TAMUK variety?

[Hideaway Pines]

Thanks, this has been a rough winter, but happy to see warmer temps now. How did you all do in the past few weeks? We ran off batteries which we charged with our generator since the solar was under inches of snow and ice. We heated the house with our fireplace and were fine for days on end while our power was out. But having to haul fresh water to our animals three times a day was not fun! But all in all, we did fine. We are seeing stress damage on alot of our pine trees now though, I think the back to back storms may have been too much for some of them, and a few are very close to the house and will be bear to get down

 

[Kusanar]

Thanks, this has been a rough winter, but happy to see warmer temps now. How did you all do in the past few weeks? We ran off batteries which we charged with our generator since the solar was under inches of snow and ice. We heated the house with our fireplace and were fine for days on end while our power was out. But having to haul fresh water to our animals three times a day was not fun! But all in all, we did fine. We are seeing stress damage on alot of our pine trees now though, I think the back to back storms may have been too much for some of them, and a few are very close to the house and will be bear to get down

Weird, our pine trees seem perfectly happy with cold weather. Wonder what is different about those southern ones.

 

[Hideaway Pines]

the trees here have longer limbs that are not as strong as those up north. they are tall, lanky and somewhat frail, sadly we may loose some big trees, but we are waiting to see if the needles were just suffering from freezer burn basically. If so, they might recover...

 

[Grizzlyhackle]

Loblolly pines can get pretty long branches and with the needles snow and ice weigh them down. The tree I had was killed by lightning but we'd loose a branch or 2 if it was a snowy winter. Shorter ones did ok. I called it self pruning.
So Tamuk rabbits are meant to handle heat, how do they manage cold. Summer can get brutal with high humidity and heat in the mid atlantic then get fairly cold Nov thru early March.
Even with good shade and ice bottles bigger bunnies suffer in July.

 

[Hideaway Pines]

I am not sure how they handle cold, my buck did fine, my doe was only 10 weeks so I kept her inside until it was not so very bitter cold. I would have to ask the people I got mine from for answers to that... but since this kind of cold is not normal (thank the lord) hopefully we don't have to worry about this going forward.

 

[Grizzlyhackle]

You've had a cold spell for sure. We used to get winters like that every year. Hasn't been below 20 yet this year( knock on wood). Interesting thought with the cold survival. I've got no problem with bundling my hutches up , stuff in some straw, wrap with plastic. Mostly block the wind and keep them dry. Nobodies home thru the day and summer is just tough. It can spike 90 in May. That's how I lost one in 2017.
Thank you though, something I'll have to study on.

 

[Baymule]

the trees here have longer limbs that are not as strong as those up north. they are tall, lanky and somewhat frail, sadly we may loose some big trees, but we are waiting to see if the needles were just suffering from freezer burn basically. If so, they might recover...

Don’t get in a hurry to take down trees. I feel confident that they will sprout with new growth. Live oaks are brown too, they stay green all winter. The new spring growth pushes out the old leaves, so they should be fine. We have several lightening damaged pine trees that need to come down and a cedar that needs trimming.

It was hard here. We had 17 baby lambs and 10 nursing ewes. Plus 9 hens, horses a steer and 5 dogs. Keeping water was a chore. I was exhausted, we are not set up with heaters and such to keep water from freezing. But we made it. Good thing that’s a 100 year storm, by the time another comes along, I’ll be gone. LOL LOL

 

[Hideaway Pines]

You've had a cold spell for sure. We used to get winters like that every year. Hasn't been below 20 yet this year( knock on wood). Interesting thought with the cold survival. I've got no problem with bundling my hutches up , stuff in some straw, wrap with plastic. Mostly block the wind and keep them dry. Nobodies home thru the day and summer is just tough. It can spike 90 in May. That's how I lost one in 2017.
Thank you though, something I'll have to study on.

we get above 90 in the summer, and I have not lost any rabbits. We do have a fan system set up, but also I put large slabs of Granite in their cages which stays cool in any temp, they lay on these and seem to do fine in the heat. Mine are left over from a kitchen remodel a neighbor did, but you might be able to find some scraps from builder or friends. or just buy some from Lowes/home depot , either way it helps them handle the heat.

 

[Baymule]

Large ceramic tiles also make good cooling pads.

 

[HornyToadAcres]

Loblolly pines can get pretty long branches and with the needles snow and ice weigh them down. The tree I had was killed by lightning but we'd loose a branch or 2 if it was a snowy winter. Shorter ones did ok. I called it self pruning.
So Tamuk rabbits are meant to handle heat, how do they manage cold. Summer can get brutal with high humidity and heat in the mid atlantic then get fairly cold Nov thru early March.
Even with good shade and ice bottles bigger bunnies suffer in July.

Where we are, the two coldest days got down to zero with wind chill worse than that.
My TAMUK rabbits are currently in the back end of a utility trailer that we are converting into a little house.
The part they are in is not insulated and has several holes in the floor and walls from one thing or another.
While it was getting into the teens at night, I closed that end up and ran a very small electric heater. It kept the water from freezing on all but the two coldest nights. The rabbits themselves seemed perfectly fine. I currently have a two yr old buck, a 10 month old doe who had 2 week old kits at the time and a trio of 10 week olds. Everything that I have read and been told is that you have to worry way more about heat than cold with rabbits but they do need to be out of the wind and dry when it is really cold.

I did put more hay in their pens and fed all as much as they wanted in pellets (the buck is usually measured out so he doesn't put on too much weight).

So far I am very happy with my choice of breed.