CHOCOLATE AND BLACK BUNNIES AT 5 DAYS
CUTE
Well, I missed day 4 pictures as business was booming in the shop and snow preparations were in earnest all day long as we prepared for the second Nor'easter in a week. But here they are at day 5, and wiggly as all get out, so picture taking results were not as clear as I wanted:

Looks like their bellies are as dark as the rest of them now, so we have "self" black and chocolate genetic color combinations to start with.
They are fat and sassy and Liebchen is relaxed and doing well with them all. This is the first time I have had bunnies in the house and it is so much easier to check on them than in the barn! The downside is all the cleanup. And there is WAY MORE than outside bunnies.
I have to say, we tried something for the urine odor which is working well. Angela mentioned that lime on top of peat moss would be a way to deal with it. Well, the early Nor'easter last week put an end to having time to get lots of new things, so I put wood stove ash on top of the hay that was drifting into the litter pan, and it works great! We have a lot of it, as we heat with wood, so after a 3 day resting time, wood ash is relegated to the bunny room.

Gretel's' first day as mom was certainly fine. She was a tad protective of her babies when I reached in for them, but when the broccoli in my hand was put in front of her first, she went right for it and let me handle the babies. I gave the kits a quick once over and chopped all the fur in the nest into 1" pieces (which is important to keep any angora from tangling around little legs and feet and necks!). Today I will take pictures of them and see how Gretel does without them for 15 minutes.

CHOCOLATE AND BLACK BUNNIES AT 3 DAYS
Here are the wee ones at 3 days. I could not get them to sit still alone as they would only calm down when they had each other to lie near, so in the interest of a clear picture (for a change!) I took this one:

They are certainly fast and wiggly at this age!

I had a note from Virginia asking how I am able to handle the babies at such a young age, and I can only admonish those of you who are new to breeding to NOT do so unless you have known the mom for a very long time and find her to be calm and accepting. Some does will turn on anyone who enters their cage if they are nesting. It helps to have things as quiet as they can be and to offer a treat to mom, and return the babies in less than 15 minutes.


BREAKING NEWS!!!
Gretel and Darth have also just become parents! Gretel had her babies last evening. 6 were delivered with one being dead (this is a normal occurrence with litters...there is always one that is not quite right). We have 5 healthy kits! 4 black and one chocolate! These new babies are Saggitarian with Cancer rising and Leo moon. I ALWAYS look at the natal charts of litters for the Big Three astrological indicators. Gives me an idea how the bunnies will be operating in their lives here.

CHOCOLATE AND BLACK BUNNIES AT 2 DAYS
It's interesting to see how color evolves with angora rabbits as they grow. NEO chocolate tortoiseshell was fabulous fun to watch as his color got deeper and deeper. Day 4 is the one when color looks good, so we are ahead of the game here on day 2. BUT, for those of you with new litters and little experience, it's good to see how the color goes from pale to dark or pale to paler.
Here is the wee brown bunny at 2 days:

And here's one of the black bunnies:

He/she wiggled a lot(as did I) and the picture is not too clear. Interesting to see how pale the feet and paws are on day 2. Their bellies are somewhat pale and I always wait for the litter that has color surpises in store, for if their bellies do not darken, as I suspect they will, then an odd agouti pattern is playing games with this litter.

NEW FRIENDS, LOST FRIENDS and CHANGES

All hail Dali. She passed away two nights ago. We knew it was time for her to move on, but she has left a legacy that will be hard to match. She was born here on Halloween in 1992 in our first litter and had a long, healthy and productive 11 years with us. We adored her. She spent a lot of time with my (then) young children and slept with my third oldest from time to time. She was a character. A beautiful chocolate color with her mixed English/German heritage, she weighed in at 5 pounds soaking wet. She taught us all about angora rabbits, and she entered many 4-H fairs with my children. She was always kind, and a perfect lady as well as a wonderful mother. She had 9 litters here, and many of her children still report back every once in a while. We will all miss her. I will bury her this afternoon near Glinda, at the edge of the woods.

But, she hung on this past week as if to wait for the right moment to pass on. The night she died, Liebchen went into labor and kindled 5 babies, all of whom are great, great, great, great, great grandchildren of Dali's.

Liebchen is DELIGHTED to be a mom again, and happily munched on broccoli this morning so I could borrow her babies for some picture taking. One in the litter is a runt and has since passed away, but there is a thriving chocolate kit in with three black ones, and I wonder if this brown bunny is female...

The three black ones are all healthy and look identical in color. I am sure small differences will emerge over time:

So, we embark on another bunny family. Darth is the papa, and he got some broccoli today, too, just because.

This entry is being worked from my new computer, which has taken 4 days to install and bring up to date. This last week has been full of changes, and my web work is almost caught up, so hopefully more time will be available for BareHare!

