After a soggy, cold spring, things are finally heating up here in beautiful Portland, OR! We haven’t seen temps in the 80s all year, never mind nearly 100. We at the Rev are not fans of the hot weather, not only because we’re not hot weather folks, but also because it’s so hard on our friends in rabbit fur coats.
Once the the weather hits the mid 80s, rabbits really start to suffer. At 85, the bucks become sterile.* And with good reason. Pregnant and nursing does suffer the worst. Keep an especially good eye on them.
When the temps reach the 90s and you notice your rabbits lying stretched out and breathing rapidly with their ears erect, it’s time to take action. If you can’t move your rabbits inside to a cool basement or air conditioned room (and we can’t), here are some things you can do to help your rabbits through this stressful time:
Make sure their waters are filled always. We’ve frozen partially filled water bottles before, but I don’t really think this helps. When it gets hot, the rabbits stop moving. Which means they stop getting up to drink. Rather than hassle with frozen water bottles, I stick to step 6.
Cut back on pellets and give free choice hay. Hay keeps the gut moving and helps relieve stress.
Provide lots of shade. Direct sunlight can kill them very quickly. Towels and sheets draped over the cages provide shade but still allow air flow.
Drape wet towels and/or sheets over the cages. The water helps cool the air.
Run an oscillating fan. It will help prevent fly strike* by keeping the flies down and really cools the area down. Especially if you’ve draped wet towels over the cages.
Provide cold. Most people say to freeze plastic jugs of water, but we’ve found that the rabbits just chew them up. Not good! I fill freezer safe canning jars (the wide mouth kind) with water and freeze them. I’ve also heard of freezing small marble slabs for the bunnies to lay on.
One of the most disturbing things you can see your bunny do is pant. A rabbit will lie there, stretched out, breathing with an open mouth, and drooling. When things have reached this state of affairs, act quickly. Wet her ears down with luke warm (not cold!) water. Do this as gently as possible to minimize stress. Keep wetting the ears as they dry. If wetting the ears does not help, you can immerse her up to the neck in luke warm (not cold!) water. Immersion should be a last step, as it is really stressful and increases the likelihood of fly strike.
Taking care of rabbits in the heat is a lot of work. Last summer was a real nightmare with temps in the 110s. We lost one rabbit to heat exhaustion and another to mastitis related to the heat. This summer is going to be a little more challenging if we have another real heat wave. Joy and I are both out of the house most of the day with school and work. We’re considering paying a neighborhood kid to come and re-wet all the towels around 3 pm when it gets really really hot.
*Don’t worry, the sterility isn’t permanent. The boys get their mojo back for a few days after it finally does cool off.
*Fly strike, or myiasis, is a condition where flies lay their eggs on your rabbits. The hatched maggots then feed on your living rabbit. Ew.
The Rabbit Revolution has taken on some new little birdy friends. I sent Joy to the feed store for four Red Broiler (a medium growth meat chicken) chicks, and she came home with one Red Broiler and two Gold Sex Links. Something about that being the last Red Broiler and they’d throw it in for free if she bought the two Gold Sex Links. At any rate, now we’re growing our first meat chicken and two replacement layers.
I’m anticipating a very tasty bird indeed. From what I have read, the Red Broiler is a slower-grower than the convential Cornish Cross chicken. This more natural growth leads to a bird with a smaller breast, but more flavorful meat. In case you haven’t seen Super Size Me or Food, Inc., Cornish Cross are the chickens who grow at such incredible rates that their legs often collapse and/or their hearts explode. I’m not kidding.
All this leg collapsing and heart exploding leads to birds who don’t really like to move around a whole lot. They’d really rather just lay there by the water and feed than scratch around, eating bugs and greens like a normal chicken. Not our idea of a healthy, happy, edible creature.
Also, we will know for sure that our chicken does not contain arsenic. Yes, arsenic. Poisonous, poisonous arsenic. A common additive to conventional meat chicken feed are arsenic derivitives (they go by many names) which prevent coccidiosis. Coccidiosis, a disease caused by protozoa, occurs when birds are kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions. So, if a farmer maintains good hygiene and does not overcrowd and stress his/her birds, coccidiosis can be prevented. But that’s not the way it works in large-scale agriculture, because that doesn’t benefit the profit margins. So birds are fed poison as medicine, even if they’re not sick.
