Winterizing

We put nest boxes lined with straw in everyone's cage so that they had a place to snuggle in as it gets colder.  Some of the buns, like Breeze, like it very much...

Others, like Grace, use it as a lookout perch so they can see when food is about to arrive...

We also ordered some straw bales to pile up around the enclosure to cut the wind.

Then we lowered the shades on the sides and we lower the ones on the front at night.  We also ordered some quilted moving blankets to drape over the cages when it gets really cold.  The water crocks are frozen every morning but at least with the crock system, the buns can lick the ice or sometimes break through when it isn't fully frozen.  I've checked into it with a lot of other rabbit bloggers and this is a perennial problem with outside rabbits, but unless you have a separate barn built for your rabbits that is climate-controlled, there is little you can do about it except keep replacing it every morning and evening.  I've gone in at lunchtime and broken the crust for them as well.  I think we are ready for winter which is good because it arrived yesterday!

Breeding Day Redux

So we put Cherry in with Ray again yesterday.  There were two successful attempts in the morning.  Last evening, I thought Cherry was going to have a conniption.  She did not want Ray anywhere near her.  She ran around and around the cage.  He couldn't mount her.  She bit at him so I took her back out.  She was grunting and oinking and growling the entire time and she kept doing it even when she was back in her own cage.  She was a very upset bunny.

Today I groomed her and put her out back in the exercise pen.  Then I groomed Ray and put him out in the pen with her and waited.  She was grunting and oinking and circling him and jumping over the top of him and generally seemed happy to see him today.  (I know, it doens't make a whole lot of sense to me, either, but then I'm not fluent in Rabbit.) 

He was not interested.  He never tried to mount her once.  Does this mean yesterday morning's breeding was successful?  Were his feelings too hurt to try again after last night's decided rejection?  I couldn't find any information on what it means if the buck successfully breeds with the doe twice, then tries again and fails, then is offered a third chance and acts like he's never met her before and doesn't want to get to know her any better. :-)

Wind damage

The winds early Friday morning caused the blinds to come down on the side of the enclosure nearest the house.  The one on the left was broken to pieces and plastic bits were flying over the house and into the front yard!

We called our handy friends, Dean and Bonnie, and Bonnie came up with this solution.

And it latches when it is fully down so that the wind can't catch it and blow it all over the place.  Fabulous!

Two words

False. Pregnancy. <sigh>

Anticipation!

It won't be long now!

 Cherry pulled fur today to line her nest!

Palpation was a dismal failure for me.  I read the instructions carefully, noting that I shouldn't mistake the intestines for the uteri, etc., but I couldn't feel anything!  It might as well have been a big hollow void.  I told Cherry she apparently didn't have any internal organs so she was a miracle bunny!  I will need help from an experienced breeder to learn this, obviously. :-)

Quality time with the herd

I just spent some time hanging out with the buns in the exercise pens today.  They like to climb in my lap; get up on their hind legs, put their front paws on my shoulder and sniff around my face; eat dried fruit treats from my hands; and play chase games around behind my back.  Grace was fascinated with the camera today so she was getting right up in the lens.  Truly, the camera does not do her beauty justice.

(Trying to eat the camera cord.)

Wool Harvesting

Today we harvested wool from Grace, Breeze, Lizzie, and Ray.  Lizzie is the only one with her adult coat but all four were molting so we gathered from everyone.  We blew their coats out with the blower, I brushed out the few remaining mats, then I plucked while Drew put the wool in boxes.  We have a new grooming table so I can stand while plucking, which is better for my back and easier to reach all the way around the bunny.

Ray, right before we started cleaning him up

It took us about an hour and a half but we had a lot of wool collected by the end.  A lot was on me as well.

Fuzzy!

Today was also the day to "palpate" Cherry to check to see if she is indeed pregnant.  You are supposed to be able to feel little grape-sized bumps in the abdomen but even veteran breeders can't always tell so the fact that I felt nothing means very little.  If it didn't take, we have a second breeding date planned before winter sets in.