It's getting to be summer-ish around here and warm in the afternoons. Soon to be mumbuns have a tendency to lay around a lot, but Olivia is doing more of a sprawl than anything else. She looks like she may be having a litter next Wednesday, we will see then, I guess. We are hoping for two litters next Wednesday and if they show up those will probably be the last two until the babies from earlier this year are old enough for litters of their own.
The first of the two litters we are hoping for next Wednesday is between a black doe, Gayle, and a fawn buck, Augustus. Augie is the sweetest buck, so we're hoping for some great temperament in his offspring. They've never had a litter together before so we're not quite sure what to expect. Gayle's color genes are: aa Bb Cc D_ E_ and Augie's color genes are: Aa Bb C_ D_ ee. So we could see some agouti, some chocolates, and haven't a clue about anything else since we don't know if either parent has matching recessives for the rest of the color characteristics. A chocolate agouti would be nice, actually, just a regular agouti would be nice, too. Augie is a sweet buck, although one of his ears is dropped which is a DQ on the show table and hopefully won't breed true. Gayle has good ears so we're hoping for his temperament and her ears.
The second litter we are hoping for is a litter between Olivia, a chocolate doe, and Caesar, a tortoiseshell buck. They had a litter earlier this year and we still have Daffydill, Buttercup and Daisy from that litter. Daffy is particularly nice and extra fluffy so we are hoping for another one like him in the litter. Their last litter was six babies, one black, one white, one chocolate, one chocolate tortoiseshell and two black tortoiseshells. We still have Daffydill, an extra fluffy black tortoiseshell buck, and Buttercup, a black tortoiseshell doe, as well as Daisy, their albino sister.
There can be quite some difference even between siblings. DaffyDill didn't have his face showing in the first picture, here's his face and he's much fuzzier than his sister, Buttercup.
DaffyDill has bent over at the tip ears along with a lot more 'furnishings' (fluff) on his ears and his face. Buttercup up there on the shelf doesn't have anywhere near as much fluff on her ears although Daisy, the white doe laying down, has less fluff than Daffy but more than Buttercup.
Buttercup is almost a dead ringer for her sire, Caesar, although she doesn't have a white scar on her nose from being bitten by her brother. I guess DaffyDill is much nicer than his uncle Julius. Or perhaps boy bunnies don't bite girl bunnies all that often.
Daisy is a nice albino doe, with almost the 'normal' amount of fluff on her face. She doesn't seem to mat her wool much, although she does have a little bit of matting in her topknot and a touch behind her ears.
Not quite sure how he got to be so much more fluffy than his siblings, but this extra fluffy DaffyDill is why Olivia met up with Caesar again. Daffy has tipped over ear tips, although I don't know if that's from the extra wool or if it's just the structure of his ears.
There's Daisy on the left and Daffy on the right. Daisy has some ear furnishings and straight ears without the ear tip flip that Daffy has. Her face is a bit more open than Daffy's.
The picture isn't focused as much as I'd like, but side by side it's much easier to tell the differences between Buttercup on the left and DaffyDill on the right. Buttercup has very little ear furnishings and very straight ears. Her face is very open and visible. Daffy's got the flippy ear tips and so much wool that his eyes are usually not all that visible.
Daisy doesn't seem to mind all the hutch cleaning and picture taking going on this afternoon. She's definitely getting into the whole summertime lounge around attitude.
Around sometime in September, this white buck, Aster, will meet up with the white doe, Daisy. White rabbit bred to white rabbit has 100% white offspring. They are both quite similar in amount of fluffiness, although Aster may have a bit more 'open' of a face. I should put them side by side and take a picture.
This is either Black Lotus or Black Rose. It's going to be hard, if not impossible, to tell Lotus from Rosie. At some point, they will get their tattoos, especially before they get moved into the communal doe herd. However, until then, they are pretty hard to tell apart. All three of these pictures are the same bunny, though.
The hutches were washed down today and the bunnies generally get a bit grumpy at me for spraying water around the place. This little girl was trying to decide if a camera that makes bright flashes is any better than that nasty hose that sprays water around the place. Fortunately, a ti leaf bribe always cheers up grumpy bunnies.
I've not been updating the website as often as I should, one of the reasons is the shed that is supposed to be being built. Before I can build a shed, though, I need a place to put it. The backyard is a hillside, which can be worked around. But at the moment, it's covered in elephant, Guinea and other types of enormous grasses. More grass than the bunnies can eat, although they've been really helpful in speed composting quite a bit of it so far. Eating in self defense, I supppose, when their hutches are so full of grass it's hard for them to move around. All the old stems and dried leaves were taken out today, but there will be more grass to restock their hutches with tomorrow.
Within the next couple of weeks, I'd like to get a place cleared up to the right of the area that's bushwhacked. A 12' wide by 10' deep shed would be a lovely thing to store tools and stuff. Maybe even have a place to shear bunnies?
