Symbiosis around the homestead....... part 1

Websters dictionary defines symbiosis as, "the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms, a cooperative relationship." We are finding that the more symbiotic relationships that we can build between the different components of our homestead the more harmony we have, the healthier the livestock/garden/system is and the more money we save.

As I loaded old hay in the back of the truck this week I started thinking about all the ways we are integrating and building symbiotic relationships and thought "what a great idea for a blog series" so here we are.

Before pictures..... AKA the cute and fuzzy side of rabbit farming........

These are our current cuties. There is just something adorable and sumo wrestleresk about fat baby bunnies. These three are extra special because they are the last litter from Blossom one of our two founding does. The other founding doe and our founding buck were retired a week ago and after this litter is weened Blossom will retire as well.

Happy New Year..... 2014.... a look ahead.....

Wow, its January 1st 2014, time does fly!

We are not big on New Years resolutions around here, more of a goal and lifestyle list for us.  

We have been working on stepping off the mass consumerism, everything has to be bigger, faster and more convenient bandwagon. The main plan for 2014 is to be more diligent in this endeavor.  Our instant gratification throw away society is out of control.

Rabbit Processing Day.......

With the move to our new home I have gotten way behind on butchering rabbits. My old butcher station was a porcelain sink on two saw horses, thanks to my husband Rick, my setup has had a makeover.

My new butchering station is between two sheds. This gave me a wall to mount things on, access to water and shade. The two shelf brackets mounted to the wall are my rabbit station and the orange cone is my chicken station. 

Our First Babies Graduate.....

Our first litter of rabbits weened and graduated to a pasture Hare Pen today. All of our breeding stock were purchased as babies and raised up to breeding age so today's first litter weened is a major mile stone for our little rabbitry. We have two more litters 4 weeks behind these and more on the way. We also have more purchased breeding stock and broilers growing out in hare pens. We started with a variety of weened stock from various sources and grew them out so we could be picky about breeding stock and cull the rest as broilers.