Bunnies & Poults, Oh My!!

I am very happy to report that all of our bunnies are doing great! Here is the post from earlier about our "Nest Box Week".

~ Thrianta Doe fostering Giant Chinchilla Rabbit kits ~
~ 7 day old Thrianta ~ 9 day old GCs ~
(from 4-20-18)

Under any other circumstances, it never would have occurred to me to foster Giant Chinchilla kits to a Thrianta doe. The Thrianta are a substantially smaller breed than the GCs. However, in this case,we were so afraid of loosing the Thrianta's single kit that it was more important to have nest mates for it. So far, so good. They are all gaining weight well and don't seem to be too much for Clover, our amazing doe. She took them with no problems.

~ 9 day old white Giant Chinchilla kits ~
(from 4-20-18)

Now, this is something else that you don't usually see in our rabbitry, white Giant Chinchilla rabbits. Although we have had a total of three white GCs born in our barn, they appeared individually, over the years to different does and never more than one at a time. We couldn't have been more shocked to find four whites all in the same litter. They are adorable......

~ Week old Turkey Poult ~
(from 4-23-18)

4H is a wonderful experience for kids and I think all young people should participate in at least one club in the course of growing up. For our family, 4H clubs seem to be more like potato chips, we can't have just one. Oh no, we don't stop with just one. This year, Curly has signed up for the turkey project. Here's one of the poults that she was given. She is responsible for raising them and delivering at least one to fair in August. Wish us luck because we know nothing about turkeys. Thanks in advance!!

~ 15 day old Giant Chinchilla rabbit kit ~
(from 4-26-18)

Lastly, here's what a GC kit is supposed to look like. These gorgeous kits are getting so big!! Aren't they adorable.
Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, [and] look well to thy herds."
  Proverbs 27:23

Garden Mulch Update

Can you believe that we are almost finished moving all of that mulch that we ordered for the garden. (See the original post here) I thought that we'd never be finished with it. What's more surprising is that it's snowed several times, as well as rained a lot, since we first had the mulch delivered.

I can tell you that I am thrilled that it's almost all in the garden.... Then we can get the 14 cubic yards of topsoil x mushroom soil mix delivered, to fill the raised beds...... once we put all of those back in the garden as well.

I'm beginning to wonder why we signed up for such a huge overhaul of our garden. However, I'm staying optimistic that all of this work at the beginning will lead to less work over the course of the season and into next year.


Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  Genesis 8:22

Nest Box Update

Spring means breeding bunnies here at the cottage and this was nest box week. We've had some great news and some tragedies. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everything will come up roses from here on out. Here is the post detailing who was bred last month.

Our first baby came on Monday and we almost lost it. Momma didn't have it in the nest area (and hadn't even really made a decent nest), instead it was found half hanging out the door, cold and limp. The children brought it in, thinking it was dead. However, once we got it warmed up, it immediately started moving around. The second baby was found around 4am Tuesday morning, strong and healthy, but again not in the nest area (again, there wasn't a nice nest made). By Tuesday night this same Momma bunny had made a beautiful nest, lined with fur and delivered 10 more rolly polly babies. We are hopeful that she is able to keep all 12, as we've never had a doe keep more than 9 before.

~ 6 Day Old Giant Chinchilla Kits ~
(from a previous litter)

Our second litter was the tragic one. The entire litter was delivered before dawn and crawled out of the nest... and chilled to death. Three were big and healthy but warming them up didn't help to revive them. The fourth was a peanut and wouldn't have survived anyway. The poor Mamma bunny was stomping and sniffing in her nest looking for her babies. Such a sad sight. She got extra attention and treats but spent the day searching for what was lost.

Next I'll share with you the biggest surprise of the week. On Friday, one of our oldest does decided to kindle a single kit. I was so shocked. I allowed the children to breed her but never expected her to take. With the cold evenings, we were afraid that we would loose her baby so we gave her two more. We took the smallest two from the overly large litter, for her to foster. All are doing well so far.

Sadly, we did have another doe that lost her litter. She passed one very large kit that looked as though it hadn't fully formed. I doubt that it was alive when she kindled.

So, of the seven does that were bred only four kindled. Not good odds but better than nothing. We generally don't breed so early in the year, while it's still cold. 

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, [and] look well to thy herds."
  Proverbs 27:23

More Seeds

When we did our seed inventory (here) we also made a list of the seeds that we didn't have but wanted. We were able to pick some up, locally, when we were running errands the other day.

