Joel Salatin Teaches Us About Raising Rabbits

What do you think? I slept all night last night. Let's see how good it was. Rebecca ignoring— she's got me my morning ritual electrolytes of magnesium and potassium salt. I have to take a banana with my turmeric and whatever else that is, and apple cider vinegar. This is undoubtedly our biggest week this year career-wise, like content creation-wise, like Abundance Plus-wise. Joel Salatin will be here tomorrow, but we film— we start filming today for our TV show. We didn't have to cancel, and I'm walking decent now. Yesterday I crashed big time. Well, not big time, no, but I started crashing about 3:30, and then after dinner, and then after dinner it was big time. My hand was hurting like crazy.

But I also wonder if it was the castor oil pack Yeah, at the position you were in.

It could have been same position for an hour combo with castor oil pack. You know, the internet, Mr. Google Pants, says 3 months to 12 months, but Rebecca and I are not accepting that. Lily's birthday, right?

And I don't know, I'm like mid-August, and I'll be like walking normal.

Sure, I might have some residual in my hand. I'll take that, but I won't be walking and doing chores and doing normal. The film crew is here. I'm super excited. Oh, did I have crappy sleep?

Yes.

I took ibuprofen twice.

Again, I still not getting deep sleep.

I don't understand. Even with the ibuprofen. Well, the ibuprofen made it possible to go to sleep in that pain. The first shots they need from me for this root ed is me driving the tractor. Not exactly sure what that has to do with— well, this show's gonna be about the importance of the mentor-mentee relationship. Hence why Jill Salatin's coming. The importance of intergenerational relationships. But Ben has something in mind that definitely be beautiful with the Kubota, and it'll make 100% sense. So I just trust him.

So I slept like a rock, which I did sleep pretty good.

We have a serious film crew this time. Not that we don't every time, but 5 in the film crew this time. That's how important this shoot is. That's Everett. I haven't seen him in 6 years. He's getting sounds of the chickens. How's it going so far? It's going good, doing, uh, chores. And, uh, yeah, what do you need me to do? Tractor time?

Yeah, that'd be cool.

Just wrapped up the tractor shoot. Yeah, you just want some cool shots, what you call B-roll, cool farm shots to go over while Joel and I are talking, or Joel's talking, I'm talking. That was an easy job. Getting down, that's, that's a different story, especially after sitting. I get all tight, sore. This is another reason why the film crew had to come. Look at this, we are in peak. Is that just not absolutely beautiful? Next month we will not be in peak. I'm also having Ben get some shots of the crippledness, the pain, Rebecca helping me. We've only got 2 episodes after we film this one, and we're thinking about story arcs. I'm kind of thinking that 9th episode serves to reflect on the, the struggles and the bad of the year. And maybe the 10th and the finale is the good and the happiness and the wins. Look at this. This is why I've got to push through. Just so proud of that. Watch the Garth Brooks documentary on Netflix, and he would do this thing. Well, I can't do it because I'm holding my camera, but he would say— he says, in every blessing is a curse, and in every curse is a blessing. Mmm, that's so good.

So good.

It's so true. So this is a curse, but there's a blessing in it somewhere. Are you gonna milk? No. Okay, I don't think my hands have the strength. Good morning, guys. They're staying weaned, they're staying on their side of the fence. Ben's down there filming with— no, Jonah. Yeah, Jonah. How you doing this morning, Phyllis? How's your calf? He's doing so good. Oh my goodness. Oh no, that's a good shot there. Oh, I'm able to milk a little bit. Although not nearly as fast as it ran. Back at it. Look at this yellow milkless colostrum. This should definitely be in my healing program. All right, that's your best guess. We're trying to punch a hole in this leather collar. There's the afterbirth from yesterday. The flies are already making quick work of it. I said yesterday, but I should have said Sunday. They're gonna get B-roll shots of Rebecca, they're gonna get B-roll shots of me, interview after lunch, and then my part's done. I'm just gonna sit here and keep this foot up. Next one, keep going around. Boy, the sun's bright today. Psych! Dad joke.

Awesome, see you soon.

Bye.

That was Joel Salton getting instructions. He's gonna be here, what? I, you know, it'll be pretty early.

It will be pretty— he said he's making good time.

I have to say this, I have not given directions to our house in a long time. He called for directions.

I was like, give me an exercise of my brain. I mean, well, we used to give directions.

He's just got a flip phone. He can't just type it into his phone.

