There are at least four litters of baby rabbits in the barnyard, plus the ones I got out of the chicken coop. Their mother is feeding them because they are certainly growing. Their eyes are opening and they can hop around and back to where they want to be, their nest. But their nest got wet, along with everything else on the farm. 

The babies are in the livestock trough and Mamma Rabbit was in there too. I put a wire section of one part and a door over the other, which lets light in but keeps rain out. She escaped through the wire, but obviously she jumps back in to feed the babies. I tried to catch her again and did once, but she was gone again in a heartbeat and now, she stays far away from the babies. There are a few more females out there and I no longer know which she is. I hope to catch her feeding one day and lock her up with them, though until then, she is still a wild rabbit. 

There are two litters under the old, old bachelor house which was later in the 60's a chicken coop and is  no longer used because of contamination from the rotting interior. The roof leaks and the thing should be torn down..maybe this summer. The older litter has only two bunnies left that I have seen, however; the younger litter has at least 5. They were sunning themselves on the front step a few days ago, but as quick as a wink, upon seeing me, they were gone. 

There is at least one if not two in the barn, or I should say under the barn. One Mamma Bunny dug a burrow and she guards it quite well, hiding nearby, but sometimes there are two females there so I am not sure if the other has a litter or not. There is one more in my yard that I am sure has a litter under the shed. We are being over run. I must catch the babies as they emerge from the burrows. 

The mothers will be either caught or shot, but I don't have the heart to shoot the babies and they are very hard to catch. Possibly my friend will have some ideas how to trap them. They are sure cute, but never, NEVER, let them escape. Never. You can see the problem I am having already. Yikes!

Rabbits are easy to raise and the meat is amazing. But raising rabbits for meat takes a hard heart. It is not so bad when I have no contact with the babies and the mom rears them, then I put them in pens until they are ready to butcher. Even then I feel a terrible pang of guilt knowing that I am raising a living creature for food. It reminds me of a science fiction movie called The Time Machine (I think) where after a nuclear war, the people above the ground were raised to feed those living in the caves below. 
Hopefully we have evolved beyond that caveman mentality and raising animals for meat will one day be a thing of the distant past. I foresee humankind living on plant proteins and fibres one day in the not so far future and raising animals a passing phase of evolution.
But back to the rabbits. I started with  3 Flemish Giants from Holland, two does and a buck. The does were sprung out by the young dogs I had then and were killed, and I still have the buck. I acquired an excellent doe from another breeder and since then, a third doe and a different buck. I was planning to raise the rabbits for sale as breeding livestock for others,though so few people are interested in raising rabbits for meat here. If it ain't beef, chicken or pork, in that order, then these locals ain't interested. Most have not eaten rabbit. 
So, along with the cutbacks of many animals due to the high cost of feed and medicines and such, the rabbits are going too. I do have 4 Angora rabbits as well and was thinking of dual purpose rabbits instead. If the Angoras don't sell as future breeding stock, then they can be kept until adults, the fiber harvested and then butchered for the meat. They grow faster than the Flemish Giants, which take a good 6 months to be of a size and quality for butcher. That is a lot of time invested in the rabbits, though the hay, alfalfa and grain is not that much. I use organic grain and a large bale of alfalfa.
What I do not enjoy is cleaning the cages. Rabbits stink! I had a mother rabbit in the porch with her litter of 5. She kindled in the chicken coop in March and the babies would have frozen or been dinner for the chickens so I caught the mamm and moved the group to a kennel in the porch. I did not have to do much except to feed and water the mother and later the babies, but in just a few days, the porch was stinky. Gross.
So, the Flemish Giants will be departing. I have been trying to sell them for breeding stock and have sold some, plus some of the babies born in the chicken coop too. Some babies got out through the small wire and have been yard bunnies all winter. Now that gardening season is here, those bunnies have to go for sure. I will catch them with the net slowly and when I have them all, they are going to the butcher shop. The  original doe and buck will go the critter sale in May and then just the Angora bunnies will be left. That is enough for this farmer! 

One mother rabbit reverted to her wild nature and dug a burrow in the 3 year old manure pile in the sheep pen. She is smart. The burrow is on the sunny side of the pile and there is inherent warmth because it is still composting, so the little ones will be toasty. She completely covers the entrance to the burrow after she feeds the babies,but she watches from afar. I uncovered the burrow and moved away and she came and covered it back up, then moved off to watch some more. Smart cute bunnies. Hard to raise these furry sweet natured little bunnies to eat. Yup, it is, so it isn't anymore.  

