SPRING IS HERE- New Zealand bunnies are on their way!

It is time for exciting news here at WascallyWabbitsRabbitry!  Spring is here and we are ready for a booming bunny business this spring!

We will do things a little differently this year because there is a big chance we will be able to move this summer.  We will put the house up for sale and depending on where my husband chooses to work, we will be moving.  Our options run from WI (we would just move closer to my husbands work) all the way to Montana.

We have 4 does.  Three from last year (Beauty, Foxy and Thumper) and Missy who is new to the rabbitry.  She is all white just like Buck (our only male).  I hope to get pure white rabbits from Missy and Buck.  They are already bred which is a very good way to start out for anyone interested in raising rabbits. Since we will be downsizing, we will offer two of our four females for sale. 

 BRED adult New Zealand FEMALES:     SOLD

Foxy and Thumper are the two bred females for sale.  Both gave 7 healthy kits last fall.  All matured to adulthood.  Several were sold as breeding stock.

PRICE FOR BUNNIES
Buy when young and pay less.  Parents of all bunnies are New Zealands.  As I put more feed and work into them, the price will go up. 
Reserve now. Pay before the following ages: 

Before:
4-6 weeks old                   $10.00 each                                   
6-8 weeks old                   $15.00 each                                 
8-10 weeks old                 $20.00 each                                 
10-12 weeks old               $25.00 each                                   

12 weeks or older             $25.00 females each
                                         $30.00 males each

Save $5.00 when you purchase 4.  Save $10.00 when you purchase 8!

All bunnies are sold with a two day supply of pellet food and hay.  Owner must supply their own cage, feed and water containers.

Contact Theresa at (715) 790-0000 or (715) 924-2722
theresa125@centurytel.net

Thanks for visiting and feel free to contact me with questions and comments.  Have a very hoppy day!

Rocky Acres Angus- By chance or design?

What a busy December.  We have sold several bunnies to new homes in December.  We even sold one to  a fellow passing by who saw our RABBIT PELLETS FOR SALE sign.

Several of the bunnies went to new homes.  All will be well taking care of and loved. I have only ONE white female bunny left along with my three original adult does (female) and of course BUCK, my white male (buck) which is the proud father of all the bunny babies.  I believe I will keep the one white doe for breeding.

Today I had to stop all plans and make a trip to deliver our last bunny sold.  Thursday we had a man stop by because he saw our sign for Rabbit Pellets sign.  He was looking for a new buck for his breeding colony.  I happen to have one left!  He was without a cage so I said I would deliver.  They have over 300 rabbits and need new bloodline.
What started as a chance encounter might end up being a great opportunity for friendship and business dealings.  The man who bought the last buck from me, Ryan own ROCKY ACRES ANGUS with his wife Gayle.  They have a nice shop set up in Weyerhaeurser, only 7 miles away.  We have many ideas to share and I hope this will build into a wonderful friendship.  After all, finding someone else to talk to about rabbits in details is a little difficult.

 I believe it was by divine design that we have met and I want to bless them and their business.

Rocky Acres Angus
Weyerhaeuser, WI.
715-577-8080
Ryan and Gayle Gregor
rockyacresangus@gmail.com

They raise and sell:  ALL NATURAL GRASS-FED BEEF, FREE- RANGE CHICKENS, PORK, RABBITS AND FRESH EGGS.  They also have a gift shop and are looking into plans for a farmers market in the near future.

 I have requests for bunnies in the spring and will breed again in late February. Until then I pray we are blessed with temperatures above 0 for the sake of the bunnies and mine, all the bunnies in new homes are happy and stay healthy and the contacts I have made with the sales of the bunnies also create new friendships with like minded bunny lovers.
I would also like to say thanks again to my husband, family and friends who have been supportive in all the various way they know how.  Thank you for lending a hand for building, and ear for listening and for your advice and guidance.  You all mean so much to us. 

December update

Hello fellow bunny lovers! 
The weather here in Wi has been crazy.  Tempatures well above normal and even a thunderstorm in December.  Now that most of our holiday celebrations have concluded I wanted to update you on our rabbits.
We did a couple of batches of bunnies to the freezer.  Even had a professional butcher come give us a few tips on how to hop along with the process.  I did not paws for one moment to help in whatever way I needed too. 
The last few weeks have been quite amazing.  We have shifted the focus from butchering to selling.  Another lucky bunny goes to a new home today.  Then, out of 24 bunnies, we will only have 3 left to butcher.
One group of white does went to a nice couple who really are enjoying their new bunnies.  Here is what they had to say:

"Well your three sweet girls seem to be transitioning pretty well so far and will be checking on them a few times a day to make sure everything is ok.  Thanks again."   

