Yep, Bean is a Boy.

 

So when we got our bunnies back in March, the teenage kids who sold them to us PROMISED me they were both girls. Not so much it turns out. I fill the box up with pine bedding and clean it out every week but the rabbits just kick it all out of there and pee and poop right in the box like it's their personal litter box instead of OUTSIDE the box where it would fall right onto the ground and could easily be raked up and taken to the compost pile. 

Two weekends ago I finally decided to try to do something about that problem and cut a board and nailed it up in the hole so it would be harder to kick it all out but the bunnies could still get in there. The IDEA was that that they would use it for added warmth and shelter and to get off of the screened bottom from time to time and give their little feet a rest. 

Still a litter box.

Except within a few hours of filling up the newly remodeled box, Cocoa started pulling out her hair and building a nest in there. Uh oh. 

Bean had been exhibiting boy like behavior (ie humping her like crazy) for a long time but nothing had come of it. I looked in there last Saturday morning and one of the rabbits had filled up the nest with poop and pee and I planned to just clean it all out Sunday except when I went feed the animals Sunday morning before church.. yep... baby bunnies. 

I sort of freaked out because we've had two litters in the dead of winter before and they died almost immediately. So I got the big tub I use for a chicken brooder out and planned to keep Cocoa and the bunnies in the garage. I scooped out the nest (bunnies and all in tact) and put it on top of a bunch of clean bedding in the tub and had Bryon catch Cocoa and I moved the whole lot of them to the garage.

I didn't know if that would mess everything up or not but I figured they were probably going to die anyway so I didn't have much to lose. When I got home from church I already had a different plan and that was to separate those rabbits. We had a left over piece of hardware cloth that had come off of the bottom of the hutch at one point and Bryon helped me to measure and cut it to fit. (I don't measure, I eyeball it and hack at it until I get the thing done).

We got them separated and I already had another feeder and water bowl so I scooped them all back up again and took them back to the hutch and figured it would just have to be survival of the fittest. I didn't know if messing with them so much would make her reject them or freak her out or what but she took them all back and now they are four days old. 

I did end up killing one of them inadvertently because I didn't realize it was still out in the hutch when I scooped them all up the first time and it died while we were at church. 

She still has four out there though and it's been cold at night. Poor Mama is almost bald from pulling out her hair but she's being a good Mama and now doesn't have to contend with Bean's attentions anymore. 

It's going to be crazy cold the next few nights so we'll see what happens but today, there are four little bunnies out there.

When we go