Created new colony and doe builds nest!!!

Hi people! How is everyone today? I am sooo excited for everything that is coming up with me. I just left my dads house to come to my moms and right before I left, I checked on my breeding doe, she's currently in a hutch. I am remodeling my colony settings but I'll get back to that later. Anyway, back to my doe, I went to check up on her before I left to stay with my mom this three day weekend. I open up the peephole on the hutch, it's about 1' by 3', the peephole is, the hutch is VERY big, anyway, I open the peephole and I see this rounded hay in the corner of the hutch, it wasn't very much and I was inferring that she was creating a nest so I gave her some more hay and she instantly starts packing it in her mouth till she's carry so much, I can barely see her face. I come back after another ten minutes and she has a pretty good nest built. I gave her some more hay because it's quite cold at the moment where I live and again she starts plucking it out. I come back after another ten minutes and I see a beautiful nest built. She hadn't put any fur in it yet but I'm assuming she'll do that right before she has her babies. I am so excited, I can't wait.

Now, back to my new colony setting, I have one 10' by 20' pen outside on the side of my barn with 18" plywood on the side so that the smaller rabbits can't get out. The pen was flooding immensely so I took the rabbits out and am in the process of letting it dry out. The other pen that I just recently built is in my barn, and please keep in mind that I am 12 years old and I do all of this myself. Anyway, I built a 8 1/2' by 6' pen in a corner of my barn, I have 4' tall plywood as the pen, I laid down wire and put plywood over that so I my rabbits couldn't dig out, I then laid dirt over the plywood over the plywood and wire so that the rabbits didn't have to step on wire and wood constantly, I cut a door out of the plywood that is the pen and put some hinges on it. I made it so I could get in it without climbing over the plywood. The dirt was a bit wet. so I am waiting for it to dry out and I need to put some netting or wire over the pen so my cats can't get into the pen.

Please provide what you think.

Thanks,
Logan
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Hello. Let us know how your doe does.
What breed is she?

Emily

She is mini rex, buck is unknown breed, though I do think that he has some Rhinelander, English Spot, or Checkered Giant.

how much dirt did you lay down for your bunnies?

Did you cover it with straw and/or such like as well?

sounds like you've done a good job so far. pics???

Will post pics ASAP, I laid down about 3 inches of dirt and am planning on bringing home a straw bail as well to put in there.<br /><br />__________ Sat Jan 16, 2010 8:59 am __________<br /><br />I can't post pics at the moment because I'm at my moms and my dad doesn't have internet so I'll take some pics and next time I see my mom I will post. Or my brother will post them for me if he comes to my grandma's house at lunchtime at school.

Hope your doe kindles lots of pretty popples for you, Logan.

:mbounce:

Me, too the last litter she had was 6 and I lost one due to the plywood on the side of my pen wasn't high enough, that's what I'm assuming anyway. I'm super excited to go back to my dads and see what she gives me, I'm also ecstatic to have a purebred mini rex buck, he's three months old so I can't wait to breed him to my doe, how old do you usually have to wait for a mini rex buck to be mature? I kinda want to breed ASAP with him.

With Mini Rex I usually wait 6 months to breed the first time. Bucks sometimes I give a little longer depending on their development. I know the books say they can breed at 3 and 4 but I would not.

Hmm...I'll just see how he develops.

mini rex bucks, they start getting interested in girls for breeding purposes, about 5 months in age.

Wow, your rabbit pen sounds great! Want to come up and help me build some new goat pens? :lol: I look forward to seeing pictures, and hearing about the new popples!

Thank you, I try my best to provide what I can for them even though sometimes I'm limited due to my age.

everybody has limitations kiddo - don't kid yourself

What do you mean?

Are you sure you're only 12? :lol: I know a lot of adults who don't write and spell as clearly as you (never mind the "text" speak gobbledegook that passes for intelligent conversation these days :shock: ).

I am positive I'm 12, last time I checked anyway. I do not like to talk in IM or whatever, I prefer to be correct gramatically rather than have confusions with the people I am talking to because I can't spell right.

Ah, you've learned early that good grammar, diction and spelling mean accurate communication. It's just a little unusual to find this in a twelve-year-old and it makes you sound older than you are, Logan. (For what it's worth, I agree with you.)

Well, thank you. I appreciate it when people recognize me for it. I know that it is unusual to find it in a twelve-year-old, all the people I know use IM talk. Even when I am texting I use correct grammar. Hehehe. My friedns get annoyed by it.

Sure they do, Logan. It centers you out.

But you know... effective as correctness is for clear communication, it is also important to be able to fit in. I had to learn at age 40 how to talk like everyone else.... and it wasn't easy! It's okay to use text in IM and still stick to good grammar and spelling in speech and on forums. It's a case of using what is most effective in the place you happen to be at the moment. Think of it as just another language.

(Sorry if that sounded like a lecture. It's more a case of "been there, done that".)

No, it's completely fine, I need to get used to stop using so much correct grammar when texting. I don't need to when I'm texting, I mean really it just wastes time if I spell everything out but with T-9 it doesn't take too long.