Questions regarding kindling

[popcornchicken]

We have a breeding trio of White NZ rabbits, we got them in April of 08. The does are sisters and completely different as it goes w/ kindling. After we got them, we breed them so we could show a meat pen @ our local 4H. "Honey" did fine had a litter of 6 kits, "Bunny" only had 1, as this was both of their first litters we were OK with that.

However, on "Bunny's 2nd breeding, again she only had 1, and list time it was still born and "Honey" had 8 . So I thought we'd try "Bunny" 1 more time and see what happens. Well, Sunday morning my son went out to do his morning chores, and lo and behold 1 dead kit in the nest. So I went out and cleaned out the nest box and to check out the kit. It was perfect (other than the obvious) just like her 2nd time, no physical deformaties. So I took out the nest box and was going to give up trying to breed her.

I'll finally get to the point, my son went out this morning as usual and surprise suprise 5 more kits, but b/c I took the nest box and it was in the 30's last night we lost all of them

My question is; is this normal that they'll have 1 kit, then 24hrs later have 5 more? We are both saddened and confused by this, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[currycomb]

suppose it is possible if the buck bred her 24 hr apart, or she had one "stuck" and finally passed it. or you could do like i did, thought the kits were dead, the were ice cold, not moving, so took nest box out and put on top of cage, under a tarp for hubby to "dispose" of them. one was dead, the others were alive, and very warm under the tarp. are now 4weeks old.

 

[popcornchicken]

Yeah, I was hoping that we might be able to save some/any of them, but no luck by the time I got out there (6am this morning) they were all dead. I had just never heard/read about this before, but we've only had 3 successful litters.

Thought I'd try and "tap into the herd" for some advice.