Goats
Feed them by hand to keep them tame and socialised. We need to trim their hooves every 6 weeks, and we worm them every 6 months or so. We have made the decision to not raise our goats organically as we do not have the time, skills or knowledge to do so properly.
Rabbits
We used to have a lot of rabbits, and we raised them for food. We have constructed enclosures that allowed us to have two breeding does in a colony with a buck, so they were free to behave as naturally as possible, digging burrows and having babies down their tunnels. We buried corrugated iron so they couldn’t dig out. Over time, we realised that this system wasn’t working for us. There was a lot of expense associated with raising rabbits, despite our best efforts we spent hundreds on bringing in feed. Rabbits are very susceptible to diseases, and we had a high mortality rate. Rabbit meat was also not very popular, and as we have moved towards a more vegetarian diet, we have phased out rabbits. The cages have been re-purposed as chicken/duck enclosures and vegetable gardens. We have found that the bird netting covers also keep out the cabbage white butterfly. There is one lonely buck named Foxy remaining. We hope the chickens next door provide him with some entertainment.
Chickens
We usually take care of the feeding of the chickens – see daily tasks if you are house-sitting.
SUMMER – eggs may have baby chickens inside. Leave the collecting to us. The eggs are for sale and for eating.
If any of the hens start sitting on the eggs for a whole day or more than a day they have gone ‘broody’. The eggs that are under them are no longer good for sale, but they can be eaten.
Take the hen off the nest and lock her in a cage with fresh food, water, straw and a couple of her warm eggs. If she stays broody in a few days we will give her a dozen fertile eggs to hatch. If not, after three days we let her go again, and hopefully she’ll go back to laying.
We use the chickens in the big cages as gardeners. They eat weeds, scratch the soil and fertilise. We have 12 different enclosures of various sizes for the chickens and ducks and they are an important part of our crop rotation strategy.
We have pioneered a Two-Tier Tyre Tower system. We put all the food scraps including bones into the tyre. Chickens take what they can from the top, but can’t scratch it around. When full, add another tyre. When full, start over with a second tyre tower. (Tyre Tower Two) After a while kick over the first tower. You will find it wriggling with meal worms. Chickens eat the worms, spread the compost around. Remove chickens to a new cage and start planting.
Babies – chicks and ducklings
Top up their water every day.
Light box
Chicks or ducklings in the light box need their water topped up every day. Their food is the pale grainy stuff, in the bin beside the lightbox. The light stays on at all times. If it isn’t on, there is a problem and it needs to be fixed immediately.
Ducks
Sometimes in the summer, we let them all out to do what they please. We used to have a drake, but we stopped breeding so now we either free-range them or use them as gardeners like the chickens.
Cat, Lulu
Don’t feed her unless you are house-sitting, or she will get fat. Lulu is not pregnant.
Food
New bags of chicken food and rabbit food are in the barn. Please let us know if you use the last one or if we are running low. The empty food bags go in an empty bag. We use the bags for rubbish and firewood.
Where are the Pigs/cows?
We have had pigs here before, but we struggled to get enough food scraps to feed them, when the avocados are falling then there is plenty, but otherwise not enough. Pigs may come back in the future but they would have their noses ringed, and be pets. So while we debate the ethics of ringing a pigs nose, we do without.
We have run cows here, and even milked a house cow. It’s hard work, and our land is not productive enough in grass to support such a large ruminant. We’ve decided to gradually phase out the goats as well, and plant productive trees, and other lush vegetation instead.