Learning to live a permacultural life … one day at a time! … by Damon E. Farnham
Wow. Another long day.
Got the soil block tray system (now a mini, standalone greenhouse) completed and deployed into the garden pasture. Got 4 trays of soil blocks ready for seeding.
And, got the new bee hive fed with 8 quarts of bee syrup.
Trimmed the doors for the last set of 3 rabbit cages and poly-stained them.
Baby sat the rabbit litter so Hooey wouldn’t eat them (again!).
Add in the ambient heat and humidity, and you complete the ‘recipe’ for a long-ass-day.
L-o-n-g day.
Probably should have stopped after getting the 3 new rabbit cages finished and deployed into the rabbitry. But NOOOOO, I had to go ahead and launch into the next project — new chicken nest boxes. Sort of messed up my upper back getting a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood up on the table saw … but pushed through it to just get-R-done!
For those perhaps interested, I’ve included my Chicken Nest Cut Plan graphic below. You basically take a 4’x8′ piece of plywood (1/2″ or 3/4″) and crosscut two 16.5″ sections, two 13.5″ sections, and a 12″ section. Then cut each section down according to the second dimension shown in the plan.
Tomorrow I have a bunch of errands to run, so looking forward to a “down day’ from the farm projects.
Also, I get my DJI Mavic Pro drone back from depot maintenance (military term). Cost about $400 to have the camera gimbal replaced, which broke when the drone came crashing about 80′ to the ground when I cut down the tree it was stuck up in.
Had a HUGE bowl of my ever-popular spicy tuna pasta for dinner, and still lost two pounds, so … yeah … a very long (but active and successful) day. 😉
Checked in on the rabbit litter this AM. They are all looking healthy (read: dry, warm, active, FAT).
Starting to think the smaller (younger) of the two does is the mother. If I can catch her nursing, I’ll know for sure and move the other doe out, out of an abundance of caution.
Because of the unexpected new rabbit litter born in one of the cages 3 days ago, I’ve worked damn near non-stop since to create 10 new rabbit nest boxes, and now 3 new cages.
I still have a TON of work to do, so I’ll keep this commentary short.
So far, the baby bunnies (kits) are all seemingly doing great. I checked on them this AM and they had fat little tummies (evidence they’ve indeed been fed mamma’s milk).
I’ll have these three cages up-and-running tomorrow.
I still have about 18 more cages to build, but I plan to take a day or two to build 4 to 8 new chicken nest boxes first, because my ‘other dilemma’ is I have about 5 broody hens occupying laying boxes now, which is causing the non-broody hens to go nuts for lack of boxes to lay their daily eggs in.
Never a dull moment on a farm.
Onward. Upward. Eyes open. No fear.
Today was a day of atonement, for a series of assumptions and misjudgments that Mother Nature called me out on.
I was up late the night before and slept in a bit. Seems like most SNAFU days start out that way. 😉
Checked in on the newbie chicks, out in the garden pasture coop, then went to the barn pasture to feed and water the rabbits, only to discover a set of newborn kits in one of the cages!
This particular cage has two rabbit does in it, that were recently migrated from geodesic rabbit dome #1. Over the last few days, I noticed a little bit of fur beneath the cage, and traces of fur inside the cage … but ASSUMED it was from the two girls scuffling a bit, as rabbits will sometimes do. I further ASSUMED neither of the them were pregnant, as both are rather young and not showing any telltale signs.
That’s what I get for assuming.
So, I ran to the local DIY center (Lowes) and plunked down another $500 for lumber, metal fabric and hardware, and set upon building 3 more rabbit cages, 10 new nesting boxes, and a new 4-cage rabbit nursery that I plan to install in one of the barn stalls.
Hopefully that will reset my karma balance at the Bank of Mother Nature, for having goofed and caused 8 baby bunnies to be born on a cold, metal floor. Broke my heart to find them in that condition. Helluva way to start life. — AND a helluva way to start one’s day — before my first cup of $%^& coffee was on board.
I got the 10 new nests constructed, and transferred the new kits into one of them and returned to their mother (whichever of the two does it is … still don’t know).
Since I started the video with the morning check on the baby chicks, I ended it with the evening check, finding them all tucked up under mamma.
Long … but productive and successful day.
Onward. Upward. Eyes open. No fear.
After all of yesterday’s trials and tribulations … I got up this morning not defeated, but determined to enjoy this day … a new day … fresh, and with a positive attitude.
Obviously, I have my hands full managing this here farm thingy. I’ve only been at this for less than 2 years, so every day undoubtedly — and without fail — presents many new ‘lessons learned‘ and ‘teachable moments.’ Yesterday was rich with such experiences, but today may not. Even if it does … so be it. Onward. Upward.
