A New English Spot Joins the Family

Our chocolate English Spot doe Marika and our black buck Houdini recently gave birth to a large single kit on 11-25-19.  Worried about a single kit being able to stay warm enough we decided to add a couple of kits in with hers to keep it warm and she has taken to the three of them like a champ.  She is so funny to watch as she buries them with fur and then covers all of that up with hay in the front so there is just a wall of hay in her nest box with no hint of babies.  She is doing an awesome job feeding and taking care of all the little ones and we are super excited to see how this chocolate kits colors come in.

Oklahoma State Fair Results are in

So I know what you are all thinking.  Our state fair was clear back in September and it is now the middle of November.  Why in the world has it taken me so long to post our show results?  Well, partially I was trying to figure out how to get the photos off of my phone so that I could but also with kids in school and life being crazy it just kind of got away from me.

We had a fantastic day at our state fair.  Our New Zealand buck Jasper took Best of Breed in both shows and then to our pleasant surprise got reserve in show in the second show and best reserve overall. We couldn't be happier with this guy.

Duke Frederick our black New Zealand buck also won a leg as Best of Variety in one show and our black doe Audrey won a leg as Best of Variety in the other show.

Clarissa's black Mini Rex buck Captain Harkness won best of variety in youth.

We all had a fun day and the kids enjoyed visiting the shows and exhibits at the fair in between showing their rabbits.  We are looking forward to our next show coming up right after Thanksgiving.

November is only half over and LOOK at all the babies

With the month of November already more than half over with I thought it was past time to announce the newest additions to the rabbitry.  We are thrilled and enjoying watching them all grow and develop.  And with more expected over the next couple of weeks we are going to full up on cute and cuddly and hopefully future show team potentials.  So without further gab from me here they are:

Our broken black New Zealand doe Tourmaline and our grand champion black buck Swift have just had their first litter together.  1 solid black and 3 brokens.  We are looking forward to seeing how she does as a first time mama and watching this little ones grow.  They were born on 11-1-19.

Our New Zealand whites have had their first litter of the fall.  Periwinkle and our buck Cirrus now have 2 bouncing baby kits.  They are big and growing quickly.  She is turning out to be a good time time mama and we are enjoying watching them grow.  They were born on 11-2-19.

Our broken blue Mini Rex doe Astrid and our broken lynx buck Missing Lynx have had their first litter of kits.  Four little beauties.  It will be so fun to see what their coloring turns out to be as their fur comes in.  They were born on 11-18-19.

I am beyond thrilled to announce our first litter of New Zealand reds is here. Our red doe Burgundy Lace and our broken red buck Tucker are now the proud parents of a litter of 8 kits. Anyone want to guess how many will be broken reds and how many will be solid reds?  They were born 11-19-19.

Our First Fall Litters of Mini Rex are Here

We have had an exciting and busy week. Our mini rex does are starting to have their babies. Meet our newest additions to the rabbitry.

Our black doe Polly and our black buck Dalek have had their first litter. Polly had a small litter of three. A black and what looks to be a harlequin. There is also a wee little runt. We were surprised to see the harlequin one since both parents are black. I guess it goes to show when there are tri-colors in the background their marking can turn up when not expected. They were born on the 21st.

Our red doe Butterscotch and our tri color buck Yenogoo also delivered kits this week. Two more little kits one a harlequin and one a tri color. Mama was not thrilled with us taking photos. But they are eating well and keeping each other warm, so you can't ask for more than that.  They were born on the 23rd.

It's Been a Long Hot Summer

Well, here we are coming close to the middle of September and I am so grateful that the summer is drawing to a close.  It has been wild ride for us here at the bowery.

We started our summer by power washing our barn and all the cages, mats, nesting boxes and supplies at the end of April.  We reorganized and replaced worn out equipment and installed some high powered fans for keeping our rabbits cooler this summer.  I also started collecting water bottles and cleared out an entire freezer just keeping ice and frozen bottles on hand and ready for hot days.

