My name is Karen.  My husband and I live in northwest Montana, about 50 miles from the Canadian border... in the 'banana belt' though, so it only gets to about 22 below here. We are blessed with a small farm and a homestead we have been renovating for the past 2 years...more on that later.   We have lovely springs, summers, and fall times, so you can say we get the four seasons many people do not get to enjoy.  Spring is in full force and we know it because:

We have new babies every day now... first we had one 'mama' bunny and than there were MANY....did I say MANY????? Every day during the last two months, there have been furry little balls seemingly popping up from beneath the ground!!! So cute and sweet....Who does not love baby bunnies? Gestation period for a rabbit, 28-31 days!!!  yikes!!!!!!!

We have found homes for about 30 thus far, and trying to capture the adults frolicking around on our property, is nearly impossible.... they know what the traps are for and do.  Trying to entice them with lettuce, alfalfa or grain does not work.  We decided today, perhaps a tasty apple might persuade them to enter without caution.  We shall see!!  As it was, we had one female (free range) and life was good.  We heard tale of a woman in town who drove around until she found a 'friendly' place to abandon her rabbits...12 of them to be exact (we spoke with her later)..... We are trying to get a handle on things, as we want to be responsible pet owners with all of our critters! Spaying/neutering those we can catch is the next course of action.

Did I say we have all sorts of babies??? This is our second full year here on the farm and our first to hatch our own chicks...What a thrilling day it was on Saturday when I heard the first chirp!!!! Nestled in her mama's feathers, peeping out...what joy!!!! Our first banty girls had 7 between the two of them (they nested side by side, so it was impossible to tell which little chick belonged to which mama) ... another little banty who decided to nest in one of our abandoned rabbit hutches blessed us with 6 little ones yesterday!!!

Spring is in the air.... hopefully our pygmy does are pg... we will know in the next few weeks.... until next time.... hope you have fun on the farm!!!!