Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Our latest litter of rabbits is now 12 days old and as you can see from the photo their eyes are now starting to open. All six kits are looking very well fed and very similar in size showing that they are all getting their fair share of milk from Waffle. As predicted, all are white, there isn't even a suggestion of black or grey on any of them even though dad has black ears and feet and mum a grey nose. Hopefully we might have a better ratio of males to females in this litter. Crumpet's four are now, at over seven weeks old, confirmed as one female and three males.
Pet rabbits can live up for up to nine years old but in the wild many rabbits don't get beyond their first birthday. This is mainly due to being eaten by predators, killed on the roads or shot/trapped by humans. Wild rabbits are viewed by many people as pests as they eat crops and vegetables and yet the rabbit as a pet is one of the most popular in Great Britain with over ONE MILLION pet rabbits being kept in people's homes!
Ducks on the other hand seem popular whether wild or domesticated. How many families go out to feed the ducks in their local park? A lot of smallholders keep ducks for meat or eggs or both or simply because they might have a pond or stream and ducks and water go together so well. As with the rabbit, the life expectancy of a wild duck is far less than that of a domesticated one: 5-10 years as opposed to 20 and again predators are the main reason.
Isn't it amazing how the ducklings were up and about within a day of being born and yet the rabbits, at almost two weeks old, have not yet even left the nest?? What a difference!!