Chicks

We have 4 baby chicks running around! Well, not running around too far from their mom. I'll get a picture soon. A few days ago a big black bird was swooping down trying to get them but the mom puffed up sqwacked and Niko went out with the bb gun and we haven't seen him since.

We also had a rabbit have babies but she ate most them, well not eat exactly more like dismembered. hopefully the next litter will be better.

Bun Video

While we were in Iowa Stef took this video of him feeding a bunny. I thought it was cute.

Rabbits

I got up bright and early this morning and put a fence around the rabbits so the dogs can patrol their area too. The only problem is that the goats also have access to them, I hope they leave the buns alone.

I also put the babies and the Male New Zealand in their new cages and put them in the barn until we can put them with the others. Stef is working late today and we have soccer practice tonight so we probably won't get to it.

I also introduced Lala to the babies. They were very unhappy about it but Lala really liked it. She started guarding them outside of their door and barked to let everyone know to watch out. She is so Awesome! When all of the rabbits are moved to their permanent spot I'm going to introduce all of them to all of the dogs. Then hopefully if we have any break-outs the dogs won't be as likely to kill the buns
This is a picture of Lala after meeting the bunnies. She looks almost as happy as when the goats have babies.

New rabbit Set up

We are moving the rabbits to the side of the barn. The spot we had them in was supposed to be temporary. Hey, it only took us a year to move them! We have the 3 cages already in the top half and Stef is putting the roof on it. He also built 2 more cages for a male New Zealand that was in the colony and has been living in a dog kennel and for the babies. Tomorrow we will move the fence to encompass the new set up and put the other cages below the top ones. We will also set up a system so their poop and pee goes down a slide into a bucket to take to the compost pile.

Bun Update

Here are new pics of the rabbits. They have grown quite a bit. Again I used the coffee cup as a size reference.

This is Lil One. She weighs 23 ounces.

Blue Ear is now 30.5 ounces.

This is Biggin. He is actually the largest bun at 33.6 ounces, though, he doesn't look it in the picture. He is actually the most skittish also and freaked out for the picture.

By the way, while I think of Biggin as a boy and Lil One as a girl and Blue Ear goes back and forth, we really don't know their sexes yet.

Bun pictures

I'm going to try to figure out how old the kits are so I got them out and weighed them this morning. I figured this would also be a good time to take pictures. I took them next to a coffee mug to give some perspective.

This is the smallest bun. We refer to it as Little One. It weighs 5.45 ounces.

This is Blue Ear. (We marked its ear with a blue marker so we can tell the 2 biggest ones apart). It weighs 7.08 ounces.

Biggin is the largest. It weighs 9.02 ounces.

House Bunnies!

We found a dead kit with the others yesterday, so the bunnies came inside. I feel bad, it was my favorite little one. I don't know what really happened. Deklan thinks it got crushed by the others. Or it could have been too cold or the moms aren't feeding them. I never saw them nurse, but rabbits only nurse like once a day so it is hard to actually see them do it. Anyway, I'm feeding them goat milk 3 times a day with an eye dropper. This is definitely a new adventure. We'll see how it goes.

Baby Bunbuns

I bought an animal trap this morning, but didn't catch anything. Stef went out with me to do chores tonight and caught the dad, and 4 kits. 2 of them were older and 2 were younger. We put them in with thier moms but the moms seemed less than thrilled to have them back. We'll see how it goes. If they don't eat enough we might have house bunnies! They are sooooo cute.

Wascally Wabbits

We have had several bunny breakouts lately. They started digging different tunnels in the colony and found they could dig themselves out. We have tried to repair the damage, but we haven't done such a great job. Well, we lost 2 rabbits to dogs this way so we decided it would be best to move the remainder of the rabbits into cages. We caught both of the girls yesterday and put them in our last available cage. We left the lone male in the colony. You will find, if you are in animal husbandry long, that the male of the species is often seen as a second priority most of the time. In other words, we are willing to risk him to make sure the girls are safe in a cage. He doesn't seem to want to venture out though.

As we were doing chores this morning Deklan spied 2 baby rabbits coming out of a tunnel in the colony. Aw, man! We took their mama away! They are probably old enough to be on their own and were coming to get some grain. I do want to catch them though, just in case, and it is supposed to get cold again this weekend. If you have ever tried to catch a wild baby rabbit, you understand what a difficult task we have in front of us. I think I'm going to try a wild animal trap first. I'm gonna get one in town when I go in for my chiropractor appt. this morning. Wish us luck!

Still not a whole lot going on around here. Cole is still battling some kind of illness. One day his poop is hard the next it is a bit soft. I;m still working on it. It is not as bad as it was though. He has to get better by next week though so I can put Holly back in with him to make babies!!

I've always been pretty surprised about not ever seeing any mice around our place. With all of the animals and animal food you'd think I'd see them once in awhile. Well, the other night Kiska came running through the living room with a very good size mouse dangling from her mouth still alive. The boys got her outside with it and then I had to admit that maybe the cat is not as useless as I thought. Though I have been coming around to that thought recently because of some mole carcasses and innards I found at the front door. Please don't tell Kiska, we have a love hate relationship.

We have a rabbit living under our house. Once again a rabbit escaped from its cage 4 feet off the ground. She has taken up residence under our house and has somehow escaped the jaws of Ama now for a week. We have tried to catch her but she is too wily for us. We need to get a wild animal catching cage.

We are getting 3 eggs a day now. Again none of them are from the chickens that are put up in a chicken yard and get fed everyday. I don't feed the ones outside of the pen, they fend for themselves. So I think it is definitely time to thin our chicken population once again. Besides we are already out of whole chickens in the freezer.

I am still looking for a car. I have to take the rental back Wednesday. If anyone knows of a Honda or a Toyota for a good price let me know!! Car shopping bites.