[Ken.l.wells]

Update: We have does and bucks. Everyone but our original buck are silver fox purebreds. If someone is in the Kansas City area and is looking to get silver fox rabbits next year, feel free to reach out to me.

[Ken.l.wells]

Is there anyone here within a few hours of the Kansas City Metro area? I am looking to buy 2 does and can DM my contact information.

[Ken.l.wells]

Our young buck is loving his private greenhouse colony.

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[Ken.l.wells]

This is sad/infuriating, but the moving forward thought is: How can we set up our own meat packing industry from the roots up?

We have lots of people on this platform who do their own husbandry and butchering.

How can we organize a guild or similar to be able to stand up to the USDA and so forth and get the products to the customers?

If there’s people willing to stick out their necks to start this, there’s no better time than now to get this going. Lawyers will be a must to include in this. I am just a software engineer, but I can help from the tech perspective.

[Ken.l.wells]

I’ve finally hit the 70% progress mark for my rabbit colony house this weekend. Hoping that I will be able to wrap it up by the end of next weekend. As soon as I am done, we’ll go pick up our buck that a friend is housing for us and let him get acquainted. Once I’ve gotten my daily routine down with him, I will then get our doe[s] and let the fun begin.

[Ken.l.wells]

Our oldest is a toddler (2.5 years old and a newborn), but we’re already looking into it. Does anyone have any good advise for starting out?

[Ken.l.wells]

For those who see a page like this while it’s still up, use https://archive.org/web/ to save it before it gets taken down.

I didn’t get in there soon enough to do it myself.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Ken.l.wells.

[Ken.l.wells]

I agree. That’s why I said to involve local lawyers in order to determine where the business can get kicked off as well as being able to withstand implications that you’re breaking laws when you really aren’t.

[Ken.l.wells]

They look happy! Just finished building our covered colony and am getting prepped for picking up our buck. I still need to find does.

[Ken.l.wells]

From my experience, rooting hormone alone is nearly a 50/50 success rate. It’s a numbers game for getting successful growths if you’re relying only on it.

I am about to try making willow tea to go along with the rooting hormone for my propagation ventures this fall. I’ve heard that it significantly increases the success rate, but I’ll see if that’s just an old wive’s tale soon enough.

[Ken.l.wells]

100%. Manure and compost are the primary revenue streams that I am shooting for. Meat will be internal use only (family and/or pets). I’m planning on harvesting on the younger end of the range, so the pelts would be too weak to tan; they’ll be used to make dog treats.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Ken.l.wells.

[Ken.l.wells]

I live in the Kansas City region and for those who see this sub-thread and want to have a jumping off point. The people that we used in both of our home births were:

Midwife Partners in Women’s Wellness, LLC

For doula (and yes, please utilize a doula as well if you can afford it) Dara Aldy is my recommendation. She and her husband are homesteaders on the Missouri side. Not only does she provide excellent experience and service as a support system, but she and her husband lead a post-partum preparation course so that people are aware of what resources they have and what they need to gather prior to the post-birth period.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Ken.l.wells. Reason: removing duplicate from a copy and paste error that this site is currently experiencing

[Ken.l.wells]

Thank you. I’ll look them up right now

[Ken.l.wells]

Thanks! I’ll look for a copy. I’d still like a mentor/instructor to communicate with. There’s no substitute for an experienced person.

[Ken.l.wells]

I realized after submitting that the Apply button is already there for leaders. For the community involvement/planning, I am currently using a sign up genius for my neighborhood’s shared gardening plan for next year. Something as simple as its setup (provide a title and allow someone — or many people — to sign up for it) would be ideal rather than something more task-specific and complicated.