More surprises

I did some work around the acreage on the weekend, piling hay up by the fence line feeder so that it's easier to do chores during the week (getting hay loose from the large round bales is quite a job), mucking out the chicken coop, and checking on the bunny's food stash.

When I went to refill Blizzard the bunny's dish, I noticed that the pile of fleece she'd made in her hutch was moving! I pulled some of the fleece aside ... and lo and behold, there were six baby rabbits in there!


This, of course, explained why Blizzard had been chasing the cats away from her house earlier in the day.

I called for The Boy and we relocated the new family indoors where the new bunnies are safe from curious cats and other dangers.

We belive they were born right around Christmas: I remember looking into the hutch on the 23rd and asking The Boy if he'd put the fleece in there for his rabbit's comfort, or if she'd done it herself. I should have realized that rabbits only do that sort of thing when they are nesting, but I just thought, "well, if I were a bunny and I saw sheep's wool lying around I'd take some and make a bed out of it for myself!"

The babies have their eyes open and are making efforts to hop around and chew on hay and even pelleted food. Judging by the pictures in The Boy's bunny book, they are between two and three weeks old. We have four solid black bunnies and two gray: they are so small it is hard to imagine that they were even tinier (and hairless, and unable to move or open their eyes) at birth.

Clearly, they are the offspring of the black rabbit we took in awhile back - he had been found abandoned in the city and we happily adopted him, but sadly, he managed to escape after being here only a few weeks. We have since tightened up security in the bunny pen, and it would appear that we will have some reminders of his short stay with us. :)

Some of these babies will no doubt be adopted out to new homes, and some will stay here to enliven our chicken/bunny pen. The Boy will be phoning the vet next week for more information on the costs associated with rabbit population control measures: it was part of the deal we made when we decided to try keeping more than one bunny.

Things are never boring around here, that's for sure, but I think that I'm okay with the sorts of surprises we've been getting lately!