The Spring Warm Up

Unfortunately I'm not talking about the weather - yet. I'm talking about these old bones of mine, and more pressingly, my mental organizational abilities. Time to dust off my gardening tools and bust out my treasured seed packets and get this farm a-rollin'!

It'll still be a while before I can put anything in the soon-to-be garden plot, as most of it is still under and inch or so of water, but I can and have started a few flats of starts inside and am chomping at the bit to start some more. There is something so incredibly gratifying about watching new life unfold - whether it be in the form of a sprouting seed or a wobbly newborn kid - that feeds me at least as much energy as it requires of me to sustain. And with the coming of Spring, sooner or later I will be immersed in it.



What's growing/producing this week:

*We're averaging 3 eggs per day now since Gracie started laying - finally.

*Seedlings - 1/2 flat of "Golden Self-Blanching Celery"; 1/2 flat of "Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans"; a whole flat of Nasturtiums; 8 cells each of cilantro, arugula and Thai basil; a flat of lettuces including red romaine, mesclun mix and rouge d'hiver. (Most of these seedlings will be for the school plant sale next month. I will keep a few of the herbs and some lettuce in my windowsill though. Can't beat the homegrown!) :)

*Mama goats are all still in milk, and we're 90% sure that Gertie is pregnant after all, so she should be kidding in early May.

*We are 99% sure that Cinderella bunny is pregnant again, with a new litter due within the next week or so. Papa Prince Charming was neutered, but not before he snuck in one last hurrah, the stinker.

*Narcissus, Snowdrops, Crocus, Daffodils, and Forsythia are all popping up and open. :)

BHF ~ Photo of the Day 3/15/11

Feeding frenzy in the hutch!

Outnumbered

I was just updating the critter stats in the sidebar, and had blazing, spooky moment of clarity. We aren't just outnumbered by critters now, we are buried in critters. 33 chickens + 7 Bunnies + 12 goats + 2 parakeets + a turtle = 55 animals! We moved into this house with 17. Maybe it's time for us slow the acquisition/breeding down just a touch?

The Saga of the Boggy Hollow Bunnies

This week has been slightly rabbit-centric.

First, the bad news. We lost a baby bun-bun two days ago due to what looked like a prolapsed colon/rectum. By the time we noticed her lethargy and saw the protrusion, she was already extremely weak. She passed away within an hour.

In happier news, the rest of the baby bunnies are looking really good. They all had opened their eyes and started hopping about by the 23rd, which means that they were probably born on the 7th of February, even though they weren't discovered until the 11th. This litter started out at 7 and is now six, only one of which we're probably keeping. Scarlet immediately staked out one of the albino babies and named it - uhg - "Milky-Silky Jackson". We've agreed that her middle name/nickname is Snowdrop, since I refuse to call the poor thing such a humiliatingly cheesy name as Milky-Silky. Not to mention that it makes her sound like a disreputable character from Starsky & Hutch.

Last night after dinner we brought in all of the bunzos into the house and made them an impromptu hutch out of one of the goat kennels (yes, we have goat kennels) and set them up in the dining room. Everybody seemed very contented by their new surroundings, some, maybe a little too comfortable, as it seemed to be a bunny honeymoon going on in there. Prince Charming must have known what the next day would bring.

Bright and early this morning, PC went to the vet to be neutered. He was as calm as can be, calmer than me in fact, when the vet tech told us that the odds of Princey not making it through the surgery were substantial enough for us to pause and possibly rethink going through with the procedure. Apparently "prey animals", like rabbits are prone to shock. But keeping him seperate from his Cinderella for the rest of his life didn't seem like a viable option either, so with frazzled nerves, we consented to the operation.

When we got a call from the vet this afternoon, we were all strung as tight as piano wire. But we needn't have worried, PC came through the surgery just fine and is now back at home resting comfortably. The girls have been fawning over him and bringing him his babies and his lady-friend over to visit him one-by-one, so that everybody knows that everybody is ok. He's such a good Papa! The babies snuggled right up to him and one even shared his nibble of lettuce.