A 2006 study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found that 55% of the chicken meat the researchers bought in the grocery store contained arsenic at detectable levels. Their sample included USDA organic chicken, which is not allowed to be fed arsenic-containing food additives.
Not all large producers feed their chickens arsenic. Both Tyson and Perdue have stopped using it in their feed. Foster Farms also says that they do not use it. The only way to really know that your chicken is safe to eat is to either know your farmer or raise it yourself. We’re doing both.
We recently acquired a fancy schmancy chicken tractor from Rois at Hrafinstaad Suburban Homestead. I need to replace the way-too-big-for-juveniles welded wire mesh with chicken wire and bleach the crap out it, and it’ll be set to go! Meaty Bird and her little layer friends will go out there in a week or two, in time for us to receive the 6 Freedom Ranger chicks we ordered through our good friend Chris Musser at Lost Arts Kitchen. From my reading, the Freedom Rangers are very similar to, if not the same as, the Red Broilers. Guess we’ll find out!
I’m excited to start on this new project. It’s all part of our training to be real farmers!
Joy and I have been talking about putting on workshops for a few months now. Rabbit raising by itself is not a profitable enterprise, unless you’re raising pedigreed, prize winning stock. Yeah, right. We’re thinking that workshops are the way to go to make our rabbits turn a little profit. By the straight up cash layout, we’re about breaking even on feed plus getting a little meat for our table. If you include our time, though, not even close.
An attendee of the seminar mentioned in the NY Times article. Photo credit: Holly Henderson.
I read a recent article in the New York Times, Hip-Hop Cuisine. The New York Times just loves rabbit. Someday I’ll collect and post all of their rabbit articles.This particular article opened with a rabbit slaughtering seminar put in behind a fancy pants restaurant in Brooklyn. The 9 attendees paid $100 apiece to learn to kill and dress a rabbit.
Part of our mission is to “give people… the tools to raise meat in their backyards.” To that end, we put on a workshop held, appropriately, in our backyard.
Since this was our first workshop and I failed to prepare in any way besides helping Joy clean the house, we didn’t ask for any compensation besides honest feedback. On a beautifully sunny Wednesday morning, our 4 adult and 1 kid attendees learned the ins and outs of caring for rabbits and how to humanely butcher. We taught the broomsticking method of stunning/killing.
We’d really like to put on some workshops somewhere other than our backyard. After the incident at Reed College involving the theft of laying hens, numerous angry vegetarian comments, and a death threat left on our blog, we’re leery of giving out our address. Crazy vegans thirsting for my blood! Ironic, no? On the other hand, it’s nice to show people how the rabbits fit in on our urban farm. On the other hand, we have no idea what the deal is with liability. In the end, we’ll probably do a bit of both. Putting on workshops for the general public at another venue and inviting friends to workshops in our backyard.
Joy and I recently attended a class on chicken keeping out at Friendly Haven Rise Farm in rural Clark County, Washington. Venersborg, to be exact.
Friendly Haven is past some fancy up and coming sub-divisions (which will take off as soon as the economy recovers, right?) and up into some hills. The roads are all paved, but the shoulders are narrow. The trees are old and mossy. So are most of the houses.
We spent a nice afternoon on the farm learning about chickens. I got to show off some of my diatomaceous earth knowledge. Because I am knowledgeable. Go ahead and ask. Girl with fancy chemistry degree karate chops master composter! Hi-yah!
We wound our way back down through Venersborg (there’s a store), to Hockinson, through Orchards, and to the freeway. Seeing several “For Sale” signs, we allowed ourselves to dream a little. About a real farm.
It’s quiet out there where the roads have narrow shoulders. If I wanted to insert a cliche, I’d say “a little too quiet…” But I don’t and it’s not. The neighbor’s dog still barks and cars still drive by. But the occasional noise comes without the constant noise of the city.
And as we crossed the Glen Jackson Memorial bridge (named for a big Oregon transportation planner and media mogul) into Portland, our home, we both felt the weight of the city settle over us. And it didn’t feel like home.
The lights on all the time so it’s never dark. The people everywhere. The stink. No room to walk. The traffic.
