Comics and chores

I found out about a new tax in our state while loading rabbit trays. Timothy keeps up with his favorite comic that way, although it does slow down chores a little.

We use trays under all our rabbit cages and so have to empty and wash them at least once a week. We've discovered that using newspapers to line the bottom of the trays has reduced our bedding costs a bunch. We use shredded newspaper on top of the newspaper sheets.

But that step where the washed trays come to the newspaper station slows us up. As we unfold the old newspapers, we find articles we forgot to read. And so, if Timothy is replacing trays under cages, he comes back to the newspaper/bedding station to find me deeply engrossed in an article. When it's his turn, he reads the funnies.

I've yet to find much exciting in this tray-cleaning chore but catching up on the news at the same time helps make it a little more interesting.

Feed experiment

We decided to try a feed-change experiment this week. I'm not big on changing feed a lot. I think most condition issues are genetic, which means when I see rough bodies, I need to address my breeding program.

But, this time, we found rough bodies across the board in our barn. We tried very hard to find genetic patterns. Was every offspring of a particular buck or doe rough? Did it take generations to develop?

We evaluated our top 5 animals in terms of body roughness and looked at what they genetically had in common.

In our case, we were finding the spine rough and bumpy while the hindquarters were flat, pinbones prominent.

The best animals had much less of that. So we studied their pedigrees. And couldn't find a common genetic issue.

Because we've had hard, smooth bodies on our Hollands in the past, we decided to explore the feed option. I'll let you know how it goes.

Heat

Summer heat has hit Colorado and I am grateful again for my husband's wonderful construction skills. When he built the bunny room inside our barn, he insulated all four walls plus the ceiling and poured a concrete floor. I have three windows into the room that I can open for ventilation. And two doors on opposite corners of the room. He also plumbed in a water hydrant in a corner of the room, making watering sweet.

Then he installed a swamp cooler. If you're not familiar with a swamp cooler, follow this link. They work in dry climates like ours. Because the cooling happens through evaporation, a lot of moisture is pumped into the air. This is fine in June and July when it's been so dry but by August, we often open the doors just to dry the place out a bit.

But we've done all right with the extra moisture because we keep our feed and supplements in sealed plastic containers. The feed sacks are opened and poured into a trash can with lid. The supplements go in plastic ice cream buckets.

Even the hottest days, when the temperatures get over 102 degrees, we don't see our bunny-room temperatures go over 80. Admittedly, the bunnies still think they are suffering but we've never lost one to heat and they are able to breed all summer.

This year, for the first time in a while, we've placed a hutch outside. It's in the shade all day long and we like to put frozen bottles of water in the cages when the temperatures get into the 90's. Because of the shade, and often there's a slight breeze, those bunnies are doing pretty well, also.

I know other places have to use other systems for dealing with the summer heat, but that's our way and it's worked so far.

The escapee

This is the story of a little black doe that doesn't even yet have a name, although she's secured a place in the barn for a while.

Our saga begins when we took her mother and sister from her cage for an overnight visit to a friend's house. We hoped to breed the doe to a wonderful buck there and show off the sister. Somehow, we didn't latch the cage door completely.

On our return, the door was hanging open and the cage was empty. We frantically searched our rabbit room. But we'd left a side door open while we were gone to let in the cool evening air and we were afraid she'd jumped out the door into the jungle.

I felt very guilty. Because I hadn't double-checked that door latch, a little doe had fallen pray to some horrible demise.

The following day, when I went out to do chores, I saw a flash of black on the floor. Yep, the doe had not left the building. So I grabbed Timothy and we corralled her. She's safe and sound.

Moral of this story? Several:

• Double-check your cage doors.
• Don't give up too soon. Black juniors apparently hide in the shadows well.
• Teach your young ones to stay inside the barn. There's a dangerous world out there!