.
I can already tell it's gonna have a much neater appearance than the barrels.
Plus, I'll have about 10 more square feet of storage on the top of the cabinet.

I've got another issue that deserves a thread of its own.
A doe that self-inflicts wounds. Weirdest danged thing I've ever seen.
You can bet I'll share pics about this crazy behavior.

Grumpy.

 

[dayna]

*A doe that self-inflicts wounds. Weirdest danged thing I've ever seen.
You can bet I'll share pics about this crazy behavior.*

I'm very interested in reading about this. People do it. Dogs do it. Parrots do it. I'm saddened but not surprised that rabbits do it too. I've been studying this behavior in companion animals and people for a couple years now. I've found initially stress seems to be a factor, but that in all species it tends to become a learned behavior over time and is next to impossible to stop. And in high thinking animals (humans included) can be a taught behavior.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

opcorn: ,, I will be waiting on that as well

 

[concreteblonde]

*A doe that self-inflicts wounds. Weirdest danged thing I've ever seen.
You can bet I'll share pics about this crazy behavior.*

I'm very interested in reading about this. People do it. Dogs do it. Parrots do it. I'm saddened but not surprised that rabbits do it too. I've been studying this behavior in companion animals and people for a couple years now. I've found initially stress seems to be a factor, but that in all species it tends to become a learned behavior over time and is next to impossible to stop. And in high thinking animals (humans included) can be a taught behavior.

You've actually seen the doe hurt herself??? :-o

 

[grumpy]

Here's a spot on her left front shoulder she opened up a couple of weeks ago.
I didn't witness her doing this. I checked the pen out thoroughly for snags.
But, I couldn't find a thing. I doctored her and the spot healed quickly.

Then, about a week ago when she was due to kindle, I noticed blood all over her face.
I figured it was just from kindling and didn't pay much attention to it.
I noticed she was "picking" at herself, on her right side.
That's when I saw the gaping hole she'd chewed open.
She kept eating her skin and licking the blood. She kindled two days later.
I did my best to take some decent pics of it yesterday. But none of them are very good.
I'll try again today.

This doe has been a little "weird" from day one.
Her first litter she fed for a week then let them all die.
She missed her next breeding. Then on the next go-round she had 7 and raised 7.
Her litter isn't doing well and she keeps enlarging the wound with her teeth.
I've never encountered behavior such as this. I checked the cage again for snags.
NOTHING!! I realize the pics are very poor. But it's hard to do alone.

I know all of this sounds crazy...but I've found absolutely nothing
in the cage to cause this kind of a wound. AND...I did see her eating
her own flesh and skin shortly after the second wound on her right side
appeared. "This is one weird doe." Was my first thought. But, she's been
a little 'off' from the beginning. Why let her first litter die? Why this?
It makes no sense to me. She's got a litter of 8 in the nest right now.
If she lets them die....she's toast, regardless of the wound or not. I
don't have the time to mess with the aberrant behavior.

grumpy

__________ Sat Dec 21, 2013 6:50 am __________

Here's a few pics of the where the feed bin is being built.
All the feed barrels and stuff were moved out of the way.

Space cleared for the construction.

The base and side walls are built and in place. All of the materials were either
scrap or lumber that was free for the taking. I'm cheap. LOL.

A little further along with the construction. I should be able to complete it today.

BTW: That biopsied spot on my arm proved to be cancerous.
Now, I've got to have minor surgery to have the remainder removed.
No big deal.
Grumpy.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

that is one odd doe to do that to herself..I guess she likes the taste for blood... I wouldnt be keeping her in your breeding program...

good luck on your minor surgery.. You have to look after that first...

bins construction looking good.

 

[Peach]

I admired my grandpa (After living a lot of his life on the farm in Cuba) he stayed healthy by just doing work outside. Ever since I can remember, he was always doing something outside and building things. (Sometimes not the best,but in Cuba you sometimes have to learn to make something out of nothing lol) He was the one that brought me my first chickens when I was young, helped me create the first family garden, and many other things.

I noticed now in his 80s he doesn't do quite those things anymore, and his health isn't what it once was. I think it would be good for him to pick up the routine again. He helps my dad and brother with the new laundry business, but I think he'd be happier outside.

Something about doing hard work outside, never really feels like work at all. More of a stress reliever, although I know rabbits are also your business, and you are very good at it! You also have great ideas in anything you do.

About your doe, I had one do something similar! I was planning on having her as a brood doe, while her other siblings showed, but while I was at convention ( as she was a doe that was constantly binking around) caused a back injury. She wouldn't necessarily drag herself like a normal injury, but she would hunch over and I guess caterpillar crawl? where she needed to go. She was eating and drinking, but she was still underweight. I spent a bit over a month with her hoping it would heal, but one day I flipped her over for a nail trim and I noticed she was chewing into herself. She had mutilated a lot of her girly bits and I just decided to terminally cull. She was obviously in a lot of pain.

Perhaps your doe has something painful going on that you can't see.

 

[dayna]

Grumpy that's a pretty serious wound. Either she's not right in the head or she has a health issue. Maybe she can't absorb nutrients, maybe she has a pain issue. Either way I'd cull her as soon as you can.

Grumpy, good luck on getting the rest of that spot removed. Depending on where it is, make sure you take it at least a little easy after. They usually cut down into the muscle a ways to be safe, so your muscle in that area will need time to recover.

 

[grumpy]

The spot is on my left forearm. I'm so scarred from 22 years of
working in a steel mill around the electric furnaces, I look
like a speckled pup when I get the least amount of sun on me.

There's not a square inch on my body that doesn't have "dot"
scars from molten steel burning through my clothes and marking me.
I saved my face because I always wore a face shield. I've had that
darned thing get so hot it was flopping around like a dishrag.

Been set on fire a time or two. We had large vats of running
water between the furnaces, so we could put ourselves "out"
when the flames got a bit much.

I've jumped in more than once..

I don't sweat the cancer that much...what will be...will be.
I'll do what it takes to get it taken care of, but in reality,
it's out of my hands and in another's.

That's cool with me.

grumpy.

 

[SuburbanHomesteader]

Well, however it turns out, just know that you've got the support of lots of folks behind you. I, for one, will be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. Hope it's good news and you can soon focus on other things - like how to cope with HUGE litters!

Take care and God Bless...