There has been a big surprise for the volunteers with the unexpected arrival of 29 baby rabbits over the past few weeks.
The male and female rabbits are normally kept strictly apart from each other, because otherwise we would have a prolific rabbit population. However, one male somehow managed to enter the female quarters and had been living discreetly amongst them and it was only on Boxing Day that the miscreant was discovered, when his first 11 offspring appeared. The rampant father was immediately removed, but it was too late as he’d been in the company of the girls and a few days later, another 8 of his progeny were born. During the weekend, another 10 have been born so we now have 29 ‘kits’ (baby rabbits) to find homes for.
The bunnies are not allowed to be separated from their mothers until they are at least 8 weeks old so the first batch are not quite ready to go yet but the farm is taking pre-orders and asking for suggestions for names.
Although they are very cute and cuddly, they are growing at a rapid rate and the cost of keeping them and finding spaces for them is rising, so we are appealing for donations and hoping to sell the bunnies for £10 each. We have a couple of staff who are real rabbit experts so anyone new to keeping rabbits can get good advice on looking after them.