We made it through many heat advisory's and days up over 105 degrees by checking on rabbits three to four times a day.  And let me tell you, how quickly things can change from early afternoon to late afternoon.  We even had days where we checking on the rabbits hourly and ended up bringing some of them in the house at least twice throughout the last couple months.  The stories my children will have to tell about how many times mom sent them out to check the rabbits, or the afternoon that we spent too long running errands and ended up losing two rabbits to the heat because their ice bottles melted before we were home to check on them again.  That was a sad day for everyone, because when we got home we checked on the rabbits and my oldest two girls walked into the barn to find one of Seriah's nine week old new zealand kits dying, and another nine week old white new zealand doe suffering from heat stroke.  Unfortunately our white doe suffered neurological damage that she didn't recover from and we ended up putting her down a couple days later.

I think the hardest part of the whole experience, was that we were doing everything right.  The rabbits have shade 100% of the time, they have great ventilation and breeze from the fans, we were constantly out and checking and refilling water bowls if they were low or the water got too warm.  They had ice to lay against to cool off with and we even misted them on the super hot days to help them cool.  What was the children's take away from this difficult experience?  You go and check regardless of how hot you feel or how much you don't want to because you already did twice that day, because it can mean the difference between preventing something, treating something and mourning something.  They have been amazing helpers and we wouldn't have made through the heat with so few loses if it had not been for them.  My take away from all this is that some rabbits are a whole lot less heat tolerant than others as I watched our mini rexes struggle the most this summer, when I had expected to be the holland lops who did great.

We have been relieved to see the days lately where the temperatures have not been so high and are looking forward to our fall season because it means attending rabbit shows and seeing friends as well as starting up our breeding season, and enjoying nest boxes full of tiny balls of bouncing baby kits again.

A New Holland Lop named Peanut Butter

Peanut Butter would not be the name I would have chosen for a black tort Holland Lop doe, but when you are raising and showing rabbits with your children you don't always have the last say regarding names.

We just got back from the Lonestar Showdown in Mesquite, TX this past weekend where we had the priviledge to add an amazing little brood doe to our Holland Lop lines for my son.  We have been looking for a doe to help add strong ankles and bone to our Hollands and with the help of Cindi Hinton from Quietcreek Farm we were able to bring home our newest little girl.

Meet Peanut Butter born on December 17, 2018 my youngest daughter and her brother picked out a name for her the minute she was unloaded from the car.  She has been calm and easy to handle and has the potential to help us improve our breeding stock come fall when we are ready for our next breeding.

Hunts Valentine Joins the Family

Meet our White New Zealand buck Valentine.  He was born November 30, 2018.  He is a total sweetheart who loves to meet you at the hutch door for attention every time you walk by.  He and his brother came to us from Bonita Hunt at Baileywick Rabbitry because she was getting ready to move and couldn't take all her young bucks with her.  And we could not be more excited to have him around and on our show team this year.  He is already showing his great breeding with Hunts and Basgil/Borden lines and we are looking forward to his joining our foundation breeders for whites this fall when he is just a little bit older.

Levelland Texas, Brought Lots of Rain and a Fun Rabbit Show

We have been seeing a lot of spring rains here over the last several weeks and Mother's Day weekend was no exception.  I decided that as part of this fun weekend I would make the drive out to Levelland, Texas for the Llano Estacado Rabbit Breeders Association Spring Show.

Clarissa and I make the six hour drive down under constant rain and several times while going through small towns we had to watch the road carefully due to all the puddles and run off from the rain.  Fortunately, we were able to make this drive without anything exciting happening and in good time for the Friday evening show.

There were several New Zealand breeders who made it out to the show and we had a great time visiting and showing our rabbits.  A big thank you goes out to the show secretary Debbie Herring for all of her hard work, as we had our show results within the first week after the show and everything went smoothly.

The results are in and we are so pleased to share:

Burgundy Lace our junior red doe won Best of Variety (BOV) in all three shows.

Periwinkle our junior white doe won Best Opposite of Variety (BOSV) in all three shows.

Thunderstorm our broken black intermediate buck  won BOSV in one show.

