Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Flemish Pictures

This is Cindy Lu and one of last years litters of popples.  This pic shows only a third of her cage.  The nestbox in the back is 2' x 2'.  Her overall cage is 3'w x 6'h x 9'l.

Here is Cindy Lu chillin out next to a gallon of frozen water.


Side view of her cage. 

Gratuitous popple pic

Chicken Pictures

This is Alora and her pet chicken, Cupcake.



Archie and Ethel, the Toulouse Geese


This is some of my chickens and Ethel, I think.

Flemish Giant Rabbits







I raise and sell Flemish Giant Rabbits. Currently I only have the Sandy color but hope to get many other colors in the future. I really LOVE this breed. These are the largest rabbits in the world. They can weigh over 20 lbs!! My male is named Grinch and he is two years old. He is the one I'm holding in the picture above. My oldest doe is Cindy Lu who is almost 2 years old. I also have a doe named Horton who is a bit over a year old. Then there are my two junior does- Thing 1 and Thing 2 who are 7 months old. I also have 14 newly weaned popples. Alot of people call baby rabbits popples due to the way they "pop" all over the place.

Flemish Giant Rabbits

Flemish Giants are the largest rabbits in the world. Many weigh over 20 lbs and there have been reports of some weighing up to 28 lbs! Even though they are extremely large, they are the sweetest, most gentle rabbits in the world! Mine have never bit anyone, love attention, follow us around like puppydogs, and are calm. They are not hyper little beasties that delight in nipping fingers or running away from people.

Flemish Giant Rabbits require very large cages due to their size. Mine are in cages that are 3'w x 6'h x 9'l. They have a hard time with wire floors. I line the bottoms of my cages with flakes of hay to make it much easier on their feet. Hay works well as (for me) it is cheap and allows urine to fall through. Every week I replace the hay. They hay then goes into the chicken coop and the chickens eat the hay seeds. Then hay is used as a mulch in the gardens. Rabbit poop is EXCELLENT to use on your gardens.

Flemish Giants also greatly benefit from having fresh hay in their pen at all times. This is different hay than the floor liner. This hay is put into a hay trough so they can't poop/pee on it. I feed mine an 18% protein pellet in addition to hay and fresh greens/weeds daily. Mine LOVE their frozen watermelon and cantaloupe every day in the summer. Flemish Giants do very well outside in the winter, but have a hard time with summer heat. This is why mine get the frozen fruits around noon every day that it's hot out. They also benefit from bottles of frozen water placed in their cages for them to snuggle up against when it's hot out.

Slate Hill Farm

Slate Hill Farm started as a dream of ours many years ago. We currently raise Flemish Giant Rabbits and many breeds of chickens. We recently moved to our current home and can't wait to start gardening!!!! I am really into organic gardening and permaculture.

We have three dogs- Angel, Puck and Thisbe. Angel is a rott/dobe mix that is now being called a rotterman and she is 10 years old and can still walk the back of the couch. I attribute this to rawfeeding and whole prey model of rawfeeding. Puck is an 8 year old Chihuahua mix who is really grumpy right now as we got Thisbe who is a Chihuahua and is 4 months old. Puck hates Thisbe with a passion, of course it may be because she likes to jump on his head! We are trying to train her out of this. Thisbe and Angel love to play together, which is hilarious to watch. This always ends with Angel giving Thisbe a thorough bath.

We have a pet common snapping turtle named Charlie. He is 3 years old and we have had him since he was the size of a quarter. He now weighs about 5 lbs. He loves to get baths in the kitchen sink and realllllly loves it when I scrub his shell with a toothbrush. We have contracted with a friend to have a pond dug so that he can have lots of room to swim in. We plan to stock the pond with different types of fish for both him and us.