While we were in the rabbitry talking about bunnies, they kindly referred to me as the 'BUNNY WHISPER' which means a great deal to me since I feel I have dedicated myself to knowing all I can and doing the best with what I know.  Truly the bunnies benefit from all the time and effort that I put into this project.

Beauty is now alone.  No more babies in with her.  Thumper has one that will be sold today and Foxy has two in her cage.  I was willing to leave a female (doe) in with the does that I am keeping to help keep them social and warm through the winter.  But if they sell that is ok too. 

Have to go now but would love to have some comments from my readers.  Especially the new bunny owners.  Would love to see how your furry family is doing.  I would also love to post any pictures of bunnies, yours, mine.... ours!!  Keep me posted and I will share your stories! 

Thank you to all of you who have been part of this new adventures.  Some have physically helped build, some have emotionally supported and some of you....have even gotten your hands dirty.  I could not be where I am today without all your support.  Love you all!  Theresa

Joel Salatin Polyface Farm Pt1- The TRUTH about farming- Everyone should watch

From Bunnies to Rabbits

Well our 24 wonderful bunnies are now young rabbits.  Now the part where they find their next "home".  All of the bunnies that were born are happy, healthy and terrific.  Never medicated and received the best of care and feed.  I even had them in the yard for exercise and picked fresh grass when I could.  Their previous owner said I "pamper" them, which I took to mean I am taking very good care of them.  We have some going to homes as pet and hoping to get a few into some 4-H programs this coming spring.  If you are interested in a rabbit, please contact me. 

Please enjoy these pictures.

 Chilled out and relaxing

 Happy to see me!

 Love to be pet.


Our intent from the very beginning was to have these bunnies grow and become meat for our freezer along with pets for anyone interested.  Sure they are cute, just like chicks when they are born but bunnies grow up just like chicks do. Every animal is beautiful and deserves to be treated with respect. Every living thing (animals and plants) will die and most of those things provide food for other living things when they die.  It is and always be a natural part of life. 

 More information about meat rabbits.

The domesticated rabbit is a rare food option for most Americans. The meat is comparable to poultry and provides an economical alternative to larger animals. During World War II, the government encouraged the raising of rabbit to relieve the burden of a red meat shortage. Today the domesticated rabbits commonly distributed in the United States are New Zealand and Belgian hybrids or imported Chinese rabbits. Rabbit meat is typically available fresh or frozen.

Source of Nutrition

Rabbit meat is well known for its high protein content. A 3-oz. serving of rabbit meat contains 28 g of protein, more than beef or chicken. Rabbit is also a concentrated source of iron. A serving contains more than 4 mg. Additionally, the meat provides a wide range of minerals. The highest levels include 204 mg of phosphorous and 292 mg of potassium. The calories in rabbit meat are low. A serving contains only 147 calories.

Environmentally Friendly

Today the awareness that environmental resources are valuable is spreading. The process for raising beef places a burden on grain and water supplies. An environmentally friendly solution to losing resources to larger animal production is producing rabbit meat. The environmental impact from raising rabbits is low. The period from conception to harvesting maturity is only three months, and the amount of food they eat is minimal when compared to other animals. The USDA regulates the meat. Some antibiotics are used, but the animals are tested for residues. No hormones are administered.

Update on Bunnies...bunnies and more bunnies

 Before you get to excited, we still only have 24 bunnies!  But what a blessing!! We still have 24 bunnies!!!!!

First a few pictures before the less exciting details...

Here is Laura holding my special little one from Beauty's bunch.  He has 1/2 his face is gray!  Can you see it??  He was cuddling up in her hand and stuck his face up long enough to get this picture.

 Here is the whole bunch.  Notice how they just love to sleep right on top of each other.  Beauty's bunch seems to sleep and cuddle still alot but the other boxes are full of sleepy heads. 
Yesterday I fed Beauty's bunch fresh grass (that I pull from the yard myself- THEIR FAVORITE THING TO EAT!) and all the little bunnies were enjoying the feast.  So I gave Foxy some fresh grass and took all the little ones out of the box (those lazy sleepyheads) and put them by the grass.  They wanted nothing to do with it and went right for MUM and some milk.  Well this is not something MUM allows.  She only feeds them when SHE  decides.  So slowly I put them back in the box so MUM would be able to relax and eat.
Beauty was having trouble with this also.  So I made her a box she can 'escape' from all her little buns.  She likes it up there.  The babies can climb up there too but there is not much room for anyone except her, so they dont stay long.

