The Latest Pet News

As I have mentioned before, we've been on "egg-watch" here for at least the last month. Our older "ladies" arrived just before Memorial Day. They are definitely full grown or pretty close at this point. But no eggs. There is even a couple at church we added chickens to their house just days before us & they have been getting eggs now for a couple of weeks.

Thursday morning B13 went up to the barn to do the animal chores. I saw him running back down with this.....

our first egg!!!!!!

To say we were excited was an understatement! It is going to be so nice to start having our own fresh eggs. Today (Friday) we added a second egg so obviously we have at least one chicken laying. I even went up shortly after getting up at 6:30 this morning so I could be the lucky one to get the egg. However, the chicken didn't lay it until mid-day.

I need to talk with hubby about putting a light in the chicken coop. I hear that helps with encouraging them to lay. The days are very short right now. Sunrise is around 6:30 & sunset is about 4pm so the chickens don't have as much daylight & it's going to continue to get worse for the next few weeks. The only problem is that there is no lights in the barn and the closest power is Grandad's house. I need to look for solar powered lights I think.

As I mentioned, we now have bunnies. I'll be the first to admit we are totally spoiling them. Totally. Each morning they are given some pellets and fresh hay. Every afternoon I make them a "bunny salad." It usually has at least three of the following in it: broccoli, romaine lettuce, apples, celery, or carrots. I know they love it because their bowls are empty in the morning. Today I even gave them each half a graham cracker. I know they don't need those but their previous owner told me they loved them. I figured once a month or so would be okay.

I even have some other treat things for them. This week I bought a treat "thing" that hung on the side of their cage. It only took them each a couple of days to go through that. When I bought the treats, I also bought this....

Not the cute boy...see the leash....

Yup, it's a bunny harness with a leash so that we can give them each some exercise. Sad I know but so much fun! B13 had Snowball out yesterday for the first time with it. We read that bunnies don't like to be carried. Snowball needs to be brushed every day so we've been carrying her down to the house every afternoon for that. Now that we have the harness and leash, she can hop on down instead.

She is a good bunny though & typically doesn't mind being carried. B13 & I are getting better at holding her. Today I was even able to get her on her back so we could brush her belly. She had a small mat in her fur there we needed to get at.

We are hoping to get Hershey to used to the harness soon as well so she can have some "outside" times. We love our bunnies & we are having a great time with them.

Some Bunnies Love Us

It's funny how life works sometimes. Earlier this spring my FIL surprised us with the chickens. Then we got six more to make an even dozen. Prior to this we'd only had dogs as pets during our married life. Well, that & kids but I guess the children variety of kids really aren't pets.

I had commented recently on here or my school planning blog how B13 was doing research on pets. He's been wanting something small & cuddly. The chickens weren't cutting it. He was trying to convince us on guinea pigs. We told him we didn't have enough room. We were just going to let it sit & figure out something in the fall. We talked about having him work and save some money toward a pet or do some more research or well, delay it like the good parents we are.

That was all well & good until a local friend mentioned they had a couple of rabbits they no longer really had time for. Would we like them? Hutch and all?

Well, we couldn't very well say no to such a generous offer. So look who joined our family just last night....

Snowball - a beautiful angora bunny

AND

Hershey - a beautiful bunny of undetermined origins

There are far more photos of Snowball on here than Hershey. 1) Snowball needs to be brushed every single day to keep her fur from matting. It's a really tough job but B13 has volunteered to keep on top of that for her.

2) Snowball will sit quite contentedly in your lap & even doze off a bit if she gets really comfy. She's such a soft bundle of bunny!

Annie is checking out the new competition.

She seems to BIG for a bunny!

Poor Hershey has to suffer my cuddles. She's a bit more timid but I was able to hold her both last night & this morning for a time. Once you convince her to come to you & pick her up, she settles down nicely.

As I mentioned - they came with a nicely built hutch with all kinds of little doors for access. Here is a photo I took looking down the lengthy of Hershey's run & into her little hutch at the end.

Here's a view from the side. The run closest to me is where we have placed Snowball (is that the right one Kerry??? Does it matter??). The hutch is currently in the main barn area just outside where we are looking for the chickens to start contributing to their keep with some eggs. Soon I hope! We have a tarp underneath it for easy clean-up.

This is just proof that we haven't kept Snowball inside and left poor Hershey all alone.

Thank you once again to Kerry & her family for allowing us to become the proud and happy owners of Snowball and Hershey. They are well loved and lots of fun. The boys are thoroughly enjoying them and are thrilled to have them here! Thanks!