Here, we’ve got neighbors. Lots of them. Down the street, the biker gang and their Harleys. Across the street, howling huskies. On one side, a domestic violence situation. On the other, Mr. “I Need to Warm Up My Car Every Day Right Outside Your Bedroom Window at 6 am.” It’s been 80F at the crack of dawn and he’s out there warming up his car.
Here, the city places restrictions on our farming efforts. No more than three livestock animals without a permit. No pigs (they do stink). No cows (she can’t be happy without room). No bees without neighbors’ permission. No rooster. He’s quieter than the huskies!
The Venersborg School House
And I love the city. I do. I just don’t want to live it in anymore. I kinda don’t belong here. Even if I look like I do. So we’ve decided that we’re getting out. In 7 years. These city girls are going country! Isn’t there a song about that?
To this end, we’re on Phase 1 of our 7 Year Plan. We have until New Years Day to write and refine our “Getting OUT!” plan. At which point, we will move on to Phase 2. Implementation.
Stay tuned for The Weight of the City, Part 2, as our heroines struggle with the practical considerations of leaving.
Here at The Revolution, we’re considering setting up a forum because there has been such awesome response to the blog. We would really like for people to be able to talk to each other and share knowledge in one central place.
Pros? More user-driven discussions. More sharing of knowledge. More online community. More rabbits! (Sweet Tea just kindled 8!)
Cons? More of our time. Eeee…
This is not a decision we’re taking lightly. We want to make sure that we are managing our own time well, while providing a quality service. I would really hate to set up a forum that was initially really great and active, but fell apart due to poor moderation and maintenance.
Need input! (Bad 80s movie reference…) Anyway. Does anybody have any thoughts on this issue? Or bad 80s movies about robots?
We recently got a comment from Stacey, a vegetarian, on my post “The Blood of the Innocents.” I wrote about the difficult choice we make to kill for food. Stacey stumbled on our site because of a Google ad that came up as a result of her e-mailing with a bunny sitter.
Stacey wrote,
“rabbits may be prey animals, but humans are not carnivores, biologically. you don’t need rabbits or any other meat to survive and do so well. i’m 31 and have not eaten meat since i was 14 and i am perfectly healthy and happy. and i have two rabbits as pets and cannot imagine killing them just so i could have some meat meals.. or what, one meal?
“so really.. your self-affirmations about it being ok to kill them since they are your food and they are prey really doesn’t hold much water. why don’t you just eat vegetarian food instead? like the rabbits do? then no self affirmations are needed, nor the killing of the poor little creatures who trusted you for food as you raised them.”
I want to address my choice to eat meat in a blog because it’s something I think about. A lot.
I’ve been an on and off again vegetarian for years. My vegetarian diet mostly stemmed from the fact that I was only cooking for myself. Cooking meat for one is not an easy proposition when you hate boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Shudder. It’s like cardboard in meat form. Anyway… I wasn’t cooking meat for myself, but every once in a while, I would really really really want some meat. My body wanted some meat, dammit! My body’s pretty smart. So I’d listen to it and either buy myself a small steak or I’d go out.
As for humans not being carnivores, it’s true! We’re omnivores. It’s how we took over the world! We can eat anything and we do. This means that we get to choose what we eat. I choose to eat (some) meat.
My body’s craving is the only defense I can, in good conscience, present for this choice.
So, I make a lousy vegetarian and my defense is simple at best. But you know what? Some vegetarians can’t really defend themselves either.
People choose vegetarianism for tons of different reasons. Some for the health benefits, some for the environmental reasons, some just don’t like meat. Some because they don’t want animals to die so that they can eat. Which I could respect if it really meant that animals don’t die so they can eat.
Those who choose vegetarianism for this particular reason are (I hesitate a bit here because I want to respect people and their choices) fooling themselves. Animals die whether you choose to eat their flesh or not.
There is no cushy retirement home for cows who are done milking. For hens who are done laying. For the calves who happen to be bulls instead of heifers. For the chicks who happen to be cockerels instead of pullets.
Those animals are killed. Period. They die. Animals die when a person chooses to eat any animal product. When a person chooses to wear an item made of leather. No matter how you slice it, an animal’s life is used and ended when it is no longer useful.
