Monday, March 31, 2014

A New Beginning For A Youth

I'm excited to say that I was able to sell some beautiful Dwarf Hotot stock to a new youth breeder! She is nine years old and her parents will be helping her. I sold two of my absolute favorite junior does to them! While I'm sad that I can't use the does in my program, I'm glad they can help someone else out. I will be saving her a beautiful new buck to add to her program as well a bit later in the year. It's so exciting to be getting new breeders started that love and care for the breed!
I wish I could have gotten a picture of the does I sold before dropping them off but I was in a hurry to leave. I suppose you'll just have to trust that they were beautiful! I'm excited to see how they do for her. The older junior was a black sport and the younger junior was a black banded mismark... both extremely typey. Let's hope they produce something for them to keep and put up on the show tables here in UT!

An old picture but didn't the sport have the cutest head?! <3

Friday, March 28, 2014

The Bare Necessities

I often find myself wondering when I'll finally have a stocked rabbitry and no longer have to purchase just the bare necessities. When I say bare necessities, I mean stackers, feed, new stock to maintain steady improvement, feeders, health maintenance equipment, and loads of other equipment. Thinking this morning, I decided that I'll likely be purchasing the bare necessities for 1-3 more years. O_o At this point, maybe I won't be quite so tied up on purchasing more and more much needed equipment and I can finally purchase fun things such as a registrar's guide (written by Allen Mesick), an official SOP (I actually have an up to date standard, but it's just a photo copy, lol), more carriers, a show cart, fancy-shmancy aprons, a baby monitor to monitor my kindling does or my rabbitry, automatic watering system... sigh... the list just goes on! Such luxurious items. I would love to have them but I'm stuck with the bare necessities currently. Lol!

A cute sport jr doe on top of the oldest, most beat-up hutch
 I own. I need to replace that thing... yet another bare
necessity!! ;-)
If you're wondering about the hutch, yes, I do have two massive hutches outside. I use them for over-flow, sales stock, or a cull pen. One of them was built by my dad about 9 years ago and is still in excellent condition! I love it. There are 4 holes and they're 30''x30''. The old, beat-up hutch was built about 4 or 5 years ago by an old neighbor. I only got this hutch about 6 months ago and it was in horrid condition but it still serves it's purpose! It also has 4 holes but it's only 24''x24'' per hole. It has nest boxes built onto the back of it however I'm not a fan of that part. The nests are really just used as litter boxes for the rabbits so I usually lock the rabbits out of the nest boxes. I plan to take this hutch to the dump once my barn is finished and maybe have my dad build a new, 8 hole hutch to replace it. That would offer up space for the Champagne D' Argent project. Or perhaps we'll find a different breed we'd like to raise in the 12 holes outside. We'll make that decision closer to convention time!! ;-) Either way, I'd like the start with five animals of the new breed... two bucks, three does. :) 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Some New Men

It's official. Your life can change entirely in a split second. Today, I started off with 1 homebred Holland buck working in my rabbitry and ended the day with still, 1 homebred Holland buck, but getting 2-3 new phenomenal bucks and 1-2 does in two weeks and potentially another buck in May. Can you say, WOW!??!!
I hadn't planned any of this actually. This all happened on accident! While yes, I am hundreds of dollars more poor, I am ecstatic to add these 3-6 gorgeous animals to my herd. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and so I dove head-first when it was offered to me. It's a long-run but I've made a lot of those in my life. I figure I can't fail if I don't try!

"Those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." ~Robert Kennedy

Xcaliber's Thompson- BSB- Love this guy! Thank you
Ty Gordon for sharing this handsome fella with me!

Pictures of everyone else are coming soon. Stay tuned!!


Friday, March 21, 2014

I Love My First-Timers!!

