More on the Rabbit Hutch

 The re-engineered rabbit hutch is working decently well.  More overhang on the sides would be potentially helpful, but overall it's working worlds better than Hutch 1.0 did.  However, once I put rabbits in, I realized they pick a corner of the cage as their latrine spot, and one of the rabbits ends up routinely urinating on the horizontal cage supports.

I should've realized this would be a problem.  It would've been much easier to address before installing the rabbits.  Alas.  However, it was addressable ex post, too.  I pulled all four cages off:

...and painted the 2x4s the cages rest on with high-gloss white paint:

I only did one coat... I should do another.  You can also see that I painted the insides of the cross braces and the vertical supports, too--I had heard, but had to experience first hand, that bucks spray urine everywhere.  So far, the two boys seem to be coexisting reasonably well, but there was a chance they'd end up spraying more than just the wood under their cages--so it all got painted.  It's not a perfect solution, but it's better than raw wood.

The Return of Eggs

 Last year my first group of chickens started laying right after the winter solstice--January 2.  I've read elsewhere that the trend of day length matters as much (or more than) the day length itself.  Charting my birds' production this year reveals that their peak was actually in late May, a month before the summer solstice.  Then they slowly declined throughout the summer, still producing at 80% of their max as late as the end of August.  Shortly after the fall equinox I sold off the "Reluctant Egg Layers" (and brought in the Delawares), and the remaining layers went into molt, shutting down completely in early November.

Then in late December, actually a couple of days before the winter solstice, I got the first egg.  For the first week, I think it was just one chicken that had rebooted, because I found three eggs, all the same size and shape.  Now there may be a couple of them going.  It looks like I will end up with about eight eggs the last two weeks of December to finish out the year.  The Delawares may come online in late February or early March. Hope springs anew!

Transformative Kraut

 As I have mentioned before, more than once, I have made sauerkraut and it has worked pretty well.  This was true even last spring, when the temps were warm.  Holly at makesauerkraut.com indicates that the flavor is better when temps are lower (she says below 72, which I have often hit, but I now think it might be below 70).  All of my past batches have turned out about the same, but this fall I made some that was different.

I didn't start it until late November, after temps had crashed in the house and I was using the wood stove.  This time, the temperatures were solidly below 70, not just for the first few days but throughout.  The only caveat is that I initially located the crock in the same room as the stove, where temperatures hit 80 for brief periods when the stove is in use. Holly specifically warns about this.  I thought the increases were too short to matter, but maybe not: I had extreme sauerkraut tides to deal with; the moat would be almost dry then overflowing.  When I moved the crock to another room the situation improved, but on a day when the temp was lower indoors, the moat completely dried up.

When I carried it into the kitchen, some water did flow back in, so it was being sucked up.  On opening, things looked pretty normal.

And I got about the normal amount of kraut (eight pounds went into the crock, pretty much the standard amount).

The flavor was different, however, and much improved.  It has a nuance and subtlety that I haven't noticed before.  Maybe the cooler temperatures did allow different bacteria to work and leave their imprint. My other sauerkraut has been okay, and even good.  But I'm going through this so fast that I'm going to need more soon.  I've downed the two quart jars in less than a week, minus a half pint I've given to someone else.

Maybe this is a one-time thing, but I'm hoping I can replicate it.  Whatever I did this time worked out very well.

When Roosters Go Bad

My first Barred Rock rooster was sometimes a little ornery. But I could usually deal with it.  The second Barred Rock rooster, which I still have, is a definite punk.  I've renamed him Psycho.  He's never absorbed the age-old wisdom of, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."  So I have to deal with him periodically.

 

 It's a challenging situation.  He's fairly fragile, but also pretty big.  And I have him for exactly this reason--to defend the hens.  He couldn't take on a bobcat or a fox, but I would expect him to charge a cat or hawk.

With both roosters, I have occasionally employed the tactic suggested in this YouTube video.  Unlike SSLFamilyDad, I have not found it to be a permanent solution, but after I engage in a correctional session with either one, I have peace for a while.  The first Barred Rock would behave himself for months, but Psycho is only good for about three weeks before he's apt to start acting out again.