Valentine our white junior buck won BOV in one show.

Valentine's Brother our white junior buck won BOV in two shows.

It's going to be interesting to see how our white junior bucks shape up over the next couple of weeks.

10th Annual Fibber McGhee Memorial Show Results & Our First Grand Champion

April has been a slow month for us here at the Bowery.  We had planned to attend a couple of shows and family things came up that prevented us from attending.  So we have been looking at our May calendar and are hoping to squeeze in an extra show to make up for the ones we missed.

We received our show reports this week from the 10th Annual Fibber McGhee Memorial Show in Stillwater, OK.  I have to say that I was really pleasantly surprised.  Usually I am pretty good at tracking my new zealands and I already know how they placed while I am at the show.  Somehow I missed the fact that our junior broken red doe Coppertina managed to win herself her first leg towards a grand championship with a Best Opposite of Variety.

Our newest black junior buck Duke Frederick also showed well and won his first leg with a Best of Variety.

Our junior red doe Burgundy Lace who has already been placing really and won her first leg with a Best of Variety award.

Finally our broken black buck Thunderstorm won his second leg with a Best of Variety.  It was a great weekend with fun times visiting and chatting with friends.

We also had a chance to send off the paperwork and our Black New Zealand Hunts Swift is now officially a grand champion.  He is a doll and we are already seeing good things from him as his son Thunderstorm is showing and competing very well.  We are expecting more good things to come as he sires the next generation.

Batton's Rabbitry adds some fresh bloodlines to our rabbitry

We recently got to add a couple of new bucks to our herd bringing in some promising characteristics and hopefully adding to our show team and future breeding program.  Meet our newest boys.

Meet one of our junior bucks Duke Frederick.  He joined us from Batton Rabbitry and is already showing well.  Born on December 1, 2018 we showed him as a junior the weekend we picked him up from Tate Batton at the Stillwater, OK show.  His picture really doesn't do him justice as he is growing and developing into a nice looking buck.  A big thank you goes out to Tate for helping us add another amazing guy to our show team and future breeding program.

Meet Sir Rowland de Bois born January 2, 2019 He also comes to us from Tate as one of our future foundation herd bucks as we venture into breeding white New Zealands.  He has a prety mellow personality and while he doesn't care so much about being picked up and taken out of his hutch he enjoys the attention once you have him in your arms or on the grooming table.  Still a pre-junior when we came home from the show in Stillwater, OK; we have been watching him grow and are looking forward to getting him on the show table in May.

New Mini Rex join the rabbitry

I have to admit that I love spring time.  Because living where I am on 5 acres I get the opportunity to plant trees, and prepare and plant a vegetable garden.  But I think the best part for me this spring has been watching all the baby animals being born and grow.

We have a new litter of mini rex that has recently joined our rabbitry.  Our broken black doe Clarilla and our harlequin buck Makyis had a beautiful litter of five baby kits.  Born on April 9, 2019 we are pleased to say that they are all eating well and growing well.  We also learned that Clarilla carrying dilute and we look to have a broken blue in this litter.

My daughter Clarissa and I are looking forward to seeing how they grow and develop over the coming months.  As we also have two other litters currently in the nest box, we are really hoping that we will have some good looking show rabbits when they get bigger.  Only time will tell who is going to have the qualities we are looking for in our show rabbits.

Sardona and Onyx's Kits Arrive

We are pleased to announce that Sardona and Onyx had 7 little New Zealand kits Sunday April 7, 2019. 5 black and 2 blanket patterned broken. I am super excited to see how they grow since Onyx is no longer with us and this is his last litter.

Mini Rex Kits Arrive at the Rabbitry

We are pleased to announce another litter of Mini Rex kits.  Our black doe Polly and our broken lynx buck Missing Lynx has 3 kits on March 29, 2019.  They are all growing and eating well.

When You Mix Blue and Broken Lynx What Do You Get?

The India Shrine Circus is in Oklahoma City this week, and we spent yesterday morning attending their free performance as a family.  While to our joy and surprise we came home to some new parents in the rabbitry.

