So I decided it was time to get on the blogger bandwagon. As anyone who knows me and my rather long-winded articles and forum posts, I like to write.I'll mostly be blogging news from the rabbitry, but will probably be including a lot of other things as they happen around the garden.
I'll bring the blog up to speed.
A lot of SC bunnies are now making their homes around the country. I didn't make ARBA convention in KY due to financial setbacks. I did relay some buns that way. 5 to Colorado, 1 to Georgia, and 2 to Pennsilvania. In Dec I relayed 7 more to PA. A few more recently made their way to mid-TN and GA.
Many of these buns were the last of the chocolates. I decided choc and lilac didn't mix very well with the rest of the herd and have moved them all out. I'll still get choc sometimes because most the brokens carry it, but I won't be keeping or breeding for choc.
I've been working on a major remodel in the barn. Old cages were completely reworked into a new pan-less system. See it here... Barn. I'm finishing the final unit which should be done this week. When finished, I'll have a total of 82 holes. 46 in the shed, 36 in the Summer House with no pans at all. Boy will that take a lot of work off me! As a result, breeding had been on hold until now.
I don't plan on ever filling every single hole. I like to keep the head count around 40. Everyone has to fit in the shed for the winter. Hard cull sales happen often to keep numbers down. I currently have 41 jrs and srs, plus the new litters.
As soon as I finished the brood units, I began breeding again. All but a couple does are bred. First litter came in Jan 13.
Nahani (sable pt) x Axl (sable pt) had 3, but only 1 live. It's sable pt of course. Nahani is a tiny 2 lb girl but such a good little doe. Her last litter only gave 1 live, and she took on 2 fosterlings as well.
Jean Geni (sable pt) x Axl had 4...3 live sable pts the next day.
Painted Lady and Iron Maiden are both 1st timer failures....DOA. I think there's some misses, too. 3 does due this week are not nesting. Black Dahlia, who I thought wasn't bred, asked for her nestbox, built a nest for a day or two, and now I'm not so sure she is pregnant as nothing more from her. Since I didn't think she was bred (she didn't lift), I have no idea when she is actually due if she is. She's a good doe, so a false pregnancy would be rather odd from her.
I'm hoping someone of a different color has live kits so I can give Nahani more than 1 to raise. Nestboxes are coming in the house after they've been nursed, but it's still hard to keep a singleton alive.
We are in the midst of an arctic blast. It was a nice 50s last week, this week we'll be lucky to see the freezing mark. Grrr...fine timing for litters.
In the garden: The birds must be aware of the extreme weather coming at us. The bird feeders are very active this morning. The temps have been dropping steadily since before sunup. We've probably seen the high for the day of 25. Brrrr, it's gonna be a rough week.
