Bentley the Bull

So Lucy had her calf last night. We call him Bentley. I wish we could keep him as a bull but we don't have the facilities to keep a one, so I guess the poor boy is gonna be "fixed" soon. He is so adorable. He's not very curious. He just wants to sleep.......calves.....

We found him this morning in the steer pen with the older boys when we went out to check on his mama. He had rolled into their cage under the fence panels. The bottom of the panels had been bent up from Lucy trying to crawl under to get to her baby. Luckily we found him and carried him back to Lucy. I am guessing he's around 80-100 lbs. I'm just so excited for this baby. However, I can't go in and play with him because Lucy is an ultra protective mama and I don't think I'd last to long in the corral with her.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go look at Bentley's adorable face again...

Rabbit Feed in Bulk

Well... there isn't much going on here yet. Lucy still hasn't had her calf but her udders are continuing to fill. The suspense is killing me! Lol!

I do have a question about rabbit feed though. Does anyone know how I can find rabbit feed in bulk? I buy my chicken feed in bulk at a mill. We just bring large garbage cans with lids and they have special trucks that fill up the cans with chicken feed. I would LOVE to bring some garbage cans to fill with rabbit feed because we are planning on getting into meat breeds for emergency preparedness, pet food, family dinners, and to make some little extra cash for the show rabbits. Everyone knows meat breeds take a lot of food. I can't keep buying these bags of rabbit feed for $18 each. Our feed store keeps making their prices higher and higher. :( I may just have to settle for my feed mill's dusty, $15 a bag, feed.

Have a great day everyone!!

Some Farm News

Alright, I know it has been forever since I posted. It's not my fault! LOL Blogger hasn't been letting me log in for the past month. I really haven't had anything interesting happen lately though. So I guess I'm going to give some random farm updates.

Well, Lucy, our cow we just bought about 6 months ago, is due any day now. I just got inside from filling her stall with straw. I am sooooo very excited for this baby! LOL I probably won't be able to play with it though because Lucy is a protective mama. I am praying for a little heifer (girl) so we can keep her. We have to butcher steers (casturated boys.) Our last calf was Boomer who was born on June 6, 2011. Almost a year ago!! We spread out our cows when we breed. Kind of a bad habit.

We are looking to buy a new heifer with papers to get a good start on our papered Black Angus herd.

We also found out Oreo (a hybrid heifer) is due in 5 months for a calf. This baby was sired by a purebred black angus, but Oreo is a "mutt" (texas longhorn, angus, etc. is in her lineage.)

So all the exciting things lately have only included the cows. haha I am also trying to decide if I am going to sell Cookies. It would be nice to have room incase a nice doe or two come along. I don't (and never will) have a pedigree for Cookies so he is just a "cage filler", But a sweet one at that. I'd hate to let him go. He is my most well-behaved rabbit. But in the long run, he isn't going to improve my herd.

... Decisions decisions...

OH!!! And we also got a new Banner thanks to Ellyn at Rabbit Smarties. <3



Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day!

It is a bit early, but I thought I'd post some valentines pictures. Enjoy!

Also here's a random picture of Flynn's eyebands.

My Rabbitry Binder

So I got this idea from 4 Kings Rabbitry to show you what's in my rabbitry binder.
All the papers came from the 4 Kings Rabbitry website. Click Here

So here is my binder, it has horses all over it, obliviously. I made this binder a long time ago and never had a use for it until now. Here's the cover. It has a pocket on front for a pen or anything you might need.

As you can see, the binder isn't too thick..... yet.

The "title page" You can put business cards or membership cards in this plastic sleeve too.

The standard of perfection of course!

Left: 2nd page on standard, Right: Breed pamphlet, you can give these out to new buyers.

You can use the 31 day chart so you can easily see when your does will be due. You just find the date bred, and then look to the column on the right and that is your due date.

Use the breeding chart to see if your litter will be junior or senior at the next show.

This paper is so you can keep track of who has been De-wormed.

This is where my buck pedigrees will go and as you can see, where my does pedigrees will go as well. I still have not received my pedigrees.

Use this paper to record show results for each individual rabbit.

Use this paper to record your does breeding dates and if they palpated + or -.

Use this paper to record how many sales you have had, where each bunny is, and to do follow ups.

Plenty of extra plastic sleeves and 2 more dividers if I ever need them.

ENJOY!!

Teddy

Here's a video of Teddy. I know it's not the best but it will work for now. ;)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtJcU_8ZK2E&feature=channel_video_title

Enjoy!!

Toys and Such

Some people seem to neglect the importance of cage accessories. When I picked up Teddy and Flynn, I noticed they only had a water bowl and a J-feeder in their cages. When I got them home, they had all sorts of things in their cage. They just didn't know how to act. They still haven't figured out what hay and toys are. They won't touch either.

 They also like their old food better and will pick it out of my feed because I have them mixed at the moment to help with the transition, but that's off topic.

Make sure you have something your buns can play with, or at least chew on. It will really enrich their lives and bring out the best in their personality. I am noticing an improvement in Teddy's personality ever since he  started exercising outside. Rabbits are an active species. They need to exercise and have something to do. I can not stress enough the importance or playtime. If you can't let them play outside, let them play inside. So that's all I really have to say on the matter, enjoy these bunny pictures.

"Mom, this is not funny."

This is random but it makes me smile.

Random fact of the day: I think a sun flower is going to be our rabbitry flower. LOL!!