Homesteading. Homemaking. And most recently, becoming a mom.
In this season of so many firsts, I'm embracing it all ~
I'm here to share the adventures & the life lessons learned along the way as we work hard to foster the healthiest lifestyle possible for our family, our animals, and our community.
We may be beginners at all of this, but we're not letting that hold us back.
Come join us on this journey!
And for more content, check out our blog: www.farmomma.com
Thank you! It was somewhat by accident. Here’s what I did: whipped for one minute on medium, scraped down the sides of the bowl, and then one more minute on the HIGHEST setting!
This looks fantastic! I'm looking at getting rabbits again in a couple of years and was wondering about doing something like this for them. This is very encouraging.
Yes and no. They are meat rabbits but we adore them and really try to provide them with a happy outdoor home, mimic their natural environment and give them lots of attention.
@farmomma how do you have a heart to do this .. look at these poor things they have no idea they will be dispatched to their death .. I feel so sorry for them
Most homesteaders fail. Every day that you are still out their getting fails and wins, you have not failed at homesteading. Think about what it was like in the past. Raw land and hand tools. That's all. No bug spry, sun screen, electric, No nothing. But they did it, and if they did it, you can do it. They all worked together and built community's. I grew up on a "Homestead" So I know it can be a lot of work. People see a house being built in a year or a barn going up in a day and never ask how many man hours are going into it. Most people do not even think about the 100 plus men working on the house or all the prep work on the barn and how many men and tools it took to put that building up that day. This all takes a massive amount of time and money. Try very hard to build a IRL community close to you. When people work together on big jobs they go a lot faster and I have never felt lonely when working with other family's. I know this is very hard when you have so much work to do. But it could be well worth your time. Old Timers like me are more than willing to share knowledge and try to help. I really wish I had more time to help all the people doing this now. But their really is not enough time in the day.
Being raised in the city, possibly in public school as well, it can be very hard to dip your toe into something outside of that. Not to mention learning how to, what did you say, independently think and problem solve on your feet, can be extremely challenging when you were trained to not think unless we told you to think about it and only think deep enough to get the right grade. You guys and others like you are amazing and doing a wonderful job and teaching the next generation of free thinkers!
Yes, you explained this beautifully! It can be challenging to learn how to break out of the mold when you’ve been ingrained to fit into the mold for so long. There is always a problem around here that needs solving and it’s both exciting and humbling. We’ve been “unschooling” our selves in the process! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement 🙏
Thank you! Very helpful, I think you’re right. Seems like they’re western tent caterpillars. Which would make sense since we’re finding them on our apple and cherry trees. A big influx this year! So many caterpillars 😟
Your wire should also have a drip loop in it to prevent that. Tie a knot at the junction so a loop of wire ends up below the outlets and it makes the outlets point down
You trying to help this guy burn his building down? 🤣 he's running an electric fence on that. It should be a covered GFCI outlet, and the wires should be run through conduit. Even in a temporary situation, the extension cord should be rated for outdoor use and pluggged into a GFCI. A drip loop will not stop moisture from condensing inside the receptacle.
@@farmomma but would the super high resistance in the water cause so great a short to melt the plastic? would think the heat would cause it to evaporate. and again, that doesn't answer the question of rain water not being conductive.
@@farmomma ether way works as long its air tight so no water can get in. you have to think about temperature changes and moisture too. burying it will be better because you don't have to worry about moisture.
For anyone watching this. Don't be an idiot like this guy. NEVER USE PERMANENT OUTDOOR EXTENSION CORDS. Either pay, or learn how to run a safe drop, and put in an outdoor rated, amd safe outlet. This guy is an idiot who's going to get someone hurt if they repeat what he does.
@@farmommayou need a 3 way auto GFCI cord for outdoor use where you expect rain. No such plug made to stay on when taking water directly into the outlet, thus the GFCI will trip when an overload occurs.
@farmomma dude, don't get defensive over this. Do some research. That extension cord should have never been outdoors for any extended period of time. Also, NO EXTENSION cord should be used as a permanent fix. They should ALWAYS ONLY be used while you're using them actively. For any permanent use, you need to run an actual rated drop out there. Since it's outside, you'll need a GFCI outlet, rated for outdoors. Preferably one with a swing down plastic cover. You're literally begging for your property to burn down, using extension cords as a permanent connection.... How you don't know this, yet you're posting on RU-vid about it, is concerning. You're going to get someone hurt if they do what you're doing.
@@lp1292no.if you know that, you also know those should never be used, and are not rated, for permanent installation. Construction work, running some lights that you unplug when not in use, sure. He's running an electric fence, 24/7, off an extension cord. It will fail. Every. Time. He needs a rated outdoor drop. Don't tell people on here shit information. You'll get someone hurt.
@therdubya I don't think the other guy commenting was suggesting he use it permanently, but considering this guy's setup here, and his reaction to being called out for it, I would not assume he knew any better 😂 Like you said, extension cords are not a permanent solution. There should be a covered, GFCI protected outlet, with the wires run through conduit.
wouldnt the predators be able to taunt the rabbits through the wire?? because obviously it's not covered to the point where they wouldn't be able to see eachother and this can affect the rabbits quite badly if any predators were to sit and watch them/taunt them. it could really frighten the rabbits. this is why keeping domestic rabbits inside is 100% safer and gives them a much better and happier life. I can see the effort it took to build and the space it provides for the buns is nice but it's just not safe. they could die even from just seeing a predator due to shock and being scared. It would of been far better if the buns were inside.
