Thursday, April 12, 2012

Progress, slow though it may be.

We are slowly making progress on the homesteading projects, though not as fast as we might like given that we also have everything else that we have to do going on. Things like work, job hunting, and occasionally being something resembling sociable. Oh, also lately taxes. While we should have done it sooner now we have to get it done and that is demanding attention rather strongly. Never the less, we do have real progress happening, some of which is fairly exciting.





Rabbits:
Sunny, Dawn, and Umbra have settled in nicely for the most part, though Dawn still hasn't quite figured out the water bottle and still only uses her water bowl. Dawn was bred on the 31st of March, and took readily to both breedings on that day. Sunny on the other hand refused breeding until yesterday, the 11th of April. She wasn't quite as sanguine about the breedings, but accepted being covered both times yesterday. That means I need to have a nesting box done in the next 2 weeks to put in for Dawn, and that I need to get the next 4 hutches made within the next 4 weeks. Both of those goals are easily achievable even with the unexpected happening, so long as I don't procrastinate.

We introduced toys to the rabbits, and all three of them enjoy toys to various extents. Umbra likes moving around the blocks of wood I put in, and shredded the corn husks that were hanging while leaving the willow wood alone. Sunny has been chewing the wood avidly, and also shredded the corn husks, again leaving the willow wood alone. Dawn on the other hand has been destroying everything put in reach, and very actively is interested in the willow wood ring that is hanging. She is the most active of our girls, and her hutch is the only one that has been having flooring issues with some of the staples coming out. To deal with that I am going to be screwing blocks in to prevent any sagging and take the staples out of the equation.

There have been some interesting behaviors that have come up with the rabbits around breeding. The one that stood out to us the most we already checked in with our mentor Michelle Chandler on, and she assured us it was not a problem. After being bred Dawn jumped up and peed on Umbra while he was lying there stunned after breeding her. The lady of the house and I were very confused by the behavior.

The other behavior that interested us was Umbra after breeding. After breeding he for a few minutes stomps the floor. If anyone knows what that is we are curious. We were guessing it is announcing he just had sex.

Planting
I have been working on digging up ground for planting. It is slow hard work , and rocks are a major product. That said, I hope to have some news about that sooner rather than later.

4 comments:

  1. Rabbits usually stomp their feet when scared, irritated, or to sound a warning. Is it a single solid THUMP or rapid BAMBAMBAMBAM? If it's the latter, I bet it's just what you guys guessed, "Hey world, I just had sex!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's just thump, long pause, thump. Maybe he's irritated we're taking his girl away. Usually we take the female out while he's stiff as a board just after breeding.

      Delete
    2. I swear when he does it he's demanding more women. he does it just before we put a girl in there too and clearly enjoys their company! We're concerned about fighting though, so don't leave a girl in there longer than it takes to be covered. No cuddle or cigarette I'm afraid.

      Delete
  2. Our male rabbit, Rooney, does the same thing when he gets territorial or upset. Loud thumps separated by about a minute, multiple times. It's amazing how loud those stomps can be. One time Saroj was sure someone was breaking into the house, when it was actually our rabbit having a temper tantrum.

    ReplyDelete