Doe giving birth - making nest

Question
Melissa, the grandkids doe, will build her nest out of hay and she had the box bottom covered this time, but then she will not pull hair untill after the pups are born. She will cover them  with the hair. Last time she had one pup and it was born on the board in her nesting box. Of course it was dead by the time I got there. I shredded soft paper towel and put the pups on that. Also when the pups were 12 hours old they were comming out of the nest and laying on top of the hay. I put them back several times. We live in Central [Hill Country] Texas. Our tempatures are 90 to 110 degrees or more during the summer. I freeze bottles of water and put in the rabbit cages to keep them cool. It has been years since I raised rabbits and when I did it was in the north, in Michigan. It is so different here in the hot country. Any help sure would be appreciated. Thank you Ann

Answer
Ann, the kits crawl out of the nest to cool off - if the temps go down in the nights you need to return them to the nest, if not - just leave them out.  Just be careful they do not get wet from urine of the mother or slopping from the water crock.  Filling the water ctock with ice instead of water helps some also.

Freezing the water bottles is the easist way to go - that and to have as much indirect ventilation as possible.  I put a fan blowing over the top 1/3 of a nursing does cage - sometimes the does sit up with their ears in the breeze and sit on the frozen bottles.  That is a sight to see.  You can keep extra pulled hair in a zip-lock bag for emergencies in cooler weather - right now if you put fur over them they would die of heat prostration.

Sheila