Winter visitors

I was just in my kitchen watching the snow fall and the birds at the feeders. One thing I love about living in 6 acres of old growth forest is all the wildlife. Now it is not the kind of wildlife that my Alaskan rabbitry friend Trent sees (moose, bear, lynx, etc...), but it is great none the less. Some of the birds that frequent our feeders on a daily basis are:
Redheaded Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Redbellied Woodpecker
Whitebreasted Nuthatch
Northern Cardinal
Bluejay
Blackcapped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Mourning Dove
Dark eyed Junco
Goldfinch
Turkey
Pileated Woodpecker

The above listed birds are usually here year round, but are joined in the summer by:
Indigo Bunting (LOVE them)
House Wren
Ruby throated Hummingbird
Rosebreasted Grosbeak
A plethora of warblers
Purple Finch
Brown Creeper
Northern Flicker
Baltimore Oriole

We also have flying squirrels on our property! While they are not a bird, I love having this mammal here. It is nocturnal so we don't get to see it. Our evidence that they are here came with a dead one we found in the backyard. =(Last year we had a huge fan of our bird feeder -- a Cooper's Hawk. I witnessed him capture a Cardinal at the feeder one day. While I didn't like having one less Cardinal to enjoy, it was amazing to see this part of nature that isn't often witnessed.

Again, how is this rabbit related? Well, I'm stretching it, but the birds often enjoy the food and habitat found in my gardens. The gardens wouldn't be as nice as if I didn't have the rabbit manure to spread on them. The goldfinch love the Echinacea (coneflowers) seedheads in the fall and I have numerous wren houses throughout my gardens which are often occupied by the brave little House Wren. By the way, if you don't have a wren house I highly recommend putting one in your yard somewhere. House Wren have a beautiful song and I love to watch them flit around. Dispite their small size, they are very territorial and have NO problem chasing the cat away!

Here's a link to more info on the House Wren along with a small clip of their song (nice little bit of spring time!)

http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/backyard_birds/bird_id/house_wren.aspx

Recent Shows

I had the opportunity to go to a couple more shows this past month. The first was in Goshen, IN. Jenni Himebaugh, Megan Gottschalk, and I rode down together. We had a lot of rabbits between the 3 of us and we wouldn't have fit everything in if we didn't have Megan's amazing packing ability! It was a double show for mini rex breeders with an all breed show and a mini rex specialty. My blue buck from Mike St. John of Battle Road's Rabbitry earned 2 more legs. He now has 4 legs. Thanks Mike for such a great rabbit! His littermate, Pearl (now with Jenni), also received 2 legs and has enough to be granded.

This past weekend we had a double all breed show in Mason, MI. I had a great time with my rabbit friends and my black buck (from Mike) received his 2nd leg.

I look forward to the next show in E. Lansing at MSU. I will be taking my niece along as she wants to learn what showing rabbits is all about. I'm looking forward to it.

2008 ARBA Convention

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the ARBA Convention this year in Louisville, KY. A few of my rabbit friends were able to attend and did quite well!

Jenni Himebaugh of Two River's Rabbitry:
4th out of 43 Castor mini rex sr. bucks
5th out of 54 Castor mini rex sr. does
25th out of 73 Black mini rex jr. does
7th out of 122 Broken holland lop jr. bucks

Peggy Campbell:
2nd out of 100+ Broken mini rex sr. does

Megan Gottschalk:
BOV Lilac

Congratulations!

Cold Weather Litters

With nightly temps below freezing and our first lake effect snow (I live near Lake Michigan) predicted for this weekend, I decided to write a bit about what I like to do with litters born in this cold weather.

While I've checked out various types of nestboxes, I have stayed with wooden ones. They take more effort to clean and disinfect than metal nextboxes or plastic tubes, but I believe they are warmer in the cold, winter months. I always line the bottom of my nestboxes with at least 2 inches of pine shavings. Besides acting as a good absorbent material, they help insulate the kits from the cold bottom. After spreading the shavings across the bottom, I place 2 - 3 good handfuls of straw in the nestbox. Some people use hay, but my does love to eat the hay and generally leave the straw alone. Sometimes I put a handful or 2 of straw loose in the cage so the doe can add more if needed. This method has worked well for me as my does have usually built a good, insulted nest with these materials.

