On your marks, get ready, set... SHOW!
Thats right folks! It is the beginning of show season in the good old midwest. Were gassing up the rabbit wagon and hittin the road. It will be a maiden voyage this eekend for the potential new rabbit wagon. 2001 Chevy Venture. Its navy blue and pretty. We'll see how she does on a long road trip. Always a little scary when you take a new vehicle out for the first time. I have faith in General Motors.
Our good friend Cole Simons will be accompanying us this weekend. Were meeting him and his mom Tara in Ames after work tonight. He will be going to the Gardner KS show with us on Saturday and DeWitt, Ia on Sunday. I bet we'll have a blast.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
What? It's February?
How did we end up almost to Valentine's day already? I have no idea! Time sure flies around here. I really don't have anything too exciting to say. We cut back on some rabbits going into winter and the cold took a few more. It's tougher on the little Dwarfs than the bigger bunnies I think. Hard on us, for sure, but it's just not feasible to do chores more than once a day when you have to drive 52 miles round trip to do them. They either learn to chew ice or they die. Fresh water once a day is all they get.
We tried making some improvements to the building. We covered the inside of the big doors to cut down the draft. This also has helped keep snow from blowing in! We tried putting in a plastic 'drop ceiling' of sorts... yeah that didn't work out so much. I really don't think it's made any difference at all.
We've given a few rabbits brooder lamps. However I don't recommend putting them over the top of nest boxes... seems the does tend to sit in the box and smoosh the kits. Which I find odd, because I have used the brooder lamps in my old barn for winter litters with pretty good success. My old barn was much warmer though. What I do think works well is to put the brooder lamp over the rabbits water bowl. This seems to encourage them to lick and chew the ice. Especially babies just coming out of the nest box.
We only ave a handful of babies from this winters breedings. Most just didn't make it when the first really cold weather hit in December. We have a couple litters of Dwarfs, one litter of mini lops and a litter of Blanc de Hotots. The Mini Lops started out with a few and has dwindled down to 2. Two very portly babies! Super cute with their upright ears! haha! The Dwarfs are just a bunch of silly chestnuts that Amanda likes. Boring. The Hotot started out with 10. 3 Hotots and 7 sports. Well, were down to one Hotot and 3 sports now. They just dwindled when they started coming out of the box. Darn things sure are cute though.
In addition to the few litters out at the barn, Amanda and I both have about 20 rabbits in each of our basements. I really don't like having rabbits in the house. 2 or 3 isn't bad, but once you get past 5 or 6 you may as well have 20. haha! I use the under pads for human incontinence in my drop pans. You can buy them at Sam's club. They run about 25 bucks for 120 pads. I try to change them out every 4 days but sometimes let it go a whole week. They are really handy because you can just tuck them up and throw them away. Don't have to scrape pans or deal with shavings or wood pellets. The garbage bags are pretty light. I can change all of them and only use two kitchen size trash bags. Then I take my pans rinse them slightly with water, spray them quick with smelly good stuff like febreeze, let them dry in front of the fan and then plop a new under pad in them. Pretty simple and easy. If you keep up with it the aroma is very much reduced.
We have a few litters due this weekend and next week. Amanda is off seeing Garth Brooks in Vegas with her mom! How exciting! So I get to do chores and frozen waters and nest boxes while she is enjoying the city that never sleeps... jealous? yep. :)
Anywhooo i'm off for now...
We tried making some improvements to the building. We covered the inside of the big doors to cut down the draft. This also has helped keep snow from blowing in! We tried putting in a plastic 'drop ceiling' of sorts... yeah that didn't work out so much. I really don't think it's made any difference at all.
We've given a few rabbits brooder lamps. However I don't recommend putting them over the top of nest boxes... seems the does tend to sit in the box and smoosh the kits. Which I find odd, because I have used the brooder lamps in my old barn for winter litters with pretty good success. My old barn was much warmer though. What I do think works well is to put the brooder lamp over the rabbits water bowl. This seems to encourage them to lick and chew the ice. Especially babies just coming out of the nest box.
We only ave a handful of babies from this winters breedings. Most just didn't make it when the first really cold weather hit in December. We have a couple litters of Dwarfs, one litter of mini lops and a litter of Blanc de Hotots. The Mini Lops started out with a few and has dwindled down to 2. Two very portly babies! Super cute with their upright ears! haha! The Dwarfs are just a bunch of silly chestnuts that Amanda likes. Boring. The Hotot started out with 10. 3 Hotots and 7 sports. Well, were down to one Hotot and 3 sports now. They just dwindled when they started coming out of the box. Darn things sure are cute though.
In addition to the few litters out at the barn, Amanda and I both have about 20 rabbits in each of our basements. I really don't like having rabbits in the house. 2 or 3 isn't bad, but once you get past 5 or 6 you may as well have 20. haha! I use the under pads for human incontinence in my drop pans. You can buy them at Sam's club. They run about 25 bucks for 120 pads. I try to change them out every 4 days but sometimes let it go a whole week. They are really handy because you can just tuck them up and throw them away. Don't have to scrape pans or deal with shavings or wood pellets. The garbage bags are pretty light. I can change all of them and only use two kitchen size trash bags. Then I take my pans rinse them slightly with water, spray them quick with smelly good stuff like febreeze, let them dry in front of the fan and then plop a new under pad in them. Pretty simple and easy. If you keep up with it the aroma is very much reduced.
We have a few litters due this weekend and next week. Amanda is off seeing Garth Brooks in Vegas with her mom! How exciting! So I get to do chores and frozen waters and nest boxes while she is enjoying the city that never sleeps... jealous? yep. :)
Anywhooo i'm off for now...
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About Me
- Beckerella
- I like rabbits! I raise and show domestic rabbits. Got started as a kid in the mid 80's. I have a rabbit partner, who coincidentally is not my life partner other than the fact that we are BFFs. The Netherland Dwarf is my favorite breed of rabbits but my rabbit named Tippy is my favorite rabbit ever. He is an English Angora.