Alpaca fibre is super soft and very warm and fine, similar to the down of the female rabbit that is plucked from her breast for her nest when she kindles, or has her kits. I thought it would be a good substitution for the mamm'a breast fur.She did not pluck a great deal out, or rather did, but did not put it all in the nesting box, which was the chicken layer barrel. When I transferred the baby bunnies to the house, I picked up all the fur I could, but it wasn't enough. That is when I got the bright idea of using alpaca, but that was a big mistake. 

The alpaca fibre is long and strong, very strong and very long. The babies are constantly moving, jumping and kicking as they develop their muscles and coordination in the nest. They are not able to stand or walk for a few weeks, but they are always moving. They squiggle and wiggle and jiggle and what happened is the fibre got twisted around the babies, so tightly in one case, he died.There were actually 6 babies, though I originally thought 5. The one who died got tangled and could not get back to the others, so he got cold and died. The babies must stay together in the nest to keep their body temperature up. If they move too far away, they chill and just go to sleep - forever. 

I had to use scissors to cut the alpaca off the babies. It was twisted around their legs and necks and bodies quite badly. The fibre also was wet. The babies drink milk from the mother rabbit only twice a day, once in the morning and once at night for a total of only about 5 minutes. But for their size, they are able to produce quite a bit of urine. The alpaca fibre somehow retained the moisture, while the original mother's nest would have allowed it to move away from the babies.

So, once I got them free, I saved what fur I could from the mother, discarded the alpaca, and made a nest of hay, similar to a large chicken's nest, then put the babies and mother's fur inside. The high sides will keep the babies from straying as they jump and move and develop and the fur will keep them warm. They are in the porch anyhow and it is not terribly cold in there, so they are going to be fine. But whew! I am glad I caught the problem as quickly as I did or they would have all died. 

The mother rabbit is terribly messy. She does not use her litter box and spills her food and water all the time. I know she does not like to be in a cage but the cage is almost 18 square feet, so she is  not cramped. The nest box does not take up that much room either. I will have to clean that cage at least weekly, but she is wild and containing her while cleaning might not be that easy. Oh the joys of winter kindling! 

Last summer, 4 baby bunnies escaped by slipping through the dog kennel wires. They became yard bunnies. I thought at first that the dogs would kill them, but they had already realized that the bunnies were part of the stock they were taking care of, so they left them alone. So did I. Well, not entirely, I did try to catch them off and on, but had no luck, so finally I just gave up. 

They are not terribly wild and certainly not tame. They do not run away from me, but if I get within their comfort zone they will hop away. I am not sure where they spent the winter..perhaps in the straw bales or hay bales? I did see them continuously hop in and out under the chicken coop, but it is not warm there. If they dug into a hay bale, they would have a good warm winter nest. They chew and claw a burrow in there, and line it with the shredded straw or hay. Most of the time they sleep together too, even though they are the same sex. I have males together and they do not fight and females and they do not fight. The only time I separate them is when they are breeding. I am not sure where I will put the females to have their babies this summer. There are 5 breeding does now and 2 bucks. Petey, my original buck from Holland is retired due to always having chronic eye infections. He is not a strong animals and right from the get go, he had problems in the winter. I think it is because he was fed gmo rabbit pellets and he still prefers to eat them over good food. 

I went to gather the eggs this morning and saw that there was rabbit fur all over the floor. OH oh! Perhaps a weasel attacked one of the yard bunnies. Wait, no, what is that in the nesting box at the bottom? It is a female rabbit having babies and placing them in the nicely lined nest with the breast fur she plucked out. Oh! 

But I cannot leave those babies there. That would be certain death, either from the chickens thinking they were mice and eating them, or freezing because the temperatures are going to drop drastically to minus 24 in the next few days or even one of the Muscovy ducks wanting a midnight snack. Mamma bunny finished kindling, that is what it is called when a doe rabbit gives birth, and fed the babies then left the nest. The mother rabbit only feeds the babies a few times a day, but she stays close. When I went in, so did she, so I closed the hatch and caught her. Luckily there was a little kennel there, in which I placed her. Then I got a box for the babies, lined it with llama fleece and her own rabbit down and placed the babies inside.I was surprised at how strong they were for having just been born. I had to hang on tight or they easily would have jumped out of my hand. They made little sounds too. 

