HIGH LONESOME RANCH

Jim & Marcy Lilly     hlrinc@yahoo.com

About Us    Beauty Recipes... Canning... Exotic Law ... Exotic Babies ...  Farm Animals... Favorite Animal Links ...Favorite Pet Links ... Frugal Recipes  ... Home Remedies  ... Kennel...  ... Favorite Homesteading Links... Homesteading Letters... Living Without Electricity ... Homeschooling...  Homeschooling Links...   Countryside Magazine Articles 1995 and 1997 ...First Year On The Ranch 
 

New World Training Center- Bethany's horse training site.
Treasure Hunt Dachshunds - Mariann's dachshund site
Omega Computers -Brandon's computer site coming soon

  First they Came for the Cows: In 2006 a USDA mandate called National Animal Identification System (NAIS) came to the attention of a middle-aged homesteader in NW Vermont and she finds herself thrown into the role of a reluctant activist. First They Came for the Cows is a fictionalized account of her experience. Some churches are using First They Came for the Cows for their book clubs. Good Christian fiction can be hard to come by, you know

"Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds." Proverbs 27:23

Books  ~ Bunnies ~  Chickens ~ Chicken Coops ~ Ducklings ~ Geese ~ Goats ~ Goat Breeds ~ Goats Milk  ~ Links ~  Pigs   ~ Sheep ~ Turkeys ~
 Animals For Sale

Here at High Lonesome Ranch we raise and have raised a variety of farm animals. Of course, our first animals were rabbits. Bethany had her first bunny by the time she was 5. She was a Dutch rabbit named Jasmine and she was a confidant of Bethany's for years.

Click here for more information

~ Rabbits can be raised anywhere ~ they fit easily into most family setting
~ Raising bunnies gives kids lots of options from a beginner's pet project to a breeding project and perhaps in to a small business venture.
~Rabbits are a good sized animal for young children to work with. Young people are very capable of learning the skills necessary for a successful bunny project.
~ It doesn't take a lot of money to get started with bunnies ~ This project fits in to most family budgets
Taken from: "Your Rabbit: A Kids Guide to  Raising and Showing

HANDLING:
*Being handled is a scary feeling for a bunny. If your bunny is frightened it will try to run away. Sometimes when you lift your bunny it will try to use it's nails to grip the only surface it can feel: YOU. This often results in being scratched. REMEMBER: the bunny isn't mad at you it is just scared. Start off by wearing a long sleeved shirt.
*The bunnies here at High Lonesome Ranch are used to being held and are less likely to scratch, but if you drop your bunny one time, it will be frightened to be picked up after that.
*The best way to pick up a bunny is to place one hand under it, just behind the front legs. Place your other hand under the animal's rump. Hold the bunny next to your body with it's head toward your elbow. If your bunny starts to struggle, drop to one knee. This lessons the distance the bunny will fall. Remember: even a quiet bunny can have a bad day. Be patient, and always let the bunny feel safe and secure in your arms.
FEEDING
*Feeding COMMERCIAL PELLETS is the easiest way to feed bunnies ~ there is no guessing.
*If you want to try feeding your bunny less expensively you can try the HAY & GRAIN DIET: 2nd cutting alfalfa hay (70lbs) and a combination of rolled or ground oats, ground wheat, cracked corn, grain sorghum to equal 30 lbs. Feed 1 lb hay and 1/2 lb grain daily.
*These foods can be fed to bunnies: apples, barley, beets, blackberry bush, grass, carrots, corn, crabgrass, dandelion, dogwood, all grains, lettuce, milk, millet, oats, oranges, orchard grass, parsnips, peas, poplar, red top, root vegetables, sumac, sunflowers, sweet potato, timothy, turnip, vetch, wheat, willow.
DO NOT FEED: amaranth, arrow grass, bracken fern, buckeye, burdock, chinaberry, chokecherry leaves or pits, comfrey, foxglove, goldenrod, hemlock, horehound, jimson weed, johnson grass, larkspur, laurel, lima beans. lupine, milkweed, moldy bread, oak, pigweed, poppy, potato, swiss chard, tarweed, tomato.

LITTER BOX TRAINING
*Bunnies can be litter box trained. They have an instinct to use the same place over and over.
  * Be sure to give your bunnies some toys to play with - an old phone book to rip up is a lot of fun, plastic rattles and keys are also a good choice.  House Rabbit Society has more information

This is our  bunny George (as in "Curious George").

Bunnies for sale

Rabbitats for sale

Brandon and our bronze turkey.  He would sit on Brandon's arm like it was a perch.

                       
See the color on his face? Depending on his mood, that color changes - blue is cool and calm, red is agitated

African Geese and Brown Chinese geese can sometimes be difficult to tell apart. Africans can be differentiated from Chinese by their heavy bodies and thick necks. Mature birds have a large, forward-projecting knob above their beaks. The bill and knob are black in the Brown form and orange in the White African.

Africans are the leanest of the heavy breeds and are popular for this reason, as well as for their stately looks. An adult gander and goose should weigh in at 20 and 18 pounds, respectively. (www.feathersite.com)
Chinese geese are a close cousin of the African goose, a heavier breed also descended from the Swan Goose. Will lay at least 50 eggs in a season (about 100 known) , and because of this are ideal for crossing with other breeds, having a better bone/meat ratio than the others and a leaner carcase with little or no fat . They also often lay twice per year in Autumn and Spring although the occasional daft female has laid consistently for months. (http://www.domestic-waterfowl.co.uk/chinese.htm)
 

PLEASE HELP PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF WV ANIMAL OWNERS   It is our duty as citizens (local, WV and U.S.) to know the laws. It's time to spread the word to the WV animal owning population that there are people out there trying to create laws that have the potential to affect every aspect of all animal ownership. Please join our group, and help preserve your right to keep animals!

If you are interested in owning any exotic baby, please remember that the Animal Rights activists are not your friend. You should join groups in your state - or go to Exotic Law for more info on where to go for information