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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2020 0:46:13 GMT -6
You probably survived because your kidneys weren't strained from eating highly refined and processed foods riddled with additives and sugar. Nowadays everything is extremely toxic, because our organs cannot do their jobs sufficiently.
Pink eye is suspected to be caused by demodex mites (or a similar mite). We all have them living in our eye-lash pores. They die in there and it gets infected. This is something that is recently discovered or something that is not widely known, not sure which. Demodex mites are also suspected as the cause of rosacea, the rudy cheeks are an allergic reaction to their presence. They are basically harmless for most, but real nonetheless.
They live in our pours and as we get older and when our immune systems re weakest, they build up, causes pitting in the face and eyelids. A good drench of Spinosad every now and then is a good idea. Gotta do it in the dark, tho, as light kills the bacteria. But don't do it too often.
My 2 cents, anyway.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 29, 2020 11:16:11 GMT -6
Our cows used to get severe pink-eye, every year in the month of May. We always thought it was caused by the tall seed heads of fescue grass, so we'd spend the whole month of May, trying to brushog fescue on about two hundred acres.
In weather like this, the cows would get hoof rot really badly, from having mud, grass, manure, and gravels constantly jammed between the cloven parts of their hooves. We'd find them limping along out in the pasture and would have to rope them by the neck, then rope one back leg, to stretch them out, so they could no longer kick. Then, we'd have to dash in there and clean the mud out from their feet with a stick, and soak the infected parts in bleach, followed by a good soaking in diesel fuel. We did that by using two, one gallon steel cans. One was half full of bleach, the other was half full of diesel. The diesel was used to seal out the water for a while, until they could heal up a little. It wasn't easy to get a cow to step in a one gallon can and stand there long enough for a good soaking.
That always seemed to work though, but took the better part of a day to accomplish ... Especially when you had as many cows as we did at the time. Dad used to run about 60 to 90 head of mama cows. Every May and June was spent herding and doctoring. We'd spend the better part of Spring each year, crippled up, from being trodden and kicked so many times.
May and June were busy months. As soon as vaccinations were done, it would be time to bale and haul hay.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 1, 2020 15:45:41 GMT -6
Good memories, Bon. Thanks, for sharing those.
I've ridden many a weary mile, in the back of a flatbed trailer, using a pitchfork to toss bermudagrass sprigs into a bermudagrass sprigger.
As the oldest boy, it was my job to make sure none of my four siblings fell behind on the task of feeding the ever turning conveyor on the sprigger, while my mom drove our old pickup truck alongside my Dad, on the tractor. He would be pulling an old bermudagrass sprigger behind the tractor, as he made the rounds in our future hay-field, and all of us kids would pitch sprigs from the trailer into the always moving sprigging machine.
That's how we planted the bermudagrass plugs that we had spent all winter gathering from various places, using a section harrow to drag them into huge piles, then pitching them onto a flatbed trailer to haul out to the hay field.
Dad baled 60-acres of bermudagrass hay, twice per year. It took a lot of plowing and a lot of bermuda sprigs to convert that old place from the wild bramble and head tall sedge grass that it once was, into a good, fescue and bermudagrass hay meadow.
When all of us boys grew up and moved away, Dad finally started baling round bales, but growing up, we hauled every bit of it by hand, as square bales. It took about 30 bales per head of cows, plus all the horses, and a little extra in case it was a long Winter. We'd end up hauling about 2,500 square bales per season. In Winter, we'd feed about 20 bales of hay per day.
I remember skinny dipping in Fort Gibson Lake one night, after hauling hay all of a long summer's day. Our clothes were up on the bank, when a Park Ranger just happened to drive by on his nightly rounds.
When he saw our clothes there, he stopped his truck dead in its tracks, took out his spotlight, and started panning the bright beam across the water, all the while hollering for all of us boys to hurry-up and come on out. (No one did) but that was a tense few minutes. We'd all hold our breath and dunk under the water every time the light went by. The Ranger just kept panning the spotlight beam back-and-forth, hollering out to us, "I know you boys are out there! I'm standing right beside your clothes!"
Finally, I think he saw our old, '55 Chevy, flatbed hay-truck, parked nearby, and figured out what was going on and drove away. After that one experience, we never went skinny dipping in the Lake again! After that night, we took all our after dark, hay hauling business to fourteen Mile Creek instead.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 4, 2020 19:14:32 GMT -6
I was just thinking when I first read that your NZ Buck got away, "If there are any does around, he'll be back."
I'm glad to hear no dogs or cats got him.
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Post by macmex on May 5, 2020 8:53:08 GMT -6
Hopefully those scrawny ones will eat and grow. The "peanut" I had in one of my recent litters is now growing pretty well. I tolerate stupid stuff from my does for two, maybe three litters, then I start eating and replacing them. A lot of times mishaps are due to environmental issues, such as something disturbing them at night.
