2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 7

I was in the yard today and noticed that none of the rabbits were visible in the hutch.  I went to check and sure enough all of them were in the box on the side.  They were nursing!!!  I thought for sure they'd be done with that by now.  They're emptying the feeder every other day. 

 It's funny to see those big rabbits on the backs with their feet in the air. 

These are both babies.  They've gotten big.

 

My wife checked the other day and she thinks that the black rabbit is the only male. 

Chicken update

Last fall we got three new chickens.  They were still young at the time and weren't laying any eggs.  We weren't getting many eggs from the older birds either.  We were averaging maybe 1 egg per day.  Oh how things have changed.

Winter generally isn't a good time for eggs.  The chickens lay less due to the shorter amount of daylight.  That changed in the Spring.  We're now getting 5-7 eggs per day from 7 chickens!  I'm very surprised by this.  I expected the 3 young birds to lay well, but 4 of the birds are 3 years old now.  They're cranking out the eggs even though the amount of eggs is supposed to drop off with age. 

One of the new birds.  I don't remember the breed.

Buff Orpington

Dark Brahma

In addition to getting a lot of eggs, some of them have had double yolks and are downright huge!  We haven't figured out which bird is laying them. 

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 6

The 6-week-old pictures are here.

 Their ears have made the transition and are in the lop stage now.

We've been getting them into the yard some more.  They must've gotten bigger, because they haven't slipped through the cage recently. 

It's hard to believe that they'll be ready for new homes in just two more weeks.

2015 Garden. The first plants are in the ground.

The seeds I started a while back have turned into nice sized plants. 

 I've been putting them out in the sun on and off during the last two weeks.

The weather forecast looked good (no freezing temperatures) last Sunday so I decided to put some of the tomatoes in the ground.  I only planted four of them in the row.  I didn't measure, but they should each have about 2 ft. of space. 

I didn't write any posts about it, but I did plant hairy vetch again last fall.  And just like last year I cut it down and put it in place as mulch.  It does keep the soil underneath very damp. 

I didn't start nearly as many seeds this year.  I also didn't print out a diagram of the garden and mark down what I wanted to plant where.  That lead directly to not knowing how many seeds to start.  So I'm winging it.  I'll transplant the plants I have and throw beans or something in the empty space. 

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 5

The baby rabbits have gotten so big!  They'll be ready for homes in just 3 weeks. 

 

 They don't hold still for group photos.

 Their ears are in a weird in between stage.  They started out sticking up but are slowing falling down.

I thought it would be fun to get them into the yard today.  I put up the folding pen and put each of the baby rabbits in there.  Then I moved the momma.  They seemed fairly happy hopping around.  I went to check on the chickens.  I was filling their water when I looked over to see the dog chasing a baby rabbit around the yard.  I yelled to my daughter who quickly grabbed the rabbit and put it back in the pen.  (The dog wasn't trying to hurt it.  She has a herding instinct and likes to chase and play.) 

We kept a close eye on the rabbits, but after the second one got out we decided that having them in the yard was not a good idea.  They went back into the hutch.

I was outside after dark tonight and heard a lot of scratching noise from the rabbits.  When I got close I could see that none of the rabbits were in the cage part of the hutch.  They were all in the box.  I lifted the lid and could make out the momma rabbit pressed against the wall and four pairs of feet sticking out from under her.  The babies were on their backs with their feet in the air nursing.  It was quite comical.  I thought they stopped nursing once they started eating solid food, but I guess not.