Iowa winters are very hard on people and animals.  We have an unheated barn which isn't ideal in Iowa.  Winter seemed to hit earlier than normal this year, we've been dealing w/a lot of snow and ice since after Thanksgiving.  In addition, it hasn't gotten above freezing to melt any of it off....not fun~!

We've been dealing w/frozen water bowls for almost a month making Deanna's water chores very difficult and not a fun task!!  Raising babies this time of year is pure luck!  If you can get a doe to pull enough hair the babies will be fine but we find many times that doesn't happen.  We do move does into mom's basement (a sore subject w/her!) to raise some winter litters.  I have to supply her with a large supply of Yankee Candles, which i am more than happy to do!!!  Thanks mom for all you do!!!

This time of year all my rabbits seem to prime out there coats, just what i don't need since most shows shut down in November and dont' start back up until February!  One thing i do enjoy about this time of year, is since it's soooo cold out there you dont' spend much time looking at upcoming juniors so when you do look at them they look great and you are sooo surprised to find a gem in the ice!!!  Also, tattooing this time of year is GREAT!!!  Most don't move or jump much since their ears are quite cold, Deanna is happy about that!:)

I hope everyone has a great holiday season and I encourage you to share your ideas and success on raising rabbits during the winter months!!

Maple

As we roll into August, it sure has gotten hot & humid!  One of the reasons Iowa is known for corn is that corn thrives on hot & humid weather!  I guess that is why we are surrounded by corn fields!!  We try to keep our animals as comfortable as possible this time of year.  We don't have a air conditioned (or heated) shed.  We have two exhaust fans that run on a temp gage, which these days, they run 24-7.  We also have 3 very large industrial fans that run on high all day as well.  We do shut them off or on low at night.  Our goal is to keep the air moving around the rabbits.  So far we've been pretty lucky all summer but the forcast now shows mid 80's plus humidity for the next 10 days.   This month always seems to reck havoc on our fur quality, we get that "kinky" fur on animals that sit next to the wire it seems, so with our extra fans this year we hope to keep the air moving and their cages less moist from the humidity. 

 I think I worry more about my rabbits being cool outside than myself!  I think watering is now my new favorite job....since Deanna..the normal water girl is gone.  I like to go around during the heat of the day and give everyone a new fresh, cold dish of water(we don't have automatic waters!), the babies and moms love that!   Plus, if i get some on myself, not a big deal!!  Now winter is another story!   During cleaning day, Mom & I spend a lot of time taking "mini" breaks in front of the fans and we try to clean early in the mornings.  As many of you know, flies can be a huge issue in the summer.  Besides rabbits, we also have cattle and horses on the farm, so the fly population is always large.  I spend a lot of time and money on those goofy fly catcher strips!  They work well but fill up fast!

Share  your ideas on how you keep your rabbits cool  in the summer!!

Oh Ya, Deanna, where are you, we have a lot of rabbits to tattoo!!  See you in a few weeks!!:)

Don't you all just LOVE when you have to tattoo your rabbits? Well, for me and Dirty(Maple, thats her nick-name, as she calls me slave) it's not exactly our favorite activity.  Some of you know that i'm gone at a summer camp all summer as a camp counselor.  Well, I'll come home about twice a summer, Maple complaining the whole time how she has to clean by herself and do everything by herself. (lets face it, she'd be nothing without me)  Well, i'll come home for that one weekend, Maple will here i'm coming and high tale it over to our house and want to tattoo.  Well, sometimes, like this summer.  We had a buttload of bunnies to tattoo.  So i get home, and here comes maple FLYING into the driveway ready to tattoo, so we go out there, me thinking maybe 10 rabbits....little did I know, she had like 30 to tattoo! (which my first thought, is Dirty you need a life, besides breeding bunnies) ANYWAYS!  When we tattoo, i have to hold the rabbit and she stabs them in the ear.  Who gets the easy job, not the slave!  I have to hold them.  Well, since she'd waited so long to tattoo some of these rabbits are little big, so they're CRAZY! And of course who gets scratched to hell. none other, but the slave.  and maple just laughs and says, Oh! that one was kind  of crazy, and of course, i'm just like yeah, right, crazy, as i'm COVERED in scratches, and by the end of the day i look like i cut my wrists or something cause  all the scratches, i'm pretty sure that Guidence counselor at school is gonna come up to me at some point and time and be a LITTLE concerned. 

All in all, what i'm getting at, is when i come home from camp, it's normally not a HEY! great to see you back, it's more of a, Hurry up, we've got shit to get done-coming from the one and only Maple.   :)  though i'll give her credit she does seem to get some scratches too as the rabbit goes flying off the table in her direction and she has to catch it. 

Hello everyone!  Blogging is very popular and i thought it might be interesting to get it going in the rabbit world!  I'd like anyone to post their thoughts as we discuss topics and such. 

Currently i've been struggling with finding enough cage space for all my current babies, of course, i bred every doe i own plus anything else that looked like it was in heat!  Needless  to say, I  have plenty of show prospects for Grand Rapids, just not enough space.  I requested for my b-day that mom buy me another 100ft roll of wire, just want i need, another project of building cages!!:)  Everytime I mention "building cages" or "rabbit project" everyone runs and tries to avoid me for days!  I've only "mastered" one size of cage, a 24x24 3-hole stack.  I haven't tried to venture into other sizes yet or anything w/dividers.  I have enough troubles just trying to get this one size done.  The first cage I ever built, my sister, Deanna and I couldn't find a tape measure so we decided to use a chalk line thingy to measure out the wire........NOT a good idea!  We ended up with 4 pieces, none of the same length!  Since then i stick to my tape measure.  Besides Deanna, Gator, my chihuahua is about my only helper unless I can con Jason or someone else into it but they avoid me big time.  So hopefully i'll get my new wire this weekend andbegin another round of sore hands and lots of breaks.  The last set of cages i built in my living room, building cages outside in Iowa's awful humdity isn't fun!  It actually worked well and my two cats loved laying on the wire!  So if anyone is free next week and likes to build cages let me know, i'm looking for all the help i can get!!!