The great rabbit tractor incident, aka: Why I'm not an engineer.

Rabbit Tractor

Six kits. One miscalculation. Thankfully, zero casualties.

The rabbit tractor is a beautiful little thing — four by four by two, chicken wire wrapping the sides, coated 1x2 wire on the bottom so six eight-week-old Rex kits can sit on the ground and nibble fresh grass without anybody escaping into the field or getting picked off from above. I built it specifically for this — to let the kits live like rabbits should, with green under their feet.

The system works like this: when the grass under them is mowed down to the nubs, I shimmy the whole cage sideways, slow and even, so the kits can shuffle along with it onto fresh ground. The shimmy is fine. The shimmy works. The shimmy is also slow, careful, and the entire time I'm doing it I'm watching their little feet because one wrong move and I'll catch a toe in the wire.

Today I had a better idea.

Today I thought: what if I just tipped the cage a little, so all six kits slid to the high side, and then I dragged it across the grass with nothing under their feet to catch? Genius. Efficient. The kind of innovation that wins awards.

Until one of them fell out.

Not "scooted out." Not "wedged a foot through the opening." Completely out. On the ground. Sitting in the grass under the cage, looking around like he'd just discovered the rest of the world existed.

And now I'm holding a tipped rabbit tractor with five kits inside, one kit outside, and a problem with no good answer. If I set the cage down to grab him — squish. If I waited too long for a free hand — the other five tip out too, and now I'm chasing Rex kits across three acres while Sonny watches from the adjacent field.

So I did the only thing available: scooped the loose one up one-handed, set the cage down gently with the other, popped him back through the door, and stood there in the grass having a quiet word with myself about the difference between clever and clever enough.

The kits, for their part, are entirely unbothered. They're munching the fresh grass like nothing happened. The one who fell out doesn't even know he was briefly a free agent. As far as he's concerned, the grass just got better.

Back to the shimmy tomorrow.

— While we're here — The reason for the tractor over a hutch: kits raised with access to fresh grass and forage grow up sturdier, with better gut development, than kits raised entirely on pellets. The wire bottom keeps them safe from below while the grass works through. The shimmy (or, ahem, drag-and-tip method) is just the price of giving them a moving paddock instead of a static one.

Live Rex meat rabbits and pelts come up for sale later this season — keep an eye on the shop page if you're after either.

— Nana