We hope you enjoy looking at our progress, and once again we would to thank everyone who has helped us during this momentous event. We could not have done it without your support and prayers.
TAP Homestead And Rabbitry, Canton, TX (469)-526-3665
Thursday, August 24, 2017
This week I decided I would make a video entry instead of a lengthy article to let everyone know who the new bunny barn has been progressing. It is still a work in progress, but it is coming along nicely.
We hope you enjoy looking at our progress, and once again we would to thank everyone who has helped us during this momentous event. We could not have done it without your support and prayers.
We hope you enjoy looking at our progress, and once again we would to thank everyone who has helped us during this momentous event. We could not have done it without your support and prayers.
Friday, August 4, 2017
Putting It All Back Together: Part 2
Yesterday marked the
third month since the tornado on April 29th 2017 and
devastated our homestead in Canton, Texas. Since that time, we have
been working as quickly as possible to get the rabbitry back up and
running at full capacity. As you may have read in 'TAP Rabbitry: The
Rebuild, Phase One: New Cages' we have built many new replacement
cages and were been waiting for our new metal carport to be brought
and installed on the property. Once again, our friend Steven Coyne
from 'Texas Rabbit
Barn' and author of the 'I
Grow Vegetables' blog to came over to help with the initial part
of phase two, and I am sure I will need his help again once we start
moving all the bunnies into their new home.
So after six weeks,
two of our replacement out buildings were delivered, including the
one in which we will be using for the new bunny barn/hutch. I will
say this, these guys that put our metal buildings up worked at a
breakneck speed. We could definitely tell they had been doing this
for a while as they completely assembled two buildings in under five
hours, and that is with taking time to eat lunch. Really, it was
pretty impressive. If only the factory could have been this
proficient in making and or cutting the parts to assemble the
buildings. We have bought metal buildings from two different
companies in the past, and while they are relativily inexpensive
compared to wood structures, the tiem you have to wait is really
frustrating. If any company could reduce the turn around time to two
to three weeks or less, I think they could definitely corner the
market, but I digress.
Once the new bunny
barn was in place, it was time to finish stretching the fence and get
the barn area fully enclosed and hopefully somewhat secure from
predators. So now we have two areas on either side of the bunny barn
with 6ft high chain link fence for our Black Jersy Giants, and a 6ft
high chain link fence that totally encloses the rabbit barn. Thanks
again Steve... Once we had finished with that, it was time for the
big gun to come in and give me a little fatherly advice. You see my
father served for twenty-two years in the United States Air Force
(USAF) in Civil Engineering (CE) which is the maintaince arm of the
USAF. There are few things that he cannot do when it comes to
plumbing, electricity, painting or carpentry. He is quite the 'jack
of all trades', even if we do butt heads sometimes. So I asked him to
come over, hang out, and play 'straw boss' to make sure I setup and
wired all of my electrical outlets correctly.
Fast forward to a
week later, I finished wiring all the electrical outlets and ran all
the wire up to the junction box which I had wired off the main power
pole when the new home was delivered. The only thing left to do was
have my work inspected and hook it up to the live wire. Fo this I
once again called my favorite electrician, my father. He came out
looked at my work and gave it a passing grade, so next he helped me
to make sure the power was safely turned off and we hooked the bunny
barn to the power grid. Amazingly, none of the breakers were tripped
and there was no smoking at any of the electrical outlets and they
all had power, YEAH!!!
Next, we will start
on phase three, moving all of the rabbits into the new bunny barn,
and setting up the automatic watering system. For this I am sure I
will have to beg, or plead for help from my friend Steven Coyne from
'Texas Rabbit Barn'
and author of the 'I
Grow Vegetables' blog as I am sure I will need his help once we
start moving all the bunnies into their new home. Actually, I have
never had to beg, Steve usually calls me to ask what needs to be done
on our homestead, and how can he help. We could not repay hom for all
of the hard work he has done and the projects he has helped me with.
Conclusion
So there you have
it, the hutch is just about ready for the rabbits to be brought in
from the temporary area under the tree in the chciken pens and be
placed in their new home. I purchased the additional 3ft side skirts
for the bunny barn/hutch on the recommendation of another breeder
that has a similar setup. I have noticed that on some days there is
not as much breeze and the temperature is a couple of degrees warmer
that the area just under the trees where the temporary rabbit hutch
is. So we purchased a couple of barn fans to hang from the top of the
beams to help circulate the warm radiating air from the metal roof.
