The Unexpected

Yesterday morning I woke up, and went about my as usual chores. As normal all of the rabbits but Sunny were out to greet me, and she was as usual not present but in her private space. Unfortunately when I checked on her for her daily health check she was dead.

Tomatoes, Pallets, and Babies on the Way!

Among the many things going on as we prepare for winter, we have been hoping for our poor tomato plants to give us a harvest before the first frost that seems to be very close given our 40 degree nights. While we haven't gotten a lot out of the tomato plants they are growing well, and have produced a few tomatoes that the Lady of the House has eaten. As you can see Above Right the one that the Lady of the House planted in a Dirt Bag has grown spectacularly well, and needs yet a new stake. We are considering digging up and potting some of our favorite tomato plants if they haven't produced by first frost so we can bring them inside.

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.

Life Moves Quickly!

Life has been moving quickly lately, and a lot has been having to get done quickly. In the list of things that have been going on, we have started the next round of breedings.

Dawn was the first to get bred yesterday evening when we got home. We tried to breed Sunny first, but she refused to accept Umbra so we just swapped Dawn in. We learned that Dawn really doesn't like being taken out of her hutch after dark, it scares her badly so we are going to try to avoid doing that in the future!

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.

General Update

Well, looks like I forgot today was Thursday. I have no new photos for you today, and nothing at all even vaguely planned too write. So instead I'll do a quick run down of where we are and our plans for the near future.

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.

Bears are a Problem!

Bears. This seems to be the time for them from what we can tell. Last year we didn't see a single bear on our property, but this year we have seen them many a time. I'm now starting to see potential correlation between bear visits and lack of weight gain for the day. 

(Picture from http://www.weforanimals.com/free-pictures/wild-animals/black-bears/1/black-bear-5.htm)

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.

Work Progressing, and Babies Growing

Things have been fairly busy this week, as I got a new job mid last week, and yesterday was my first day. The Lady of the House is also preparing to go to Anime Next. That said, even with the rain we've managed to get a fair amount done around the house. Most of it normal cleaning and general house care, some of it though has been more exciting, like the work progressing on the studio.  We've also continued to see rapid growth in the babies. I was also excited this morning to be able to get a picture of a baby sitting on Sunny's head to eat.

Learning Experiences, and Growing Out Hutches

We've had a couple of learning experiences over the last two days. Fortunately none of them have been devastating like some of our earlier learning experiences. As you can see in this photo our driveway is still here, and with minimal damage. We had some sudden and very hard rain on Tuesday night. Fortunately the lady of the house managed to get home in time to put down 2x4s angled towards the edges of the driveway every 30 - 40 feet or so to slow the water down and prevent major erosion.

Heat Considerations

This post somehow disappeared between Wednesday during the day and the morning today when I logged on. This is a quick reconstruction of the post.

Over the past couple days we have had some high heats sooner than expected for the area. Given that rabbits can die from heat with the temperatures as cool as 80, we were concerned. The normal method of dealing with this issue is to put frozen 2 liter bottles of water in the hutch that they use to stay cool. Unfortunately that only really works for 4 - 6 hours. Given that on Tuesdays the soonest one of us gets home is after 10 hours, that doesn't work. Yesterday we brought the rabbits inside quickly to prevent them from having health issues.

The Rain Keeps Coming

Which has been of great inconvenience to me. Dawn's babies are rapidly approaching the age when they will be getting weaned from their mother. While I do have a spare hutch to put them in, I don't have a full sized growing out hutch made which is what I want them to be in. It isn't built simply because it won't stop raining long enough for me to mow the lawn, much less construct a new hutch. Below you can see our hutches right next to our house. Unfortunately due to the constant rain mixed with when I'm working I haven't even gotten to paint them yet. Of course this weekend when I will be working the whole time it will be gorgeous. That said, the babies are doing quite well.