Thank you for your comment. Each side of the pen has multiple burrow boxes and so if they are spotted by something, they can go underground and out of view. Thankfully, they've only really needed to do this a couple times when they were scared of a neighbor's dog that wandered over. They also have bales of straw they can burrow into above ground. This is what they would do in the wild, too. I understand the human element of thinking wanted to provide animals with the exact life that we have, but the outdoor + fresh air + opportunity to graze on fresh vegetation (we have tractor for this) + have their own social structure more closely mirrors their natural habitat. You could even argue that having a pet indoors is more unnatural and that no one should even have pet rabbits and that they should all be wild. There's a lot of different perspectives out there and a give & a take with all of this. In our case, we definitely strive for to have happy, healthy rabbits. Thanks again for your comment. I appreciate your viewpoint on this too!
Thats a lovey set up. Id recomend that anyone building rabbit housing makes sure its Rat prof. I lost most of my first two litters to rats. It was a terrible lession to learn. All the best
Oh goodness, that's horrifying. I think the hardware mesh cloth (that's tightly knit together) has saved us in that regard. But it only goes up part way around the pen (about four feet up). Hopefully they can't scale past that. This is something I will investigate! Thank you and sorry to hear you went through that :'-(
@@farmomma Thank you, Rats will be able to get in to your set up. They can jump and climb. At the time my neighbour had really badly kept chickens. So I had many rats around. Hopefully you never have a rat problem. In the UK I brought Rat Proof mesh on Amazon. All the Best.
The door lock keeps falling out of alignment because the brace(the diagonal board) is facing the wrong way. You want it to go from the top hinge side to the bottom far side. That way, the brace is pulling the door up, and it will stay in alignment longer. Many modern gates have a tension brace that can be adjusted, so you can fix the sag as it arises.
I was sent this video for my extreme diggers I got. I already had plans to do something almost identical. However I am trying to figure out a better solution for the ground to prevent digging. I feel like your setup is going to be hard to keep the bottom of the warren cleaned up. The bigger the area the rabbits have, the more messy they get with going potty wherever.
Thanks Tony, glad this video is a helpful reference. And yes, I would say the bottom flooring is the least favorite part of our set up. It is tedious to clean since the metal grating is down below. A shovel easily catches on it, so it's a slow and steady cleaning job every time. I do think the bunnies seem to prefer having dirt and straw in the flooring as it satisfies a lot of the digging urges. It also helps that they seem to poo mostly in just one corner.
That looks awesome. I’ve been thinking about meat rabbits for quite a while. This looks like a great set up and if I get into it and like it will be something I consider.
Thank you! Our goats names are Baja and Peniche and they have three babies (Jordyn, Cyprus, and Bethlehem). Having a separate area in the rabbit pen is helpful if we have more than two litters or want to separate our male dad bunny.
How did you figure out which h rabbits to put together? I have six does who are.in individual pens and 2 males. Figure the males will each have their own space but was hoping to put two in or three does together. Do each of the does have their own burrow? Do you collect the fences for fertilizer? Lots of questions!
We've tried free ranging but unfortunately they dig under our house, form burrows, and could weaken the foundation. If it wasn't for that, I'd seriously consider it again!
that is pure wasted space. why wouldnt you make that be 3 or 4 levels? it would make use of all that space you wasted and give them 3-4 times the living space.
It's can be dicey with rabbits due to their complex social structure. More than one adult female doe can live together in peace, but it's usually after they've established their heirarchy. It can really help for them to know each other in advance (be able to see eachother through a fence or something first). You do not want to have more than one adult, non-neutered male together in a pen. Even brothers will likely fight.
A couple of issues we dealt with in our first colony set up was flooding and poop build up. I buried my wire too deep and the rabbits dug tunnels in the ground above the wire. With heavy rains, these low spots were prone to flooding even with a roof and totes as am option. The second problem was their poop. It never got smelly because I kept adding litter but it was difficult to remove and built up quickly. I believe this was a design flaw on my part. My area was too cramped for us to go inside it easily for maintance. I would keep this in mind if designing a space because it is frustrating if you don't. Your setup looks great though.
@sabrinanicoara4797 We moved them back to wire in our case. But if I kept them on the ground, I would use really deep litter and make sure I can easily access to remove the mulch at least every month or so.
Thankfully our pen has not had an issue with water build up due to the roof and the additional side panels we added (not seen in this video). Prior to the metal side panels we added, sideways rain (during a rainy season) could mean water would get into part of the pen. Since then, no issues. The poop clean up is a constant chore but it's not as bad as cleaning up after our goats. A shovel with a flat end is my favorite tool to use + my hands (with gloves on of course lol) & a wheelbarrow. I strongly recommend building the door to any pen to be wide enough for a wheelbarrow to get in & out.
The wire hasn't rusted yet. Maybe because it's galvanized? No predators have dug in and no bunnies have dug out in two+ years now. Fingers crossed it all continues to go well!