While taking life, we do our best to honor it. We use every part of the animal we can. I won’t get into detail, but the parts that we don’t eat are given to the Audubon Society for their two rehabilitating birds of prey, our 11 chickens (who are not vegetarians!), and our 2 dogs and 3 cats. We have given the hides to a friend to tan. We compost the rest.
We make more than one meal out of a rabbit. One 3 lb rabbit makes a little over 2 meals for 3 people (one growing boy and two active adults). The rabbit’s one life is taken and it benefits 22.
The only people who can argue their food choices with me are vegans. True vegans, the kind who don’t eat honey and don’t wear wool. Them, I can get behind. Even if I don’t make their same choices.
Not chickens, though. Chickens say, “Oooooh! Poo!”
Well, they don’t really say this because their brains are the size of a peanut. A small peanut.
But their tiny peanut-sized brains looooove rabbit poo! Why? Bugs live in rabbit poo! Delicious, delicious, poo-eatin’ bugs. And there are hay seeds to pick out. Those are tasty. Think about all that wonderful nutrition just sitting there in rabbit poo.
Not that I’m going to start digging through poo to pick out the good stuff. I’ll leave that to the chickens. So here’s our nice little system:
Rabbits eat pellets and hay and greens and turn them into poo. They also drop hay to mix with the poo. Poo = nitrogen / hay = carbon. And this makes for a good composty balance. But then here come the potato bugs to live in the poo! Potato bugs are a pest. And hay seeds are a pest. Both these pests, though, are chicken treats. So when the worm pit gets too full of poo, we simply dump that poo into a kiddie pool (a poo pool, if you will), where the chickens scratch and turn and pick out all the little treats.
Given a few weeks or months, the chickens have pretty much exhausted the poo pile. They’ve taken out the stuff we don’t want and added their own poo. Let it compost for a few weeks to cool of that chicken poo and we’ve got some pretty dynamite compost.
I’m feeling pretty dark about our choice to kill for food.
Yesterday was slaughter day. We killed and dressed 6 rabbits in approximately 2 hours. We’re getting faster.
But the killing is not getting easier for me. I was very careful to not get emotionally attached to our first two litters. Our rabbits are cute, but they are food. Food food food. Repeat. Food food food. I let my guard down with this litter.
We care for them for 12 weeks. Make sure they have pellets, hay to munch, and fresh water to drink. Clean up their manure and urine. Laugh at their funny little antics and tickle their little noses.
We give our energy and time to the rabbits for 12 weeks. Then, at the end of 12 weeks, we take it back.
When we take it back, we do our best to give them a good death. Quiet, quick, and calm. But the truth is. The truth is. The truth is.
Rabbits don’t want to die.
I’ve been told rabbits have very generous spirits. That they understand that they are food. That they give their lives so that we can have ours.
I don’t believe it. Rabbits don’t sacrifice themselves by laying down in front of foxes. What kind of evolutionary advantage would that be? Rabbits run from foxes! And rabbits run from us.
Sometimes even after they’re dead.
But in the end. In the end. In the end.
Rabbits are prey.
We take care of rabbits so that we may eat them. We take care of cats and dogs so that we may love them.
We’ve recently started buying our pelleted feed at Hillsboro Feed Co, who mill their own feed. So it’s local. And it’s only $12.50 for a 50 lb bag of 16%. That’s a whole $2.50 less than the Albers you can get at Concentrates, Inc! Granted, we have to drive all the way out to Hillsboro, but Joy does that anyway.
They don’t mill organic rabbit feed. But then, neither does anyone else in the quantities we want at prices we can afford.
However. Yes, there is a however. When Joy went in to buy some pellets, she was told that they could mill an organic rabbit feed for us. They could mill a whole ton of it!
However. Yes, there is a however. They will only mill a whole ton of it. We did some fancy calculatin’ and figured it would take us (with our 3 does, 2 bucks, and various babies) 10 months to go through that much feed. (Who did the math? That’s 200 lbs of feed/month.) Pellets go stale after a couple of months. Boo.
So we need some help. Anyone? Buehler? Split an order of organic feed with us?
If we can get enough people interested, we’ll go ahead and contact them re: pricing. Please comment if you want to feed your buns organic!
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