BUNNY WATER IN COLD WEATHER

It's snowing here in eastern New York State:

I love this time of year! But, the increased work involved with getting outside rabbits through the winter is temperature dependent. On days when it is colder, water becomes a vital issue.
Back in the beginning I used water bottles with metal sipper tubes year round and would spend time thawing the tubes each feeding session. This required a bucket of hot water to dump the bottles into to melt the ice in the tubes. And I found that within 15 minutes, the tubes would freeze again in 5* weather. Even using warm water did not increase the time window by much. So, if bunny did not drink QUICKLY, he/she was out of luck til the next feeding time.
Have you ever watched a rabbit drink from the sipper tubes? It takes a while to get even a mouthful that way. In warm weather, this is not an issue and actually keeps chins tidier, but drinking from a bowl is faster, and in cold weather this is a plus.
So, now I use bowls for water in the winter. After trying indestructible metal and seeing how it can stick to frozen fur (yikes!) and pottery bowls which were pretty and heavy but breakable, I have settled on plastic bowls (shown below) that I now keep IN STOCK AT COUNTRYWOOL. These bowls are guaranteed for 5 years, and I have some 8 year old bowls that are working well. The beauty of bowls, and these bowls in particular, is that the bowl is graduated in size, with the bottom narrower than the top, so frozen water shapes can be tapped/smacked out easily before you add fresh water.

Having a hard surface to smack the bowls against will help in REALLY cold weather, as the ice crystallizes right to the bowl and shatters when you break it. I have a routine where I work with 2 frozen bowls and hit them against each other.
So now, instead of lugging a pail of water and sloshing it over my shoes twice a day, I take a gallon jug of room temp water (I keep an old plastic milk container filled and waiting by my back door). Each rabbit gets a full 8 oz of water twice a day, and this has worked well for the last 7 years of winters.
Because of this new style of watering, I have found I can water 12 rabbits with 1 gallon. So, my limit for keeping rabbits over the winter is 12. Strange how we decide these things.

LOST IN CYBERSPACE

The last 2 weeks my webwork has been UNREAL, and the bunnies have just been getting by in the late November frigid cold we were socked in with.

It's hard to be cheerful when your water bowl freezes in 15 minutes.

But, cheery they all are as today was above freezing.

Tripod has been working hard to update their servers, and as a result much of my time has been spent trying to keep ahead of the changes so my COUNTRYWOOL customers can use my website. We are making headway and I have NOTHING BUT PRAISE for the folks at Tripod.

Hopefully the web stuff will simmer down soon and I can begin regular chatty info again.

THIS JUST IN....Liebchen moves indoors tomorrow morning. She is due with her bunnies next week, and I want to make sure she is well settled by the weekend so her new nest is to her liking WAY BEFORE the bunnies arrive.

HANS OLO: FOR SALE

In my continuing recycle of bucks to keep genetic lines as mixed as I can make them for better hybrid vigor, Hans is on the sale cart. He is as healthy as the day is long, a gentleman AND a proven stud and has a wonderful buttery fiber color for spinning. He was born here in May of 2002 so he has lots of loving, studdin' and good life ahead of him. He is 42German/30English/28French. $50. Tortoiseshell color. Health and breeding guaranteed.
Here he is last month:

THE CAGE GETS DONE!

Yesterday was absolutely balmy. I worked outside in a T-shirt! Starting with the bent cage bottom as below, I cut
1) 2 squares out of 1/2 x 1/2" hardware cloth: 9x9"
2) one rectangle the depth of the cage (30") x 18"

With my J-clips and pliers, I attached the long rectangle (bent it at 90* while I was at it) to become the floor and outside wall of the box:

Then looking down at what I had just done:

I attached the square ends of the box.

And here we have the double nest box cage all set to go. It just needs the removable divider inserted so each doe gets her own space and her own drop nest box:

BACK TO NEST BOX WORK....

We've just had 5 BRUTALLY windy and cold days in which I chose to work inside and not out, so the cage building got delayed. But, now I am back on the case.

I left some cage debris on the bottom wire so this shot would photograph well for the web. 8" From the end of the floor, I removed all the J-clips that held the floor on, and bent back the wire 90*. This is the first side of the drop nest box. I will then cut a floor piece and side piece as one, bend THAT in a 90* angle to fasten to the bottom of the bent side, and the existing cage up top.

I also intend to clip Hans Olo today. He gets his bunny sweater put on because the weather is not cheery at all.

ADDING DROP NEST BOXES TO PREFAB CAGES

Gretel and Darth spent quality time together today. I am (again) hoping for bunnies in 32 days from these two.

Having made the commitment to winter litters, and since I do this rarely, I have decided to make a permanent double drop nest box cage that I can hang in my cellar should this occasion arise again. I went hunting on-line and see many cages I can purchase, but most would take up more room than I can devote to these bunnies, so I decided to save a bundle of $ and redo what I have. The trick will be the litter tray underneath it, but hubby Jim owns a steel fabrication business and he offered to make me the custom size I will need. (He's really great!)I may be sorry as it will weigh 12 pounds, but I cannot get a plastic litter pan that will measure 31"x43", which is the size that the upper part of the cage will be and is where the does will spend all their time except for feeding their kits (that elusive 10 or 15 minutes a day!).

I have single drop cages in the barn and I took one to tear apart and rebuild with a second box.
Here it is with the single box attached on the bottom right. I have been using it this way for 2 years.

I get my cages from DA-MAR'S. This one is a double cage, 30"x60". It comes as one long cage and you insert a divider to separate the two parts. I used the divider to make the sides and bottom of the drop nest box, and some 1/2" x 1/2" hardware cloth to make the front and back of it:

Here's a drop nest filled with hay and ready for a mama to dig in and make her nest:

To make the second part, I will use all hardware cloth, and Jim is making me a steel divider for the cage so that both does can have their own territory.

These are the tools I will use to add the box:

Top to bottom:Hardware cloth; J-Clip Removal pliers; J-Clip pliers; J clips.