Author: Tanja

First Chickens. Then Rabbits. I wanted to see if rabbits could be something of a solution to our homestead. This combined with flyers for some Dwarf Hothot rabbits going up in local stores, meant I had a place to inquire. As inquiring often leads to in our experiences my husband and I found ourselves bringing home three new little bunnies, on Easter day no less.

We built them an outdoor hutch and began to learn more about having rabbits. My Aunt and her daughter (my cousin) had both had rabbits that I got to spend time with or help out with here and there. Having prior experience is great. Owning your own still comes with its own learning curve. What food do we buy? How do we feed them? And, Oh no! Our new buck has an overbite. How do we fix that? Turns out you need a Dremel with a diamond blade, patience, guts, and a pencil. We didn’t blame the breeder; we could tell she truly didn’t handle her “stock” all that much. We learned how to handle, feed, house and care for our new homestead “pet” members.

About a year into having them we did two new things. The first thing was, we used their manure to fertilize our garden. It got lush. Then we bred them. Our initial attempt failed miserably and took several repeat attempts to end up with two healthy litters of kits. Here is where I advise you, do anatomy research on any and all animals you get. A few videos on the deed are helpful as well. From our two does we ended up with eleven kits. Snug in their homemade winter houses/nest boxes we were able to get ten to an age where we could sell them. A few fliers later and we sold our first kit. Next, we waited and waited. The week we were moving to our new home we sold two more kits. With the loss of one from aggression and one to moving stressors we still have five and our original three. Since moving we acquired meat breeds. We have learned so much more from them. They are farm stock. The dwarf rabbits are pets. When you go from always buying meat to raising and processing your own, it is very profound in a number of ways, with a gauntlet of emotions.

If you are starting out, just allow yourself to learn and take it slow. All of my current skills in health checking, housing, general care and processing of chickens and rabbits took 2 to 3 years to develop. There were many butchering videos to numb the emotions enough to move past them while still acknowledging them. Compassion for my family and care for my animals can both be true.

If you visit a store that services farmers often enough and in spring, then chances are at some point, you will encounter chicks. A lot of chicks, over and over again. And, if you garden and have always wanted a farmstead/homestead, then chances are you will eventually buy your own chicks. As we had decided on home educating our children, we decided we would start by getting our own chicken eggs for a ‘science project’. A sale later, and we had purchased an incubator. Then there was the question of how we would get fertile eggs.

We didn’t have or know anyone who currently had hens and a rooster. The answer came with an online order. A call from the post office. A visit to its sketchy back doors to get a box of carefully packaged eggs. And, despite our best efforts and some development we got to follow by candling, none of the eggs hatched. With an excited six-year-old who would be crushed, there came a secret trip to the store, and ‘magically’ there were four little chicks. Alas, we were not meant to keep these chicks we had ‘hatched’. We were in a rental that had not yet approved keeping some hens. So, we delivered them to some family members who could have chickens. Our experiment over, and shipping in and hatching eggs being what it is, we put away the incubator while still wishing to have our own chickens.

Eventually, that bubbled up enough, and we asked if we could keep chickens on the property. We got a yes! Then was the start of how to defend from racoons. We bought four and not even a week old, they all got eaten. A DIY coop and run build, another four-chick purchase and some big learning curves, and we still have three of the second batch today. They laid eggs that fall. Nothing quite like freshly laid, collected and cooked eggs. Since then, we have collected more animals and moved to an acreage in the country where we can collect those animals we want. Which is good as “chicken math” or “goat algebra” is no joke.