Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts

Friday, April 9, 2010


Just sent for more information on pasturing rabbits. I found someone who actually knows Joel and Daniel Salatin. Well, really, a company called Acres USA. Joel Salatin is the original writer of "Pastured Poultry Profits", a book about raising chickens naturally(or as close to the way nature intended as man can emulate!) and sensibly. He's also someone whom I admire very deeply for the very principles that lead him in doing so.  They, Acres USA, has forwarded the email I've sent to the aforementioned gentlemen, and even promise to send me and article they found on the subject from March 2009! I intend to do more research before, maybe, subscribing to their magazine, though. Especially since I pretty much only specialize in rabbits, right now! I do know, however, that they seem to go above and beyond for customer service just from my brief dealings with them through email. The letter is below, in italics to differentiate it from the rest of the article.

Here's a copy of my letter and their response. My real name has been hidden because --- well, there are some crazy people out there who'd love to hurt me, or worse, my family, simply because they think I shouldn't be hurting living beings. Makes sense, huh? To understand the whole letter, you'd have to read Mr. Salatin's article, "everything I want to do is illegal" I put a link below.

http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2003/Everything-Is-Illegal1esp03.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: (bunnybabe)
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 9:55 PM
To: Info
Subject: Pastured Rabbits?

Dear Mr. Salatin, I'm sorry to hear about the government crackdown on sustainable farmers like yourself. Makes me want to move to Canada, eh? I know, bad joke.

I actually have "Pastured Poultry Profits." It saddens me that I can no longer try many of your techniques should I ever be able to afford a farm. Right now, it's just a dream I have. Even if I could afford one, I'm not sure my young but decrepit back could handle it. Okay, I'm sure I've wasted enough of your valuable time chit-chatting, so here it is. I raise rabbits for meat and.....fur. "Pastured Poultry" focused on chickens and did not say too much about rabbits. Do you have a special feed recipe for rabbits. I know you were giving them free choice grains, pellets and hay, but has anything changed on that front? Some people say you can make rabbit feed, some say you can't. I refuse to believe rabbits have been bred so they can only eat pellets and hay! Especially since the farmer next door told me he raised rabbit successfully on nothing but grains. I don't really want to do that either, though. Seems a little too much the other way to me....

I also read elsewhere that you have some of the rabbits in pens similar to your broilers. Is there a technique to that? If it makes any difference, my (meat) rabbits are all hybrids, although the my friend, Cathy, and I also breed several breeds of purebreds for sale and show.. Right now, I have a new litter of Flemish-Mini Lop-Silver Fox with another due next week. I would really appreciate your input. Thanks.I also have a blog about raising rabbits for meat and fur. Perhaps, with your permission, I could use some of your wisdom?

If there's a newsletter on this subject, I would be very interested in receiving it. If this letter does not get to Mr Salatin directly, please pass it on to him.

Thank you,
(bunnybabe),
Part Owner, Buzzy Bunnies

Greetings (bunnybabe),
Thanks for your request for more information about pastured rabbits. I have forwarded your email to the Salatins today so either Daniel or Joel can reply - but they are hugely busy at this time so it might be a while.
We have an article from the March 2009 issue that I found on raising rabbits that I can mail to you if you are willing to provide a mailing address.
Best wishes.
Anne
Anne Van Nest
Customer Service
Acres U.S.A.
(Mail) P.O. Box 91299, Austin, TX 78709
(Physical) 5321 Industrial Oaks Blvd., Ste. 128, Austin, TX 78735
Phone 512-892-4400
Fax 512-892-4448

info@acresusa.com
www.acresusa.com

Mark your calendar.... for the Acres U.S.A. annual conference, December 9-11, 2010. See you in Indianapolis, Indiana!

By the way, I sent her my mailing address, so, hopefully something good will come out of it. I'll keep you all updated.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Calling all SF breeders! Calling all SF breeders! We are in desperate need of Silver Fox rabbits! If anyone breeds SFs near the Sandy Lake, Pa area, please leave a message here! I will contact you as soon as it's received. Full pedigrees are desired, but not necessarily necessary. Please leave an email address for your rabbitry or bunny barn in the comments section. You will receive a response through email as soon as possible. Thank you!

We also need two cali bucks of any age, with or without pedigree.

P.S. we have no intention of EATING any SFs or calis we buy. Just breeding. SFs are still pretty rare and we would like to see the population grow!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Spent a big portion of my day creating a term legend to help anyone who might be confused. I'll try to keep it updated with any new terms I may use as time goes by.  If anyone has a question, please leave a comment in the comments section. Comments are anonymous and encouraged.


About Sapphire's litter, all the kits(baby bunnies) seem to be doing fine. I think they're starting to grow hair already! Of course, that could just be my wishful thinking, lol!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Rabbit Treats!

I've spent most of the day looking up recipes for rabbit treats. I need something which does not involve rabbit food(pellets) because, frankly, they get enough pellets anyway. I want to make a treat. I'm looking for treats which are all natural for rabbits, containing no animal proteins(rabbit are herbivores-it may be the easy way out like giving them Cheerios like I've heard some breeders do, but it's not natural. Rabbits do not eat eggs, milk or any other animal protein in nature! Nor do they eat bread which contains animal proteins!) I do not believe you should ever feed herbivores animal proteins. I wish for something to feed my rabbits and also maybe adapt for sale to help us to bring in some extra cash to support our rabbits, lol! (with some recipes, maybe find an alternative for those darned pellets!)

We hope to be offering many extras for sale soon. I'll keep you posted!

Anyway, I've decided to post some of the sites I found with recipes for rabbit treats(the kind with pellets)! Although intended for pet rabbits, your meat breeders deserve a treat once in a while, too! Enjoy!



Also some educational stuff on feeding your rabbit

Oh, I almost forgot---we have bunnies! Sapphire had her litter! Six so far. She usually has eight, so maybe two more. To our loyal customers, here's your head's up! See you in a few weeks!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Hi, again! The Buzzy Bunny computer is up and running once again after a short lull when it basically blew up! We have a litter of meat rabbits due any day now and another in a couple of weeks. It's an exciting time for us! We're trying to find cages for all the new arrivals(including the purebreds we purchase)the right food(we recently switched to Manna, which is a little less expensive than Purina, which is what we have been using, and seems, so far, a better food)and trying to divide our time(Cathy works) so each rabbit get the care and attention they need.




We hope to find cages, etc, at yard sales and whatnot. As I've said in a previous post, there's really no money in rabbits. If we're lucky, we'll break even.



 Image found at  http://www.clipartguide.com/

Thursday, April 1, 2010

bunnies...

I'd like to take a moment to thank the farmers, especially the organic and sustainable farmers, for working so hard and dedicating their time, and often their lives, to raising food for us to eat, wool and cotton to wear, as well as other materials for us to consume. Thank you for making our lives better. I'd also like to thank the postal workers who deliver our mail and packages, even in the middle of nowhere like we are, through all kinds of weather. Waitresses who put up with all kinds of people's bad days and people who think they're better than them. Cashiers, and many others who "work behind the scenes" to make our lives better, more productive and more convenient. You work hard, thankless jobs and really should be thanked. So thank you.

Image found at http://static.bigstockphoto.com

P.S. If you think this has nothing to do with raising meat rabbits, you're wrong. Each and every one of these people mentioned and more make raising meat rabbits possible. If it weren't for people who work thankless jobs, we'd have nothing to be thankful for. We wouldn't have rabbit food delivered, We wouldn't be able to sell to restaurants if there were no waitresses. We wouldn't even be able to buy rabbit food if there were nobody to sell it! So thank you again!