Our mini rex blue doe Holly and our broken lynx buck Missing Lynx are the proud new parents of a beautiful litter of six baby kits.  Born on March 28, 2019 we are over the moon and very excited to watch this little ones grow and develop.

A-Town's Periwinkle Joins the Rabbitry

This month has been a busy one for our family and the rabbits we raise.  We have weaned several litters of kits, we have met and made new friends while attending the show in Duncan, OK.  We have even added some new bloodlines and promising rabbits to our herd.  Our newest addition comes to us from Courtney McCreery at A-Town Rabbitry.

Meet A-Town's Periwinkle a white New Zealand.  She was born on December 12, 2018 and comes with amazing bloodlines that include:

• Grace Hollow
• Schmidt's
• RODA's
• Dickerson's
• Effling's

Already big big enough to be a junior she got to compete in her first shows in Duncan, OK.  Where she took first in class in all three shows.  She came home and promptly won the hearts of each and every one of my children.  They spoil her with love and attention and we are looking forward to seeing her continue to grow and blossom.  A big thank you goes to Courtney for letting us bring this beautiful girl home.

Let There Be Babies

As we begin winding up the month of March we are pleased to announce a couple litters of baby New Zealands.  Our broken black doe Sassy had a litter of four babies on March 25, 2019 and our black doe Tempest had a litter of nine babies on March 26, 2019.

Sassy's litter of four

Tempest's litter of nine

With both litters sired by our grand champion Swift we have high hopes for these kits and are excited to watch them grow and develop.

Our First Grand Champion

Well, it's official I just mailed off Swift's grand champion paperwork. Our very first Grand Champion. And another big thank you to Baileywick Rabbitry for helping us get our New Zealand program off to the right start with his handsome guy.

Spring Time Brings New Rabbits in the Rabbitry

Spring time is the wonderful time of the year when the world is waking up from a long winter's sleep and we start to see buds on the trees and rose bushes.  We are also beginning to see green peeking up in the lawn in the yard and are watching as the blue birds and robins begin to flit and flutter about.  It is one of my favorite times of the year.

It also comes with new litters of baby rabbits.  Our newest additions to the rabbitry come to us from Roxanne Hanna a fellow red New Zealand breeder who has had some great litters recently and offered us the opportunity to purchase a couple of lovely junior does for our herd.

Burgundy Lace

Our first addition is a little red New Zealand doe who we have named Burgundy Lace.  Born on December 18, 2018 her sire is Rum's Wonka and her dam is Anchors Aweigh Scarlet.  Burgundy Lace is already at junior weight and attended the recent show in Duncan, OK where she took a couple of firsts and a second in her classes.  We are so pleased with this little doe and expect great things for her future.

Coppertina

Our second addition is a little broken red New Zealand doe who we have named Coppertina.  Born on December 21, 2018 her sire is also Rum's Wonka and her dam is Anchors Aweigh Sundara who just had her paperwork sent off for her grand champion certificate.  She is a sweet heart and I am quite often finding my kids with her in their arms getting loved on and petted.  She is also now junior weight and we are looking forward to seeing what the judges think of her at the next show.

A big thank you to Roxanne Hanna.  You raise beautiful rabbits and I couldn't be happier with our newest additions.

Rabbitry Record Keeping: Basic Health Chart Free Download

I have started to discover that if you are going to run and maintain a rabbitry with more than three or four rabbits that keeping good health records on each of your rabbits is essential.  Having a written record of what is going on with each rabbit, such as:

• how much they weigh
• when you do nail trims
• any treatments for injury or illness
• breeding records

All of this is important information to have and keep in order to take good care of your animals.  There are a lot of ways that you can track this kind of information, and I admit that I mostly use a computer software program to store all of this information digitally.  However I have yet to find a way to export an entire animals records into a file for easy printing from the program I use.  This means that when I sell an animal I need to create a paper copy of all the information.

