Post by woodyz on May 27, 2012 21:32:06 GMT -7
Twice Bitten had PM me for more info on our game birds so I wrote this up. Be glad to answer any questions
During the entire 60’s my brother and I raised rabbits. We had cleaned out and refit the entire building with rabbit cages and a feed bin. Using wire cages suspended from the ceiling on dog chain we had 200 breeding does at any one time. We kept 20 bucks to service the does. All of our rabbits were American Whites.
At first my father did the moving of does to buck and back, once we understood the process and could handle the rabbits we took over that part as well. We had a breeding chart on each cage where we recorded each cycle; when; to which buck, how many born, how many raised. If a doe or a buck wasn’t performing they were replaced.
Each morning before school we would clean every water bowl/jar and put out fresh water. After school we would clean water every water bowl/jar and fill all of the feeders. On weekends we cleaned cages and breed does.
We had a truck come and collect every rabbit 10 to 16 weeks old, we got paid by the pound. They brought a load of feed, which they deducted the cost of. They butchered them for fur and meat, which is why we had only American White.
I my second year of High School we expanded our enterprise to include every game bird but ducks. The States of MO, KS, and OK were trying to reintroduce wild birds. They gave us the incubators, feed, eggs, brooders and pens. We would hatch the eggs, raise the chicks and they would come every three months or so and bring more supplies and take away chicks. For our effort we got to keep 10% of what we raised. We could butcher them or turn them loose.
Most of my life when I felt a was going to stay somewhere awhile I would get some rabbits, then chickens, and almost always some guinea fowl, peacock, or pheasants.
When we moved back to South Carolina to retire I immediately got some rabbits and chickens. Then my son got reacquainted with his high school sweetie and her family has a big rabbit and fowl farm in North Carolina.
We decide to try our hand at quail raising. We got two sets of 3 hens and a rooster and had good luck. The relative in North Carolina had a strain of Japanese quail that are bigger and more colorful. So we got two sets of those.
We were getting a lot of eggs, so we got an incubator. Our first hatches were mix results and may be ½ the eggs would hatch. Our main problem seemed to be in washing the eggs before storage until incubation. There is a film coating the eggs to keep air out.
We started having better hatches and then determined we could determine the sex of the quail by the shape of the egg. Now we hatch mostly hens and our hatch rate is in the 90% range.
We introduced a new strain to our rabbits so the guys in North Carolina traded us 3 pheasant hens and a rooster for six rabbits outside of their stock, putting in new blood and helping avoid cross breeding.
Our first attempt at hatching a batch of pheasant eggs ended when one of the Grandkids unplugged the incubator. So we started our second hatch of pheasant today.
We get a pheasant egg from each hen 6 days out of 7. The quail will lay and egg or do and only miss one day every 30. Our chickens lay 6 eggs every seven.
Our rabbits are dropping and raising an average of 8 kits every three months.
Our rabbits eat about 25# of commercial rabbit feed each month. They get alfalfa hay or kudzu leaves in front of them at all times kudzu doesn’t grow Oct to June so they get alfalfa. The chickens eat about 50# of commercial layer per month per each 20. They also get alfalfa and kudzu, they go through about 50# of oyster shells in 3 months. The quail get commercial chick starter, oyster shell, alfalfa and kudzu.
A Month or so ago I started looking into automatic watering systems for our livestock. I bought a couple of water nipples and we set up a test case using a bucket with the chickens. They took to it like they had drank that way all along. So I ordered what we needed for all of our chickens and a few nipples for quail of chicks. The quail pen we started with were drinking in less that two minutes. So we ordered everything we needed to do all of the chickens and quail.
We have a 55 gallon water barrel about six feet off the ground. A water line runs into the top of the barrel, the barrel has a toilet bowl filler inside so if the water in the barrel drops by 1/3 it fills back up. A ¾ PVC line runs out about an inch from the bottom of the barrel. We have ½ inch lines branched off the drop line to every cage. A ½ inch pvc line about 4’ long runs at the top of the quail heads with 4 nipples on each. The ¾ line goes past the branches to a petcock drain, so we can drain the system.
This week we added lines to the rabbit pens, with nipples designed for them.
Makes watering much easier and quicker. We can add liquid vit and minerals which we had to measure at each jar. Two drops of bleach per gallon keeps the algae out and I figure if we had to we could wrap heat tape on the ¾ line and it would keep the other lines from freezing. That’s not a worry here.
