Tough decisions.

Lately I've been having a lot of issues within my rabbitry. Mostly, with the Hares. For the past 2 years I have not been able to get them to breed, I am almost on my 3rd year of owning them and I've had enough. I am not going to keep them any longer, I have been way too discouraged to continue trying.

I am getting out of the Hares, we are not meant to be. I have my last doe up for sale, she is out of a BIS winning buck and many well known and great lines.

When this last doe is gone, I will be turning my huge 6.5' long Belgian Hare brood pen into a CG hutch. I'm going to put a divider in the middle, so each hole with be a little over 3 feet long, 2 ft wide and a little over 2 ft tall. I'd like it to be a tad big bigger, but this will work fine because my rabbits get exercise outside of their pens every day. I am going to rearrange the barn again in the spring, and move this big hutch along the side wall where I usually hang the hose. This will provide lots of daylight but not too much, and it will open up another big wall for me to put more small breed stackers. I went through my scrap wood, and realized I had plenty more to build more hutches. So I will be constructing new wooden hutches, one more to go on top of my current wooden hutch, and possibly some for outside, although I get nervous housing rabbits outside, so I may just use the wall by the main entrance and stack more wooden hutches there.

I want to have about 10 CG's, and the remaining space for my little breeds.


While on the topic of breeds, I've been trying to pick between my MR and JW.
Competitively I have done much better with my Woolies then MR, but I haven't had the MR long, maybe I should give them more of a chance? IDK, I like having BEW's in the barn, and BEW MR are easier to come by then BEW JW. I also like the way Otter looks on the short coat of the MR versus the long wool of a Woolie.

I'm not sure what will happen as far as my breeds go, but I want to bring in a meat breed, and I am pretty sure I am going with New Zealands. I love those full, rock solid bodies and if I ever want to show them, there is competition here for the

Have also been thinking about Britannia Petites...a 2.5lb full arch breed....dreamy <3

First show of 2010 coming up!

For the past 2 years that I've been back into rabbits, I only attended maybe 5-6 shows total. I've been focusing on arranging the barn, reading up on genetics/feed and everything I could get my hands on. Playing around with some breeds trying to see what I would like to get going with and settle into.

My first show of 2010 is coming up, January 17th. I'm pretty excited, someone sanctioned Belgian Hares in open, which is probably a first here in Maine! Thank you for whoever sanctioned them, although my Sr. Doe is looking awfully out of coat condition right now.

I don't have a big show list for this show. Maximum of 8 rabbits, I'm still not sure if I'm bringing the 8 that I'm thinking of. I would like to get some rabbits registered, but I won't have the $ for that, I don't think, until I get called back into work.

My show list as of right now is:

MR-
2 BEW JD's
2 BLACK JB's, maybe 1 SB and SD

JW-
1 Shaded SD
1 Broken SD
1 Self SB

and I may bring the Hare doe, someone spent the money to sanction them, so might as well put her on the table in her horrible coat at least as a class filler and let someone earn a leg.

That's all for now.

EXCITED!

I am going to go pickup some new "kids" tomorrow, I can't wait. I'm going to get some cages setup for the new arrivals in the morning. My BEW's are finally coming along with a few other MR and JW's for breeding!

I got a nice little cash present for Xmas early, so I'll be ordering a new stacker as well, 8 holes - 18"x24" each for single juniors/seniors. Maybe some new water bottles, and feed cups. More room for growing out my juniors and picking out which ones I want to keep, wee!

We've also made our final decisions as of now for what we are doing for breeds in the barn. We narrowed it down to 3, and only 3. Mini Rex, Jersey Woolies and Checkered Giants. We're keeping the Hares for the breed promotion, but at this time we are having bad luck breeding them and getting new lines to breed too but we aren't going to sell out, just not breed until we get new stock.

I am very happy we made our decisions. We would love to keep breeding Flemish, but they require so much room...we have the room, but we'd like to expand our JW herd a bit more, and I like my Checkered's better, sooooo yeah :P

New pictures of the kids will be up tomorrow when I get them home.