A friend of mine Laura Thomas from Chughole Farm Rabbitry inspired me when I purchased a couple of her Red New Zealands a while back with her health records she included with each rabbit for me and so I got to thinking that this could only benefit the future owners of the rabbits I sell as well.  And so with her permission to tweak and recreate her health chart to suit my needs I have created a Rabbit Health Chart that I use regularly.  And I am making available to all of you to download and use for free.

My hope in creating this free resource is to promote better awareness and add to the responsible care and keeping of rabbits.  As my own children show an interest in raising their own breeds of rabbits I know this will also go a long way in helping our youth and 4-H groups learn how to keep detailed records.

I have the PDF file available through google drive to download here.  This is a free printable resource.  Please feel free the make changes to it to suit your needs and use as many copies as you like.  I only ask that you direct people to my blog to download their own copy and do not host the file anywhere on the internet without written permission from me.  Thank you.  If you love the health chart and want to say thanks we are always accepting donations to help feed the rabbits.

Tempest and Angel Join the Rabbitry

We are pleased to introduce a couple of new additions to the rabbitry.  Both are senior Black New Zealands who we are hoping will be great mothers if given a chance.  They came to us from Roxanne Hanna who is a friend and fellow New Zealand Red breeder from Duncan, OK.

Angel

Angel comes with great breeding lines of Esterline and Chughole and was born on March 18, 2017.  Since she hasn't gotten a chance to prove she can be a great mom, we decided to take a chance on her and see what she has to offer.  I know that once they get a little older if they have never had kits, some rabbits have a harder time getting pregnant, but we have our fingers crossed and have paired her with our Grand Champion Swift for her first breeding.  We are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for her.

Tempest

Tempest also comes with a great looking pedigree from Esterline and Gillispie's lines.  She was born on December 19, 2017 and also hasn't had a chance to prove whether she will be a great mom or not.  So we have also paired her with our buck Swift for her first breeding and these two girls if they took will be delivering some black New Zealand kits within a few days of each other.

A big thank goes out from us to Roxanne Hanna for allowing us to give these two lovely girls a chance at motherhood.

Stephens County RBA Show Results

 We are home from our latest show with the Stephens County RBA in Duncan, OK.  It was a fun couple of days and a great show.  I had the opportunity to meet some new breeders who raise New Zealands and enjoyed visiting with friends and breeders that I already knew.

Everyone is relaxing before the next show starts

With three shows in one weekend, the rabbits got a chance to spend some time hanging out and relaxing in their carriers in between shows.  With the new additions that joined us at the show (more info on them coming soon) I ran out of carrier space and ended up buying an extra carrier to bring everyone home in.  Which was so silly because I took my daughter's mini rex that she showed on Friday home that evening along with my extra carrier.  I learned a lesson that day, always have an extra carrier space until the end of the show.  It will be nice to have another transport carrier though so I won't complain too much.

Thunderstorm

A couple of the rabbits I took did pretty well this weekend and for that I am pleased.  Our first winner is Thunderstorm a broken black New Zealand.  His wins this weekend were exciting for me because he is from the very first litter that I have bred and raised here at the bowery.  He took best of variety and best opposite sex of breed in one of the three shows this past weekend.

I had even offered him for sale to a couple of people looking to get into showing rabbits in 4-H this weekend.  I am kind of glad that they decided not to purchase him as this confirms that he is growing well and I am looking forward to seeing how he does in the future as well.  With such a sweet disposition and showing promise on the show table I look forward to watching him continue to develop and we will see how he does as an intermediate buck in the near future.

North Star

Our next winner is one of my foundation white New Zealand herd does from Joy Griffin.  She has done well on the show table before and continues to impress me more and more as she grows and develops.  We have finally picked a name for her and call her North Star here around the barn.  She took best of variety in whites in all three shows this weekend.  We are enjoying watching her grow and blossom and will be breeding her with our white buck Cirrus in the near future for our very first litter of whites.  He already has 4 legs from the first couple of shows he attended and I am super excited to see what these two will bring to the table as a breeding pair once North Star is old enough to be a mama.

Some of our other juniors took a couple firsts in their class and we are also looking forward to seeing how they continue to grow and develop.  The next show we are planning to attend is at the end of this month in Stillwater, OK.