Hopefully a solution is to work with the roosters when young.  I have a cockerel with my new Delawares, and he's first to the door of the tractor every day.  I'm spending some time stroking him a little and feeding him weeds.  Hopefully, that will pay dividends in coming months.

Predator Abatement for the Rabbits

 As I have mentioned before, I have an abundance of predators in the neighborhood. In addition to foxes and raccoons, I have once or twice caught bobcats on trail cameras, though never near the chicken tractors.  Rabbits are also pretty low on the food chain, and I have found signs of predation in my back yard (piles of fur, and once, a severed rabbit head).

The cages are pretty strong, especially the bottoms.  All sides are 14 gauge wire.  And the cages fit pretty tightly in the hutch and can be secured with wire.  Because of the location of the hutch, it's not really practical to put electrified netting or rope around the perimeter, meaning physical barriers will have to work (I suppose I'll revisit this if I come out to smashed cages and dead rabbits some morning).

The main point of vulnerability is the top of the cages.

I don't think anything could get in, but having a fox pacing on top of the rabbits probably wouldn't make for a very pleasant situation.  Eventually I will have water lines running along the top edge of the cages, as well, although that's paused for now because of winter.

My solution is to put some fencing along the top edge of the roof frame:

The distance from the frame to the top of the cages is about 24 inches, so the top row of the 28-inch fencing was clipped off and pieces straightened as before with the cages.  With the thinner-gauge wire, straightening it was relatively easy, and it was easily hung from hooks.

I'm using a couple of carabiners to hold the wire to the top of the cages along the sides.  I don't think this needs to be as seamless as would be needed if it were on the ground--anything trying to get on top of the cages will be jumping, and hitting a small gap won't be easy.  So for now, this looks good.

More on Rabbit Cages

On to the base (actually the whole framework):  In the last post I discussed building rabbit cages, starting with the basic wire-cutting and assembly.  The cage units are 5 feet wide by 30 inches, with each subdivided compartment being 30 inches square, or 6.25 square feet.  The height is 16 inches.  This is all fine according to the Michigan State guidelines.  I plan on getting New Zealand rabbits or similar, so they'll be about 11 pounds at the upper end.  There'll be more animals in the growout cages.

Two cage units side-by-side are thus 10 feet long, and 10-foot 2x4s were and are easily obtainable (albeit pricey in early-mid 2021, less later).  So it's a pretty simple framework: a 10x5 frame supported on legs with some diagonal bracing.  Because I planned to put a roof on, I moved the legs to the ends and then built another frame to hold the roof panes.

Because I was concerned about the whole thing being top-heavy, I made the top frame out of ripped 2x2s.  This was a mistake.  One of the long 2x2s warped and created a low spot in the roof.

This could (and did) cause water ponding and leakage.  There are a few ways to deal with that, from caulking to getting long panels that would cover the whole span with no cross-wise seams.  I also initially thought about cutting the end posts at an angle to provide for some runoff but did not do that in the end.  Because the roof panels were 8 feet long, I had gotten some 3-foot panels to give myself a little over 10 feet in total coverage. However, the sag attributable to the warped 2x2 was too much and the roof leaked not only along the seam between the 8- and 3-foot panels, but also from one of the longitudinal seams between the 8-foot panels.  Therefore, it was apparent that if caulking did not work (I tried it; it didn't), the 12-foot panels wouldn't either. Plus, even if it had worked, having some water ponding on the roof in summer wouldn't have been good--mosquitoes are not rare in Georgia.  So the roof support structure had to be replaced with a sturdier and straighter version.

 Here's a picture that shows the bowing in the one 2x2.  These were ripped out of the same 2x4 originally.

 

I built a new frame for the roof out of 2x4s, and also attached some better bracing:

Then I attached the new 12-foot panels.

Finally it was all assembled.

Next up: predator abatement.

Jack-o'-Lanterns and Slugs

 I'm not sure what the affinity is, but it's a recurring theme.

 

...There's no shortage of slugs in Georgia, and Halloween is usually before a serious freeze.