What Animal

Any variety of rabbit can however be raised and butchered for meat. It should be noted that if rabbits are being raised in colder climates, they will need their winter coats to survive and harvesting their fiber should not be done this time of year.

Backyard chickens may be small, but every element of them is important. Learn all that you can about your roosters and hens, from their combs to their toes and every feather in between, with the help of these chicken-anatomy diagrams.

“We're doing this as an evaluation year,” says Pat Munts, small-farm and acreage coordinator for Washington State University County Extension and the Spokane Conservation District.

How you handle your trapped raccoon depends on your local ordinances. Position the Bait When setting a live trap, placement of the bait is crucial to success. They're flat, so raccoons have full access to the bait, and cleanup is usually a simple matter...

Summer's heat often reduces feed costs. For the business of farming, the feed conversion ratio helps determine the bottom line. For backyard chickens, the 1/4 pound of feed per hen estimate is low, even for summer free-rangers, and far too low for any...

They do well in heat and in cold, but their feathering makes them unsuitable for outdoor living in inclement weather. Instead, they pant, evaporating moisture through their breath.

Leave Room For Chicken Math 101 Inevitably, most of us become obsessed with our chickens, so three chickens turns into five chickens turns into 12 chickens, and so on. For comparison, full-time confinement in my A-frame mobile coop would require a flock...

In full production mode. She is not bald or sad or harmed in any way. Make sure to take note of application deadlines and booth fees. Notice she is still alive and well. Either way, the following guide will help you to build a well-rounded marketing strategy...

Confirming this, Mike ran back, threw open the trunk of our vehicle and pulled the giant net out. “Trying to coordinate with my family members and all of the schedules to get down there during daylight hours wasn't working and he seemed to have somewhere...

That simple introduction can mean the difference between being seen during an emergency and being told the vet only sees “established patients” in an emergency. Grabbing an antibiotic at the feed-supply store can result in the wrong type of antibiotic...

Unfortunately, even in a spacious coop and run, the chicken waste is concentrated in their small living area. Of course, you still need to clean the coop regularly. In the long run, this will save your grass.

Either a bird poops on another bird from a higher roost or a bird's vent feathers become caked with droppings due to diarrhea. Chickens spend a great deal of time arranging and conditioning their feathers with oil from their uropygial gland, aka preen...

A small, submersible circulating pump is an inexpensive trick that will keep the water moving through freezing temperatures. In this relatively mild winter climate, simple, non-electric methods that harness the natural sunlight will help keep the water...

Piglets are horizontally striped in shades of brown and cream. Wilma got separated from her sounder (that's a herd of feral pigs) when she was a tiny piglet, but some nice people found her and bottle-raised her on goat milk .

Aren't you surprised they were born in October? Mom gently pulled as Jadzia pushed, then out he came. Meet my newest sons, Biscuit and Bijou. And because I'm their dad and their granddad, Biscuit and Bijou are their own half-uncles! « More Mondays with...

Armadillos mate in June or July, and the lady becomes pregnant, but the egg doesn't move to the uterus for several months so the babies won't be born when it's cold. Now they've populated the south-central and southeastern states, and they're still on...

Uzzi and I looked at each other and shrugged. With the girls gone, I had nothing to do, so I helped Uzzi help Mom. On Saturday, a little girl interviewed Mom and asked her what a typical work day for a writer is like.

If you raised your livestock for meat or purchased a whole animal as freezer meat, take this guide to the butcher when making your meat-cut selections. If you raised your livestock as meat animals, some of the most difficult decisions you have to make...

I saw my moonlit shadow against the grass, Red snorting and puffing his nose, walking briskly next to me, and Razz dragging along behind me—in their usual places. I bedded the stalls for Red and Razz and wished them goodnight.

Add new ornaments every year. Print out favorite recipes so they won't be lost. Pet Christmas Costumes Buy or make funny hats for you and your pets to wear on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

My human mom plans to name my new kids after Trill too: Emony and Lela. I know a lot about writing and computers. My friend, Uzzi, and I sneak into the house after everyone is in bed and we compute all the time.

They're only for looks. You can trim the top with wooden strips, like in the brooder in picture, but you don't have to. Pick one spacious enough for your needs, figuring 6 square inches of space per chick up to 3 weeks of age, 9 square inches during 4...

“It's a matter of giving people the tools, not increasing populations,” she says. Although pork is still plentiful, disease outbreaks in 2010 took a toll on pig herds; the Republic of Korea lost one-third of its pig population.

They're pretty cool lambs, don't you think? She said, “No, no, here she is!” Last year all our lambs were boys, so Mom was hoping for a girl. So she rushed to put everyone in and fed us early so nothing would disturb Wren's labor.

We're glad they don't do it in our barn! Cow manure is composed of spent fiber but also nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micro-nutrients like sulfur and boron. Then the balls are stored near the kitchen for cooking fuel.

From Buckeyes to Yokohamas, we've got the information you need to care for rare chicken breeds. Download and print the chart below as a handy reference for quick facts about these special chickens.

In olden times, people thought they were laid by roosters. You can tell how old an egg is by placing it in a container of water. We also learned some things that aren't so crazy. What chickens eat affects the taste of their eggs and color of their yolks.