He's like, well, I could take out the computer. I was like, no. Well, we'll— gotcha.

I got—

I can do this.

I can do that.

A long time ago, all the time, I used to do it, and it started coming back to me.

Yeah, the older I handed it right over. He started asking me, I handed it right over to Rebecca. So that means the rabbits are coming as well. So I imagine that's the first thing we're gonna do. I'm glad he's coming early. Uh, we'll be— have time to receive those rabbits before supper. They're getting my set set up. I'm about to do an interview. It's 1 o'clock. I'm still feeling good. I'm still feeling okay. No throbs. Joe will be here about 4 o'clock. We'll receive the rabbits. So hopefully my body will hold up till then. That's a wrap for my interview. Boy, we dig deep on these Rooted shows. Gosh, we dig so deep. Folks who have seen us so far are so inspired. Guys, did you know we have 6 of these done? Like, that's more than a movie. I'm gonna get in the sauna. Got about maybe an hour before Joel gets here. Warm it up in there. If you guys want to see what we've got so far— and actually, Rooted #6 will be coming out Friday. Get in there, binge it, binge it, binge Rooted with your family. Sit down together and have a movie night on me. It's a 7-day free trial right now at Abundance Plus, so check it out. Yeah, still pretty swollen. See that? My body's been holding up pretty well though, although I did crash yesterday at about 3:30. So hopefully that doesn't happen again today, right, as we're gonna go get our rabbits. One thing we're doing is working with the schedule, uh, not neglecting the self-care. Still getting the sauna, still taking all my meds. I still got to be the number one priority, getting better. All right, I'm going to cut the sauna a little short. Did get up a good sweat. Joel's going to be here in like 10 minutes. We're talking like 3:30. Joel is here. Teddy's barking like crazy. So this is the rabbits, huh?

This is the rabbits.

One in each box.

One in each box. So this is— they're marked. Okay, gray doe, orange-white buck.

Nice.

And, uh, and black doe. And the date of birth is on each one of them.

Nice.

So you can, you know, we'll put those boxes underneath so we'll remember exactly how old they are. And they're ready to— they're ready to get out. Yeah, they've been, they've been scratching. Hi, bunny.

I imagine they're not handled.

Um, yeah, well, they're not handled a lot. They're gonna handle a lot.

No. Okay, here, you want to help him?

Just get one doe and one buck and something's wrong.

Yeah, but that's what Lily taught.

Typically, what's wrong is not the buck, it's the doe. Yeah, normally. Well, birthing, getting bred and birthing is way more— there's way more stuff going on than just breeding.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, I mean, it's a more intricate—

I should ask you this about them. So do we need to breed them back right away, or can we say, hey, we only want—

I don't think we've ever— I don't think they've ever been bred.

But I mean, once we get breeding, is it like cows where it's like, or can we give it some space?

We normally breed— uh, boy, Daniel's the guru on this. Um, let's see, they—

I mean, they're going to breed like rabbits. That's what I'm getting at. And we don't need all those.

You'd like to think that it's easy.

Okay, okay.

But it's not.

Okay.

It's not easy. And rabbits are actually— I mean, they're neat, but they have a lot of pro— they're a little bit fragile. They're more fragile than chickens.

Okay.

I'll tell you that. They're more fragile than chickens. I mean, just as far as respiratory disease, coccidiosis. Things like that. You think about it, rabbits in the wild, you know, you see one, you see another one, you see one up there. And so when you start having a rabbitry, okay, where you have them, you know, proximate, and you're actually— it, it's, it, it's a little bit— it's pushing the system.

Okay.

Yeah.

So get what we can take.

So, so generally, uh, I think, I think Daniel breeds— so they kindle And then at about 4 weeks, he breeds, which gives them about 2 weeks of rest after the bunnies are weaned at 6 weeks. And then, and then they're, they're processed at 12 weeks.

Okay.

The doe gets 2 complete weeks. So what you end up with is, is, is about 5 litters a year. You can space it out. But if you give them like 2 months between, they'll get fat and lazy, okay? And then you might have trouble breeding them. When, when the doe is dry, you have to limit feed them, okay? Because if you, if you give them all they want to eat, they'll get too fat.

This is you.