This video covers my morning activities between first cup of coffee and breakfast (sweet Italian sausage, veggies, brown rice, eggs, feta cheese, basil). Got all the critters up, out, checked, fed and watered, and run threw a few ‘snake drills‘ because of all the snake activity this week. 😉
Enjoy.
P.S. OBVIOUSLY (and no surprise) … the 7 1/2 shot was way more effective vs. the snake (target) than was the 000 buck. Onboard my ranch gun (Taurus/Rossi Circuit Judge carbine) I carry 7 1/2 shot (snakes), 000 buck (coyotes, short range), .45 Colt (coyotes, long range), and PDX1 (biped trespassers). 😉
P.S.S. And NO, I didn’t shoot the two ‘chickens’ beneath the ‘snakes.’ They just did what I taught all my chickens to do when I engage predators in their vicinity … drop, cover and bug-the-f*ck-OUT (i.e. beat feet).
I shot this video this AM to perhaps help those potentially interested in understanding WHY I’m currently working pretty aggressively to relocate my two rabbit colonies from their current homes (two geodesic domes) to new cages that I’m building.
Fair warning: There’s a dead baby bunny in the video, but it’s not a graphic shot.
I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out why the rabbits have suffered a serious outbreak of mucosal enteritis (ME). Rabbits, especially young rabbits, have a complex and sensitive digestive system. If you ask me, as a species they are pretty damn fickle. Seemingly innocuous events (minor stress, change of food, change of temperature, exposure to various molds) can upset their gut microbes and cause them to suffer from severe diarrhea, dehydration, bloating and eventually death.
My current hypothesis re: causality is the dome cover, which is a system of poly tarps stitched together. The tarps do a pretty good job of keeping most of the rain out, but the humidity alone around here is enough to ensure there is always a lot of moisture in the dome.
The tarps are completely opaque, so little if any sun light gets directly into the dome. You may recall from a PSA post I made over the weekend that our planet is currently being bombarded with abnormally high levels of ultraviolet radiation, so blocking the sun from the inside of the dome is … in that regard … a good thing. However, (there’s ALWAYS a ‘however’) the same UV radiation provides a natural defense against mold and mildew growth.
So, by blocking all UV from the inside of the dome, mold and mildew have grown out of all the inherent humidity-driven moisture. Which has triggered the ME disease outbreak.
My current plans are to empty the domes of rabbits, and redesign and re-construct the dome cover using clear greenhouse plastic as a barrier to rain, but allowing UV to pass through. I’ll then layer some 65% or 85% shade cloth over the plastic to limit how much UV passes through. More work, more $$$ … but the right thing to do, because I really don’t want to raise caged rabbits. That’s just too depressing (to me, at least).
I got the first 10 or so rabbits migrated from the two geo-dome colonies to the new cages. I’m monitoring them every few hours to make sure they’re doing okay in their new digs.
Just poked my head into what I guess I’ll start calling the rabbit cage paddock, and I’ll be damned if there wasn’t ANOTHER big ol’ black snake sitting there under the cages. It darted under the back wall and into the workshop behind, so I just let it go. Plenty of mice in there for the snake to munch on.
After this video was shot, I tacked up a tarp over the paddock entry to block in incoming sun (and UVC) as the rabbits were looking overheated (and I’m sure they thought the same about ME!).
I uploaded enough videos yesterday for a week, so didn’t intend to post any updates today, or perhaps for a few days, but …
Instead of chasing the rabbits around inside the domes with a big fishing net to catch and migrate them from the dome colonies to the individual cages I’m building, I decided to just use live critter traps.
Every few hours I check the traps and move any captured rabbits into the cages, after checking them over (health, gender).
First time I checked on the dome 2 traps this morning, I found one baby bunny in the larger trap … and a mongo snake in the dome with a baby bunny in its gut!
Given the size of the snake, it must have made an effort to ingress the dome, because I’ve installed two feet (height) of 1/2″ metal fabric fencing all the way around the base of the dome just to keep snakes out. That said, I’ve seen these big black snakes climb about 40 feet up a tree, so I suppose it wouldn’t stretch the imagination too much to think they might be able to climb a 2 foot fence.
I let the two donks ‘play’ with the snake for a few minutes before turning it loose in the woods. Black snakes are beneficial (mouse and rat control), so they get pardoned when caught … even if they’ve eaten one of my precious baby buns. Prick.
Welp … I got the first three rabbit cages finished and deployed into the the barn pasture, beneath a paddock cover.
I plan to continue building 3-cage sets every week or so, until I have about 15 cages in the field.
Now, I need to round up the first few cage dwellers from the two geo-dome colonies. That’s ALWAYS a fun task, chasing rabbits around in circles. Fun for them, exercise for me. Win/Win.