HarDel Rabbitry Journal

Miss mouse

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Hey all, I've been on here for about a year now and often have the urge to write about my day or recent events so I think I'll start a journal. Honestly not sure I'll be consistent on when and how often I post but at least I have an outlet to share the happenings of my rabbits when I don't really have a question.
So here we go:
Today I had one of the ladies that is interested in buying kits from me send me a kijiji ad for Champagne D'argents just 20 minutes from my place (and yes when you live in the country thats pretty close!) I've been admiring the breed on instagram's #meatrabbits so when I got the text I was pretty excited. I made my boyfriend come with me and buy us a pair. We're going to breed the doe back to their breeding stock when she's old enough. I was so thrilled because I honestly didn't think there were any of the breed up in this area!
So now we have:
2 Flemish Giant x New Zealand bucks - a frosty and a sandy
2 Flemish Giant x Dutch?, a doe and buck both black
2 Californian does
1 Flemish Giant mix doe - sandy
3 Pedigreed Pure Bred Flemish giants - 2 does (sandy and fawn) and a buck (sandy)
2 Champagne D'argent (a doe and a buck)
We also currently have 18 babies - 9 are 6 weeks old and 9 4 days old and a litter due tomorrow.
We have 4 more pregnant does after that.
And such insane demand out here I'm not even confident with all those litters coming I'm going to have the "rabbit a week" in the freezer I was planning for!

We finished our giant rabbit skid yesterday and finally got it outside today. There's 2 6 week old's out in it right now to test it out for flaws. We'll move the rest of the grow outs out there if they can't escape. The baby cage is getting pretty busy!

Well I think that's all I feel like chatting about/documenting for today. If you decided to read all that, congratulations! I'll add some corresponding photos from my phone later :).
 

Miss mouse

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Senile_Texas_Aggie

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@Miss mouse,

I am now following along. There are a lot of folks here who raise rabbits. Two that come to mind are Miss @AmberLops and Miss @drstratton. I know there are others but my senile memory is failing me here. I hope you can fill us in on more of your rabbit and other adventures. BTW, Miss @SA Farm is either in Alberta or Saskatchewan (I can't remember) so you two can relate to the Canadian climate! :)

Senile Texas Aggie
 

drstratton

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Thank you for tagging me in this thread @Senile_Texas_Aggie, I'm now following along too!

Those are beautiful rabbits and your rabbit tractor is pretty amazing! I was afraid to leave ours open on the bottom, for fear they would escape! We have 2x4 wire throughout, but I'm now thinking that we will need to add hardware cloth into their enclosed area, we had a dog dig out under ours last night, it killed one and one escaped. The rabbits in our tractor are quite wild and were given to us from a friend who has way to many, he raises them colony style! I think once we have our own rabbits in there, I won't worry about them trying to dig out! Our breeding stock consists of a New Zealand buck and doe and the other doe is a mixed breed from our friend!
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Miss mouse

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Thank you for tagging me in this thread @Senile_Texas_Aggie, I'm now following along too!

Those are beautiful rabbits and your rabbit tractor is pretty amazing! I was afraid to leave ours open on the bottom, for fear they would escape! We have 2x4 wire throughout, but I'm now thinking that we will need to add hardware cloth into their enclosed area, we had a dog dig out under ours last night, it killed one and one escaped. The rabbits in our tractor are quite wild and were given to us from a friend who has way to many, he raises them colony style! I think once we have our own rabbits in there, I won't worry about them trying to dig out! Our breeding stock consists of a New Zealand buck and doe and the other doe is a mixed breed from our friend!
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Oh gosh, I totally have the same fear but my boyfriend thinks it will be okay if we move it regular they won't be interested in escaping! But we do have mesh in a quadrant on each side that they will go in at night so predators can't dig in overnight. If we have any issues he'll ad mesh floor.
Your babies are adorable <3
 

drstratton

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Oh gosh, I totally have the same fear but my boyfriend thinks it will be okay if we move it regular they won't be interested in escaping! But we do have mesh in a quadrant on each side that they will go in at night so predators can't dig in overnight. If we have any issues he'll ad mesh floor.
Your babies are adorable <3
I wish we would have put mesh in their enclosed area, but our tractor isn't as big as yours and we wanted them to be able to get to as much grass as possible! We've decided to turn the tractor into a raised hutch, just to much risk with all of the dogs that pack around here! I hope everything goes well with yours!

They are pretty cute, but skittish. The gray one wasn't handled at all and the 2 NZ were handled very little! I'm hoping they will like me more once they are all in their own cages and I become their only company! :)
 
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Miss mouse

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I'm so glad I started this because I've already got so much to unload :frow
Okay so our 2 tester babies were out overnight in the mesh side and survived the night. So as I was enjoying my breakfast and my morning tea I watch my boyfriend rather suspiciously go out to the skid with a big blue tub.
I knew for sure he was taking out more babies without checking in with me. So I texted to ask who he was putting in as friends with the testers and he just replied back that they had mice friends (we have an insane amount of mice out now that the snow melted, Tiger Lily our barn cat is having a party and leaving dead mice strewn EVERYWHERE but these were live one).
I went and did my usual chores and didn't get a chance to go out to the skid before I had to leave for work. So he sent me a video, he put out ALL NINE of the 6 week olds!!!! :barnie
So of course I wasn't thrilled but what you going to do? I've been slowly adding green to their diets so hopefully it won't shock their systems. They were all present, accounted for, and super happy when I got home. Thankfully he left the CD babies in the cage as they haven't started eating any greens yet. :bow
So after I got home and checked the babies in the skid I headed to the rabbit shed cause I like to hang out in there, it's peaceful and there's cuddles to be had. Anyway, I get in there and I'm just goofing off on my phone when I happen to look up and see that there's extra fur lying around the californian's cage who was due today so I excitedly went to see if the babies arrived. And they had, but they were sprawled all over the nesting box! :he
Luckily it looked like she had them recently since there was fresh blood etc. So I hurried to grab the FIVE cold babies tucking them in my shirt as the fastest source of heat (my hands are chronic ice cubes). As soon as I had them all tucked in I called my boyfriend to come as he has nice warm hands. So we cranked the heat and wrapped the babies up in towels and warmed them up by the heater. I discovered an additional 3 warm babies under the fur and my BF discovered an underdeveloped DOA. So the litter was 9 in total with 8 living and only by the miracle that I came in when I did.

So on another note about this new litter, some of you may have seen the thread and some may not but my goal was to get a white or himi baby buck to breed back to the cali's for a consistent white line. However my best shot in the dark to achieve that was to breed a cali to my white "frosty" buck which essentially means he carries genes that block out yellow and black. So I knew it would be a mixed bag of what the pair would produce but I was expecting a mix of grey shades, white, and himi babies. What I GOT was ALL GREY o_O I'm so very confused. But I'm going to cross my fingers that they change as they grow fur :fl

I do NOT want to have to go shopping for a californian buck in this economy, rabbit sales are insane right now and I've done enough buying this season!

Anyway, BF is out playing with the skid as I'm typing this, wracking my nerves what on earth he's doing with my babies! Again, I'll add a few photos from my phone later, it's just easier to type long posts on the computer.
Thanks for reading along!:love
 

drstratton

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So glad that you found them in time...that was almost tragic! Curious to see what color your babies are as their fur comes in! I still have a couple of months before we can breed ours! I have no idea what color I'll get from my gray doe...she comes from a colony setting of mixed breeds and there are many different colors!
 

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