🌿 June Chores & Summer Life at The Rabbitry Center
June is one of our favorite times of the year here at The Rabbitry Center. The world outside is in full bloom, the bees are buzzing, the garden is exploding with color, and even the deer seem to be peeking in to see what’s new. Every part of the homestead is alive, and that means there’s a lot of good work happening, and plenty to share with you.
🐰 Rabbitry News: Keeping Cool and Growing Strong
As the summer heat rolls in, our main focus in the rabbitry is keeping our rabbits cool and healthy. This time of year, temperatures climb above 90°F, so we’ve 
taken a few steps to make sure our herd stays comfortable. We recently installed solar-powered computer fans to improve airflow, and we’ve been rotating frozen water bottles in and out of the hutches to help beat the heat. Tap-Solar Fan Video
We’re also giving our compost pile some love this month, June is prime time for mixing in rabbit manure
and spent bedding to keep that black gold cooking. This is what fuels our raised beds, greenhouse, and summer garden.
Our spring crops are coming in beautifully. We’re harvesting onions, radishes, 
carrots, and the last of our spring lettuce, while also planting peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, and squash. It’s a full transition into the summer garden.
One unexpected challenge this year came from a few bold woodchucks who decided to burrow under our
raised beds. So, we’ve been rebuilding some of those beds and reinforcing them to prevent future visits. It’s all part of the fun of farming!
We also recently split and harvested our comfrey 
plants, some are going to the rabbits, others to the compost, and we’ve potted some to sell on Rabbit Sales Day.
And if you haven’t seen it yet, we just released two new videos we think you’ll find helpful:
One explores why cages are essential for maintaining a productive rabbitry, even for pet rabbits and addresses some of the misconceptions pet owners often struggle with.
The other covers smart weaning strategies, a topic we get a lot of questions about. It’s all about giving your kits the healthiest, smoothest start possible.
Whether you’re running a backyard rabbitry or just getting started, these are must-watch topics this time of year.
🐝 Beekeeping Buzz: Swarm Season and Thriving Hives
The bee yard is buzzing with activity this month, quite literally. We’ve set up all our swarm traps, and we’ve already caught a few swarms. Our hives are thriving right now, and we’re busy splitting strong colonies, searching for swarm cells, and prepping our old boxes to serve as new supers.
We Caught our hive swarming – Tap to Watch how we trapped the swarm and saved our bees
There’s something magical about walking through the bee yard in June, the hives are alive, the air smells sweet, and you can actually hear the hum of happy bees. It’s one of those things that never gets old.
🦌 Deer Hunting Update: Food Plots and Bow Prep
It might be summer, but we’re already thinking ahead to fall. June is food plot month here, and we’ve been planting buckwheat
and corn, along with mowing our clover plots. The white clover is growing beautifully, some of it has reached 12 inches high, and the flowers are full of pollen for the bees and nutrition for the deer and rabbits.
You know it’s summer in Michigan when the black locust trees start raining down pollen. We’ve seen so much of it this year that our trucks get coated every couple of days, and the air looks like it’s filled with green mist. It’s messy, but also a clear sign of how alive everything is around us.
And yes, we’ve picked up our bows again and are
getting our arms conditioned for the season ahead. It’s been a long break, but bow hunting is only about four months away, and we can already feel the woods calling.
Tap to Watch Us Plant Buckwheat