Bet 'cha never heard that one before, huh? This post is meant to recognize the animals working "behind the curtain" (that curtain would be the Internet). My favorite brood does!! Many of them are not listed on my website and actually, I don't think I have even posted pictures of them on my blog! It's not necessarily that they're lesser quality animals-- many of them have shown very well and have exceptional type.
The truth of the matter is that once you breed a doe, they're no longer as nice as their maiden doe, selves. Their body tends to gain length and their once plump and wide bodies become somewhat pinched in appearance. As well as their coat begins to appear scruffy due to not only pulling a large majority of it out for their babies, but their babies often use their mother as a pillow and sit on her. They tend to not even bother showing the courtesy of moving to defecate in the corner of the cage like normal. Instead, they soil their mother's coat. If that wasn't enough, there's always the occasional litter that chews their mother's fur.
You now may realize why these does cannot be featured online. They're simply never in the condition to do so. They live a peaceful life in my rabbitry eating loads of food, getting Mani-Pedi's once a month, devouring treats of calf manna and hay, and being featured as the dam on the pedigrees of my best show stock.
However, I was walking around my barn late last night, checking on everyone and quietly thinking about future plans in my barn when I realized something I have been exceedingly blessed with. I realized that I have been blessed with a vast number of perfect first-time moms! This is not to say that I haven't had my share of horrid moms and does that I culled due to the fact that they were hopeless in a breeding program. I have experience in that as well. But looking around the rabbitry, I realized that nearly 3/4 of my does were perfect mothers their very first time. To list a few, Manda, Katara, Cosette, Lovie, Annie, Mia, Blue Boots, and Paramore were all perfect first timers! And the best part is that they are passing this first-timer instincts to their daughters who are in turn, becoming perfect first time moms!!
Looking at this, it has been proven to me that culling for mothering instincts is truly one of the most important things I have done so far. When purchasing my first Hollands, I specifically wanted a big brood doe who would produce nicely for me. Ladies and gentlemen, Manda, a two year old solid black tort BUD with fabulous genetics, was my first Holland doe since re-starting and she has been just that. A big brood doe who has produced nicely for me. And she's a ham... running madly around her cage until I come back and rub her head. <3
Re-starting my Hotot program, I wasn't quite as lucky. My first two does were a pain since day 1. The black banded doe wouldn't take and the sport kept losing her litters. Eventually I was able to get a litter from the sport but the banded was culled. I eventually got more does but as time and generations passed, I was increasingly unhappy with their production. I got a consistent 1-3 babies per litter, usually born on the wire, every litter had at least one fader, peanuts were there of course, the does took 1-3 litters before they'd even try to be good moms, they often delivered dead and stretched babies, etc. I could go on and on! I was lucky to get one baby out of each litter and that one baby would tend to lack in type significantly. I believe I was able to receive two decent animals, total out of that line after 5 years of struggle.
In November 2012, I introduced a new line with one pre-bred doe to my herd. The doe delivered her litter which consisted of 2 peanuts and 1 BUD. I raised the BUD and added her into my program. When she was 5 months old, I bred her and she delivered a litter of 4 bucks and was a fabulous first timer. I didn't like the type on the bucks so I sold them and bred this doe again. Long story, short, this doe now has 2 daughters and 1 son producing their own babies on my barn. Her daughters are excellent mothers and her son has sired nearly 15 litters in the couple of months that I have had him in the breeding crew.
Adding that single doe into my line one and a half years ago has resulted in excellent mothering instincts, increased production, phenomenal type, 3 generations passing, and that doe branched into 9 of my very best animals. And the best part? .... I only had this doe for two months before she tragically was killed by a predator when my rabbitry was still located outdoors. This doe had that massive impact on my herd by living here for 2 months and giving me 1 daughter. Her daughter was able to take and carry on her legacy long after she was gone.
It is through having excellent production and even better mothers in my barn that has helped me to move forward so quickly. Without these excellent mothers, I would still be struggling raising my herd of two so-so typed rabbits with horrible instincts and no babies. 

Paramore and her babies--
I love the little banded buck on the far left!
Telsa and her babies

Blue's 3 babies-- all 3 are blue... (sigh)

Hollands make such perfect nests! 

