Hay Day

Friday was "Hay Day" for our bunnies - when they get their annual bale of hay for their pen. It's become a sort of ritual every year, about the time I get the firewood all split and stacked for the winter,  I split up a bale of hay and spread it around to keep them warm for the winter. They have dug a series of tunnels under their pen which they sleep in every night. All three rabbits immediately come up to see what's going on and join in helping to spread the hay throughout their home.



Maisy at the opening to their tunnel.

 They tunnel through the hay like moles, grabbing mouthfuls as they plow. Then they run down into their burrow filling it up and come up for another mouthful! They frolic and play and run around like kids playing in leaves! It is really a sight!

Mimsy




Niffer eating maple leaves that fall on their pen.



Now the firewood is all split and stacked, the quail have been moved from the greenhouse into the basement and the bunnies have their hay for warmth. We are all ready for winter!

Sunday Breakfast in the Garden

Niffer, Maisy and Mimsy

I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to watch the Sunday morning news. As I sat down I started smelling the faint smell of a skunk coming in through the open upstairs bedroom windows. The smell was now getting stronger so I decided to see if maybe a skunk had gotten in the garden. I looked out the back door and on the patio was a black rabbit standing there looking in at me! At first I thought it was a rabbit that had maybe escaped from someone in the neighborhood, but then I realized it was Niffer. Maisy, our grey rabbit, was in the pen stomping her back feet, obviously angry about something. I walked out to the pen to see how they could have have gotten out. Over the years they have dug a series of tunnels inside their pen. In the fall I put a bale of hay in their cage that they take down into their hole for the winter. They have dug very deep tunnels, but have never tried to dig out, something they could easily do in a matter of minutes. Maisy was now at the other end of the pen sticking her head through a hole the size of a baseball, luckily she was too fat to fit through. I can't tell if they chewed the wire, or if something ate through trying to get in. Niffer was now following me around, but when I went to grab her she ran towards the fence. I was worried that she might get startled and run underneath into the neighbors yard. She finally jumped onto the wood pile where I was able to catch her. I put her back in the pen but I couldn't see Mimsy, our little tan rabbit, anywhere. I looked around the yard but still couldn't see her. I happened to look at the garden and there was Mimsy, happy as can be, enjoying her breakfast of my newly planted cabbage seedlings! I called her and she came hopping to me like it was no big deal that she was outside her pen snacking on my cabbage plants! Everyone is now back in their cage safe and sound. These are the most spoiled rabbits. They have a 3' x 8' double hutch, up off the ground with sleeping boxes inside connected to an 8' x 8' fenced in run. They get daily vegetable scraps left over from our lunches and dinners and whenever I am harvesting cabbage, carrots, beets or salad greens I always throw a bunch or two in to them. I have to wonder if this was a thought out plot, that Niffer was the look-out at the patio door while Mimsy helped herself in the garden. Maisy was probably trying to fit through the hole in the pen to join them when a skunk saw what they were doing and sprayed, trying to chase them away from her feast!

I think tomorrow I will build them the new pen that I have been wanting to build for a year now!