Ask me about anything unclear of something I left out. Online or PM
During the entire 60’s my brother and I raised rabbits. We had cleaned out and refit the entire building with rabbit cages and a feed bin. Using wire cages suspended from the ceiling on dog chain we had 200 breeding does at any one time. We kept 20 bucks to service the does. All of our rabbits were American Whites.
At first my father did the moving of does to buck and back, once we understood the process and could handle the rabbits we took over that part as well. We had a breeding chart on each cage where we recorded each cycle; when; to which buck, how many born, how many raised. If a doe or a buck wasn’t performing they were replaced.
Each morning before school we would clean every water bowl/jar and put out fresh water. After school we would clean water every water bowl/jar and fill all of the feeders. On weekends we cleaned cages and breed does.
We had a truck come and collect every rabbit 10 to 16 weeks old, we got paid by the pound. They brought a load of feed, which they deducted the cost of. They butchered them for fur and meat, which is why we had only American White.
I my second year of High School we expanded our enterprise to include every game bird but ducks. The States of MO, KS, and OK were trying to reintroduce wild birds. They gave us the incubators, feed, eggs, brooders and pens. We would hatch the eggs, raise the chicks and they would come every three months or so and bring more supplies and take away chicks. For our effort we got to keep 10% of what we raised. We could butcher them or turn them loose.
Most of my life when I felt a was going to stay somewhere awhile I would get some rabbits, then chickens, and almost always some guinea fowl, peacock, or pheasants.
When we moved back to South Carolina to retire I immediately got some rabbits and chickens. Then my son got reacquainted with his high school sweetie and her family has a big rabbit and fowl farm in North Carolina.
We decide to try our hand at quail raising. We got two sets of 3 hens and a rooster and had good luck. The relative in North Carolina had a strain of Japanese quail that are bigger and more colorful. So we got two sets of those.
We were getting a lot of eggs, so we got an incubator. Our first hatches were mix results and may be ½ the eggs would hatch. Our main problem seemed to be in washing the eggs before storage until incubation. There is a film coating the eggs to keep air out.
We started having better hatches and then determined we could determine the sex of the quail by the shape of the egg. Now we hatch mostly hens and our hatch rate is in the 90% range.
We introduced a new strain to our rabbits so the guys in North Carolina traded us 3 pheasant hens and a rooster for six rabbits outside of their stock, putting in new blood and helping avoid cross breeding.
Our first attempt at hatching a batch of pheasant eggs ended when one of the Grandkids unplugged the incubator. So we started our second hatch of pheasant today.
We get a pheasant egg from each hen 6 days out of 7. The quail will lay and egg or do and only miss one day every 30. Our chickens lay 6 eggs every seven.
Our rabbits are dropping and raising an average of 8 kits every three months.
Our rabbits eat about 25# of commercial rabbit feed each month. They get alfalfa hay or kudzu leaves in front of them at all times kudzu doesn’t grow Oct to June so they get alfalfa. The chickens eat about 50# of commercial layer per month per each 20. They also get alfalfa and kudzu, they go through about 50# of oyster shells in 3 months. The quail get commercial chick starter, oyster shell, alfalfa and kudzu.
A Month or so ago I started looking into automatic watering systems for our livestock. I bought a couple of water nipples and we set up a test case using a bucket with the chickens. They took to it like they had drank that way all along. So I ordered what we needed for all of our chickens and a few nipples for quail of chicks. The quail pen we started with were drinking in less that two minutes. So we ordered everything we needed to do all of the chickens and quail.
We have a 55 gallon water barrel about six feet off the ground. A water line runs into the top of the barrel, the barrel has a toilet bowl filler inside so if the water in the barrel drops by 1/3 it fills back up. A ¾ PVC line runs out about an inch from the bottom of the barrel. We have ½ inch lines branched off the drop line to every cage. A ½ inch pvc line about 4’ long runs at the top of the quail heads with 4 nipples on each. The ¾ line goes past the branches to a petcock drain, so we can drain the system.
This week we added lines to the rabbit pens, with nipples designed for them.
Makes watering much easier and quicker. We can add liquid vit and minerals which we had to measure at each jar. Two drops of bleach per gallon keeps the algae out and I figure if we had to we could wrap heat tape on the ¾ line and it would keep the other lines from freezing. That’s not a worry here.
Ask me about anything unclear of something I left out. Online or PM
;D
