March 10, 2021

in Tribe Steem Up!3 years ago

Routine ritual day.

This morning, as I approached the rabbitry on my way to turn out the chickens, I noticed the telltale signs of a new litter of rabbits. Mombun had pulled hair to make a nest, and there was fur everywhere. One day I'm going to get to observe this process, I'd like to know how they do it.

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New Mama's gets nanners

Rabbits love bananas, so I'm sure to shower them with treats after having a litter. We keep bananas on hand for such times. If the comfrey hadn't takens a hard hit in the snow storm, I'd be giving her comfrey as well to promote healing. But she'll be fine. I'm excited to see how many are in her litter this time. I'll give her a few days to settle in though before disturbing the nest.

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Female rabbits have a fold on their neck skin that they use specifically as a spot to pull fur from. The fur insulates their nest to keep the babies warm. They're not fully developed when they're born, so a little protection goes a long way. Mombun, thusly named because she was the first of our buns to become a mom. Her sister wives are Other Mombun and New Mombun. Her daughters and younger sister wives are Chance and Blackberry. No, no incest here.

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We took a little time this morning to set up Other Mombun's waterer, as it got damaged during the storm. We've been watering her from a dish, but this will be better. More consistent access to water, and less constant need to refill dishes. I'm hoping this weekend to rearrange the rabbitry and set up a waterer for all the buns.

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Of course, I turned out the chickens according to their routine. They got scraps from last night's supper; hash browns, biscuits, and beef gravy. It's been so long since we had anything to feed our leftovers to (besides us!), and it'll be cool getting back to using leftovers to supplement feed costs. Good feelings! The alchemy by which an animal becomes food, as The Farmstead Meatsmith puts it.

Welp. It's after midnight now. I guess I could go get to work.

Love from Texas

Nate 💚

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