Monday, December 7, 2009

Horses to Rabbits




In our old barn we have a lovely stable area with two large box stalls and two individual stalls for standing horses. One box stall I use for storage the other as a milking parlour for the goats. These two areas are as old as the barn and we keep them in original condition. The standing stalls however are a recent addition and are only any good if you own horses. Well we don't do horses and the area had no use for us. I also did not want to rip it out until I found a worth while use for the area.
Then the rabbits arrived, and not long after that the cooler weather. So we ripped out the standing stalls and made a nice open room. Installed some water proof boarding on the walls(rabbits especially bucks have a nasty habit of spraying to mark territory).We now have our three does and our latest arrival, a New Zealand buck, installed and very happy according to their behavior.
Clare my wife and rabbit herdsman is also happy with the setup but now worries they may be getting too fat. Pellets, hay, carrots, apples, and willow sticks to keep the teeth in shape will no doubt do that. Yesterday she had them out of their cages one at a time doing laps around the rabbitry on a new weight watchers program!
As a stockman with experience of many farm animals I am out of my depth with rabbits. My only knowledge of rabbits is you need a ferret to flush them out the hole into a net so you can catch them for the pot! I will admit though I am enjoying this new addition to our farm and learning from my wife a lot more about these little furry critters than I ever knew before.

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