I just got back from my monthly 5-day visit to my mom and daughter in Nova Scotia (it seems to be the optimal compromise between "never enough time there," and "always too long to be from home"). In my absence, the baby bunnies grew immoderately.
These are Hazel's and Ivy's litters, so the little ones from the compare-and-contrast above are both shown here. Hazel's kits are still bigger, though the others are catching up fast.
This next two weeks, until they're fully weaned, is (to me) when they're at their absolute cutest. Right now they follow Mama around, trying to nurse, until she gets impatient and hops up on top of the nest box to get a break. We separate them right around the time they're finally big enough to follow her up there, because sheesh! They need some downtime. Also, that's just how the timing works out for breeding the does again, at least in our scheme of things. Commercial meat-rabbit growers breed them shortly after they've given birth, so the old litter is weaned just as the new litter is about due, but that's hard on the does and (as explained way back upthread) we don't want to work ours that hard. Healthier mamas and fewer, healthier kits works for us.
So yeah, if harvesting our fuzzy bunnies is the worst step in the process (it is), this is the most agreeable. For the next few weeks we'll handle the little kits as much as we can, to socialize them and get them comfortable with humans. Whether we sell them as pets or breeders, or ultimately put them in our freezer, having them associate human hands with warmth, cuddles and - in general - Good Things Happening just makes life a lot easier.
I've mentioned before that our buck Carrot is by far the most cuddly of the current crew. When I got home on Saturday and fed the bunnies for the first time since returning, he came to the door of his cage for his usual nose-boop and cuddles. Instead of turning his head after the nose-boop, as usual, so I could stroke around his chin and chest (his favorite thing), he instead just leaned his face into mine and stayed there for several long moments as I petted him. That was a first, with any of the rabbits we've had. I definitely felt I'd been missed.