Cute little telsa doe at almost 4 weeks.
They're a pain to pose at this age!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

This Hobby Moved Me

I'd like to express something very heartfelt not to any one person in particular, but this entire hobby as a whole. This hobby has slowly become a part of me over the years and shaped the person that I am today. In the beginning, I was under the impression that those involved in rabbits were all one big, happy family... and then I was sorely disappointed when I discovered the complete opposite. As I continued steering my way through the rabbit world and taking numerous detours, I met numerous people along the way that have become what is known as my "rabbit family".
To a beginner who hasn't quite found their family yet, this is a strange concept. Usually they assume that our rabbit families are the people that mentored us and know every tiny detail about our herd because we obsess over our rabbits to them 24/7... they're the people we trust entirely with every last detail pertaining to our barn.
But my rabbit family is much more to me than just a group of people who I discuss bunnies with daily. My rabbit family has and continues to shape the person I am and the person that I am becoming. They know much more than just the in's and out's of my rabbitry. They know the details of my personal life and support me through everything... often even more than my biological family supports me. They are my rock when it seems as though my life has become chaos and my stress level is at it's peak.
If there was one thing I could tell these people, I would tell them how much they've moved me. Through watching and listening to them, they changed me and made me a better person. They brought me closer to God by sharing and demonstrating their own faith and love. Thank you for the honor of being my family and helping me grow into the person that I want to become. I have no regrets when it comes to meeting the people that I associate with in this hobby. I love each of them as if they truly are my own family.





Sunday, March 16, 2014

New Logo!

This post is incredibly late but since yesterday's post, I realized I need to catch up on the news here! I actually received this logo for my birthday (November 14th) from a dear friend of mine, Ellyn who owns thenaturetrail.com. I am so thrilled with how this logo looks! I feel as though Ellyn was really able to capture my personality and place it in the logo. Thank you so much Ellyn! You're the best!


Little Rascal's Foxy- One of my favorite juniors lately.
I can't wait to begin breeding this doe! She has excellent
 balance. Just that tighter crown.... ick. lol Tight crowns are
very potent and usually pass to 1/2 of the offspring. 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Smut

I haven't posted in a while because I couldn't get my blogger account to upload pictures to my posts! I was so frustrated and then I found out that if I use Google Chrome, it works! :-D Whoo! A lot has happened here lately but I'll save all of the news for separate posts. I really want to post often now that my blogger account is working right again. Anyways, back to what I was talking about...

Something I have found interesting when raising certain colors is you must produce a "clean" version of the color. Through my endeavors of producing sable points, I have learned the difference between a clean sable and a smutty sable. Fortunately, color is only worth 4 points on the Holland standard. Color is hardly a consideration to me when choosing new stock or juniors to hold onto however, I still think it's interesting to compare the colors. As much as I'd love to own a gorgeous, completely clean sable, it's just not a priority while I'm working hard for things that are worth so much more. I'll share some examples of animals in my barn currently...

The smutty one... he's very dark.

Dark smut on a junior.
Nice, dark points though! 
This one isn't as smutty as the first one but it's still there.

Not perfect but this guy is pretty clean!

Still a bit smut there that may or may not darken with age. 

Look at that head, ear, and crown!! Love this junior! 
This Spring, I plan to bring in a new REW for my program. REWs are known to help clean up the color on Sable Points. I would have added REWs earlier however, a nice one is very difficult to come across. When I saw this doe however, I had to have her. What fabulous type!! :-D She remains one of the nicest typed REWs that I have ever seen! Everyone... please welcome Tasia's Snowflake! She'll be arriving shortly after the West Coast Classic in the first few days of May. She is packed with width, bone, a massive head, and a gorgeous crown. I absolutely LOVE my bigger brood does with massive bone and width. They make the best producers here.

Tasia's Snowflake

Saturday, March 1, 2014

And His Name Is Mr. Swagger

Can I just brag for a moment? Well, if the answer was no, go ahead and check someone else's blog post because that's what I'm about to do! ;-)
Late last night, I was cleaning my barn as I do every other day and I had the impression to go through some Holland juniors I had in a lower cage. I finished up cleaning, washed my hands, and went back out to the bunny barn (actually it's half of my garage right now but I feel more official when calling it a barn). I pulled out the one that appeared to be finished with his junior molt and posed him.

Ladies and gentlemen.....


His name shall be Mr. Swagger.






Don't mind the cluttered background. Can't wait to get my new barn in May!!