This week was busy! We butchered eleven rabbits, which are aging presently and should be ready for making dinner with vaccum sealing and freezing the rest. This freed up some cage space and lowered feed consumption, but only temporarily.
Luna kindled three, but two were DOA fetal giants, so only one black survivor out of Dallan, thanks to Hannah Yost. Still, I am very hopeful this one will have the fur quality I got the first of this pairing and better type this time around would be nice also.
Misty Blue Too surprised us with five out of Leon. I had not seen a fall off, but the old man is still quite fertile and even with his old weak legs, so apparently able to still impregnate a willing doe even when I cannot detect a fall off.
Under all that blue fur are five healthy sleeping black kits and she even pulled more fur!
Misty's surprise newborns meant we urgently needed to prep a cage with baby wire yesterday evening, because Luna was still in the kindling suite. None of our cages had baby saving wire, because we had been rotating the does in an out of the kindling suite for the last few years. Obviously, our rabbitry has grown and we bred with a very tight rotation schedule for our last breedings of the season, so I planned for one to be in a regular cage with a nesting box (and I honestly thought Misty could not be pregnant, which made things pleasantly worse).
Avery was also bred with Leon and is due around Monday of next week. Since it is warmer now and this is her second kindling, I may use a nesting box with her in a baby proof cage as we plan to prep another one.
My last expecting mama of the season is Zinfandel, who was paired with Starry Knight. She is due mid May. Since it is her first time, I hope have her in the kindling suite.
Breeding is then off for the summer. I will be working on organizing and improving some things in the rabbitry as well as setting up fans and keeping my buns cool.