A well set up nestbox is only the first step! When the doe is ready to kindle, I am constantly going out to the barn to check if babies have been born yet. When the litter is finally born, I take the nestbox inside my house. I have a great shelf on my desk in the office where I keep all the nestboxes. Below is a photo of a nestbox full of babies on the shelf in my office.

If I have more than one litter, I label the nestboxes with the does' name to make sure mom is feeding the right litter. I take the nestboxes out (at the same time each day) for mom to feed them. I also cover each nestbox with a towel to keep drafts out and the fur in while I am walking out to the barn. I'm thankful that rabbits generally feed their babies only once per day!

The babies stay in the office with me until about a week or so. After this, they have a pretty good coat on and, depending on the size of the litter, can keep themselves rather warm. I also take them out as this is a time when they are able to start "popping" out of the nestbox. I will admit that the first time I kept a litter inside I was greeted by a bunch of 12 day old kits crawling around the carpet in the office (I kept the nestboxes on the floor at that time). I felt like I was on an Easter egg hunt when trying to track everyone down.

This is only one way to work with winter litters. This is what works best for me. I would love to hear comments on how others manage their winter litters!

Rabbit Friends

I had a great day up north visiting my friends Arnold and Jenni Himebaugh of Two River's Rabbitry. You can't beat a drive up north with the weather we had yesterday and all the gorgeous Fall colors!

I'm so glad that I live here in Michigan with so many nice mini rex breeders. I always look forward to going to the shows to see all my "rabbit friends". Besides sharing many laughs, I learn so much from the people that have been raising mini rex for a while.

With no shows until November 15, I was glad to do a rabbit visit at Jenni's house. I brought up a buck to breed to some of her does and I bred a couple of does to her bucks. Since I have a small rabbitry, it is nice to have someone to "share" rabbits with! Michael St. John of Battle Road Rabbitry also came over. We had a great time going over rabbits and evaluating which to keep and which were culls. I always learn so much from this! Thanks Mike and Jenni!

Vinegar is not just for cooking...

I buy a lot of vinegar, but it is not for cooking. I use it to dissolve build up in the drop pans. It works great! Some of the worst pans look almost new after a good soak and scrub.

After scraping out the droppings from the pan and rinsing it well with water, I set the trays out and pour enough vinegar to cover the bottom. I use a scrub brush to brush some onto the sides and rim. The amount of build up determines how long I let the pans soak. Fifteen minutes for the minimal amount to 1 hour for the toughies. I will also occasionally scrub the pan while it is soaking to help loosen up those stubborn spots. When a tray is finished soaking, I often dump the vinegar into another tray to reuse it if the vinegar isn't too dirty. I hose the pans off and put them back into the cages.

I like to try to keep my rabbit barn as clean as possible and this definitely helps! I will add though that I only have 30 trays to clean when all my holes are full. It is very manageable to do this with my small rabbitry, but would be a big task with more trays.

October shows

Jeremy Watmuff judging a broken class.

We had a great mini rex specialty show in conjunction with the Hop-2-It RBA all breed show in Marshall, MI on October 4. Jeremy Watmuff was our judge and we had a good turn out of great mini rex breeders for the show. Sandy Doyle won BOB with one of her reds and Hilda Lowing won BOSB with a bkn. tort. Congratulations!

I only had 5 rabbits in condition to show, but was able to come home with 3 legs from the specialty show and 2 in the all breed show! My jr. black doe, Woodland's Luna, has 3 jr. legs already so I thought I would enter her in the senior class hoping that she could get that senior leg she needs to get granded. She ended up winning BOV in the specialty and BOSV in the all breed show and earned 2 senior legs. She now has a total of 5 legs at just 4 months old. My blues did well also. Battle Road's Rio and Battle Road's Pearl (brother and sister) won BOV and BOSV blues respectively and both for legs. Pearl earned her 2nd jr. leg in the all breed show too. This was Rio's 3rd jr. leg. Pearl is now home with Arnold and Jenni Himebaugh of Two River's Rabbitry. I hope she adds some more legs for them!

