Ruby's kits - day 9

Ruby's kits - day 8

Sorry for the noisy radio, kids were listening to "Adventures in Odyssey". Bunnies are starting to open their eyes just a bit, and are beginning to exercise their back leg muscles - hopping will begin soon, erratic and uncontrolled still now. Funny!

Dogs to the vet

We took all 3 big dogs to the vet today. Tom took the morning off so that he could help me. It was not as difficult as I thought it might be. We loaded them all up in the farm van and took them in one at a time. Molly got weighed and got her rabies shot, she weighed about 50#. Carl got weighed and got his rabies shot, he also weighed about 50# and he stayed the day and was neutered (did not phase him a bit - ha!). Samson got weighed, about 60# at 4 months of age, and got his rabies shot. Now to get them all licensed and everyone is set!

Ruby's kits - 1 week old!

Samson @ 3 weeks old

This is a video of the litter of pups that our Samson came from (at Bearskin Creek Fiber Farm). They are 3 weeks old here. He is the one with dark ears, dark spots over his eyes, around his tail and a dark spot on his left side (these spots lightened as he grew).

Ruby's kits - day 6

Ruby's kits - day 5

Ruby's kits - day 4

Disaster to the flock - and new hens

A couple weeks ago, we lost around 20 hens and a rooster to what we assume is neighbor dogs or possibly coyotes (thus the new LGD pup!). We were devastated! We love our healthy, free-range birds and really enjoyed the variety that we had and all the eggs we were finally getting and selling. We are now working on trying to re-build our happy flock.

We picked up 12 hens from a local farmer today. We found once we were catching them that they were not very healthy, crowded conditions and being fed only cracked corn. We got them anyway and now I am playing vet. We have them house separately from our healthy flock and are feeding them medicated layer feed mixed with Diatamaceous Earth (for worms) and I gave them all .25cc Ivomectin orally also. We have to feed their eggs to the dogs for the next few weeks due to the Ivomectin, but hopefully by that time they will be much happier and healthier and we will be getting more eggs from them.

We are also picking up a few roosters (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) and a couple hens from freecycle.

In May, we are getting 5 Americauna chicks ("easter eggers") for fun. This should round out our flock well.

Ruby's kits - day 3

Ruby's kits - day 2

Ruby's kits

Baby rabbits born last night and discovered this morning! There are 4 of them, they are 3-4" long with sweet little ears and are very squirmy. Two seem to be all or mostly white, 1 has black eye patch and some black on it's back. 1 has quite a bit of black and possibly brown spots on it's back. Their mother is American Sable and father English Spot (med size rabbits). They are for sale - $10 each and ready in about 6 weeks. Make great pets and their waste is excellent garden fertilizer!

Our new puppy

4 Month old Maremma/Great Pyrenees mix, Samson is his name. :-)