Today the bunnies have been hard at work digging holes in their fenced yard. I can't imagine any grass is going to regrow in there next year at this rate. At least three times one of the kids or I went out and refilled the holes to keep them from digging out. The last time I shoveled them full, packed them down, and put a brick over the two places they're particularly drawn to. Then we added a stick from under the apple tree to give them something to chew on to perhaps distract them. Seems to have curbed the digging, at least a little.
Boss Lady is now sitting on seven brown eggs. Henrietta must be going in and laying one every day and Boss Lady just keeps adopting them. Some more seasoned chicken keepers have suggested that I mark the eggs she's sitting on, and daily remove any new eggs. The idea being that she will only sit on the eggs for so long once the first ones start to hatch, so if she has too many, she will end up abandoning the last eggs, literally right before they're ready to hatch. Guess I'll be doing that tomorrow.
Which brings me to tomorrow. Starting about 2am it's supposed to start raining, turning to snow around 4pm and snowing straight through until 10pm. We are anticipating 1-3 inches of snow. In the weeks to come our low temps will start to be in the negative numbers.
No matter how many years I've lived in Minnesota (my entire life), I never feel quite prepared for the bitter cold when winter finally rolls in.
Yesterday little Babylon had in injury to her nose. I'm not sure if she got pecked by a chicken, bit by another rabbit, or if she cut it some other way. It's scabbed up and swollen. Poor baby. I make a point to spend several minutes every day cuddling with her. She's so calm, she cuddles right in, and she really seems to be happy when I put my hand over her ears to warm them. She's such a sweet little girl. Hopefully her nose heals up quickly, because she's got a home lined up for her when the younger litter is ready to go (I think she's going to live with Willy in her new home, and Willy won't be ready to go until Christmas Eve).
Yesterday when Tony got home, as he walked in the door, with an arm full of stuff from the van, he went to close the door, not realizing that Luna was perched on top of it. She managed to smush her paw, but seemed fine initially. Today she's limping, and bites when I try to peek at her feet. It's not at an odd angle, but there is a distinct line in her fur where the door caught her. I'm going to watch her for another day or two to see if she gets better on her own. She is still able to jump up on the shelf where the bed and food and water bowls are in the barn, and back down to go potty. I'm hoping she's just sore and will recover if given some time. I know when I slam my finger in a door it hurts for several days, so I'm thinking that's what we're dealing with here as well.
And as is a daily (or rather nightly) occurrence now, the two barn kitties come in every night when I go out to turn off the chicken coop light. They sleep in the entry way and go back out in the morning. I'm so glad they figured out the litter box!