With all of the frisky bunny action last night, (I can't mentally handle the image that might be the sort of thing that goes on every night, so indulge me here) I suspect that we will have one last batch of babies in another 4 weeks or so. The first 6 won't be ready to leave Mama bunny until they are fully weaned at 8 weeks old, so if she has another litter, it's going to be bunzo madness around here.

Keep in mind that our current six will be ready to be re-homed right around Easter, folks. Call me! ;)

What's Happenin' - 2/16/11

Chardy's right udder/teat are still showing signs of mastitis. Despite my best efforts to milk out that side and get the kids to drink from her right teat to help ease the pressure, her little booby is still filled to the gills.

I'm going to go buy a thermometer tomorrow so that I can take her temperature and try to determine how serious this is, and whether or not her infection (if it is indeed an infection) is calling for antibiotic treatment now. I've been using a great, natural udder balm from Fias Co Farm/Molly's Herbals on Chardy's udder twice per day, and if I could get her to sit still long enough, would like to try a warm compress, but she won't stand for it. It's obvious that she is still uncomfortable, and she's Mehhhing her head off at me, but when I try to intervene, she either bolts or tries to kick me. Aye, what to do? I've emailed the vet for advice, but still haven't heard back from her. I guess we'll just keep on keepin' on 'til we get some results.

The baby bunnies are holding their own. A friend of mine who also owns a bunny has lent us her special critter heating pad to see us through this latest cold snap. The bunzos are literally growing markedly bigger every single day - it's nuts! Their fur is filling in well, but nobody has opened their eyes yet. When their eyes finally open, we should be able to count back 10 days and get a better idea of when exactly they were born, since Cinderella was a sneaky monkey and kept them hidden from us for a few days or so before we figured out what was up.

On the brighter, all-things-chickeny side, today was our first three egg day in quite some time. Now if Rosie and Gracie could get their little butts in gear, we'd be reaping almost 3 dozen eggs per week.

We'd been keeping the ladies in the run, following last week's near miss with the hawk, and just yesterday finally turned them loose again. Apparently the sweet taste of freedom was so divine that they deigned to grace us with a few of their lovely eggs as thanks. I'll take it! As I've whined said before, even the best commercially available eggs can't hold a candle to homegrown. So I'm more thankful than ever to be back on the good egg track.

Next on my hit list - milk. Bill is building me a milking stand this weekend and then the fun can begin!

Can't anything go our way?

This damn cold front that's come through took our poor baby bunnies in the night. And of course, poor Scarlet had to be the one to find them.

I feel responsible for not bringing them inside, but everything we read said that under no circumstances should we mess with/touch/move the babies, or Mama bunny would likely kill or abandon them. So we gave them extra bedding material and lots of extra food, and prayed that it would be enough to see them all through safely. It wasn't.

We will bury our sweet babies later today under the same tree as Eglantine, George & Charlotte.

I know that loss is an expected part of farm life, but it feels like with so many losses, that the world is just against us.

Apparently, She was a He

In case you missed the big news, we have baby bunnies.

Our two "girl" bunnies turned out to be a boy and a girl, and as best as we can tell, had about 5 babies in the night 3 nights ago. There are many mysteries to be unraveled here-

*Why did it take them so long to start having babies? After co-habitating peacefully for 10 months, we felt confident that they really were loving sisters. They were loving, alright...

*If Papa bunny (now known as "Prince Charming") has been protective of and kind to both Mama and the babies, should we still take him out of the hutch?

*How soon should we get Prince Charming neutered? Would it be traumatic to take him away from his lady & babies so soon?

*Being the product of inbreeding (ew,ew,ew!), will the babies still be ok?

Alright farmer folk, let me hear it. I can't read my bunny & goat care books fast enough to keep up with all of the stealth uterine action going on over here. If you've got any tips or experience in this area, HELP!