Silver Fox Rabbit Colors.

Meat rabbits. They've been our most successful endeavor.  Since we're diversity loving geeks, we chose the Silver Fox rabbit breed. The American Livestock Breed Conservancy says it best: "Ensuring the future of agriculture through the genetic conservation and promotion of endangered breeds of livestock and poultry."

Silver Fox rabbits are a beautiful breed, bred for both meat and fur. We have blue and black Silver Foxes and we're working on the other colors, especially chocolate.

My kingdom for a litter of chocolate Silver Foxes. But since I don't have a kingdom...

For those new to the Silver Fox breed, there are two accepted colors, blue and black. Why do I say accepted? Because when Walter P. Garland said "ta-da!" the finished product was either blue or black, like the rabbits below.

Black Silver Fox 

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Blue Silver Fox kit

 Okay, maybe he never said "ta-da," but you take my meaning. Today, the only acceptable color for showing is black. The blue was dropped by The American Rabbit Breeder's Association (ARBA) for lack of entries. The blue is still considered acceptable among Silver Fox rabbit breeders because it is one of the original colors. Those who keep true to the original color standard often call their stock "heritage" Silver Fox, not to be confused with the Silver Fox as a heritage breed. More power to them. You never know when original bloodlines will become important to the survival of a breed.

There's more to the palate than blue and black.

Although some breeders mark Silver Fox colors other than blue or black as taboo or at least very bad form, a few are experimenting with the new chocolate variety. In fact, Meara Collins currently holds certificates of development, or CODs, on both the blue and chocolate Silver Fox colors. That means it may soon be possible to find both blue and chocolate Silver Fox rabbits showing right alongside the blacks. Diversity AND equality!

Chocolate Silver Fox lap angel still developing her silvering

Another color not under COD is lilac. Lilacs are a double recessive of chocolate with a dilute gene. Yeah, I know, genetics can make your brain twist. Or lock.

A lilac Silver Fox has a pinkish glow to the eyes and the fur is a soft silver with a browney tinge. Maybe that's not the best description, but it's my own. Unfortunately, they're so uncommon that if you look up lilac Silver Fox you won't come up with much.

The last and most despised color is white. Most breeders don't mention it as a possibility. Go ahead and look up the colors. Count how many mention white. Very few, right? White does show up and that shouldn't be surprising since the famed Mr. Garland never disclosed which breeds he used to create this amazing rabbit breed with the stand up fur. A few Silver Fox breeders do keep white rabbits. White rabbits dress out more easily than darker colored rabbits and commercial meat producers generally accept only white rabbits.

I said despised, didn't I? White Silver Fox are the redheaded step children among Silver Fox breeders. I can't tell which is more hated, white Silver Foxes or those born with the dreaded white star. I'll say the white star, since for almost every breeder I've met, white star's are an automatic cull. I think some believe it is a sign of the vienna gene, which causes blue-eyed whites. It is definitely a mismark under the breed standard and it does tend to carry through the generations. For this reason, I name starred Silver Fox kits "lunch."

This isn't to say you won't find a few Silver Fox breeders proud to flaunt their white bunnies. It's just that if you choose to do so, be prepared for some breeders to frown at you. Don't make yourself all blue in the face waiting for a COD either. The most common reason I see for the antipathy toward white Silver Fox is the difficulty in rating the silvering. How can you note the evenness of silvering if you can only see it in certain lighting from particular angles?

Whatever colors a breeder promotes or just has show up in their lines from time to time, let me go on record as saying disclosure often means the difference between a rabbit breeder with ethics and one without.

All of this to say, we finally have a litter from our one chocolate doe. We bred her to our black, chocolate carrier (there I go with genetics again) and the reward is six kits.

I see four blacks, a blue and maybe, just maybe, a lilac. Maybe one of those blacks is a really deep chocolate. A girl's got to have her fantasies.

Turkeys. Who Told Me I Could Raise Turkeys?

No one told me, I just decided. Kind of the same way I decided I could raise rabbits and pigs, but those are stories in themselves. We've dragged ourselves back into a good place and we're trying again. We're serious about this homesteading thing and are better informed, stronger emotionally and financially, and ready to get down to business.

