Meet Riley

This is Riley. He is the newest member of the Underwood Homestead. We bought him for $6 from a girl in town.

At Christmas, my dad gave the older kids each a nice sum of money to buy critters with. Caleb had thought he'd get pigs, but ever since our neighbors' goats had kids, he's decided on goats. He'll be getting these Nubian girls in just a couple of weeks, if all goes well. Meagan chose rabbits. Obviously, the cost of goats is quite different from the cost of rabbits, so most of Meagan's money went toward caging, a feeder and waterer (heated), a brush, a nail clipper, and food. Caleb will end up using almost all of his money on just the goats.

Anyway, Riley is a little Dutch bunny. He's very cute. We eventually will breed rabbits for meat, mostly to feed the dogs (yet to come) and cats. But, Riley will be a good bunny to start with and learn on. He may end up being the breeding buck because I don't see Meagan allowing us to send Riley on to the great pasture in the sky.

Speaking of pastures, we are hoping to figure out by Spring how to put the bunnies on the pasture. Right now, he is hanging in a cage above the chickens in the coop. They like to dig through his droppings and the chickens help to create warmth for him. But, come Spring, the rabbits would be in a moveable cage, like the meat chickens, so that we can move them to fresh grass daily. However, unlike chickens, rabbits can dig. This means that the cage has to take that into consideration. We'll need to work on that soon. Spring must be coming. It must. This freezing weather can't last forever. Can it?