Bitterly cold nights

On nights when it dips below 20 degrees and the wind is unbearable like it was tonight, I throw quilts and rugs over all the rabbits cages to keep the body heat in their cages, as well as board up the main sliding door for the winter to keep the drafts out. The barns walls are built pretty thick, but in the future an insulated bunny barn would definitely be nice!

All the bunnies are tucked in for the night with fresh warm water in their bottles. I fill them half full with warm water throughout the day so what they are drinking is warm going into their little bellies, and half full so I don't have to deal with fully frozen bottles and they thaw quicker that way. Usually none of the rabbits finish 4 ounces of water before they freeze again. All the small breeds have 8 oz bottles, all the large breeds have 16-24 oz.

That's all I have to report on tonight!

WMRBA January 18th Show

I have my show list pretty much all set for that weekend, although the 2 woolies I am bringing are both blowing their coats right now. One is a young senior buck just coming into his senior coat, the other is a 5 month old jr. doe who is starting to get her senior coat in as well. I was hoping to bring these two to see if I could get more legs on the buck and some legs on the doe before I bred them this spring for Nationals. With the way their coats are looking right now, I don't know if that's going to happen, and the doe is starting to go through that junior ugly stage, ugh.

I also have a couple of mini rex picked out for the show, not sure which ones I am bringing, but a senior pair is looking pretty good right now and might make my show list final cut. I'm also bringing along a hare.

I will have a few rabbits for sale at this show. Mini Rex & Woolies.

-Domonique

BEW projects

I've been actively looking for BEW JW's/ND's and BEW Mini Rex. I really love this variety, and am planning to work on it within both my compact breeds. The Hares, they don't get to have a BEW project for themselves :P

I have some really good colored rabbits in the barn that I'd like to get VC's out of to breed back to for BEW's. I have one "old" junior buck that is looking fantastic, his small size, fur and type would work wonders into a BEW line, and he's going to be my main man for this project.

Finding BEW woolies is a lot harder, I think I'm going to do it the hard way and breed in BEW Dwarves and just keep on breeding down the line until I get the correct wool, type and full 3 generation pedigree of purebred Woolie.

I have about 6 rabbits coming in, (not just BEW) to inject some new lines into my herd, my mini rex pickings are running a little slim, and I have some faults I'd like to work on. I have my "secret weapons" locked away in my barn until January, no new bunnies/pictures are going up on the site until their first showings :)

-Domonique

Show Updates

After a little bit of thinking, I have decided to attend only 2 shows this winter. My first show of the winter season will be on January 18th in Bridgton, Maine. It is being held by the WMRBA and is usually a pretty good show, although last year the weather was TERRIBLE, we had a huge snow storm that day and many people left early. I have a few young seniors and upcoming juniors I'd like to get on the tables to see if I can get any more legs on them before breeding this spring for Breed Nationals.

The next show I will be attending after that is PA State Convention in February. There is a Belgian Hare specialty, and this is just a great all around show. If the budget allow's expect to see me there!

Just a few quick updates on my show schedule tonight and that was it.

-Domonique

It's getting very chilly here in New England

Going out at night to shut the barn up and feed the rabbits that eat at night has become quite a daunting task. It is so bitterly cold by 5 o'clock I can't stand it!

Anyway, all the rabbits are doing good, the switch to Manna Pro is going smoothly everybody looks healthy and shiny. The Mini Rex are really doing good on this feed, as well as the Hares, the Woolies are molting so I can't really tell how well it will work on their thick wool until their coats grow back in.

My next show is WMRBA January 18th in Bridgton, Maine. I have a pretty good idea of who I'll be bringing, there are a few juniors in the barn that need to get out and get to their first showings, as well as a few seniors who have really grown up and filled out nicely. Doozy was rebred, hoping for a litter out of her on Christmas Eve. These should be nice little babies so I'm very anxious and crossing my fingers that she took this time.

I'm hoping I'll have a little extra money in the next few weeks, I'll be buying some more stacker cages to add to the rabbitry, and bringing in a few more breeding stock animals. You can never have too many options of does in the rabbitry :P.

-Domonique