So Much SPRING....Cuteness Overload Time!

Spring is alive and well here in the barn and on the ranch! The feed switch from PenPals to Manna Pro made a ginormous difference. We now have a barn full of babies - 7 litters with 46 babies. Absolutely amazing.

We have so many colors, it's very exciting! Lilacs (selfs, lynx, brokens, solids, charlies, etc), Chocolates (selfs, agoutis, chinchillas, solids, charlies, brokens), a few blues and a few blacks.  14 lilac based babies, 21 chocolate based babies, 7 blacks and 3 blues.

 

Malia has a litter of 12 (born on 5/10):

 

Natalie has a litter of 4 born on 5/11:

Goldie has a litter of 4 born on 5/5:

Mercedes has a litter of 6 born on 4/29:

Keerah has a litter of 6 born on 5/8:

Tampa has a litter of 8 born on 5/10:

Abrielle has a litter of 8 born on 5/11:

We have two more does due on the 20th, so I had to build some new nestboxes, since the other 7 are full. That fills all 9 of my baby cages. I'm thinking of getting 6 more baby cages, so that I can get my other 6 does bred and with litters, before the 9 other litters are weaned.

While I was at it, I decided to take step-by-step pictures of the nestbox building project, and put a How-To guide on my website, which you can find here.

Here's a few fun pictures from around the ranch. Everything is so green right now. Everyone is happy, healthy & bouncing around enjoying life.

This is Buddy, on mini-Aussie, who showed up here as a stray last year. He found a permanent home here :).

Ducks. We have Muscovey ducks everywhere on the ranch. They're all starting to hatch out clutches of eggs now, which makes for lots of spring fun.

Flowers and green are plentiful right now, so here are a couple fun close-up shots.

Can't forget about the little kittens in the barn. Miss "Little", one of the barn cats had a litter of 2 kittens 3 weeks ago. A calico girl and an orange boy. They are so cute and fun right now, even though they play in slow motion still!

Juniors & More Babies

Here are some updated/current pictures of our two youngest "keeper" juniors from our last litters.

The buck, Hoppin's Keone. He's a pretty little, solid bodied, lynx boy.

The doe, Hoppin's Camaro. She is really impressing me and I can't wait to see how she matures! Gonna be one thick, awesome girl!

We have 16 babies in the barn right now from 3 does. And 4 more does due any day.

Goldie has a litter of 4:

Mercedes babies are just over a week old - she has 6.

Keerah had a litter of 6 babies this week - 2 blues and 4 lilacs.

Little, the barn cat has two really cute little ones. Their eyes are just starting to open, so they are getting to the fun age!

3 does = 16 babies! 6 more does due this month and then our baby cages will be FULL :)!

Natalie is one of the girls due today. She's full of babies, along with Tampa, Malia and Abrielle.

Organized Barn, New Babies & Sweetpea

Mercedes kindled to a lovely litter of 8 on Monday night. She was bred to Escalade, so the babies are all chocolates and lilacs. She has 4 brokens, 2 solids and 2 charlies. The charlies are VERY heavily patterned though.



Lexus had a litter last night (Tuesday) by Ganache. Just one baby. It's a chocolate. She tends to have smaller litters, so I fostered Mercedes smallest two over to her.

Monday was barn cleaning day. Everything came out of the barn. Got scrubbed down. Rust got ground off the legs of the cage system. The legs got repainted. New tray edging was put on the cage system. A new table was built in the barn with new carpet put on the whole thing.

It was a very long, 9 hour day, but it felt so good to get it all cleaned and organized.

An upclose of the new carpeted table that my brother built for me.



We had some baby kittens born in the barn a week ago also. A little calico (female) and an orange (male).

Several bunnies got nestboxes last night, as we have 8 does due within the next couple weeks. Goldie is due on Friday. Keerah is due on Sunday. Several are due the middle of next week, then we have about a 10 day break before the rest are due.

Sweetpea is my just turned senior doe from Goldie's last litter in October. She has her mama's photogenic side for sure. I got her out just to pose her up this morning and she sat there like a little doll for me :). Very sweet doe, as her name implies.

Storms, Babies & Feed

The buns are all doing fantastic on the new feed. It's been just over a month since the switch. I was pretty nervous about the switch and how they would do on the feed, but so far they are doing WAY better.

I have 7 does out of 14 who palpate positive and are due the first week of May. This hasn't happened since last Summer. 5 of the other 7 does were all very eager to breed and I expect them to palpate positive in a few days, Lord willing. The other 2 does have to be bred this week still. Manna Pro 16% is doing the job so far.

Everyone's condition is doing great also. I always give feed a few months to really be able to tell if it is going to work with my herd. But, I'm extremely impressed so far.

The bunnies love playing with pine cones and it had been awhile since we picked up any. But, we have a tub full in the barn now.



It's been a very typical Oklahoma weather year so far. That means it goes from cloudy to warm and sunny to windy and cold, to raining, to sunny again - every week!

Last Wednesday we got hit with the hardest storm we've had for a couple years. It dumped buckets of rain and hail. There were a few tornadoes in the area, but thankfully everything is intact around here. Lots of flash flooding from the immense amount of water so quickly. The creek that runs through our property was flowing - something that hasn't happened for awhile. No more drought here in Northeastern Oklahoma, that's for sure! It's been a W-E-T year.

The creek was going fast and full during the night of the storm - took out one side of our property and half of the dam that was in front of that fence line (meant to protect the fence line).

This tree, which is on our property, got struck by lightning . Kind of hard to see in the picture, but the lightning wrapped all the way around the tree - starting at the very top.  It showed the marks on each side.

The babies are all weaned (8 wks old) and ready to go. Camaro (my little doe I kept out of Abrielle) and Keone (my buck I kept out of Malia) got weaned and separated from the rest of the babies who will be leaving to their homes soon. Here's a quick shot of Camaro enjoying some hay today that I gave her to munch on & cuddle in, since it's cold today.