Rowan the Silver Fox doe has arrived and is settling in. Kaninchen now has his girlfriend.

The rest of the critters are driving me crazy. The chickens know it is Spring and their egg production has gone up but so has their orneriness. I had to fix the door on the hens coop AGAIN! Pachy has decided he likes the view on the other side better and keeps getting in with the laying hens. The problem with that is he is too different and they start to pull his feathers out. And just like last spring, one of the hens has decided to start beating up the other hens and I can't figure out which one it is. So, I have two hens isolated due to injuries, one of them is my Lucy, the best layer I have.

So, yup, lots of fun. I am awaiting my new batch of babies soon, the meat birds, they will be here the end of the month. I am working on pens for them all now...big pens so they can run around but not get eaten by the fox and racoons behind us!


And here are some pics of the new bunny Rowan, my favorite little boy Ash, Lucy and my Pachy.







Pachy




Rowan





Ash and me.


Lucy

Rabbit Hutch

I now have a new rabbit hutch, with 9 holes available! I had a lot of help with it, I am good with ideas but the engineering is sometimes a problem! LOL I am wanting to get working on the pens for the chickens but the weather is just not cooperating. I do not like keeping them in the coop but I can't totally free range either...too many predators behind the homestead! My friend has already lost too many chickens due to this problem.

I have ordered the new chicks and turkeys, they should arrive the end of April hopefully! Then on to ducks!

Here are pics of the hutch, the current chicken coop and the bunnies Kaninchen, Berkana, Ash and Embla...the open space in the hutch is for the new Silver Fox Doe, Rowan, that I hope to get in the next week.

The first post....

I have been living in Delaware for a few years now. I started by raising chickens about two years ago. I decided to start with heritage breeds because these are the breeds that have sustained us generation after generation and I believe that keeping diversity in our food supply is important. Much has been written about this and there are some wonderful groups out there dedicated to keeping heritage breeds of food, animals and vegetables going. Two of them are Slowfoods and Seed Savers.

The chickens I started with are Speckled Sussex. I have several hens that are about 2 years old now. I also have Buff Orpington hens that are about a year old. I also have 4 rare breed chickens as pets, they are Crested Polish and they are the best entertainment! The chickens have been for eggs only and they have been wonderful.

Last spring I also raised heritage breed turkeys and the first meat I ate in 20 years was one of my turkeys that I learned to butcher myself (with help, of course). He was a royal palm turkey and lived a good healthy life and tasted delicious. Since then I have put 3 other turkeys in the freezer and I have eaten goose that was shot from my back yard, that I helped pluck. The full circle of life is something that is an amazing thing.

In the past few years I have grown my own vegetables, learned to can, dehydrate and freeze. I have learned to make jelly and jam from berries from my own garden and have sold my products at a local farmer's market. Raising an animal and living with it for its entire life cycle is an experience I can not describe, it was an honor and makes me feel humble. I hope it is a feeling I never lose. This is why I will never eat meat from a super market. I do not believe in the industry, I do not believe in what is fed to the animals and I do not believe that all the antibiotics and other things necessary to keep these animals alive through the process because of over crowding and no fresh air or fresh food is good for us. It is not good for our bodies, is not good for the planet and not good for our souls.

I will be raising more turkeys this Spring and Summer, along with meat chickens and ducks for meat and eggs. I have also just moved one more step in this adventure and purchased breeder rabbits. They are also heritage breeds, American Chinchillas and Silver Fox. I will hopefully be breeding them the middle of April and have rabbits for the dinner table and freezer around the 4th of July. Next on the list will be goats but that will be a little while longer...

If you are intersted in following my journey, I will be posting here as things happen. This week, is ordering seeds for the veggie garden!