HIGH LONESOME RANCH, INC
Birch River, West Virginia 26610
Jim & Marcy Lilly     hlrinc@yahoo.com

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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!

For those of you that raise any type of animal, be sure to arm yourself with the facts against the proposed NAIS program that the government has in mind... websites to review Please remember that the Animal Rights activists are not your friend.

Want us to come for your Kiss the Pig contests?

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

Books  ~ Bunnies ~ Chickens ~ Ducklings ~ Goats ~ Goat Breeds ~ Goats Milk  ~ Links ~  Pigs   ~ Sheep ~ 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 bunnies by the time she was 5. She was a Dutch rabbit named Jasmine and she was a confidant of Bethany's for years.

~ 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. One way to train them is to place newspaper with fresh droppings and urine in the place you would like them to use. Confine them to an area around this newspaper.
*You may find that they have chosen their own spot. If it isn't in a spot you object to, simply put down newspapers and they will continue to go in this area.
*If they area that the bunny has run of is large, you will find "pellets" left around. These are easily vacuumed up.  There is a lot of information on litter box training here: http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/litter.html

* 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. 

This is our cadbury bunny George (as in "Curious George"). He has run of the house and has taught himself to climb stairs. He noses around everything!

Bunnies for sale

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

"Then God Said, "Let the earth bring
forth living creatures..." Genesis 1:24a

The Chicken Came First

Our Chicken Coop with the chickens free-ranging! Tough in the winter!

           Chickens are one of the first animals people want to get when they are starting their homestead. They are  very easy to keep and raise. They eat very little if they are free ranging. They are great for bug control. In return they provide eggs, meat and feathers for fishing tackle. They are amusing to watch, a little violent in their breeding (for you first timers) and it is fun to hear the rooster crow and the girls talk. The rooster will call his girls over when he finds a tasty morsel. He will crow in the morning just to announce his domain. The girls gossip and chat to each other and will brag when they lay their eggs.

Our first rooster "Big Red"

Our girls

Our  Rooster
Americana chickens are not to be confused with Araucanas. Americanas sold by hatcheries are  also called the Easter Egg Fowl, Most of the so-called Americanas in the US are mixes that carry some of the original genes and lay variously colored eggs: blue, green, or pinkish. These birds are sometimes (and more honestly) sold as Easter Egg chickens. The American Poultry Association recognizes a bird called the Ameraucana, which lays colored eggs and has muffs and a beard, not ear tufts, and comes in standardized color varieties, with slate colored shanks.

Easter Egger come in white  and vary  in a wide assortment of colors and types, black, buff , cinnamon, brown, red and white– along with various combinations of these colors. Some may have top knots, some have whiskers, and others have bunches of feathers growing from each side of the head near the ear region. They are good layers, with eggs medium to large in size. The colors vary in shade from pale to deep blue, green, pink, plus a few olive drab and an occasional antique gold. The Easter Egger is a hardy, vigorous fowl, resistant to disease and easy to raise. They seem to do well in all types of climate. A calm chicken, they are very easily tamed to become pets.

Our newest cochin~ Isn't she beautiful. Look at her fluffy feet.

She is just a baby here...                    See how she has grown...

Our new Silkie chick born in the house...In the US, our Silkies are all considered bantams, but they are actually intermediate in size between the European bantams and large fowl

A good reason to buy eggs from a local farmer... click here

A good resource to ask questions is the Yahoo Group Poultry Chat
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PoultryChat/

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

African Geese