I went to a chicken sale yesterday...

As some of you may remember, I've adopted a new hobby--raising chickens. Bought a pair of gamefowl yesterday, and they are lovely, and good eggers, because, as we were on the way home, the hen laid an egg in the cage!

Well, as I was paying for the gamefowl, my son walked up with a mini rex bunny. I have to concede, it's a cute little guy, but I wasn't really happy about little McCall purchasing a bunny without my permission.

Kiddo told me, "I just named him Professor Furryarse." How could you be angry with a kid like that?

....until the Professor took a leak on my couch tonight! I was livid. Have you ever smelled rabbit tinkle? It smells like popcorn--why I don't know, and if anyone can explain this to me, I'll appreciate it.

So, I got the Little Green Steam Machine out and went to work. All in all, it's been a fun weekend, though, except for the temp here getting down to 24 degrees. Brrrrrr....I don't see how you Bostonians are handling it!

What kind of gamefowl? BTW, I love that duck picture from your last chicken post. I MUST have some of those crazy looking ducks. Now, if I can just teach my dogs and cats to leave them alone.....

They look like Kelsos...they are small bantams that look like this:







About the ducks...I don't know how soon you want them, but my Indian Runners should be laying by summer. If you'd like, I can let you know when they start, and I can ship you a few. If you have an incubator? If you don't have an incubator, you can get one for about thirty or forty dollars. Anyway, you can let me know anytime if you're interested. :-)

Thanks so much. I don't want to get into it until I am living out there so I can properly protect them from the preditors. Maybe nest year though, we hope to be close to moving in this time next year(HA!).

Just send me a PM when you want some. :-)

I am soooo excited. I have always been nuts about birds of all kinds and always fancied myself raising chickens. Lol, my mother will roll over in her grave, she was terrified of two things, chickens and horses. The horses are already there, chickens to come. Truly, you are the best.

I am enjoying raising the little devils. Even though they are just birds, they are so smart. You'll see when you start raising them. They all have "personalities."

:-)

It's a bad idea to buy one on impulse; they require more care than you would expect, just about as much as a dog.

Best place for information is the House Rabbit Society web site, http://www.rabbit.org. Plenty of health, housing, care, and other info there.

The bunny pee smells bad because you've got an unneutered male. He needs to be neutered by a bunny-competent vet or he'll be a neurotic hormone-crazed maniac. People dump bunnies at the SPCA or (much worse) in the woods because of this. Please don't EVER dump a bunny; it means death by predator or disease, basically.

One other thing: Please don't stick this bunny outside in a hutch; he'll be lonely and miserable and exposed to predators. Domestic bunnies are best kept indoors and allowed plenty of time to run around.

Sorry to get on my soap box, but I'm pretty obnoxious when it comes to bunny care.

:hi:

We live in an country home, and the bunny is in his cage right now, inside. He likes it there. The door is open and he is free to roam.

My dog and cat have already accepted him. They curl up together and snooze.

I would never dump an animal. I am an animal lover and am raising a kid who loves animals, too.

The little guy will probably steal your hearts very quickly--they're very good at that! Um, he may also soon decide that your ankle should be the mother of his children when he hits puberty--another excellent reason for neutering. Otherwise, he'll be sort of like a human male who's permanently stuck with the sexual maturity of a fourteen-year-old.

Hmm, come to think of it, I know quite a few guys who fit that description!

:evilgrin:

furryarse

I love chickens. My grandmother had a farm when I was a kid and I loved feeding them a getting their eggs. I always wondered why the eggs were not white!

Who was the first person to say 'Look, something just dropped from that birds butt ..... Lets eat it!'

Just keep a litter pan on its cage and he will use it. Then when you let him out of the cage, just put the pan in the bathroom. Believe me, it works.

A great inexpensive litter for bunnies (or other animals, for that matter) is wood stove pellets. They're similar to the compressed paper litter available in pet stores, but cost a fraction of the price (like $3 for 40 lb.).

They absorb urine like a sponge, control odor well, and break down into sawdust when wet. You can compost the sawdust, which is full of nitrogen, and use it on your garden along with the bunny poops, which are a great fertilizer. We've used them with our bunnies for years.

:hi: