Success! We Have Bunnies

    On December 7th we bred our buck Fezzik with our doe Angry Girl. On Jauary 7th (31 days) she gave birth to 7 babies (that is the best count I could get so far without too much intrusion so the number may change). The night that she had her babies was also one of the coldest nights so far this winter. We hit 27 and didn't get out of the 40's the following day. Luckily I had moved her to the birthing palace.
    The birthing palace, as I affectionately call it, is an extra large cage with a built in drop down nest box that I built for the bred does to move into when it is time to give birth. I moved Angry Girl in about 3 weeks after she was bred to give her a week to settle in before the babies were expected. She settled in just fine and had her babies right on schedule. The nest box is pretty big so I stuffed it with a lot of hay so that she would have all the nesting material she could want. When I went out to feed and water everyone on the morning of the 8th she had spruced the nest up with a little of her added fur and I could see the hay moving where the little fellas were squirming. I left them tucked in nicely for the next few days and protected from the wind with a large tarp but today it warmed up a bit and I went out for a quick head count.

Angry Girl gave birth to these little guys almost 3 days ago. They grow very fast and will be up and hopping on their own before you know it. Looks like 9 in this picture but I swear I only counted 7.

    I feel like I must have missed or double counted at least once or twice but my quick count showed seven. That's a great first litter and should be a great start to the rabbitry operation here at Three Oaks. I'll post more pictures as they start to grow to show just how fast the process is. I have 8 weeks now to figure out everything I need for the first butchering run, but we will get to all that later.