Mamma rabbit and the babies were transferred to a super large dog kennel in the porch. She has hay and a litter box, food and water and hay to hide in or eat. She is not happy. Who would be after being free for the winter and now being caged? I hope she feeds her babies. She did go into the box to visit them, so I know she knows they are there. I have decided not to try to feed them if she abandons them. There is a way to do that with a makeup sponge dipped in milk, but there are 5 babies and with working, I don't know if I could manage. 

So, my new kindle reader is a Mamma bunny! Ha, fooled you!

TMamma bunny had 5 babies for her first litter. I left Petey with her because I was not sure she was bred. She was with the other doe and the two of them dug a burrow under the ground for their babies. This is the way rabbits prefer their nests. The burrow goes quite far usually and then it goes up. I imagine the elevated section where she has her kits is higher in case of flooding. The reason I know how this looks is because last year I dug up a rabbit burrow and was very surprised at how far it went and then the raised portion. The doe then carries hay and straw down the hole to her nest and finally pulls her fur from her breast to line the nest for the babies. They are born in a nest much like a chicken nest, only lined with soft fluffy fur, but the babies are basically on top of one another. Again, this design keeps the young in their place and allows them to stay warm from the body heat of each other. The babies are born hairless and with their eyes closed. Mamma rabbit goes only once a day to feed the bunnies and she stands over the nest to allow them access to her teats. She is not in a hurry and will stay there a long time until the bunnies are no longer interested. 

One of the does actually covered the entrance to her burrow every time she came back out and then dug it free when she went down to the kits. In the wild, this is the way the kits are protected from outside predators. The mother rabbit goes about her business during the day and will visit the kits towards evening when she feels it is safe. If she feels there is danger, she will run away and return much later, though she will come daily to nurse her babies. 

This little mamma had 5 babies. I have caught only one and there are four running around the barnyard. Fortunately, I have trained the dogs to leave them alone. That is really hard for Robbie, so he just follows them around and herds them from place to place, but her really wants to catch them instead. They are getting a little bolder and I have the fishing net ready to pounce on them with. For their own protection from hawks and owls, they are safer in the large hoop cage than running free. 

But then I noticed that the mamma rabbit was taking staw down to her burrow again. The little rabbits were busy running here and there, and would still  visit mom at home, though she was no longer nursing them. Petey must have gotten her right before I took him out of there, because it sure seemed as though she was nest building again. Then I didn't see anything more, so figured it was a false alarm. But yesterday, I did see a little bunny. Today I spent some time at dusk lurking about the big cage. First one little bunny came up the rabbit hole, then 2 more, then 3 more and in total there were 9! Wow! They are eating and drinking on their own and trying to nurse, but Mamma bunny is not having anything to do with that. The moment I moved, they were gone in a flash back down the rabbit hole. I need to stay in the cage and then cover the hole before they go down it and catch them too. I know what they mean when they say multiply like rabbits. This Mamma has had 14 babies in a few months. It actually was 15 because I found a dead baby brought up from the burrow. It must have gotten cold and out of the nest and the Mamma brought it topside so as not to contaminate the den. 

Rabbits have to be one of the cutest animals. They are sweet and gentle and soft and cuddly, and they taste excellent too. Unfortunately, I cannot sell all the rabbits. The ones I have left over have gone into the freezer and as much as I love them, I also love them roasted, sigh. Do you like rabbit? The photos were taken on the phone late in the day, but you can see the little ones starting to emerge from their burrow. 

The mamma rabbit ever only has three babies. Something internally must be wrong because she should have 8-12. She is a good mom, but heeping her as a breeding doe when she only has three bunnies is not feasible when other does will have more than twice as many. Unfortunately for her, her fate is a meat rabbit. 

But this is her second litter of babies only and possibly she deserves one more chance. She is protective of the little ones and their nest and she does all the right things. Maybe.

I can pick up the babies now, but they scream for a few seconds. Then they settle down, realizing I am not going to hurt them. The only time rabbits are picked up in nature is when a predator intends to eat them, so being lifted is very uncomfortable for them and they will try to avoid it at all costs. They are small still so now is the time to handle them and help them feel comfortable or they will bite and scratch possibly when they are adults. I don't have any biting rabbits, though a rabbit has very sharp claws and knows how to use them. Again, the only time they are handled is when they are prey and there is  a predator after them. It is instinct not to want to be touched. 

The little ones are adorable. They have fat round little bodies and short ears and hip hop funny, still getting their legs to do what their minds want to. Their movements are a little uncoodinated and jerky, and they are adorable to watch. Everyday, at leeast once, but more if I can, I pick them up and handle them. They still scream, but the time before they settle comfortably is becoming less long. Oh, darn, it is hard to think of them raosted at this stage. 

