I have a bunny update to share with you. All of the great information you shared with us in your comments to the birthday bunny post helped us make our decision. (Thank you!) We decided to move Bracken’s bunny, Honeyberry, onto the enclosed front porch, so we wouldn’t have the problem with allergies from having her in the house.The front porch is protected from predators, so we felt safe keeping her there, but we wanted her to have a companion. I contacted the woman where we got her and asked if her sister was still available. She was!
We got Honeyberry’s sister (whom Bracken has named Peppermint) and all of us were looking forward to reuniting them. I could feel Honeyberry’s spirits brighten as soon as her sister was there, I’m glad they have each other. It’s a great solution for us. The bunnies are still close enough for Bracken to interact with them everyday and care for them, but no allergies to worry about. After we pet them or brush them, we wash our hands and then we’re fine. I’m so relieved!
Bracken seems to love the responsibility of taking care of his bunnies. He says good morning to them when he wakes up, visits them during the day, and says goodnight before he goes to bed. He fills up their food dish and hay, and brings them kale or collards from the garden nearly every day. The other day we trimmed some apple branches and gave them to the bunnies to chew on, since we’ve learned they always need something to chew on to keep their teeth from growing too long. (What other kinds of tree branches do they like?) We’ve been reading together about caring for rabbits and have been learning a lot. I fill up their water and clean out their cage, but other than that Bracken takes care of most everything with his bunnies. All of their droppings will go to make compost for the garden.
When there is a break in the rain, we’ve been enjoying bringing them out into the yard. We set up an old baby gate, that we used to keep Bracken away from the woodstove when he was a baby, to make a little place for the bunnies to hop around. Bracken sits in there with them and gives them treats. They start getting used to him and warm up to him, sitting next to him, and letting him brush them. He collects every bit of fiber he gets and makes projects with it. We have plans to make something like a chicken tractor and move them around the yard.
When it’s nice out, Bracken has been hanging out with his bunnies while I take pictures of buttons for the shop. (He jumped into a few of my button pictures this past week. I also liked the hand sneaking in to show me his find while I was photographing some tree buttons.) When it’s too rainy to bring the bunnies out, we don our rainboots, rain hats, and rain coats for our outside excursions. We’ve still been finding a zucchini here and there, along with a few cucumbers, and raspberries. The real surprise was the single blueberry that Bracken discovered the other day, which he was really delighted about.
We didn’t plant any pumpkins in the garden this year, but we had two pumpkins come up on their own and surprise us. Bracken harvested his pumpkins all by himself this week and then enlisted Jeff’s help to start carving them one evening. (That little wool pumpkin he’s holding in the picture is the handwork project he did in his class this past week. I adore it.) Jeff has been bringing in nettles for juicing this week, along with other greens from the garden. He’s been starting a small fire in the woodstove every morning to take the chill off the house, but we’re conserving our firewood until we really need it. Like our fancy wood carrier? It’s a waxed cardboard box with handles. I don’t know how many years we’ve been using that box to bring bits of firewood inside, but it’s only needed minor repairs with duck tape and while not very pretty, has held up very well.
Gorgeous photos, I am so glad that you found a solution. x
I love Honeyberry’s new friend and that its his sister is just awesome. We just took in one of our buns sisters. The girl that had her wasn’t able to care for her anymore. So now we are up to 4 buns 🙂 Mine got some apple sticks this morning off the tree. They sure enjoyed them. Bracken is doing a wonderful job!
My above comment was for the post ” the pictures she took” oops!
Congratulations on the newest bunny! How fun!
I love all the pictures, you can feel the love in every one of them.
Your living room is so bright and cozy looking! I wish I could visit and drink tea with you in that room! : )
awww, I’m so glad you got her company 🙂
like mentioned before – they like all kind of branches from fruit trees, apple, pear – we’ve fed apricot as well, no problem! our bunnies love hazelnut…you can also fees birch…
there actually are only a few trees that you shouldn’t feed, such as maple or elder;
nearly every veggie is good food – in winter they need more energy of course, so you should supply them with carrots, celery and such stuff…
they also like fruit- but shouldn’t eat too much as they’re sensitive to sugar and tend to get diabetes…
ours love peppermint, but more or less every herb is suitable- just don’t give them liberal amonts of herbs…they also eat nettles (preferably dried up a bit), salad, kale,- pretty much everything you have as leftovers from the garden is suitable with the exception of potatoes 🙂
enjoy your bunnies – and really, just ask if you’ve got anymore questions 🙂
I learned something new. I was told I should only have 1 bunny. That was wrong. How wonderful for you! How you’ve worked it all out. They are a little bit less of a pet and more of an outdoor animal. I knew they would cuddle next to him. And seeing him with that bit of fiber, that was just wonderful. Many blessings to all of you.
Oh, and a special things about bunny droppings: they can be used as fertilizer right away (without composting first). Very handy for example garlic and so 🙂
Bunnies like apple, pear, hazel, that is; fruit and nut tree branches with leaves. The exception is branches from fruit with stones, like cherry and apricots. The also like strawberry leaves, and tiny amounts of herbs (like the ones you use for cooking). And lots of veggies, not too much salad and kale, though. And even though they love apples, they can have only tiny bits of friut.
Great pictures! I love the way Bracken takes care of his bunnies and so glad there are two!