They'll get too fat, and then their ovaries won't work. They're, they're, uh, they're, they're— they won't breed back, okay? So you got to keep them a little bit lean. Once that— once they kindle and have babies, then you give them all they want because then she's lactating. Yeah, she can't, she can't overeat then. One of the most important things, and of course this is all in the early chapters of this new book, uh, you get this from Temple Grandin, is just how situationally aware animals are. They're not like us. They don't have appointment books, calendars. They don't have to take the kids to soccer. They're not thinking about, well, you know, um, my mother-in-law's coming for dinner next week. I need to go to the store and get apples and whatever. I mean, they don't have any of that stuff, so they, they are completely consumed with right now, right? Right now. So what we think, well, what's the difference between this hutch and that hutch? To them, it's the difference between North Carolina and Arizona.

Joe, we've done the piggerator since you've been here.

Man, oh man. And look at that, no smell.

No smell.

No smell. Is that something?

It's something. And that's right here in my backyard.

Yep.

We're ready for your feedback on this as a place. This is your— this is your design from Polyface Designs? Everything? Yep. Part numbers and everything?

Yep.

It made it real easy to order it. Uh-huh.

That's wonderful. It looks—

do you see any issues with it right here?

Nope. I don't see any issues at all.

Like, not too close to the end here.

It's shaded.

It's got some sunshine.

Got a lot of ventilation. Um, you know, rabbits need— rabbits need about 5 times the air change of air per day than a chicken.

Okay, so this is good.

So this, this is real good to have it, have it this open.

Okay, should we put— should we scrape the manure off the, off the concrete, or should we put down some composted hay? But I mean that when the rabbits poop—

Teddy, you're gonna have to stop.

Well, the ideal is to, uh, is to put a poultry net around, put 2 chickens on it.

Yeah, okay, that's what— that's her.

But, but, uh, that was the dream.

Look how he's handling them.

See, you pick them up, they've got— they've got a pressure point right there.

Really?

So you pick them up and they kind of go— they kind of go limp.

Okay, nice.

All right, Lily, open it for him.

Lily, open it. So not like a dog, don't pick it up behind its neck.

No, not behind its neck. If you don't keep decent records, you will, you will be lost pretty quick.

So get some zip ties.

The first record is the date of birth there.

Yeah, date of birth is really critical. When we get the door— see how, see how they just stop?

Yeah, they just totally go dead. There you go, buddy. Look at this guy.

Is that a boy? That's the boy.

Yep, that's the buck.

So to carry on then breeding after 2 years, can there be any breeding here or would we need to be introducing somebody?

So these are not related at all.

Could offspring from her breed offspring from her?

He can breed a daughter.

Okay.

Um, but you wouldn't want to do it over and over. Okay, so as long as you don't breed brother and brother to sister.

What about half brothers?

Yeah, half brother's okay, 50% is okay.

When can these guys start breeding?

I think they normally breed at, at 20 weeks, like a chicken. Chicken starts to lay at 20 weeks. Rabbits, you can breed at 20 weeks. So these two does are, you know, are not, are not very far away.

And if I remember right, Daniel just put— would he move the buck or the doe?

No, you all— you always move the buck to the doe.

And so he would move the buck—

the buck to the doe.

Yeah, if she's in heat.

Yeah. And he'll jump on her right away. They're in estrus like, like 20 days out of 28 or something like that. I mean, it's— it's— you like rabbits? Yeah, it's pretty— it's pretty— it's pretty serious.

It's pretty good chance.

And it only takes 30 seconds. Only takes 30 seconds. You put them together There's, there's not a lot of foreplay here.

He falls off.

Yeah, yeah, it's really dramatic. Yeah. I mean, is he over it?

Is he over it like a bull? He's done? Or does he want back on?

Nope, nope.

All right, so what about— can the two ladies be together?

They could be.

Okay, they could be, because you were talking about weaning first the litter, putting Yeah, and putting the babies—

yeah, but well, once they start having— you don't, you don't want does together. Yeah, they'll fight once they, once they become does. Right now they probably wouldn't fight, but as soon as they become, become, uh, pregnable, yeah, then they'll, then they'll start to become less— they'll be less compatible.

That was fun to receive those rabbits. I'm hopeful for Lily. They're doing an interview with Rebecca now. It's 4:45. I'm starting to feel it. Starting to get more pain in my hands. I think I'm actually gonna try some ice. So I'm gonna close out this vlog because I need to get this footage to Dan before I lose the use of my hands to mess with the memory card and put it in the computer. But I feel like I made it further today than I did yesterday, and we have a whole nother— tomorrow's even bigger, so, and then we'll pretty much be downhill after that.