With so much chicken related success...okay, maybe success is too strong a word. A few bobbles aside, we're keeping them alive and healthy and they seem pretty happy, going about their chicken lives pecking and pooping and jumping each other for sport. Having eaten many yummy eggs and finally managing to keep some meat birds set me thinking I could probably raise turkeys too.

Blackhead, Newcastle Disease, Influenza, And The List Goes On

Turkeys are pretty delicate creatures, especially when they're young. Research tells me chickens and turkeys don't mix for that reason. Chickens carry diseases like blackhead, which they throw off but which kills turkeys. Not a fun proposition, buying a bunch of turkey poults only to have them turn black in the head and then keel over.

Okay, so their heads don't really turn black. The real symptoms involve gross, watery poops, ruffled feathers and stunted growth. The name comes from a bluish look to the head caused by cyanosis. Apparently, that doesn't happen all the time, so I won't bother looking for any blue heads. By that time it'd be too late anyway.

My best bet is to keep the poults in a clean environment and away from chickens and soil until they've built up some immunity. Parasite management is key in poultry raising. When I think about it, it's pretty essential in any situation where we keep animals in confined spaces. Imagine no toilets and having to slog through your own poop until someone came along and scooped it away. If poop scooping wasn't someone's idea of a fine pasttime, you'd probably get pretty sick. Lots of bugs enjoy poop and quite a few of them make you sick.

How'd Turkeys Ever Survive and Evolve?

They didn't. Not the way we think of them, those forty plus pound creatures that grow to such ludicrous sizes  they can't breed on their own or even continue breathing much past butcher weight. Those white turkeys born on most commercial turkey farms were bred for fast and furious meat production and need help breeding and producing eggs. If you want to know what they call free range production of these creatures, take a look.

That's why I chose a turkey breed from the listing on the American Livestock Breed Conservancy. I'd like at least a good chance at keeping a flock of natural breeders that won't keel over from the weight of their own meat. Well, that and my need to get away from commercial production meat. I chose bourbon reds.

Teaching Turkeys To Eat and Drink

Normal turkey poults learn from their mama. When she isn't around, as in this case, they have to learn the most basic of skills on their own or die. Usually they die, so I used a couple of tricks to make sure that didn't happen. Water is essential, that's obvious, and they should have it pretty quick after coming home. So how do you teach a poult to drink?

Turkeys, like most birds, love shinies. Can't you just see it, turkeys wandering the woods, beaks thrusting back and forth on their tiny turkey heads, searching for yumm...oh, look! Shiny! Peck it!

I wonder how many wild turkeys that behavior kills. In captivity, I can use turkey curiosity to my advantage. I fill my waterer with clean water, add a little apple cider vinegar to help with those nasty parasites - hey, it can't hurt - and drop a few shinies in the bottom. Worked like a charm. Turkey poults came from all over the brooder just to peck at those shinies and each one came up with a beakful of water. Lesson learned. I'm keeping the marbles in there awhile because they just can't stop diving for the shinies, which means they drink more water, which helps clean out turkey systems while it hydrates.

I applied the same principle to the 28% game bird starter. Sprinkle some over a mirror and on a piece of tin foil and turkeys can't resist pecking. Now they've learned to eat.

As you can see from the picture, the feed area already needs a cleaning. This picture was taken first thing in the morning, so you can see how much work turkeys can be when they're young. If I left the area like this for long, I'd have sick turkey poults. 

Fascinating Turkey Poults

Maybe I'm an oddball, but I love watching turkey poults. They've only been here a couple of days and I'm already having a tough time not staring at them. Creepy as that sounds, it's a learning tool. Turkey poults fall out on their sides to sleep. I only had to run over in shock once to figure out they weren't really dead.

Watching them peck and strut also keeps me aware of their needs. If turkey poults are too hot, they'll flock away from the heat lamp. Cold turkeys pile, which could be a death sentence for those on the bottom.

As much as I've learned about poultry, I can't claim expertise in turkeys. I'm brand new to this, but experience is the best teacher, so wish me luck.