Shakstead

Welcome back to The Shak.

Since my last post, I have been working on rebuilding the courtyard's raised beds. Having been sponsored solely by nature for the past so many years, they needed some TLC. I empty each bed of soil, reset the retaining lumber and refill with soil. Each shovel full of soil I remove goes through my home made soil sifter. It is a wheelbarrow with 1/2"x 1" wire over the top. The soil in the beds has acquired a high concentration of gravel over the years. Each shifted barrow full is dumped in a pile. When the bed is empty, I replace two barrows full of sifted soil. After spreading the soil into an even layer I add a layer of rabbit droppings mixed with straw followed by another two barrows of soil.

Use whatcha got!

One wonderful thing about rabbit droppings is that they are what is known as a cold fertilizer. This means they need not be composted before being used as fertilizer. From rabbit to soil...gone. And worms absolutely love the stuff.

Rabbit droppings and straw.



This bed is ready for planting
when the planter is ready for it 

 Thanks for stopping by...come again soon.

Shak Rabbits

Welcome back to The Shak.

The original nine kits will be two weeks old overnight. Their eyes have been opening over the last two days. The night before last, after I finished posting my blog, I went out to the barn to check on the beasties and found two of the nine bunnies bumbling around outside the nest box. They were hanging with mom. Between them they had two open eyes. I placed them back in the nest. Where they quickly found their littermates and rejoined the warm, white pile. Since then, I have not seen any kits out of the nest.

To stand out in a sea of white,
one need only open one's eyes

If I may draw your attention away from all the cuteness, there are, not yet so cute, kits and a mother residing in the cage below. Sometimes I count thirteen, others fourteen. They are hard to count. When one moves, all move. Not wishing to bother them beyond checking for life and health, I leave them to their mother; who has taken up a certain liking for carrots. I put a carrot chunk in the far corner of her cage and her world narrows to the space between her teeth. Through my limited knowledge of Ancient Greek, I believe it accurate to refer to this condition as mydentia. The perfect distraction. All kits made it to the fourth day. Although I am not sure how many there are, I have found none dead. Somehow mother rabbit is taking care of business. She is eating both pellets and hay freely and drinking about 32oz. of water daily.

How many rabbits in the nest?...
...All of them!

What?... One pin standing!

Thanks for stopping by...come back soon.