Weigh in 4

Another week has raced by and a few priorities have changed.
I sat down and wrote down when I could be expecting my ducklings and baby goats and realized that the raised vege beds will have to wait. I've got to finish the duck enclosure in the next three weeks and make the goat fence baby proof in 6 weeks. Taking the weather variable into account, and my aging body I can't spend time getting the raised beds made. That will have to wait. So, in the past two days I've been sorting out wood and started on the fence yesterday. With the wonderfully ( NOT) incapacitating result of a pulled muscle in my back! If I can get my husband to bang in the first post, I'll be able to slowly work on the rest. Til the back is strong enough again to do some more digging.
So, to slowly warm up, I weighed the bunnies again today:
Yellow      1380g
Black        1335g
Red          1360g
Green       1210g

Mixed results, but as they are still a fair way away from decision making time I'm not even going to contemplate who will be kept for breeding and who for eating.


TTFN, photos maybe later.

Weigh-in 3

Here are the numbers:
Yellow   1140g
Black     1115g
Red       1150g
Green    1000g



And here some photos from the latest three litters, born Wednesday a week ago, and Sunday night.

Weigh in 2

I'm about to move the kits into a hutch by themselves as their mum might have another litter in the next couple of days. I want to make sure she doesn't get stressed out by these bouncy inquisitive fur balls. So, before moving them I decided to weigh them, a day early, but that doesn't really matter for me.
Results:
Yellow 844 grams
Black   838 grams
Green   710 grams
Red      854 grams


And I got myself, or rather my hens properly set up for hatching out a couple of eggs. It was supposed to be duck eggs, but the breeder down south is having a full-on time with the lambing, so I will wait another couple of months til the next one goes broody. As ducks mature a bit slower than chickens,it won't really make that much of a difference to my breeding regime anyway. And I'd rather not have him stressed out!

That's it for now, I'll be on baby watch again for the next 5 days, hopefully it'll all turn out well, and Uno's legacy will be a fruitful one!

Pounui weigh-in

Watch out: Pounui weight watchers are tracking weights around here!
Collared, sexed (hopefully correctly) and weighed at 4 weeks old:
Red        poss. female   640 g
Green     poss.female    526 g
Black           female       592 g
Yellow          male         640 g

The babies seem to be weaned, they are now eating everything mum eats: fresh grass, hay, fresh vege scraps and pellets.
Mum might be due for another litter in a week, so I will have to move the babies to a separate hutch. Hope they won't miss mum too much.

Unfortunately their dad, Uno (the big white rabbit with the big snoz) died yesterday morning unexpectedly.
After doing a simple autopsy and posting the photos on forums, I'm relieved that he doesn't seem to have succumbed to an infectious disease. On the other hand, his condition ( possibly urinary calculi) is something I will have to bear in mind when raising more male big bunnies for breeding: they need obviously more exercise to keep everything moving and flowing properly. A shame he had to be the one to teach me that, but at least his kids seem to have inherited his pleasant character disposition, so I will see what will come of them.


TTFN

and now for a video!

Bunny nursery

I seem to have sussed out a set-up for my bunny nursery. Hopefully the pics say it all. Today I cleaned all the bunny cages again. With kits at hand and new litters due I want to keep everyone as clean and healthy as possible. And it was easy peasy.
Now I just have to figure out a nice permanent set-up for the studs, as they don't like to keep each other company and I want them to have "happy" singles accommodation.

Oh, and btw, the babies are SOOOOO cute right now: 20 days old and now jumping around and starting to nibble grass and hay.

 

Babies!

Ok, last week Brownie gave birth to her third litter, and her daughters Ginger and Lavender didn't. Unexpectedly her litter was only 4. But as I found out from others later on, to be expected from an unsupervised "mating". Obviously he didn't get to do the job properly with either of them.
So, after the max waiting time had elapsed the daughters got mated again on Monday, and this time properly. Well, as far as I could tell.

In the past week Brownie, the mum of four, has been behaving like an utter tart. And last night she managed to undo the boy's latch and they spent the night cavorting. AGAIN. I have to padlock his cage! Way to early for her: the does are supposed to have a recuperating time of 2-3 months between litters, but hey, let's see what happens in 30 days!

The babies, because there's only four of them, have been thriving and putting on weight and fur very quickly. Eyes are still closed, and should be for another 3-7 days, but that doesn't stop the kids bringing them in and giving them oodles of cuddles.
This bunch of babies is the leakiest we have had so far. EVERY time we pick them up, they piddle! I always make sure not to wear anything "nice" and even the kids are learning to keep their distance after the first one managed to squirt them in the face!!

 

Uno, the boy, has had a bit of a big snoz for quite some time. We had decided once we knew if he had lead in his pencil, we'd take him to the vet and get it sorted out. Well, while playing around with Ginger, she did the vets job, without anesthetic: she lanced one side of his nose and the most disgusting amount of gooey thick puss came out. Trying to keep it clean so it doesn't get affected, and hopefully the abcess will go by itself. Otherwise a visit at the vets is still on. We got him in for a check-up and he had a good nosey around, watched suspiciously by the dog!

The snow storm, which prevented me from watching two movies and a highly anticipated gig on Sunday night, was exciting at first. But now that we've been having mainly rain, hail, sleet and WIND we're over it. Could Spring please make an appearance soon?

The goats have been coping so far okish, I had to put coats on them twice, but feeding them hay twice a day seems to have been alright for them.

And we've been getting 3-5 eggs a day from the hens, so this week I'll be doing some baking again.

Oh, and speaking of baking, I've decided to start another blog!!  Only about food, recipes. No raising, butchering etc there. And the name?? Hehe, Pounui Resort Restaurant and Cafe!  PRRC for short.

see you soon,
here or there,
or ANYWHERE!