Farming While Female

     Have been having a problem with Isabellas rabbit kits escaping the big cages, which I had thought were secured with hardware cloth and chicken wire. Luckily for me, lawnmower 1 and 2 came back several times to their moms cage, no doubt because they realized they needed her milk.

     Stopped into a big box hardware store not near my house, and wandered around for a while trying to find hand shears, which I never did find, and also vinyl covered hardware cloth, which I absolutely need to fight the baby rabbit escaping problem. I had just previously bought a new dog crate to use as a rabbit tractor from rural king, where everything is easy to find. Except buckets.

     Wandered around. Checked the Fencing section. Checked the wood section. Checked out every section.  Then finally decided to ask employee, who happened to be male. 

     "I'm looking for hardware cloth, preferably 1 cm by 1 cm, it's like a mesh, preferably vinyl coated, where is that on this store?"

     Him, "Hmm. Not really sure, Trish do you know?" He asked as he stopped another employee. 

     So I described it again, and she said that the only cloth they carried was painter's drop cloth on the painting.

     When I realizes how north this conversation was going, finally I (probably) literally rolled my eyes and said, "It's for the chicken coop."      (I don't even have chickens.)

     He pointed directly at one of the walls and said, "The chicken coop wire is right there."

     When I made it over there, the hardware cloth was there, and I did find the vinyl coated stuff behind the other stuff. And it was called hardware cloth, I wasn't speaking a foreign language or using butter knife house repair tool language.

Pond plant question

 

Hi. I’m in Riverview. I have a small pond 4’x4’, with waterfall. Looking to get some plants for it. Can’t find anywhere. Lily, hyacinth, etc. Havecsny suggestions? Thanks, Matt iy, hyacinth, etc. , Matt

Welcome to the world of pond plantings! I have several large and small ponds here at my house in spring hill, the taro in the picture I originally purchased from a vendor at one of the USF botanical gardens spring or fall events. It was tucked in behind stuff and very overlooked. My whole garden theme is permaculture and edible, and of course it is hard to find and grow most of those plants well. We can feed Florida with water plants if people were just open minded.

I have this black Taro and the regular large elephant ears, and papyrus. I also have water hyacinth, which I eat, the rabbits eat, and the ducks I got this spring love to eat. I bought them originally online, possibly because you aren't allowed to sell it here due to it invading local waterways (it is a problem at some state parks south of here.) I sell it on Etsy here and can ship it to you.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1206813854/water-hyacinth-edible-floating-plant?ref=listings_manager_grid

And grow it in all of my ponds, none of which have waterfalls or circulation.

One of my other favorite pond plants is cannas, of which the native variety has yellow flowers. The leaves and corms are edible.

I have experimented with azolla and water cress, neither of which worked out for my big pond, possibly due to frog predation or heat stress. I use goldfish as my mosquito control in the two larger ponds and nothing or bt dunks in the smaller ones like in the picture.

But you asked where to get these things. Hmm.. there was a pond place I liked very much in Dunedin, it is small but has a lot of different (expensive) lilies, which I am not as interested in. You're in Riverview so you're not far from Tampa Pinellas and Sarasota, maybe you could find the local pond shops and let me know! As far as edible plants, there is a very nice nursery in Howie in the hills I quite enjoy called A Natural Farm. And I'm always scoping the sales at any botanical gardens I stop at, like nature coast botanical gardens by me and boo tower gardens near Orlando.

Huh. Riverview. You can grow avocado and sugarcane there. The cannas might not even freeze in the winter there. I'm jealous.

Muscadine Grapes

      One grapevine planted several years ago now yields more grapes than I can ever harvest. This year I was able to reach four quarts of grapes for eating. They are sweet and crunchy. You know they are ready to harvest when the grapes are soft and springy, if they feel hard then they need more time on the vine. They seem to last quite a while in the refrigerator. Yes Muscadine grapes have seeds in them unless you are able to get a variety without seeds. 

Pretentious Flower

      It must think it's hot stuff being the biggest only flower blooming in the entire neighborhood. Also pretty much every plant in this picture I would be willing to part with.

Do Ducks Eat Tradescantia Purple Heart?

 

    Things are so expensive. A bag of plain chicken food without the additives to promote egg laying is about $20. When you factor in the cost of the baby duck food I have already given them, at this time I have spent about $40 in nothing but feed for these ducks. That makes them kinda expensive if I was owning them for meat. So any supplementation that I can give them from my plants would be a good thing.

     Between the corn sprouts and the water hyacinth, I have learned that they will eat Spanish Needle, but they won't eat Papyrus. And today I covered their splash ponds in Tradescantia Purple Heart, also called Moses in a Boat. It's a lovely succulent that grows in deep shade and is used often around here as a groundcover. Previously I had determined that the rabbits do indeed like it.

     Covered the splash ponds in Purple Heart, and then went on to do the next chore. By the time I turned around they were eating everything in sight, including the Purple Heart.

     That day they didn't finish their chicken crumble food or the corn sprouts because they filled up on healthy plants.

     Ducks love water hyacinth.

