This litter is just so sweet, it is hard to think about letting them go. Luckily I can keep them for a few more weeks. Well at least cage wise I can, but my feed bill is already scaring me! I am struggling with trying to plan this all out and set up rules or guidelines as to how or when we will decide who to part with and what their purpose on earth will be. And yet I feel I am being taught to relax and roll with it instead. I think there could be a great hidden purpose in my hobby, hidden there to help me grow in so many other ways. |
I have been having a lot of fun this week posing and taking pictures as the little ones let me. The rabbit hobby is very soothing and helping me focus on finding peace in my day and decompressing. I feel so blessed to have them and a family who enjoys them with me! Really looking forward to this hobby being a wonderful family bonding experience we can enjoy for a long time.
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Lilac Doe 5 wks - Jazkabor's Nick X Cactus' Maria RossBlack Buck 5 wks - Jazkabor's Nick X Cactus' Maria RossChocolate Buck 5 wks - Jazkabor's Nick X Cactus' Maria RossWe are very excited to say we have decided who to grow out for showing! We have 8 babies in all 4 colors looking for homes, ready to leave in August. We have two different litters that could be paired up together. GrandSire has 5 legs, BOBs and RIS over 300. Fathers Jazkabor's Hawkeye & Jazkabor's Nick, each have 2 Legs. One Dam Cuctus Maria Ross has 4 legs and RIS over 800+ rabbits. The other Flying Paws Alice was stuck in second place behind her, always had excellent comments. After we retired Cactus Maria Ross, Flying Paws Alice did win a GC Leg a BOB @ St Helens 1/15, just before our whole show string annoyingly came up with small smut shadows.
Here are our favorite candid shots of the kits. Jazkabor's Nick X Cactus's Maria Ross - BABIES!Eeyore is still TINY but now that his eyes have finally open he is acting healthier then he seemed before. All the kits are nibbling pellets and are very happy I offered them a little bowl of water. My favorite baby is this chocolate kit, "he" acts like his mama very outgoing and always interested in getting in your face. Today he jumped right out of the cage while I was trying to get a photo of Eeyore and the rest of the kits. So we had to snuggle. I hope this chocolate turns out to be a nice looking rabbit, it will be hard to let it go if it isn't.
After trying all spring we now have two litters of two week old Himalayan rabbits! And as if that wasn't exciting enough both are RAINBOW litters. Very exciting for us. My kiddo's doe Flying Paw's Alice (1leg) had 9 healthy babies from Jazkabor's Hawkeye (2legs). She has been an excellent mama. And all are doing great! Above is their two week picture. Looks to be a lilac, 3 chocolates, 2 blacks, and 3 blues. My doe Cactus's Maria Ross had 7 live babies, one was tiny at birth and still is. At day 4 she lost a kit. But the other 5 look great. Another good mama with a nice nest full of fur. AND another RAINBOW litter. The five kits are looking to be a lilac, a chocolate, two blues, and a black.- in that order in their two week photo above. I am so excited to see how they turn out!
We are already looking for people who might be interested in them. ;) The Himalayans have kept us busy this month. One of our blue bucks went out for stud service, and then he and his brother went to a two day show in Grants Pass Oregon. I was presently surprised my buck beat his brother, but over all they didn't do so well. Out of four shows we had a Best Opposite of Variety, and on the second day - a smaller class- Nick won Best Opposite Sex. We had it confirmed they seemed thin, and we realized the dewormer we tried didn't work..We also got comments of looking rough. Their coats were not in so I am thinking maybe that is what they meant...?
All while back at home we have been busy trying to get our spring breedings done, the girls have had no interest. And we have already gone about 60 days off schedule. Rabbits don't exactly do it like you thought..... Hoping to have babies soon from Sam (5GC legs) and Daisy ( their second litter, their last litter produced the two boys above and 5 other live kits). I am also very excited to have Sam and Maria produce some fine babies for me, Sam and Maria have each won Reserve In Show, Sam over 300 + rabbits, and Maria over 800+ rabbits. They both have a nice number of Best Of Breed awards, most have awarded them Grand Champion legs. And if we decide to join ARBA we will get both of them Certificates of Grand Championship. When the boys came home everyone in the rabbit barn was dewormed with a fresh tube. We are happy to learn, and though they may not sound good, we were happy to take the comments and learn from them. We will be more prepared next show. We really hope to have 3 litters in the nest boxes by the end of April. One from Nick, and two from his sire Sam. :D Super excited to see some babies in the nest boxes! I am excited to finally being getting a website and blog going. I have wanted to for a while, and had a few people tell me I should, but boy it can be a scary idea.
I am learning how to put the pages together and busy editing photos so they look their best. I know there are holes in the info but I will try to get them filled in before February. I hope to kind of have a coming out party around then. Right now I am keeping this under the radar. So where are we now? The appleyards are in one group of four until breeding season. Plans are to breed my two ducklings together, I hope to get two or three sets for future breeding groups. Mixing up gen2 with gen0, all of course depending on how they look. It is always possible we fill the freezer, and make another trip to Holderread. I have been looking up how to line breed with a trio, and am hoping to find a friend farmer to take a set to work with so we can have some more birds out there to work with. Most of the line breeding set ups want at least two pens, just not sure we could handle that much here. The Corurnix quail are using up 6 of the 8 breeding cages. I have 3 of my jumbo browns, a party pen for demonstration ( cage of mixed colors), and two of some white that are for sale or soon to be butchered if not purchased. I had it culled back to 2 cages, but couldn't butcher out the set of JB's that didn't sell. We recently built a "rabbit barn" and found some nice stackers to expand our project. We have decided to retire our grandable pair, and moving forward with Alice a doe who always had great comments but couldn't beat our "first string". Really hoping she keeps her figure well into her second year so she can have a chance to shine. With her we will be taking Sam's two blue sons, JSD1 won his first leg at 12wks @ Eugene in November. We plan on those three showing through 2015. I expect to have one of them for sale by fall 2015. We also have planned to breed Daisy again, and Maria will be bred to Sam for the first time. These breedings are scheduled for fall 2015 show season. The pigeons have recently been found to both be hens and a nice cock has been located locally so that is exciting. I think that covers initial info of where we are in our projects right now. :) |
AuthorI am a homeschooling, 4H-ing, urban homesteader. Wife and mama of 4, we have a beautiful family, in the beautiful state of Oregon. We strive to eat clean, understand where and how our food gets to our plates, and get our hands dirty raising/growing what we can. Archives
February 2017
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