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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Friday, October 5, 2012

Rabbit Colony Addition

We have had several rabbits that we were growing out and thinking of starting another colony with them. However, I don't know with all of the projects that we have going on if we are going to get to building another colony before winter gets here. So since the original colony started with 6 adults we decided to add the girls to the existing colony. We started with the oldest the other day. It can be tricky adding a new adult to an existing colony. Does are very territorial and they can kill intruders (new additions). We certainly don't want anything bad to happen to our little replacement so we placed a cage in the colony and in that cage she went. All the rabbits came up to check out the bunny in the cage. She has been there two days and it looks like all is well so far. We will see when we let her out today. We will have to keep a close eye on things, but fortunately no one is nesting right now so there shouldn't be any serious aggression. Once she is out and safe we will put another doe in the cage. We have several juveniles that need to be removed and placed in grow out cages but with these bunnies taking up grow out cages we didn't have anywhere to put them. Hopefully, the additions go well and we will be back up to 6 adults. We are beginning our deep bedding of the colony, goat barn, and chicken coop to get us through the winter. We added another window yesterday in the colony since it seemed to be so dark in there all the time. It makes a tremendous difference and lets in so much more light. I really think that will help the buns. We discovered yesterday that we seem to have mites in the colony so have treated everyone for them. That is the one drawback in the colony is that instead of one getting something they all get it. Mites can come in on hay and since we have been adding more hay for the bedding it is just something we have to deal with. It is easily remedied though except for the having to catch every rabbit to treat them. They will have to be treated again in 14 days to fully kill the life cycle of the mites. Just another day on the farm taking care of critters. Blessings, Kat

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