Prepping for a Rabbit Show Starts With a Trip to Urgent Care

One would think that when you are getting ready to attend a rabbit show competition that the last thing you can expect to be doing is sitting in the urgent care waiting to see a doctor for stitches but that is right where my daughter and I were on Friday the 15th instead of loading the van and filling carriers with our show rabbits.

It started out with a normal enough morning.  We got up and fed all the animals at the rabbitry then we finalized the list of rabbits we wanted to consider taking and started prepping transport carriers and my box of supplies that I always take with me.  Well, one of the things I always do before putting each of the rabbits into their transport carrier is weigh them one last time to confirm their size and make sure that there won't be any last minute surprises or D/Q's for being over or under weight for each rabbit's age group.

Both my older daughter's were helping with this task and while I was busy getting the next rabbit out my oldest opened and reached in to pick up one of our junior black bucks for weighing.  Now this buck has had some wonderful results on the show table up to this point, but has also showed signs of having a bit of a mean streak.  Until this particular morning he has never bitten anything except our big sleeves on our winter coats and I was giving him a cautious pass until spring, because maybe it was something about the puffy coat and the noise it made that set him off.  Well that all ended the moment my daughter reached into his hutch.

He lunged at my daughter's hand and managed to grab hold and bite down on the meaty part of one of her fingers.  And I mean he bit down hard.  She started screaming and crying and tried to lift her hand out of the cage and away from him when he flipped over and started kicking his hind feet into her arm.  At that point she jerked away from him as I turned to see what was going on and to my horror I see a 7.5 lb rabbit hanging from my crying daughter's hand.  She was finally able to get him to let go and I quickly shut the door to his hutch.

After one quick look at her finger I told her to run to the house and wrap it in a clean towel because she was going to need stitches and we were going to the urgent care right now.  All preparation stopped as I called my husband at work to fill him in and bolted to the house with the other kids who were helping trailing behind me.  Fortunately Seriah's teenage sister is only a year younger than her and is responsible enough that I could leave her to watch her siblings for 20 minutes until her father could get home so I could take Seriah to see the doctor.

The urgent care was able to get her into a room quite quickly and after two or 3 stitches and a finger wrap to immobilize it; she was patched up, given a prescription to prevent infection because the bite was very deep and we were on our way home again.  As we talked about what happened and played the event over carefully, we were unable to determine any trigger on our part that would have justified him getting defensive let alone attacking my daughter like that.  So regardless of how he had done on the show table, one of things I am a stickler for is temperament.  With so many wonderful rabbits in the world I see absolutely no point in risking my kids with injury and keeping ones that have a mean streak of any kind.  Which means we now have one less rabbit that went to the show and one less rabbit to house and feed at this point.

I am also certain that I could not in good conscience sell a rabbit with that kind of disposition to another person and so this one is going to become rabbit curry in the near future.

First Litter of Mini Rex Weaned & Ready For New Homes

Clarilla and Yenogoo's kits are weaned and ready for new homes and eventually the show table.  My daughter has recently discovered Dr. Who and all the kits in this litter have gotten names from this science fiction show.

Meet Dalek.  He is from my daughter's very first litter of kits.  Born January 14, 2019.  He is a sweet little thing.  His parents Yenogoo and Clarilla  have given this little a nice type so far, and Clarissa is looking forward to watching him grow and taking her very first born and bred rabbit to the shows later this spring when he is big enough.  He is going to be staying in the rabbitry and joining our herd.

Meet Rose Tigger a spin on Rose Tyler from Dr. Who she is a cute little broken castor doe and enjoys being held.  We are looking forward to watching her grow, but are offering her for sale as a pet or brood quality rabbit.  She is available without a pedigree for 30.00.

Meet Noble our little broken castor charlie doe.  Since she doesn't have enough markings to be showable we are offering her for sale as a pet or brood doe only.  She is available without a pedigree for 30.00.

Winter has Arrived

Last month we had the opportunity to travel to Arizona for the state convention rabbit show in Kingman.  While we were attending this fun three day event we added to the foundation of our white New Zealand stock.

