Life and Death on the Farm

The day after Christmas Grace wanted to bring the bunnies in to play with. We hadn't had them in the house in months so Bryon caught them and put them into the cat carrier to bring inside. They hopped around and explored a little bit and she played with them until she got scratched with one of their sharp little toes and she was tired of them. She just wants to hold them all the time and you can imagine how much they wanted to be held.

Finally Bryon scooped them up and took them back out to the hutch. I thought I'd get out there and clean it while it was empty but didn't have time to. Then yesterday morning I went out to feed and water them and saw a little blood on the bedding. I figured one of them must have gotten a little cut or something and looked over into the box and here is what I saw...

I couldn't believe it. I had no idea one of them was even pregnant. There were four little bald baby bunnies. I sort of freaked out trying to figure out what to do with them. Yesterday was the warmest day of the year, so I don't know if that's what triggered her to choose the night before to have them or if bringing her inside triggered it or if it was just time and all a coincidence but there they were. I didn't say anything to Grace about them.

We had figured the bunnies were the same sex because we got them the last weekend of July and they were a couple of months old at that time and nothing had happened yet but as I was searching the internet to see what to do with the babies, I found out that they can start breeding between 5-6 months, which would be NOW. I probably should have read that sooner.

Bryon wasn't too excited about the whole thing. I was trying to figure out how to or if I should bring them into the house and decided against it. I thought about it all day and decided that if she could take care of them out there and keep them alive then we'd figure out how to give them away when the time came but if they didn't make it then so be it. I was grumpy all day worrying about them. I knew they probably wouldn't make it through the cold night and sure enough this morning there were four little dead bunny babies out there. I scooped them up and made Bryon bury them back behind the barn. He wanted to feed them to the pigs. Men.

I also learned in my bunny research (which I obviously should have done sooner) that she could get pregnant again immediately and have another litter in 31 days. True to form, Flip was trying to mount her all day. Men.

I called and got an appointment and Flop will get neutered on Jan. 5. Bryon asked how much it was going to cost and I told him he didn't want to know. Men.