Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

We are delighted to report that all babies from yesterday are doing really well. In the first photo are Crumpet and her four kittens: three are in the nest, can you see the fourth? Clue: it has very dark skin... Crumpet is very protective of them which is good so we still have to be careful about disturbing her too much. We are still not really sure why we found three of her babies scattered out of the nest yesterday: maybe she got 'spooked' by something. The baby she ate was very small so it is possible she recognised that it was weak and unlikely to survive so therefore 'chose' not to waste any milk on it.
Amazingly female rabbits only feed their young once or twice a day. This is unusual for a mammal. Feeding four, five, six or more times is much more common (including for humans). Rabbits' milk is VERY rich however and so one feed will fill the babies right up. You can see from the photo that the nest is quite well built today. There is however, very little fur in it. Usually a female rabbit pulls the fur from her neck and chest to line the nest in order to keep her babies warm. Crumpet pulled out some but not a lot. Look back at the posting on 10th April when we had a 'phantom' pregnancy but a very real nest building session: there was so much fur!!
Our handsome pygmy kid is even more handsome today: he is drinking well from mum and is wandering around a fair bit. Sage has spent some time outside today but has kept popping back to check he is okay, as well as calling out to him to let him know she is still close. Like a lot of very young animals he has spent much of the day asleep or resting. By the end of the day neither Onion (now on Day 151) nor Thyme (due from tomorrow) were showing any signs of starting to give birth.... So, yet more waiting...