Splash's litter, snow, and a chicken in on the game.

It's nice to have lots of babies on the ground again, especially at this point where we're watching them get bigger day by day. These are the three that Dawn's Daughter gave birth to.

 I'm actually going to be soliciting everyone for input on naming Dawn's daughter. We've mostly stuck to lighting phenomenon for naming our rabbits, but we're happy to branch out with Dawn's daughter. So far her babies are doing incredibly well. Today at 5 days old they are 116, 111, and 106 grams. That's an average weight of 111.00 grams, and an excellent growth rate of 113.65%. For 3 babies an excellent growth rate is to be expected, but we also have Splash and Dorado's litter on the ground right now, and some time soon we're expecting Twilight and Streak's litters to hit the ground which should be good. There's a lot more baby rabbit photos below the cut.

Growth and preparation as spring fully arrives.

Back to focusing at home today after Tuesday's post on the rest of the picture with community and reminders that it isn't Just individual action that makes a difference. Growth is the word of the day around the homestead, which is exactly what we want at this time of year!

Baby rabbits and a barred owl visitor!

Spring is here! Snow is melting and we can see the ground in a number of places. Ignore the fact that there's still foot deep snow in plenty of places, we can see the ground! We can start getting frost hearty plants in the ground as soon as I can jam a shovel through it! And obviously with this warmer weather combined with their age, Twilight's babies are coming out of the nest on their own to harass her!

New ideas, and stabilizing runts.

The babies continue to grow well, even the runts. That said, the runts are now about half the weight of the bigger babies. They are no longer in danger of not making it though which is a relief. As always for the winter, water is a concern since dehydration is one of the primary threats to a rabbit. Right now it is warm enough they can easily get enough water, and with the crocks that will ameliorate the problems on colder days.

(Mostly) Growing babies

 The babies are growing well for the most part. All except for the one I mentioned before. I'm not sure why he isn't thriving, but we have started trying something to get him growing.

The babies are growing well

The babies continue to grow, and are now getting to be an adventure to control as we do weight checks instead of being primarily worried about keeping them warm while we do weight checks.

A little snow, and babies furring out

 But they aren't growing quickly at all. Indeed, the babies are hardly gaining weight at all. I still haven't had time to fully do out the chart, but overall they are putting all of their energy into growing fur and staying warm from what I can tell. I will try to get the chart up this weekend to do some solid comparisons and have real numbers for everyone that cares. There's lots more photos below the cut.

Updates on the Rabbits

Lately we've mostly been talking about other things, so I figured today would be a good day to touch on the rabbits and how things have been going with them.

Final Breeding for 2012

Today the Lady of the House and I are finishing our last round of breeding for the season. This morning we bred Sunny to Umbra, and we will be doing so again when we get home this evening. Sunny is the last to get bred this round of breedings with Dawn having gone first on Monday, and Twilight having been bred yesterday.

We really need to get some new photos of Umbra.

Busy Day Rabbit Pictures

 As Dawns litter starts coming out of their nest, Dawn gets more and more stoic. Eventually she'll start coming up to us with this look like, "When are they leaving?" The picture Above is one of my favorites that the Lady of the House got lately.

First Butchering Done

Yesterday we did our first butchering, and over all it went very well. We have one of the first two litters we are holding aside for potential breeding to bring Sunny's strengths into our American Blue lines if we can. As you can see Above he is still in the growing out hutch, and seems to be enjoying being able to eat without fighting off everyone else.

There are no photos of the process below the cut but there will be detail about the killing and butchering process.

Ups and Downs

 Dawn is doing fairly well in the wake of giving birth to her second litter. She has been a little nervous and jumpy lately, but has been a good mother to her 5 babies. The main signs of her nervousness is trying to dig at the cage and occasionally chewing on the wire. I've been considering whether it might be good to shift her to the growing out hutch when butchering happens on Wednesday.






Dawn's second litter is still in the huddle in small balls in their nesting box. In this case, a literal nesting box. They are doing quite well for being at that age, and are very very energetic. I'm not sure how much of that is the warmth allowing them to use more of their food to move around rather than just live, how much of it is them, and how much of it is Dawn being a more experienced mother. In any case, they are all over the place. I look forward to seeing how fast they grow.

Genetics Part 1: A Primer and a Quiz

Rabbit Genetics, Part 1:

Genes control everything in an animal, from temperament  to maximum size and growth potential.  It is why peanuts are born to dwarf rabbits and not in normal lines, and why some rabbits are lops or wooly. The easiest type of genes to see and study are the color genes, because it produces an obvious result that is only rarely affected by outside factors.  For this reason, I’m focusing on color so that you can get the idea.  

I’m going to assume you have the basics of genetics down, and can understand words like dominant and recessive.  I’m happy to answer questions in the comments!

You can find some well-written and enjoyable primers at these links:
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/rabbit-genetics/
http://www.threelittleladiesrabbitry.com/rabbitcolorgeneticsindex.php

Why do some litters look like a rainbow and others look nothing like mom?

Moving The Litters

The growing out hutch is complete, and all of the babies are in the hutch giving their mothers some much needed peace before their next litter is born, which should be around the 16th or so for both Dawn and Sunny. As you can see, the babies are no longer so small, and are very actively curious about everything going on in and around their new home.

End of (this) Heat Wave

The heat wave finally broke fully a couple days ago much to everyone's relief. All of the rabbits made it with liberal application of shade and frozen water bottles. In the aftermath of the storms that marked the end of the heat wave, we got to see the beautiful side of our driveway on the way out to get some supplies. The Lady of the House got a good picture so I figured we'd share it with you.

Making the Growing Out Hutch, and HEAT!

Work continues on the hutch, and despite my desires it isn't quite done yet due to some in process design changes to account for reality. The other part of it not being done is just how hot it was yesterday. Temperatures in the mid to upper 90s with near 100% humidity doesn't mean you can't work. It just means you should do so slowly and with awareness of your body. Between that and needing some new materials to do this properly, we are currently 2 doors short of a hutch.

Life Moves Along

Today I have no new photos, not because the Lady of the House didn't take any. No, I don't have any new photos because I forgot to grab my thumb drive with them loaded onto it before leaving this morning. So, for today the picture for the blog is this one, because we have yet to see just one rabbit drinking at a time. We've decided that we do need to get more water bottles for the hutches with babies in them because we are filling in the morning when we find it empty, and early evening when we get home to an empty bottle. Given that for best health rabbits should always have access to fresh water, that's not optimal.

Advice on Weighing Babies, and General Updates

As you can see, Twilight is settling in nicely and enjoying her new home. I miscalculated how much pellet food I had left today so she suffered having her entire meal for the day being Hay. As you can see, she is terribly upset. So upset that when I did a health check and ran my hand down her back she didn't even stop eating. Such an awful situation. Overall she is a bit more skittish than say, Dawn, but she is getting more friendly by the day.

A Busy Weekend and Data Sets!

Things have been a little hectic since the last post what with settling into the new job which is great, the Lady of the House being out of town, working on the studio, and life in general. I don't have a lot for you today because of that, and because I spent most of last night when I would normally be working on writing the blog creating data sheets and putting data into said sheets. That said, here is a cute photo for no reason.

New Arrival: Twilight

Today I went down to Michelle Chandler's Blessed Acre Farm to pick up our 4th breeder, an American Blue doe named Twilight. Between that and the rest of what is going on today the post is obviously a little delayed today. Below you can see Twilight investigating her new hutch.