Lovin Life

Lovin Life
Chasity, Napoleon, Christian & Cleopatra

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Eviction Notice

Eviction notice came very swiftly. Farm animals in the house are cute- when they are small furry and cuddly, well maybe not really cuddly but small cute and furry for sure. Rabbits got the eviction notice early as they had grown quickly and the house was warm. As they all 3 laid around on the wire- appeared to be warm we decided we had to get them out of the house before the chicks arrived, and was somewhat successful. Until one day come a huge rainstorm and ( I felt) it too wet and cold for them to be out. So I brought them back in to the safety and security of the house (until hubby got home). We come up with an agreed covered to keep them out of the rain, and stapled a plastic drape of sorts to let down in the event of a storm. So far, as long as we know the storm is coming and able to drop the cover- it works wonderfully! So we did decide on some more official names too. Ginger is one of our does, she was the one that ended up with the orange mark on her head and we couldn't figure out what to call her, Ginger has stuck. Big Mamma, she has always been Big Mamma as she has been the largest doe in the crew from day 1. Lil Boy Bleu- is our buck, I believe he is either a runt of a litter or he was too little to be weaned from momma when we acquired him. He is coming around and finally putting on a little weight and starting to overall fill out. Due to his size we was surely worried about him for a bit.
The plastic drop we added for the sake of staying dry. 

The chicks arrived and the room had to be warmed to 100 degrees on week one and then decreased 5 or so degrees every week- so that made the temps in the room where the critters were housed too warm for rabbits. So the decision was made. Rabbits had to go back outside. So we moved their temporary housing to a more permanent housing in the back on the retaining wall. Stacked pallets on sides for walls and underneath for easy cleaning, plus we get to watch their crazy antics of running races around their cages and jumping into mid air for no apparent reason- from the convenience of the dining room table- dinner and a show somedays.

The other angle of all 3 hutches with plastic down. 
So with the rabbits outside and settled, a few weeks have passed and  one what we thought would be a quiet afternoon, hubby came home from work to check on all the critters and the chicks have begun to sprout adult feathers and fly from the brooder box. So in a one and only chicken round up- hubby said that's it- ya'll get evicted too! So the chicks got kicked out last night. They spent their first night at home away from home in the chicken "bahhn" as it is far too big to be considered a coop. It is the Cadillac of coops. 

Outside coop- checking out the new window

Fencing- other than wire purchased, everything else was re-purposed

2 black Astralorps settling in the new coop. I think they like the new "bahhn"
Stay tuned.... I will have to update soon on the gardening aspect of this homestead adventure- as plants live or die, we will see how good mother nature is going to be to us this season. Also, we are in mixed decisions of goats vs sheep- breeds- meat/ pets and lots of other factors.