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Post by macmex on May 5, 2020 12:03:27 GMT -6
We've been pleased with our stock, only bringing in an occasional buck to renew the bloodline. I set aside a new spare buck, who should be ready to use in the fall, as well as a new doeling, from the same litter. Both are large and show the same coloration as Blackeye. We do get a good many pure black rabbits out of these, and they grow well. It's only a matter of personal fancy that keeps me from saving one of them as a breeder.
I'm thinking I'll start investigating the acquisition of a new buck from outside my herd. This would make the current spare unnecessary, but that's alright. I may not get another buck until I've used the spare at least once, just like I did with Blackeye. He produced a good litter for me, here.
This morning I calculated that we produce about 175 lb of rabbit meat in a given year. That's pretty good for a small operation!
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Post by macmex on May 6, 2020 6:33:42 GMT -6
As long as the kits are close to the same age, the doe can handle up to 12 kits. I have seen them nurse 14, though not often.
Putting her down is almost certainly the thing to do. Without a great deal of expense (probably a trip to the vet) she probably won't get better.
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Post by macmex on May 6, 2020 6:37:37 GMT -6
I probably would keep the kits. Hopefully they'll be okay. With production rabbits I recommend careful hygiene, clean water and good feed. But when an animal gets sick, it's almost always best to put it down and start with a youngster. It's usually best not to save breeding stock from the animal which got sick, though in many cases the problem probably isn't genetic.
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Post by macmex on May 15, 2020 7:19:11 GMT -6
I do water morning and evening and have developed a system with twice the number of water bottles as normal. I fill them all in the evening, stashing half of them in the rafters of my rabbit shed. Then, in the predawn, when I'm doing chores, I don't have to refill bottles. I just swap them out. It's fast and, in cold weather, it saves a lot on my hands.
Here's what I use for flaming/sterilizing cages. Bon, I want to use an Aussie accent and say, "That's not a torch, Mate. Now this is a torch!"
Red worms are a wonderful compliment to rabbits! Reason to Raise Red Worms
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Post by macmex on May 16, 2020 5:22:21 GMT -6
I stash about 1/3 of a bale on top of a hanging rabbit cage (with a rabbit in it, no less). That way I can grab and go. When I have weeds, I stash them there instead. It does speed things up, and, whatever rabbit gets to have the stash on top is entertained, no end, grabbing pieces and pulling them in to snack on.
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Post by macmex on May 16, 2020 18:32:18 GMT -6
Nope. I haven't used either of those things. But then, I can't say that I've really had parasite issues.
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Post by macmex on May 23, 2020 19:55:39 GMT -6
Looking good!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 24, 2020 19:12:28 GMT -6
Great photos, Bon. The rabbits are looking good!
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Post by macmex on May 26, 2020 13:57:25 GMT -6
Five weeks is a good time to wean. You might avoid leafy greens for a day or two, while they adjust to the absence of mother's milk. Otherwise, just keep an eye on them. If anyone gets the scours, drop all greens and just give dry feed for a day or two.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 27, 2020 23:49:15 GMT -6
Bon,
The closer you cut the air holes the ground, the better the draw becomes; sort of like a long chimney creates more draft than a short chimney. Plus, cutting away material close to contact with the soil will help prevent wood rot and rust from creeping up the sides. You will probably want to skirt the bottom with a roll of 24" inch chicken wire to deter predators, such as possums, coons, feral cats, some of the bigger size rat snakes, and those ever-annoying neighborhood dogs. That short of a roll is fairly cheap at Atwood's. I buried a roll of it all the way around the inside bottom of my goose run, to prevent predators from digging under the 2"x 6" baseboard that I had tied all my hoops to for added support.
In one of the Oklahoma History Classes I taught, we researched the use of make up draft air to remove smoke from the inside of the mock-up tee-Pee we had built on sight. We accomplished that by employing two skirts; a tall one on the outside, that was kept about 4" inches above ground all the way around the base. A shorter wall skirting around the inside, buried in full contact with the dry soil on the inside of the Tee Pee around 7' feet in height.
The space between those two skirtings created a draw of cool, fresh, air at ground level that traversed the cone shape of the Tee Pee; being drawn upward, by the vacuum of warmer air escaping out through the directional wind flaps located at the ridge. Bringing cooler, make up air in from to outside, kept the warmer air along the floor area from being robbed by rising heat vectors. The extra large draw created along the outside edge, allowed the warmer radiant air from the fire that was built in the center to remain in a more static state of motion.
I imagine something similar would help you create draw to pull in cooler air along the bottom, traveling upward, as the hot air pulls away. Warm and cold air flow is lightly connected in a manner similar to the surface tension of water and can be manipulated by using subtle changes in pressure. even if it didn't work properly right off the bat, you would probably enjoy time taken to work things out. (A picture here could have saved a thousand words.
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