Alternative Duck Feeds

      You may have seen that I have been trying to sprout seeds to feed the ducks in order to feed them as naturally as possible and as cheaply as possible. I am a strong person, and I did carry 50 pounds of chicken crumble from the road to my house in order to make sure I had something for the ducks, but it wasn't fun. As awesome as having the ducks are, buying food isn't one of the things that I prefer to do for them.

     You may also know that my rabbits, when not breeding, eat a diet of alfalfa pellet and things I grow and harvest for them. I buy about two bags of alfalfa pellet a year. During the spring summer and fall, they eat water hyacinth, grass, and perennials. I always have them mulching things that I am trying to clean up in different areas of the yard. And they help in the kitchen too by eating banana peels and orange rinds and other waste.

Both of my dishes covered with Spanish Needle and Water Hyacinth

     When I first got the ducks I started them off with a bag of duck starter food, because I heard that it was wise. I heard that they need the niacin that is added, that if they don't get enough niacin it causes developmental problems. I also heard you could add brewers yeast for niacin, but when I looked up the cost of brewers yeast I discovered that it was cheaper to just buy the duck feed for the two chicks. And easier.

     Now that they are almost full grown, I have been researching as much as possible how and what to feed them. Most sources say regular chicken feed is fine with no supplementation needed until they start laying, and then you give them chicken layer feed.

     I watched a few YouTube videos about what they like to eat, of which there are not too many. Most people suggested pond plants, sprouted grains, and not much else. I bought some cheap dent corn, $9.00 a bag. At first they weren't interested in it at all, so I fed a bunch to the rabbits. Now they eat the sprouted corn if they are hungry, so win win. When I blow through this bag of corn I am going to get a bag of black oil sunflower seeds or birdseed and try sprouting that for them.

(Eats all the Spanish Needle)

     As for growies, so far their favorite food appears to be water hyacinth. It's very nutritious as well, some sources citing it at up to 60% protein. I eat it as well and so do the rabbits. It has a strange mouth feel but tastes just like green beans. Their next favorite food so far appears to be Spanish Needle, my good friend Bidens alba. I cut the leaves into bite sized pieces and throw it right into their water. The only other plant that I know for sure that they will eat are squash leaves, which were growing on a volunteer pumpkin in their enclosure. And they didn't want to eat that I think, they were just hungry that day and mad about the corn sprout situation, because at first they wouldn't eat them. Maybe tomorrow I will chop up some papyrus into the water and see if they will go for that.

Can you make Popcorn from Dent Corn in the Microwave?

      It turns out that the ducks don't seem to like corn sprouts very much, even though I think they are pretty good, and so do the rabbits. 

So what am I going to do with 40 pounds of whole 🌽? I guess I will slowly sprout it for the rabbits, since they seem to enjoy it so much, and I decided to try to pop it in the microwave like I pop regular popcorn for the kids, simply, plain with no butter or oil. 

     It turns out that whole corn from a bag from the feed store doesn't pop all that well. I now have a whole plate full of burned corn and about 5 pieces of popped corn.

     Sigh. Worth a try though. 

     Corn sprouts are good.

Sprouting Corn for the Ducks and Rabbits Part 1

 

    After doing much research, I have decided that I would rather sprout grains for the ducks than feed them prepared chicken feed. I will also give them prepared chicken feed, but I think it would be pretty cool to sprout corn or black oil sunflower seeds or really any grain, and be able to feed it to the ducks and rabbits. That being said, right now the ducks eat baby duck food, Water Hyacinth, and some leaves from Spanish Needle. Right now the rabbits eat Alfalfa pellets, water hyacinth, and plants from the yard primarily grasses and African Honeysuckle.

     There isn't that much information available about sprouting 🌽 for ducks. I chose corn because it was nine dollars for a fifty pound bag from the feed store. The black oil sunflower seeds are twenty dollars for a fifty pound bag. Or it may have been a forty pound bag. Much more expensive, but possibly more nutritious.

 

First overnight soak

   This particular brand had a lot of broken pieces of corn for a bag labeled whole corn. I may not get this brand again.

Turkey Anyone

 

     Not sure exactly what kind of bird this is, but I was surprised to find it near my place in West Florida, zone 8b, which is not very near any water sources. It was out after a rainstorm stalking through some yards occasionally pecking for bugs. Perhaps it's an escape, much as I lost some ducklings earlier in the year.

Isabella bunny

 

    Earlier this spring I decided that I missed having all the rabbits around to help me in the garden. Ok the adult rabbits didn't help me IN the garden, they helped me by creating small rabbits for the rabbit tractor. And they helped me by turning weeds into mulch and manure. But then the older rabbits passed away.

     Did you know rabbits live for 9 years or so? I didn't know that.

     I bought Isabella bunny from a young lady out in Weeks Wachee, off of craigslist. Now I just need a male rabbit. And then I can have baby rabbits in the tractor again.

     She has been transitioning well off of the commercial pellet she had previously been eating. I have her on the same diet as Princess, primarily alfalfa pellets, plants from the yard, and water hyacinth. They both have beautiful coats and clear eyes, seem to be a healthy weight. 

     And rabbits are by far, the best way to raise protein in suburban Florida.