Photo gallery update, March 2012

First, bathing baby bunnies. The soak is warm water with an antibiotic solution for topical treatment that was complimented by a daily shot in the scruff of the neck with a different antibiotic. The first kit has a lacerated back leg, the second kit has a cut front wrist. Both recovered.

Next I must show off our overall progress. A year ago, we were digging up rocks and frantically finding time to build like mad. Now we have this:

Two bunny condos, a chicken coop and run, and SIX raised garden beds. (Not in picture is the ugly hay shelter we built too) The garden beds are made from an old driveway- this we chipped away at last fall once the garden beds were done. I posted some early pics in October, I think. Just to review, I called a driveway company and asked them if I could have the next one they tore out, and they incredulously delivered the busted up cement and asked what I wanted it for.  I'll post some better shots of this. The bed you can see best here is only one layer tall since it's my butterfly and bee flowerbed, and doesn't need to be deep. The beds further back are three rows tall for all the veggies. I'm still accumulating fill dirt, but a lovely fellow with an organic nursery is trading me rabbit meat for dirt, and it's been great working with him. Check out Mikl at Harlequins Gardens.

Bunny Condo Design Adjustment

So, of course I review my last post and laugh to see I have to eat my own words.

We did *some* things right with our previous design, but as this is an experiment where we intend to improve things, I have come to the conclusion that we need to change some things to make this better. And alas, we must compromise our idealism somewhat. That perfect design for our condos is less than perfect at the moment... although it will get closer soon! Here's what happened:

Our doe that kindled 14 kits lost 5. Two disappeared. I never found them. And then I found 5 with lacerations one morning, when they were just around 2 weeks old. I checked all around the cage, and am left to assume that a random piece of glass must have been underground where they were digging, from the fill dirt I add to freshen up between litters, and they cut themselves where I couldn't protect them. We ended up loosing 3 of the 5 due to infection, despite me giving them shots daily and bathing the wounds for over a week. I was so disgusted and sad.

Our purpose in having the rabbits live on the ground was to give them a better quality of life, but this experience left me doubting that it was really a better life for them.  So my conclusion is partially for the rabbits' sake, and partially for mine: They have to go in cages above ground. Here is my reasoning:

1. The lacerations and disappearances could be avoided if they were in a finite space that I have full access to. The infections would have had a better chance to heal, and I wouldn't have needed to segregate the injured ones, giving them less access to nursing and thus being smaller than their uninjured siblings. It was very stressful for the doe to have me kidnap her daily and stick her in a box with the injured ones, which smelled funny from the baths and meds, and with whom she hadn't been able to interact most of the day/night.

2. My other doe kindled 8 and lost 5, so only 3 have reached maturity. Why? She wouldn't reuse her burrow, and birthed them right on the dirt. I put a nest box in her condo and the remaining three thrived. She is a horrible housekeeper, and makes it an awful chore to keep her dirt as clean as I desire- and she's always kicking dirt into her food and water, leaving me to clean her water continually in the winter (hanging bottles freeze here in CO so they're only for warm seasons).

3. I spend wayyyy too much time fiddling with their dang dirt. I need to be able to take care of the rest of our farm and my kids, for gosh sakes, and the rabbits are too labor intensive the way we're doing it. It's either change the system, or ditch the rabbits. Seriously. It got that intensive.

My solution? Keep our bomb-proof structures, and custom-outfit them with cages of the same dimensions that keep them off the dirt. That way, they still have the spaciousness they are used to. Also, by raising them up a foot (the condos are tall enough to do that without compromising their comfort) I can install worm bins underneath, and have worms compost the waste materials directly, and I just pull out the garden compost whenever it gets full. That way I don't have to clean poo daily, dig out urine-soaked dirt, fiddle with finding organic fill-dirt to replenish them with, and waste yard space on a separate compost pile. I can also give the rabbits a ramp to access the yard, so their overall quality of life will still be pleasant.

To accomplish this remodel, we have stopped breeding. Once our last two litters are grown and harvested (by early May), I'll have my cages built to spec, and it's just a matter of pulling one out at a time, screwing in the hooks, and hanging the cages. Then they go back in. I should have them all outfitted in only a day. Then I'll give them a week or two to adjust, and start breeding again at the start of June.

I'm still figuring out how to design the worm bins underneath to accommodate our condos' bottom lip under the door, but I think I can make them like drawers that just pull out, with the worms and fresh poo in the 'drawer' and the compost pilings falling to the ground for me to shovel out. There will be a fine mesh lining the drawer through which the pilings fall. More on that to come.