Peasants garden

Faye · **Posted:** Tue May 24, 2011 12:02 pm

He is a very regal looking rooster :cheers:

His brother has settled in nicely with our girls, thankyou very much.

Peasants · **Posted:** Sun May 29, 2011 11:42 am

Callie the Californian rabbit has had kittens :joy:

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Not, of course in the nest provided......

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Interesting that she chose the corner of her pen next to another rabbit, Ebony!
She only had six babies, but this is a big improvement on her first litter which was one dead kitten, and all are going very well.

Peasants · **Posted:** Sun May 29, 2011 2:10 pm

Our 'Flop(sies) House'.....was once our stables! Now converted to a fly wire enclosed area for the rabbits after losing all our first rabbits several years ago to myxomatosis.

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Inside, it is divided up into 6 pens. They take turns being let out (two go to the 'Butlins' holiday camp which is outdoors (to the left) and one is let out to roam and dig in the area in front of the pens.

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The ENTIRE area is slabbed with sand on top....so no escapees! :dont:

Faye · **Posted:** Sun May 29, 2011 4:02 pm

Reminds me that I need to get the nursery sorted so that the happy couple can have a honeymoon sooner rather than later :thumb:

Those babies need a little more fattening, how long do you reckon? But cute :joy:

Peasants · **Posted:** Sun May 29, 2011 5:41 pm

They are cute aren't they! I will post more pics as they develop-it is amazing how quickly they change. They will stay with mum for 8 weeks, then will be weaned by going in their own pen. At twelve weeks or so is the next step.......by then they are around 1 kg.....

freoboy · **Joined:** Sun Nov 07, 2010 11:40 pm **Posts:** 41

man kudos to you if you can kill something that cute, id just end up with a million fat rabbits :confused:

Peasants · **Posted:** Mon May 30, 2011 9:59 pm

It is never easy....but we DID end up with more animals than we knew what to do with years ago...we had to make the decision of whether to stop, or keep them for food. We do eat meat, so somehow it feels more ethical (and healthier) to grow our own. I must say it took us a long time to be able to do it though, and it is a job that is often put off....

Burnsy · **Posted:** Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:14 pm

I read a great book early last year about an American Family that tried to grow all their own food and live on local produce for an entire year, really great read and highly recommend it but can't remember the name of it. I will try and find out what the book was called but amsure someone here will know it.

Their seniments about eating meat was that you should be willing to slaughter it if you want to eat it. They also believed that by eating their own meat they were giving the animal the best life possible prior to it's time.

I still couldn't bring myself to do it, I have shot and eaten rabbits and kangaroos when I was younger with no problem but they were wild (don't think I could even bring myself to shooting a kangaroo these days though). I had to euthanise one of our chooks last year but it was out of necessity and then it got buried after not eaten.

Burnsy · **Posted:** Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:49 pm

Found it - Animal Vegetable Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2546 ... le_Miracle

Bender · **Posted:** Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:25 pm

Congratulations on such a fantastic set up. Love the paltry towers. I noticed the guinea fowls. Do they just roam your property?

Peasants · **Posted:** Sat Jun 04, 2011 12:11 am

Burnsy wrote:

Found it - Animal Vegetable Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2546 ... le_Miracle

Will try to get this, it looks interesting!

Bender wrote:

Congratulations on such a fantastic set up. Love the paltry towers. I noticed the guinea fowls. Do they just roam your property?

Thanks Bender....Yes, the guinea fowl just wander around but we feed them every night and they roost in one of the tall trees. They make a great racket!

earthbound · **Posted:** Sun Jun 05, 2011 9:31 pm

There was a family in Qld that did a similar thing a few years ago and also wrote a book, and I also can't remember the name.... :confused:

When the young are separated from the mother, do you keep all the young in the one pen till they are up to size, or do they have individual pens?

Peasants · **Posted:** Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:36 am

When the babes are weaned they will all go together in one pen. If it is a bigger litter we split them into two pens so it isn't as crowded. Here is a photo from today now they are 11 days old....

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Their eyes are just about opening, and they are more active now. Interestingly, there is one very pale grey while the other five are white (dad is white too).

Burnsy · **Posted:** Tue Jun 07, 2011 2:34 pm

Peasants wrote:

Burnsy wrote:

Found it - Animal Vegetable Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2546 ... le_Miracle

Will try to get this, it looks interesting!

It is Very inetersting. It is written as a diary/narrative so is easy to read. I am going to get it again and read it as it has lots of really good facts in it that I want to re-visit and write down to use at school. There was one in particular about what the energy usage was to move one Californian navel orange from California to the other side of the US so they could eat oranges in the off season. The comparative amount of energy used in transport as opposed to what was held within the orange was astounding.

Although written by Barbara, many chapters and exerpts are written by her husband and kids giving a really nice balanced perspective to the story. I could not put it down when I had it.

Everyone here should read it. Joel, I would love to know what the one based in QLD you read was if you can find out please?

Peasants · **Posted:** Sat Jun 11, 2011 9:21 pm

It is amazing how quickly those kittens grow. They are now 17 days old and wandering around in the pen.

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The grey one may have to be a keeper...it is such a lovely colour!

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The potatoes are also growing well in the drums/soakwells (well, the plants anyway...hopefully actual potatoes are growing too :dunno:

)

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