Animals as a prep item and what to do with them until needed....

I used to swap the bunnnies to a local pet shop. About a month after Easter you can always pick up free bunnies and ducks from folks who bought them for their kid and they no longer want them. It helps us to practice our bartering skills, which will also be handy.

I'm sorry, but if you can't kill your own animals then you really need to think twice about getting them. Especially something as prolific as bunnies. It could be another decade before serious disruptions in the food supplies lead you to deciding to actually eat any of them, and unless you like being overrun with pets then you need to figure out a plan pretty quick.

I hear rabbits make great fertilizer factories.

If I recall right, Peppa, YOU still have some bunnies that need whacking.

My problem is ducks. I raised a few for meat, but I just can't bring myself to kill them. They are just so much darn fun to watch! My wife keeps asking when we're going to have duck meat and reminding me of my "no pet" rule, but I just sit and laugh and laugh while I watch those ducks go about their little duck lives.

Lol. I don't have bunnies yet. I have some on order. Haven't heard back yet on the does. Another week to go yet.

There are days when I think I could whack them, and days when I don't think I could. But in the mean time, I'm looking for some fertilizer for the garden. Fifteen layers isn't enough to cover it.

And I refuse to spread horse manure on it again. We've had serious weed problems ever since.

You didn't compost it long enough, probably. Hay seeds (and weeds) either pass through digestion or fall down on the barn floor and get swept up and dumped in the garden when they're still viable. I find I've got to churn my compost starting in March (is it March already?) and then around the end of April it's ready to go out in the garden. Even then I'll spread it and till it in, then water it and wait 2 weeks and there's still plenty of seeds which will have sprouted. I till it all again, repeat, and then till a 3rd time before I end up planting. That seriously reduces the amount of weed seeds left in the soil after they've composted and then survivors had a chance to sprout twice.

I wish I was organized enough with my compost to have it sit for a year but I've always got such a burning need for it (never enough!) that I've got to get it out on the garden as soon as I clean out the barn in the spring.

All it took was once. One application of inadequately composted horse manure, and we've been battling pigweed in our garden ever since. Five years later. The seeds of pigweed are viable for five years. It still comes up in masses down the rows.

Our compost heap doesn't get hot enough, doesn't get turned enough, and I can't reach it with my electric tiller to fix that problem. Now we have no mulch buckets on our new lawn tractor because the attachment was too expensive to add on to the major purchase. So likely we won't be mulching and composting anymore either.

The chickens eat the food scraps, and soon rabbits will be added to that. I'm hoping they digest weed seeds more thoroughly than horses.

I plan to butcher them myself - just need to find someone besides Dad to help me learn how!

I know that they will overrun things quickly and that is why I need another market for them. Eventually I would like several does and bucks - but I want this to happen slowly (comparatively) so that eventually is a year to a year and a half....

I agree with you 100% - but my original post wasn't very clear (that is what I get for being a bit tongue in cheek). I will do what I need to do to make sure we are as ready as possible when we need to be. Teaching my dc to eat what is put before them without complaint and to know that to do otherwise is to go hungry is just part of the picture but a very big part.

Thanks, Ernie for your wisdom! I appreciate it more than you know!