While the extended sides will definatly keep the rain out, I am not
sure If I am going to like them as much as I thought. Only time will
tell.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Putting It All Back Together: Part 1
It has been almost
two months since the tornado came though on April 29th
2017 and devastated our homestead in Canton, Texas Since that time
our home has been demolished and a new home has been delivered and we
moved in about two weeks ago. Our two tier outdoor rabbit hutch that
was set in the ground with concrete was lifted up and thrown against
the back of our house totally destroying it. While we did have plans
to replace it this fall, we were not ready to do so at this time, but
it appears a higher power had other ideas. All the outside cages that
were in the hutch, twenty in all, were a total loss. So the first
thing we had to do in order to get our rabbits back on the homestead
was build or purchase new cages.
The new cages will
be going under a metal carport that we have ordered that is 18' x
26', but getting them to bring this to your property takes 5 – 6
weeks as they do not start cutting pieces at the factory until you
order it, so we had to go with plan 'B'. My friend Steven Coyne from
'Texas Rabbit Barn' and author of the 'I Grow Vegetables' blog has
played an instrumental part in helping us put our lives back
together. And we finished working on building temporary hutches so
that we could get the rabbits back from fellow breeder and owner of
'Bailywick Rabbitry' Bonita Hunt, who has been housing them at her
expense for the last two months.
Last week we brought
the first group of nine adults back to the homestead including three
does that have a total of fifteen kits, for a total of twenty four
rabbits. We will be finishing up the second temporary hutch today so
that we can go and get the remaining seven adults rabbits from Bonita
on Monday July 3rd. While the rabbits were at Bailywick
Rabbitry, we donated a litter of eight kits to some 4H kids as the
two cages containing the litters had their tags ripped off. We had
two American Blue litters that were born one day apart, and we were
unable to determine the pedigree of the litter that survived. In
addition, we donated a American Blue doe to a special needs child. We
also had several white New Zealand's, including a beautiful
Basgil-Borden litter that was given away as we were not in a position
to make any sales at that time. All of this was organized by Bonita
Hunt, who as I have mentioned many times has been a saving grace for
our rabbits. As for adult livestock, amazingly we only lost two adult
males to the tornado, unfortunately, one was one of our original
breeding American Blue males 'Clyde'.
Anyway, back to the
new cages. If you have read any of my previous articles, you may note
that I have been making my cages either 18x24x24 (bucks) or 18x30x30
(does), with some slightly larger grow out cages 18x30x36. This was
done primarily because I based my original hutch design on the
suggested cages sizes for the New Zealand and American Blue breeds so
that I could have a two tier system. After three years of raising
rabbits, I have decided to go with a one tier system for our cages
for a couple reasons. First, it is simply easier for my wife who is
vertically challenged at 4'10”, and second, because we are going to
place them under a large metal carport.
So why does this
matter? Well I guess in the overall scheme of things it does not, the
previous sizes of cages have served me well, however now I make my
cages slightly taller. As we can only get the 1x2 galvanized wire in
24, or 36-inch height, I have decided to make all of my new
replacement cages a full 24” tall as opposed to my original 18”.
Why? Over the years I have found that buying and cutting the 36-inch
cage wire did leave me the ability to build more cages, but some
would be 16-inch in height and the others 18-inch in height just due
to the way you have to cut the wire. I have come to hate the waste,
and if all things are equal, I believe the taller cage that allows to
rabbit to stand on it's hnid legs is simply better for the rabbit. I
have no scientific evidence to base this on, just my own personal
observations. Now I simply purchase the 24-inch 1x2 galvanized cage
wire and make all my cages 24-inches tall. The cages go together
faster and why waste the wire, and now the rabbits can stand up to
2-feet if the so desire.
I could not have
done this on my old hutch, it simply would not support cages taller
than 16-inches on the top row or 18-inches on the bottom. In
addition, I think we are going to experiment with a few of the larger
24x24x36-inch cages by placing drop down nest boxes in the bottom
since we have the additional room below the cage, but we have not
made any definite plans regarding this design at this time. If we do
decide to try this out, I will be sure and take pictures and let you
guys know how they work for us.
