Bunnies

Since starting our urban homesteading adventure, we wanted to raise some kind of animal.  In all honesty, I've been dying to raise chickens for years, though it's against our HOA.  I'm hoping to get the guts up to address that with the powers that be.  In the mean time, we've decided to raise rabbits.  Not for meat.  :)  For their poop.  :)  Rabbit droppings are supposedly one of the most amazing fertilizers.  The nice thing about them is that as soon as these droppings are....well....dropped, they can go straight into the garden.  They will not "burn" the plants.  The droppings can also be composted or vermicomposted.  We also wanted to get an animal that required daily care that our kids could meet without our help as we want to teach them responsibility.  I want them to love animals and to feel comfortable around them.  Right now we have a dog and Logan makes sure he is fed daily.  We have also owned a snake, a cat, and a turtle, all of which the kids felt comfortable with.  Rabbits will be the first "farm animal" we've had.  By farm animal, I mean that the kids will be able to see how we provide for the rabbits and they in turn help provide for us.  We will feed them our carrot tops, they will give us good droppings, the droppings will go in the carrot bed and.....MAKE MORE CARROTS!

We've spent some time in the last few weeks preparing for future rabbits.  We've weeded the old kitchen garden which will be their run.  We planted sweet pea seeds to (hopefully) have a sweet pea tee pee in the run for a shady hideout. 

Zac and the kids started building a rabbit hutch this weekend using our old redwood fencing boards.

We were very proud of Logan who did a great job hammering.  I think he finally has enough weight and muscle to put behind that big hammer to make it work.   :)

He also learned how to use C clamps.

I love how Lissy is wearing a head lamp.

I sat outside watching them build and tried in vain, again, to find local baby rabbits for sale.  We only wanted baby bunnies.  I have owned rabbits before.  Two were caught and one was a pet store rabbit.  All were very nippy.  I do not want nippy rabbits for the kids.  I did research years ago when trying to find out how to make my old bunny stop biting and what I found was that you really want to get baby bunnies as young as possible so that they bond with you.  It was suggested to carry the babies around in slings so that they bond and are used to being touched.  After reading that I knew I'd never buy a pet store rabbit again and would only get baby bunnies.  Finally I found a breeder who is local.  She breeds mini rex rabbits for show and 4H projects.  However, not every bunny has top show looks so those are sold as "pets" for a cheaper price.  All are babies.  I emailed her and asked her lots of questions to which she responded with a very nice, long, personal email.  So, we have 3 sister baby "pet" bunnies in our name!  Just a few more weeks and they will be old enough to come home.  We were so excited last night when we heard back from her.  She also gave me tips on how to raise non nippy bunnies.
So we have the veggie garden to wire fence, the hutch to finish, and apparently I need to make some doll bunny slings.  :)