I wanted to move the rabbits for some time now out of their winter quarters. I moved them once and put them back because the duck is still sitting on her nest in front of the rabbit hutch. Until she is off I could not move them. 

They were so hot today that I though at least if I cannot move the whole thing, I could move the rabbits at least. I got the cages ready and put the rabbits in them. One of the females fought me and she has extremely sharp claws. It is not new that she fights though. She is highly protective, but today she was worse than usual. 

I got the rabbits set up in the shady spot on nice green grass and gave them food and water and picked some quack grass for them which they love. All was well. 

Then I went to get the little houses out and removed two but did not take the third because I got way laid some where else doing something else. I came back about 6 hours later and Robbie the border collie was intent on the little hutch that was left. I asked him what he saw and lifted the box and there they were! Three little bunnies about a week old were jumping around in there. It was odd that the mother had not pulled her down out to line the nest, but she had been in and out of the big community hutch a couple of times. The other odd thing is that the buck and another doe were there too with her. Last year, the other doe killed all the first doe's kits. Some may have been killed because she should have had more than three. 

Anyhow, I figured out which doe it was by seeing which one was nursing and returned her to the big hutch. Travis came by and helped me put a tarp over it for shade. I brought her food and water and I sure hope she takes her bunnies back. She will nurse them only once a day, usually at night. Rabbit milk is very very rich and will sustain the babies until they are old enough to come out and start to nibble on food and drink water. The bunnies will start to nourish themselves by 3 weeks, but the doe will nurse them for 8 weeks and they should not be weaned unti then. 

Baby bunnies are so cute, even when they are tiny as these. Thanks momma bunny!

The Fat Ewe Farm has baby bunnies. At only three months old, they are already larger and heavier than many other full grown rabbits. They are Flemish Giants. The buck is an import from Holland and the doe is a local doe with a great pedigree. Although the rabbits do have pedigrees, there is no real registration for them, I am thinking because they multiply so rapidly. These babies were born in an underground burrow. Both does were cohabiting at the time and shared in the digging and creation of the burrow. Cindy had her babies there about a week prior to Sandy having hers, but Sandy pulled Cindy's babies out of the burrow and left them to die so she could have heres, then defended the burrow so Cindy had no access. This was a learning lesson for me. Does cannot cohabit or something bad is going to happen to one of the litters. There were two nest boxes available, which they chose to ignore and both wanted to use the burrow. 

The buck did spend some time with the does prior to the snow fall and they could have been bred, but there is not place for them to have winter babies. Either they will abort them or try to birth them in the straw bale burrows they stay in when it is cold. I have no idea how that will work. 

In the meantime, the babies, purebred Flemish Giants of the Holland buck and sandy doe, are ready for new homes. There are five males and only one female. She will remain here on the farm and be bred back to the buck. I have purchased the first of what will be several baby cribs to convert to rabbit hutches. The cribs are 25 dollars or so each and only require attaching wires and a plywood roof to make an excellent moveable rabbit hutch. In summer they can use the ground floor and the entire thing can be moved daily to provide fresh grass for the bunnies, and in winter they can move to the top floor. The rabbits are doing very well in the cold, but they are surrounded on three sides with full straw bales and the front is covered with old windows for the night to protect them from the wind. 

The rabbits are sold for $150 each pedigreed as breeding rabbits, or $100 dollars without. Although my idea was to breed them for meat, I am not sure I can bring myself to eat a bunny. They are just so darn cute and adorable and soft and cuddly. A dressed meat rabbit sells for around 40 dollars at the fryer size they are now, but to sell them frozen, I would have to drive 3 hours each way to the only abbatoir that will do rabbits in all of Alberta, so it is hardly worth it. Connundrum….to breed or not to breed. They are so cute!

There is so much to learn and too many conflicting opinions about keeping animals. Everyone does things their way and some believe it is the only way, there is no other and certainly none better. Keeping rabbits is that way. There are a few who believe rabbits are best kept in colonies, while others separate and raise them in cages. Raising them in cages is not any different than keeping hens in cages in my mind. The rabbits in a rabbitry are stacked in cages, droppings falling to the floor, not always kept free of manure, but it does not stink because rabbits manure is not too bad and if there is enough organic matter, it can be managed. But the rabbits do not see the sun if they are kept in a cage in a building. So I chose the colony method. 