Meet Winter born November 19, 2018 from ABR's and Tisher's bloodlines.  Since she ended up with a eye injury from a kit and now how a cloudy eye, we will not be showing her, but will be adding her to our breeding program.  we are excited to see how she continues to grow and what she brings to our future kits.

A big thank you goes to Heather Wood and her daughter for allowing us to add this promising doe to our herd and rabbitry.

Our Holland Lops Opened Their Eyes

Eye opening day is one of the best days here at our place. Kana and Kaire's litter of 4 just opened their eyes the 5th. They are the cutest little black tort Holland Lops ever and Treysen is excited to watch them grow.

Our Mini Rex Babies aren't Mini Rex Like We Thought!

We have been having a wonderful time watching our black Mini Rex doe Gretchen raise her current litter.  As they have gotten their fur and started opening their eyes and exploring the nest and the rest of the world we have discovered that they don't have any of the markers of a Mini Rex kit.

Upon purchase date and kindle date inspection we realized that she came to us already bred to what we think is a Netherland Dwarf.  So while we love how sweet and cuddly the kits all are and we love how well they are growing we will not be keeping any of them.

All of her current kits will be available for purchase once they are weaned and eight weeks old.  The one thing that this litter has told us is that our doe carries dilute genes and we are planning to pair her with Missing Lynx our broken lynx colored buck for her next breeding.

We are currently taking deposits on these wonderful little guys.  Their sale price is $30.00.  They will be ready for new homes on March 31st.

Kana and Kaire Have a Healthy Litter of Kits

We are excited to announce that our pair of black tort Holland Lops Kana and Kaire have had their first litter together and all four baby kits are healthy eating and doing very well.

Foster Kits Update 19 Days Old and Counting

Update on our three foster kits who lost their mama.  They are growing like weeds and have a zest for life.  Their eyes are open and they are exploring well.  Our black New Zealand Rose kept two of them to foster, and the third one is in with our black Mini Rex doe Gretchen.  They are 19 days old as of February 21st.

Sapphire and Socks Have Their First Litter Together

New arrivals in the bowery on February 20th.  Sapphire and Socks one of our Holland Lop pairs had their first litter of kits together.  Six beautiful healthy kits with nice full bellies this morning at feeding time.

New Zealand Whites and the ASRCBA State Convention

We had an amazing time this last weekend attending the ASRCBA's State Convention show in Kingman, AZ on February 15-17th.  My daughter and I had a wonderful drive down where we got time to visit with family before and after the show and we all made it home in one piece with a whole bunch of rabbits very ready to be in their hutches when we pulled in late Wednesday night.

Our new zealands had some wonderful feedback from the judges and it was great to meet some new rabbit enthusiasts.  Both Shadow and Thunderstorm our up and coming junior bucks had some very positive feedback from the judges.  We are very pleased with how they showed and handled the trip.

Our newest additions to the herd our pair of white new zealands stole the show however and they took Best of Breed and Best Opposite in all four of the shows that weekend.  Our buck took 3 Best of Breeds and 1 Best Opposite and our doe took 1 Best of Breed and 3 Best Opposites.  I admit that I was quite surprised, but I am also very pleased with the results.

Abilene, Kansas Best of Breed

I recently attended the Double Show in Abilene, KS on February 9, 2019.  My newest white New Zealand buck won best of breed in one of the shows.  Our award was a box of chocolates.  He gets his photo taken and I get to eat the chocolates.  That is a fair deal right?

With Sorrow We Announce the Passing of Our First Red Kit

It is with sorrow that we announce this morning that Carrots and Scarlett's first kit had to be humanely put down yesterday.  He injured himself with a broken back and since I was not willing to let him suffer, we put him down.

As disappointing as this is.  I recognize that it is something that can and does happen while raising and taking care of rabbits.  We can only hope that future litters with have better luck growing up than this little chap did.

January 11, 2019 - February 12, 2019 May you rest in peace and hop your way through all the beautiful fields in Heaven.