Only In A Farm Girl's Kitchen.....

Only in a farm girl's kitchen will you find inside an oven a pie pan lined with a dish towel and full of baby rabbits.

This morning I bundled up and headed out to feed, while my thermometer read a whopping 18 degrees. I cared for the dogs, the goats, the cat, the birds, then opened up the bunny barn to feed and water them. I knew I was going to have a litter of bunnies this week, so I prepped my fully enclosed dog crate with lots of straw and put mom inside it last week. I had just changed out the straw yesterday so all the bedding was warm and dry. I have been leaving the barn doors shut around the clock to keep it as warm as possible inside in case the bunnies came. I figured with the crate, barn, straw and mom's fur they would be plenty warm. I went over to water her this morning around 6:30 and shone my flash light in to check on her. She was eating a placenta. I quickly backed off so not to disturb her. If upset sometimes rabbits will eat their young. I waited till about 7:40 when it was daylight and ran down to check her. I found four baby bunny popsicles. Two were moving very slowly, one was barely moving, and the last one was not moving at all. and they felt cold. I scooped them up even though mom was grunting and thumping her disapproval. I raced them up the hill to the house and placed them in a lined pie pan and turned my oven on low and popped them inside, with the door open of course. I needed to get them warm fast, but not too fast you see. With in fifteen minutes I had two that were quite active and the third was close. The fourth one I thought might have already been gone when I put them in, but it couldn't hurt to try. He was starting to move slowly. I had to leave for work, but bunny number four was critical. I had to continue to warm him. So I loaded momma rabbit into a smaller straw lined crate and put her in the back seat of my car. My dog had a vet appointment so he was ridding shotgun. I climbed in with a pie pan full of bunnies on my lap. I turned my heat on high and pointed all the vents to my lap. It was quiet a hot ride in after awhile. I had to turn my defrost on four differnt times just to be able to get a small spot to see through the steam on the windows. I'm sure my dog thought I was crazy, but he never tried to reach for a rabbit, such a good dog he is. What a sight we must have all been. When I got to my office I placed a heating disc in with momma bunny and gave her back four happy warm active bunnies. Later when I checked them two had developed frostbite. One on about 1/3 of it's ear. The other on its front foot. It would definitely loose it's toes if not most of it's foot. I never would have dreamed they'd get that cold in the barn in that short amount of time. Later in the day those two passed on, probably a blessing, but still sad. Tonight I have a cage full of mom rabbit and two babies in my kitchen. All look well for now. Let's hope it continues. Thank god for ovens or else I'd lost them all this morning.

Instead of a bun in my oven, it's bunnies.