Another long day. It’s quiet at the day job, which is always worrisome. To me, that simply means something is being missed. But we’re rather like firefighters — until it shows up, we can’t do a whole lot about it.
After a painfully long day, I was about to head home when I got a call, asking where the heat gun was. Since I had been using it to defrost the water lines and nipples during the deep freeze, I thought it may still be up at the run. They went to go check, and it was.
The message was then relayed that “a rabbit with kits was out.”
DAMMIT. Not a first (well, first with kits involved), and one reason I have the run set up the way I do, with wire along the bottom. That was a preemptive measure.
So, I got home as fast as I reasonably could, changed, and went straight up there. Small Person accompanied me, and was helpful. She kept an eye on “bunnies, Mommy, bunnies!” and pointed me at one that was sneaking off. She saw the doe first, too. I caught all of them up, but she did provide a lot of assistance. Then she watched “babies!” while I took care of everyone.
Got her back down to the house while I refilled the feed storage bucket, and headed back up. Husband came up to check on things, and we found another kit was lose. He assisted in catching that little bugger up.
Not sure how the cage was open. My current theory is I simply forgot to latch it up, and they got hungry/bored, and baby rabbits aren’t known for their intelligence. The other cage that was open … well. Maybe she simply got excited by the buns bouncing around on the tarp underneath her, and popped the door. Both cages have weaker latches than the rest. So, latch replacement is on my list for both cages.
Still working on the sketch outs for the reconfiguration of the rabbit cages. I’m definitely going to overhaul everything, I just have to decide how.
One of the hens continues to lay eggs that basically break as soon as they’re laid. All of today’s and yesterday’s eggs are coated in egg-goop and stuck on hay because of this. The only time the hen lays eggs with proper shells is right after I’ve made a batch of yogurt, and take the girls the strained off whey. That helps for a few weeks. I guess she can’t process elemental calcium at all, not out of feed or the oyster shells. I need to figure out which she is and cull her.
Day three of the fodder experiment, and I have some sprouting starting on the first day’s batch.
Basically on accident, I have some lean/tilt to some of the levels. It seems to drain well enough. The dowel has added some stability to the “structure.”
I have the soaking batch of seed on the bottom, catching the rinse water. So far, this seems to be working.