The buck and two does cohabited for the last month. The does were pregnant and grouchy yesterday and the buck was hiding. I figured it was time. Sure enough this morning, there was chaos in the farm yard. Something was being eaten, but it was already dead. What was it? Oh no, a baby rabbit, but how in Earth did it get outside the kennel? 

So, I went to investigate. The buck is still hiding, so I just took him out and put him in a large cage for now. He has a tote to go in if it rains and if he is cold, so he will be fine for a while. The does are fighting though. There is only one burrow and two nesting boxes, but there are no nests in the nesting boxes. Instead there is a burrow, a long tunnel that turns rapidly and likely has a chamber. It appeared that the first doe had her kits there, 6 that I could find, and the other doe dragged the entire nest out of the burrow to have her kits there. The first doe is hiding in a nesting box and the second doe is busy covering the entrance to the burrow, which they do in the wild to make it appear that no babies are there. She used dirt and hay and did a remarkable job. 

But the poor doe whose babies were dragged out, then died, is sad and hiding. I need to put her in a separate cage too. So, it appears the colony thing is not feasible for these three rabbits. Tomorrow I will take Cindy Lop Ear out and leave Sandy Flemish Giant in. Hopefully the babies will be fine until then. This is terrible and a real wake up call on rearing rabbits. 6 babies sacrificed to ignorance is not acceptable. Caging rabbits is also not acceptable. I think unit they are pregnant they can live together, but cohabitation must cease once the buck has been home for a week to prevent further baby deaths. So sad. I am deeply sorry for the loss of these little lives. Please forgive me mother rabbit and babies. 

Rabbits are newer to the farm than the other critters, having only arrived last year. I could have bred the does last year, but was not ready in my mind to eat baby bunnies. Rabbit meat is delicious and lean, and the rabbits are excellent feed converters, but feeding them when they are in cages is not easy. I pick some weeds and grass for them daily, sometimes twice if it is hot, and they pick at it, but do not eat much. They do like some leaves from saplings and will eat grain, but they love rabbit pellets. I did not want to feed pellets to them because the ingredients are made from genetially modified corn and soy and round up ready sprayed grains. Petey got sick though and was did not thrive on the hay ration and grain. He became thin and depressed too. Now he is closer to the girls and can see and smell them. The female rabbits are very good friends, Sandy, the red sandy Flemish Giant and Cindy, the French Lop. They have little houses they can go to, but often share one together and they have a barrel for when the weather is wet and driving, which they do use together as well. 
The does have dug two burrows to have their kits in. Most folks give the rabbits nesting boxes, but when they are outdoor rabbits, what do you do? There isn't room in their barrel for nesting boxes, nor in their little shelters. In the wild, does dig burrows which they then cover loosely. The burrows are quite deep and go down then back up to keep the little ones dry. They pull the soft down from their chests to line the burrow and when they have their kits, they only return once a day to nurse them, uncovering the burrow and then carefully recovering it when they leave. They then stay near by, but rabbits cannot defend themselves very well. They will bite and jump forward using their front legs as claws, plus kick with their strong hind legs, but they really do not have great defences. Staying out of site is best. 

The burrows are ready and the ladies are waiting. They have another week or so before delivery. I have not been able to move their cage because of their burrows. Usually the cage is moved daily to fresh grass and now I have to pick the grass for them. Petey's cage is moved too, but I have never seen him eat the grass even if it is fresh which pokes up through the wire bottom of his cage. 

I would like to look into naturally raising rabbits in colonies using an electric net fence and putting them in pasture. They would need some protection for the arial predators, so I was thinking of using a trampoline and some how fencing it in. The bunnies can dig well, but if they have what hey want and are not too crowded on the inside of the fence, they do not dig much to get out, at least not these two breeds. I will breed them two more times this summer and then let them rest until next spring. Three breedings should provide about 50-60 rabbits for the freezer. The rabbits have to be taken quite a distance to be processed since no abbatoire around here will do rabbits, but then rabbit can be sold from the farm or used at the bed and breakfast. Besides, I do not have the heart to kill a bunny or anything else. Even the chickens go the the processor. 

This will be the first breeding and I will see how that goes and where I can improve and change things to make it better. I want to allow Petey in with the girls for at least the weeks after he has bred them so he is not so lonely, so I will work on a large cage type area for them. In the meantime, stay tuned for bunnies in a week or so. If they are in the burrows though, I actually won't see them for a month. Who does not love baby bunnies?