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We're down now to one growing out litter which heads to freezer camp next month and the buck and does to keep through the winter to start breeding again in March. This year Casco kindled her 12th and 13th litters. She's been our best doe, and we're keeping 2 does out of her last litter, but we...

Last week Kittery kindled her 2nd litter at 32 days out from breeding. She had 8 live and one dead and stretched. And we noticed that she seemed about to kindle from the day before, seemed uncomfortable or restless. So when we found the stretched kit we figured maybe one had gotten stuck. This...

Our goat Nan was due May 1, but yesterday she kidded in the middle of the day (so much for a day of rest after a rather full week) She gave us a buckling with Boer markings like the father and a doeling with more of Nan's coloring. All doing well and I hope to get better pics today when they are...

Last night when we made a last check on the rabbits, Limerick had kindled--6 kits. She was due yesterday--the last of the 4 does we bred in March and the second young doe. Neither of the older proven does kindled, then last week Kittery had 7 kits. So we're pleased to have 2 litters after the...

No kits yet for us this spring. Our 2 proven does were due to kindle Monday of last week and yesterday. Still have a young doe bred and due to kindle next week. We didn't get the fall litters we bred for last year, but didn't mind so much as the winter came early and hard and in some ways it was...

Have to start by acknowledging that some folks welcome rabbitosis, even try to spread it and the answer to my question about number of rabbits would always be More! But I just don't want to have more rabbits than we know what to do with. Ideally we'd have 7 litters averaging 8 per litter each...

We thought we had figured out when we wanted to breed our rabbits. We aimed to have the most kits growing out when the most forage was available, to not have first time does kindling in the cold, to avoid kindling in the hottest weather, and not to have does producing milk when their water would...

Snowing and blowing hard here today and I'm wondering where our autumn went. September was still hot and humid summer weather and October was cold and wet, only a couple of those golden days that make fall my favorite season. November just meant the rain turned to snow but kept on falling...

Since our first year with rabbits we've fed lots of forage, no pellets and grown wheat into fodder for winter greens. I started the first batch soaking last Sunday, drained it after 12 hours and rinsed it in it's plastic container twice a day until dumping it out into a 10"x20" nursery tray on...

Garland was due Tuesday, Sept. 4, and we'd about given up, thinking that either our buck was heat sterile after this miserable summer or that she'd put on weight and hadn't taken when bred. This morning when we went to clean the rabbit cages, she was in the nest box and had pulled fur so we left...

Even here in 'the north country' the growing season is in full swing. Not much rain--less than 3 inches in the past 5-6 weeks. But we got in the hay we need for our goats and rabbits a week or so ago. And today (with some help from a wwoofer who's with us for a couple weeks) we bundled and hung...

We picked up our piglet May 12 and she was only 5 weeks old instead of the 6 weeks she should have been. (We didn't know this until we met the person who had picked her up from the farm for us, not the seller) Since we started raising rabbits for meat we only get 1 where we used to raise 2 each...

This is Joanna, Rainey's daughter. We have a recently kindled rabbit with whitish gunk around her nose. She’s stopped eating. Trying to figure out: is there anything I can do to help her/her kits, or to see that my other rabbits don’t get whatever she has? My mother thought she might have...

Nerve-wracking day keeping watch over Amada but all's well that ends well. Last year Dora had 3 kids but the first 2 were born dead and she needed help since they weren't giving any. We bought Amada last year, after she kidded so we didn't know what to expect from her. She needed a little help...

Last year our rabbit breeding got off to a bumpy start with an older doe that didn't take and a youngster that didn't feed her litter. This year has begun much better. Hollis kindled 6 on April 20 and Jay kindled 10 today, 4-30. Was a little worried because it is still cold--snow forecast...

Rabbits are the only things we've ever bred. We had some idea what to look for in a dairy goat or piglets, and the advice to breed the best and eat the rest seemed like something we could follow. Now I'm trying to understand the hidden variables--partly because we're doing close breeding and...

Zach finished the new coop with compost yard under a little after 9 this morning and even though it was only in the 40's F we moved them out. They were getting very active in their 3'x4' 18" deep box and a couple had flown out when I opened the top to put in food or water. They hadn't been using...

Garland is our other experienced doe bred this spring--she had 3 litters for us last year. She kindled this morning--9 kits. So that is the second success for our young buck. Now have to wait for the first time does and hope it warms up a bit before they kindle (due in 10 days and 17 days and it...

Casco kindled this morning right on day 31. She's our oldest doe--this is her 4th year of being bred and her 10th litter. Her smallest litter was 7 and her largest 9 which pleases me since I'm aiming for 8. Was a bit worried when she hadn't pulled any fur by the morning feeding--last year her...

Just picked up 8 new chicks this afternoon--2 leghorns, 4 golden comets and 2 black sex-links. When we first started with hens we went for the older dual purpose breeds often recommended for the homestead or backyard grower. But what we really want from them is eggs--rabbits seem so much easier...