As for cage
building, I still make most of my own cages, there used to be a guy
here in my local area that made or still makes great cages, and you
could buy them for about the same price you could build them
yourself, and they were of great quality. The problem is, it took
several weeks to a month to get your cages, and we simply do not have
the time to wait. After all, he is 80+ years of age so it takes him a
bit longer to do the job. Unfortunatly, I have heard that he is
getting out of the cage building business due to his age and failing
health, so I guess we will continue to make our own cages. While I am
getting good at it after three years, I just cannot get the wire 100%
flat without the tools that the 'Cage Man' has.
Conclusion
BTW, 'Miracle' is
doing fine, she should be returning from my Friend Steven Coyne's
rabbitry soon and will be going into the new hutch. We have the air
conditioned breeding barn back on it blocks and the electricity is
back on so that a few of the bucks can keep breeding throughout the
hot Texas summer months. And the pregnant does and their kits will
not be so stressed from the heat. As soon as we are up and breeding
and ready for sales once again we will be sure to let everyone know.
Once again, we appreciate all the prayers, kind words and help that
have come our way during this devastating event.
Steven Coyne
Breeds: New Zealand,
American Blues
Bonita Hunt
Bailywick Rabbitry
(903)946-4666
Breeds: New Zealand,
Lionhead
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
'Miracle', The Flying Bun...
Many of you are not
old enough to remember a small obscure television show called 'The
Flying Nun', but if you do then you will understand the gist of my
joke regarding the title of this article. Heck, I only remember
seeing it in re-runs. Anyway, if you have seen any of our videos, or
follow our Facebook page, then you know that our homestead was hit by
a E3 (136 – 165mph winds), although some sources mention E4 (166 –
200mph winds) tornado on April 29th, 2017. To be honest
the devastation on our county road was unbelievable, but no one
nearby was killed although some sustained minor injuries.
Yesterday, May 9,
2017, I was out on the property letting the chickens out of their
coops and feeding the for the morning, As I was heading for the small
storage shed where the feed was kept, much to my surprise and
astonishment I saw a rabbit on our roof! Yes, I said there was an
American Blue doe walking around on the roof of our house. How she
got there I can only surmise by looking at the only route to the roof
and that is by the large tree that is sitting in our kitchen. You see
a large tree, of which has a diameter larger than I can wrap my arms
around fell through our kitchen and four other rooms of our home
making it impossible to access part of the kitchen and the pantry
(mud room).
The rabbit hutch was
lifted out of the ground and thrown up against the back porch in that
specific area and there was a lot of debris everywhere and all of the
cages were mangled, many beyond repair. We found a three empty cages
in the yard, two on the back porch and one in the front yard, but we
only recovered two loose rabbits. We assumed that the missing
American Blue doe (who was unnamed) was lost. I believe that this
American Blue doe had been hiding in the pantry area for more than a
week, as she definitely was not on the roof when we removed the
branches and top of the tree that had fallen through the house to
cover the roof with tarps. She eventually decided to go 'walkabout',
using the tree as a ram and climbed up onto the roof where I found
her yesterday.
In a near panic, as
only a rabbit person could do, I found a ladder and set it against
the roof of the house and tentatively climbed slowly with a bowl of
food. Surprisingly she came over to me easily and I was able to grab
her where she ate. Not knowing how she would react, the next issue I
encountered was how to safely carry her down the ladder without
falling myself. Cell phone to the rescue as I slowly reached into my
pocket with one hand removed my phone and called my wife to come down
from my mother-in-laws house to hand me a small dog kennel to put her
in so that we both could safely descend the ladder.
Conclusion
She appears to be
doing well, and she finally received her name. My wife said ti was a
miracle the she survived. Calling her survival a “miracle” may be
a little over the top, but so be it, that will be her new name from
this day forward. She seems to be doing fine at this time and when my
wife was feeding and watering her, she came to the front of the cage
to be loved on. Only time will tell if 'Miracle' continues to
flourish and recover from her ordeal, but rabbits are pretty
resilient, and our hope is to add her to our line breeding program of
American Blues which is why she was originally kept from our last
litter. We will keep y'all informed of her progress.
