Exciting times at Blessed Acre Farm

The chickens are laying and laying here. We get an average of 24 eggs each day. Thank you to everyone who has been helping us keep the fridge from overflowing!

The rabbits are doing great, too. Our American Blues arrived on November 14th, after a long, long trip. Our friend in Rochester, NY, picked them up in San Diego for us and drove them back to her place. I drove out to Rochester and brought them home. The young lady who sold them to us had bred the does before selling them - and to a different buck than the one she sold us. I've said it before - rabbit folks are just plain Nice People! The first litter should arrive on Friday (the 26th). Hurray!

We also had a Thrianta buck brought in for us from the Convention in San Diego. He's a gorgeous, gentle boy, very cuddly. Last Friday we brought home "the last rabbits we're buying for a LONG TIME!" - two Thrianta does. They are adorable - so fuzzy and sweet.

I hadn't planned on any winter litters this year. However (you knew there was a "however" coming!) with the Americans arriving bred, and with several of our young does hitting 6 months now (those spring babies!) we decided to go for it. My Cinnamon doe, Maple, kindled a week ago Tuesday, on the first night in over a week that was below freezing. It was a small litter, only three kits, and they just couldn't keep themselves warm. It was very sad. We gave her a couple of days of eating fresh mint to dry up her milk, then rebred her. We bred Whiskers the same day, so that there would be two does kindling - always useful in case we need to foster. We wanted to breed the Creme d'Argent does that day, too, but they weren't having ANY of it. They'd been in a hutch together, and I had previously had sisters who wouldn't breed after living together over the winter. We separated them, and finally today, after a week of "Uh UH!" they deigned to be bred. That means their litters should be Christmas babies! (or maybe Boxing Day) Again, it's well to have more than one litter born on a given day. If another doe had kindled when Maple did, we could have fostered them all in together.

I also learned today that my friend Rick at Windy Pines had his first Cinnamon litter from a doe he got from us. I feel like a proud grandmother or something. It's all good - the Cremes I bred today we got from him!