I've got three breedings planned for next month, assuming quarantine goes well for all three of the boys. Next month (November breeding for December litters) will include Spotty (a rex cross?) to Servine (purebred Rex), Calliope (Holland Lop) to the new Holland lop buck (yet unnamed), and Fern (Harlequin / English Lop / Rex cross) to one of the Jersey Wooly bucks (not sure which one yet, neither has a name yet).
I've been busy lining up homes for some bunnies. I have three rabbit meetings scheduled for Tuesday! Corduroy, Tony Stark, and Rugby will be heading off to new homes. Two as breeders and one as a pet. If anyone else wants to schedule a meeting for Tuesday, send me an email and let me know which bunny you want so I can bring them along!
Today turned out to be a pretty nice warm day (high of 54-degrees). It doesn't look like we'll be breaking 50 again for a while.
I opened Skittles' cage in the colony building and let him out to interact with the other rabbits. He's been in a cage in the building for a while now. He was terrified and MoR, the dominant doe, tried to nip him in the butt (or back leg). He put himself back into his cage, so this evening he's back locked in for his own safety. Perhaps we'll give him a couple more days and try again. We didn't have any issues last time because we pretty much added everyone at once. Now the does are established and it's harder to introduce a new buck. I adore Skittles though and I love his bloodline. I really hope we can get him acclimated and he can produce some gorgeous babies next summer. He's only three and a half months old right now, so no babies will be anticipated until 2019 in the colony.
Halloween is just ten days away. Our next litters are potentially expected in nine days. The gardens are all tucked in for the winter. We are transitioning back to watering the rabbits and birds by bucket as the time nears to put the hose away for the year.
We will be investing in a bird bath heater to put in the kiddie pool to try to give better access to water. Last year we used a heated dog bowl, but we only had a handful of birds. Now we have about 75 birds in our mixed flock, and they go through the dog water dish in minutes. Hopefully a bird bath heater will keep enough of the pool thawed that the birds will be able to keep access to drinking water all winter long.