Cage Labels

When I had a smaller rabbitry, it was easy for me to remember who was out of who and when everyone was born. Now that my rabbitry has grown (or maybe just because I'm getting old?), I'm not able to rely on my memory to keep it all straight while I'm out in the barn. While looking through options in my Evans Software program, I ran across the cage label printing option. This has been a great tool! I choose what info I want printed for each rabbit and then print it on business cards. While at Home Depot, I purchased some business card magnets and use those as the backing for the printed business cards. They are very easy to make and because they are magnets, they stick easily to the back of the J-feeders (out of the reach of the rabbits!) It is also easy to use when I move rabbits around. I just have to pull off the label and attach to the other feeder.

Show News...

On August 23, I went to the Great Lake Rabbit & Cavy Double Show in Charlotte, MI. This is one of my favorite shows. It is not too far from my house (meaning I don't have to leave at 4 am to get there on time), the drive is mostly on country roads (great scenery!), and it is often well attended. This year we had a total of 204 Open mini rex in Show B!! Show A had a little less. Our judges were Brian Hartzell (show B) and John Grimm (show A). It was good to see such a great turn out especially with the high gas prices, etc...

I only took 4 rabbits along to show as those were the only ones ready for a show. I have more in the barn, but it is that time of year for molting.

My junior black doe, Woodland's Luna, did well. At only 3 months old, she placed 1st out of 7 in both shows receiving her first 2 legs. What a great way to start! Even with her baby coat, she already has excellent density and texture to her fur. Her type is great too. I look forward to seeing how this little doe does in the future!

Luna's littermate, Woodland's Star, did exceptionally well. There is a short story that goes along with this doe, but I will tell you the long version. =) I had been on the fence about keeping this little doe. Those that know me are not surprised that at times I have difficulty deciding if I should keep a rabbit. If this is the case, I am often asking them (repeatedly!) to go over the rabbit and help me decide. Well, this was the case with Star. I would post her for sale, change my mind and take her off, and then again post her for sale. I decided to enter her in both shows and see how she did. I wanted to get the judges' opinions on her to help me decide what I would do with her. It turns out that I am definitely going to keep Star for a while! In her first show, she placed 1st out of a huge broken junior doe class of 23. Then she went on to win BOV with just over 60 brokens entered! Huge surprise! She also placed 1st out of 17 in the second show. Two legs on her first day out. Besides having type and fur, she has a wonderful temperment.

It is always fun to do well at a show, but my favorite part of a show is all the socializing with fellow rabbit friends. I am blessed to have such great mini rex breeders around that are so knowledgable about the breed, but are also so funny and friendly.

The next show coming up is the Mid-Michigan RBA show in Ionia, MI. Saturday, Sept. 6 is their double show and Sunday, Sept. 7 is another single show. This is also a great show as the Ionia fairgrounds are easy to get to and the building has PLENTY of room for everyone. Hope to see you there!

"Black Gold"

As a teacher, next week does not signify the first week of September, but the first week of school. Hmm... I also start thinking about my fall projects around the yard. They will include planting spring bulbs, dividing perennials, and most importantly, spreading rabbit manure.

Rabbit manure is EXCELLENT fertilizer for many reasons. It is very high in nitrogen, breaks down easily, doesn't smell, and is not hot like other manures so it can be added right to your plant beds without worrying about it burning your plants. I had always read about how wonderful it was so I decided to liberally spread some over my herb garden and perennial bed last spring. My herbs and flowers grew like crazy. For those of you that have rabbits, you know that with rabbits continually eating and pooping, I have an endless supply of this "black gold".

I (meaning my husband) will be building a compost bin this fall. All the rabbit manure will be dumped right from the trays into the bin. This will keep it more contained and will look nicer.

So...if you're a gardener like me and have rabbits... be sure to add that wonderful black gold to your plants this spring if you haven't already done so. Who wants to throw away free, natural fertilizer?!