Did She or Didn't She??

Is this it?  Did it happen?  Did Eden kindle?

 As some of you know, we have baby quail and they are too stinking cute!

(Not so cute I won't relish eating them in 6 or 8 weeks but cute nonetheless).  

We were also waiting on baby rabbits.....

And baby goats.......We are still waiting on baby goats.....

But no longer on baby rabbits!

(disclaimer, that actually isn't true as Tauriel is bred and due to kindle the end of January, but we aren't waiting on EDEN to kindle anymore so for the purposes of this post we aren't waiting any longer, remember the Goodwife is a compulsive confessor and must clarify every...single....detail.... or she feels like she's lying.)

As you may remember from The Youngun's post about getting Eden bred, we weren't sure it would be successful.  Then after we brought Spartan home and he let it be known he knew just how to woo her, we still weren't sure she'd be a good Mama. She is a flighty rabbit, sort of wild eyed, and doesn't like to be fussed with, and in my experience sometimes those does don't do so well their first time.

We put her nest box liner in her drop down sani - nest on day 28 and kept waiting to see what she'd do.  She made a nice little nest of hay and then pulled a little bit of fur on day 29.  Then it began to get cold here in Kentucky!  The Man checked on her last night (7th) when he went out for the final time to check on his quail and she hadn't done anything, but when I went out this morning into the 2* temperatures, I saw more tufts of fur under her cage and knew she'd kindled.  

I have no pictures of the little newborns for this reason.....

It's ENTIRELY too cold for me to uncover them.  I felt in the nest and could feel at least 4 bodies, possibly 6 or more.  They all felt warm, and they were squeaking as newborn baby bunnies do.  That's good enough for me right  now until it warms up a little.

I considered bringing the entire nest into the house to check them, but that is a bit of a different prospect with the sani nests.  She's got a really nice nest built that is slam full of hay and in order to slide the liner and thus the nest out, I'd have to remove some of it.  I'm not willing to do that, so for now, I'll just leave things alone.  I will check them at least twice each day by putting my hand in and checking for warm wiggly bodies.  If I feel a cold lump, I'll pull it out and see what's what.  

Underneath that fur and hay is a pile of baby bunnies!

Will this litter survive these cold temps?  Not sure.  I hope so, and the fact that she made such a nice nest, had them all in it, and then snugged them all up in her warm fur makes me think that most will.  Rabbits can handle the cold quite well, however there is always a risk of loss to any livestock when it's this cold!

Here's hoping you and your critters are snug and warm!  We'll have pictures of the little stinkers soon, as it is supposed to warm up to the 30's by the weekend.

Until next time....

God Bless!