Most of these posts will probably be from me, Samantha, but I expect my husband will contribute occasionally too. When he does, I'll ask him to identify himself at the beginning, otherwise, you can assume the "I" is me. ;)
A quick background on my husband and myself:
My husband comes from a family that has hunted for generations, and grew up hunting. Past generations include ranchers and miners of the old west. Even today, his parents still harvest and process their own meat from deer and elk. My husband and I started doing the same about 10 years ago, and stopped having to buy beef. We've been living off of deer until last year, when he harvested his first elk.
My dad's family hunted and fished to have any meat- they couldn't afford to buy it. Growing up, Dad would go hunting and fishing on weekends to stock the family up, even having to hunt squirrels when the pickings were slim. When he married, things started to change some. My mom wasn't a huge fan of hunting, and sided more strongly with the animals. Dad's hunting tapered off to just water fowl, but as a kid, we did raise quail for meat as well as to release into the wild. I grew up fishing, but beyond that, couldn't stomach killing things- Mom's strong empathy won out.
Showing posts with label Introduction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Introduction. Show all posts
Monday, September 5, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Welcome to our experiment!
My husband and I spontaneously embarked on a project that has lead us off the marked path of 'best practices' or even 'practices described on the internet', and so in the interest of filling the void, we are starting a blog.
The project I'm referring to is raising meat rabbits in our backyard. The thing is, we fundamentally object to using wire cages. We decided that if we were going to try to have a more humane meat source than what is available at the grocery store, we needed to find a better way for the rabbits to live, to honor their instincts and make them happy. Yes, we want our animals to be happy, even if we're going to harvest them for food.
So we built three-sided "condos" on the ground, complete with burrows- one for each rabbit. This was a bit daunting. There's NOTHING on the internet about breeding and raising below-ground rabbits in this manner. We had to design it all, experiment, and learn behavior that wasn't described- or cared about- by industrial rabbit breeders.
The project I'm referring to is raising meat rabbits in our backyard. The thing is, we fundamentally object to using wire cages. We decided that if we were going to try to have a more humane meat source than what is available at the grocery store, we needed to find a better way for the rabbits to live, to honor their instincts and make them happy. Yes, we want our animals to be happy, even if we're going to harvest them for food.
So we built three-sided "condos" on the ground, complete with burrows- one for each rabbit. This was a bit daunting. There's NOTHING on the internet about breeding and raising below-ground rabbits in this manner. We had to design it all, experiment, and learn behavior that wasn't described- or cared about- by industrial rabbit breeders.
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