 These are some really cute pictures.  One of Foxy's babies cuddles up in Laura's hand to sleep.

Here you can see the box I made for Beauty.  I put some fresh grass on top for her otherwise 10 hungry babies will eat her share too!  Here are the buns eating the fresh grass.

N

 This is not a pretty sight.  Sorry.  But I had to make a way to capture the pellets from our little 'manure producing factory'.  This is what I could do that would not cost a fortune and I could do without anyone elses help.  The sheet metal that we wanted to use was $70+ which is way too expensive and would have done only two or three cages.  The tarp was only $4 or so.   I feel this will be a good chance to check on how this works before winter. 
I will go in there later today and push all this to one end and empty into a bucket.  I can put it on our unused garden area or, once it dries (if we get a little warmer weather today) package it up and sell it.  A mother and her babies can make as much as a ton of pellets in a year.   More trivia facts for you:  rabbit pellets are cold manure (does not need to compost first) and rabbits make a ton of it- literally!


Here is an update on their weight gain.  I will just give you the averages.  Its hard to tell which bunny is which so this is the only sane way to do this.
The first date is 9-2 and the second weigh date is 9-8 (six days apart)

                                  9-2-15         9-8-15

Beauty's average is  :   5.2    and     6.9  (largest is 7.6 and the gray face is 7.2)
Foxy's average is    :    3.5    and     5.8   their eyes are all open now
Thumper's avearge :     2.5   and     4.4   Remember we have a runt here and he is only 2.9

I do have a concern with a few in Thumpers batch.  There seems to be a white one (other than the runt) whos eyes are not as obvious as the others.  They should have their eyes all open in the next day or so and I will know then if one (a white one) was born without eyes.  It could just be they are not as big as the others.  Lets pray he is just fine and just another lesson to learn that 'LIFE HAS ITS OWN WAY' and we cant always know what is going to happen.  We must pray for the best and let life work out the rest.

Thanks for stopping  to see our WASCALLY WABBITS and hope to see you in a day or so with more good news. 

God is Good

It has been a couple days since my last post.  Today is our family reunion so I dont have much time to blog but wanted to update you on the rabbits.
We will start with the blessing first.  The other day I told you I found a baby on the ground.  Well it seems it might have been the runt.  He is doing better now but seemed to have developed a very swollen eye.  Like the size of a pea!  So I took him inside last night and put some trip. antibiotic on it and it is almost back to the right size again.  It might cause him to have problems seeing out of that eye but i figured we had nothing to loose.  If it would stay the way it was or get worse, I am pretty sure he would have problems.  So I pray he recovers fully AND that he starts to gain some weight.  He looks to be about the same size as when he was born.  His siblings are growing and he is not.  We will continue to watch little squirt.  Yes, that is his name LITTLE SQUIRT!  No pictures of them today because I dont want to disturb the mum today.  Hoping she finds him and feeds him a little extra blessing today!
Next I wanted to show you what I took out of Foxy's nest box the other day.  About half the fur she pulled is in the picture!  Since it was in the 80's and they are getting fur, I did not want to loose the opportunity to reserve this for a furture brood.  Once it is soiled too much, you cant save it.

 

Next are some of Beauty's babies.  They are 16 days old now!  They have been bouncing in and out of the nest box.  That is good, they are healthy and curious but they bug Beauty for nursing often and she is getting frustrated like any mum of 10 who wants a meal all day long:)

So I tried a few things.  One thing I tried was making hay and pellets available in the cage bottom for them.

 

There is hey in the tp roll for them to pull out, a carrot in front and pellets in the blue dish next to them.  The black ones seems to be running bigger than the white so far.  They are so cute!

This little black one is eating some of the hay.  This is a good age for them to watch mom eat and try a few things for themselves.  They are not ready to be weaned yet.  One more week or two of the next box and then at 5 weeks they can be weaned.  I have my scale so I will be checking their weight at 3 weeks, 5 weeks and hope they are ready for new homes soon after.  I have several interested folks in our rabbits so I cant wait till they are older.  Tomorrow I have to clean out Foxy's nest box with new bedding.  More pictures then!

So cute!  Please comment and visit again in a few days to see how all our fur balls are doing! 

Future projects: Rabbits: create a pellet collecting system using gutters and sheets of plastic roofing, screen on bottom east side of rabbit house for more ventilation, fan in west side in roof top to pull cool air from bottom east side.

Projects inside: use my new POWER PRESSURE COOKER XL PRO to can for the first time and for cooking stews, soups, roasts and so much more.  Let me know if you have any questions about any of our future projects!