Rabbit Update

The rabbit operation is in full swing.  Well, almost.

I now have the permanent rabbit cages built.  I have a steady residence of 3 does and one buck.  Of those, one doe and one buck are the original brother/sister pair.  I did attempt to diversify my bloodlines and bought another unrelated doe.  She turned out to be crazy, an attack rabbit. More on her later.  See a future post entitled "The Story of Lady B."

I started the build of the cages as soon as I could.  Little did I know this was somewhat urgent.  Just as I had a couple of the cages barely usable, I hear a loud "bang."  I look over and all four rabbits were sitting on the ground.  The floor of their hutch had rotted and had fallen out onto the ground with all of them still sitting on top.  It was really quite humorous to see all of them just sitting there looking at each other like they were still trying to figure out what had just happened!  After quite a frenzy with the help of my wife, we were able to round them all up and relocate them into the two cages I had completed.  I  built rather simple, but I think durable rabbit cages out of hardware cloth and inch and a half PVC.  Here is a picture of the cages once they were usable, but not quite finished:

To the picture above, I added plastic corrugated roofing material at an angle between the two levels to prevent bunnies from having droppings fall on their heads.  Also, the cage at the lower right in this picture didn't have it's feeder or water bottle, but you get the idea.  This design is simple, easy to build, durable, and portable.  I even left the PVC unglued just in case I wanted to bring the entire assembly into a shed (a future project) and reassemble.

New Zealand Whites continue to be difficult to find in the area.  I have been able to pick up two more does, but had to drive two hours away from home to get them.  That's ok, though.  I've met many good people and had many great experiences in the world of rabbits.

The doe has been bred to her brother for a couple of weeks now, and should be ready to kit soon.  One of the other does was bred yesterday and is due to kit May 15th.  I am planning on putting all rabbits out of the first kittle into the freezer.  The next kittle will go up for sale, and whatever doesn't sale will join their frigid brothers and sisters.  So if you happen to be in the market for some good meat rabbits (or pets, of course) around mid-June, let me know!