At this time TAP
Rabbitry is in recovery/rebuild mode. All of our rabbits are being
cared for (at her expense) by a wonderful woman of God and fellow
breeder Bonita Hunt (Baileywick Rabbitry 903-946-4666) until we get
the new outside hutch up and running. Not only is Bonita housing and
feeding our rabbits, she has reached out to the rabbit raising
community. Many have donated new cages, feeders, and all the other
necessary equipment to get us back on our feet. In addition, I
suspect she has spent more money of her own than she is willing to
tell us. Thanks again Bonita for all that you have done. As always,
if you have enjoyed this article or have found it informative, then
please share it with your friends. Don't forget to send us a friend
request on Facebook or Google+ so that you will not miss any of our
latest articles.
So if you need
rabbits at this time I can recommend two friends of mine, Steven
Coyne (Texas Bunny Barn) and Bonita Hunt (Baileywick Rabbitry) you
will find contact information for these great folks below. Thanks
again.
Steven Coyne (Texas
Rabbit Barn)
texasbunnybarn@yahoo.com
(972)742-4922
texasbunnybarn@yahoo.com
(972)742-4922
Forney,
Texas
Breeds: New Zealand, American Blues
Breeds: New Zealand, American Blues
Bonita Hunt
(Baileywick Rabbitry)
bhunt1961@yahoo.com
(903)946-4666
(903)946-4666
Honey Grove,
Texas
Breeds: New Zealands, Meat Pens, Dwarf Hotots, Californians, Mini Lops, Dutch, Lionhead lops, Lionheads, Mini Satins, Jersey Woolies, Netherland Dwarfs, Polish, and Holland Lops.
Breeds: New Zealands, Meat Pens, Dwarf Hotots, Californians, Mini Lops, Dutch, Lionhead lops, Lionheads, Mini Satins, Jersey Woolies, Netherland Dwarfs, Polish, and Holland Lops.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Tornado Update
Just a video update for all of our family and friends to know how we are
doing. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support!
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Canton Tornado 2017
Days after posting or latest rabbit offerings for sale on many different Facebook pages, our rabbitry in Canton, Texas was hit by a tornado. They tell me that the wind speeds were 140+ miles per hour. From the damage that our small homestead revived as a result of these winds I believe it. Essentially the farm has been destroyed and most of the buildings, greenhouse, and chicken pens were destroyed. We are safe, and miraculously we only lost 2 adult American Blues (a male and a female) and one of the American Blue litters (8, 10-week old kits).
To say we were at a
loss as to what to do next is an understatement. A fellow breeder
(Bonita Hunt of Bailywick Rabbitry) whom we have bought breeding
stock before contacted us and offered to come and house our rabbits
for us. She drove more than two hours and brought her truck and horse
trailer and took the whole herd to their home. She refused to take any money for feed to house or livestock, she is truly a good Samaritan and we can thank her enough.
Needless to say, all
rabbit sales have to be put on hold at this time. Thank you for all
the prayers and messages and calls that we have received in support.
We will keep you updated on the status of the farm. I have included a
link to the video that I shot we we first arrived on the scene.
Thanks again.
If you need a good
source for rabbits please contact our friends below:
Steve Coyne (Texas
Bunny Barn) Forney, TX 972-742-4922
Bonita Hunt
(Bailywick Rabbitry) Honey Grove, TX 903-946-4666
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Basgil/Borden, John Gillis Lines
We have eight New
Zealand White (NZW) Basgil/Borden and John Gillis lines males and
females for sale. Both the sire and dam come from strong winning
bloodlines. We can pair any females with our two remaining
Basgil/Borden bucks (see our other post) for a great trio of NZW that
will start you on the road to success in breeding your own meat
rabbits. These rabbits would be a great addition to your rabbitry if
you are looking to add a new blood to your heard. They are $35 each,
or $30 each if you purchase them both. These guys are good lookers
and will not last long.
We are loated in
Canton, TX, If interested you can send me a PM, or give us a call
(469) 526-3665 and leave a message as I am unable to answer my phone
during working hours, and I will get back with you as soon as
possible.
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