The magic of warm weather

Yesterday, I went to our bunny barn to check on Carousel, a Holland doe due in the morning. She'd already had one baby on the wire - dead and chewed on. I took it out, bummed that she hadn't delivered more.

Four hours later, I went out to do some breeding and found a baby on the floor four stackers away from her cage. It was still alive so I scooped it up and, on my way back to her cage, discovered another baby on the floor. It was alive, too, so I put both into the nest box. I had a 70-watt light bulb inside a reflector on above the box, so figured that was their best chance to get warmed up.

An hour later, as I pulled her tray out to empty it, I discovered yet another baby in the litter. It had been kept warm by the light bulb above so into the nest box it went. You'd think it was a skinny little peanut to get to through the floor wire, but it wasn't. Soon after, the doe fed the three babies and settled the fur into that beautiful fluffy pattern I love to see in a nest.

So, at this point, the doe who seemed to have blown a pregnancy is feeding three babies. Who'd figure?