I was happily surprised at the nice selection of organic seeds that we found at Lowe's. All are from Ferry-Morse.

New Seeds In

Organic Broccoli ~ De Cicco (1890 heirloom)

Brussels Sprouts ~ Catskill (1941 heirloom)

Cabbage ~ Copenhagen Market Early (1909 heirloom)

Organic Carrot ~ Rainbow Mix

Organic Lettuce ~ Black Seeded Simpson (1875 heirloom)

Organic Okra ~ Clemson Spineless #80 

Organic Radish ~ French Breakfast (1879 heirloom)

Organic Rosemary 

Organic Sage ~ Broadleaf

Organic Thyme ~ Common

Ultimately, I prefer organic, heirloom, regional seeds. I choose organic seeds because I don't want genetically engineered or modified seeds (GMO). I choose heirloom because I'm a history buff who loves to see and taste the old time vegetables that families have enjoyed for generations. I choose regional seeds because if people were able to grow the seeds in my growing region 100 years ago, then I should be able to grow them just as well now. 

Seeds We Still Want To Get
Hyssop
Anise Hyssop

We used to have Hyssop and Anise Hyssop just off the back porch. They self seeded and came back year after year. I'm not sure when they disappeared, but we don't have them anymore. I'd love to find more.

Root-stock We Still Need
Potato
Sweet Potato
Asparagus

We generally start our potatoes from store bought organics. We just cut them into pieces with at least 2 eyes each and plant them in the garden. We generally harvest several five gallon buckets from just a few potatoes planted this way.

We've tried sweet potatoes once before. They grew well and developed very nice sized roots. However, the mice got to them before we did. We were very disappointed in our luck, to say that least.

As for the asparagus, we should have planted a bed of them when we first moved into this house. We could have been enjoying them for several years now. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and we have yet to start a plot. Crossing my fingers that we get it started this year.

Next up, we have to set aside time to get these new seeds planted so they will be ready to go out into the kitchen garden, once it's warm enough. We've already planted our nightshade vegetables. Here's the link to that post, if you are interested.

I hope all of your gardening plans are going well.
Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  Genesis 8:22

** This Is Not A Sponsored Post **

Starting Seeds ~ 2018 Kitchen Garden

~ Starting Seeds In Yogurt Cups ~

I've never had much luck with the seed starting kits that you can buy at the garden supply store. Instead I opt to re-use single serve yogurt cups and potting soil. I'm really liking these clear Stonyfield yogurt cups because the paper label isn't glued down.

~ Big Boy Starting Seeds ~

I had planned on starting seeds at the beginning to middle of March but we have gotten a little behind. Here's what we were supposed to have finished already:

Seeds To Start Indoors 5-6 Weeks Before Last Frost (March 6-13)

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Eggplant

Peppers

Sweet Potatos

Tomatoes

So far we've started Yellow Brandywine tomatoes, Red Brandywine tomatoes, Mr. Stripey tomatoes, Sugar Lump tomatoes, Pepperocini peppers, Red Cherry peppers, and Black Beauty eggplant. With 9 varieties of peppers, 2 varieties of eggplant and 7 varieties of tomatoes in our seed inventory, we have some decisions to make. Should we plant a few of each variety or a lot of a few varieties? We are currently leaning hard on planting only a few varieties. 

Seeds To Plant In The Garden 2-4 Weeks Before Last Frost (March 20 - April 3)

Beets

Carrots

Celery

Peas

Potatoe

Radish

We are squarely in the middle of this time frame. However, I'm not sure when we will get to planting seeds outside as we took down the garden a few weeks ago and haven't set it back up yet. What I mean by that is that we took all the raised beds out of the garden area and spread out the small amount of soil that was left in them.

We had a load, 11 cubic yards, of mulch delivered and then it snowed. We are currently waiting for the 13" of snow to melt so we can get to the mulch. It will be moved to the garden area and spread out as a base, so we don't have to worry about mowing between the beds. Once the mulch is spread out, we can put the beds where we want them and have a load of topsoil and mushroom soil delivered...... and moved to fill up the beds.

Our new time frame is to have the garden put back together and everything planted, as listed on this page, by the end of April. Wish us luck!!

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  Genesis 8:22

** This Is Not A Sponsored Post **