Views from the Barn

I thought I'd put a post up with just some updates from the barn.

Krissie's babies are all doing great. She has one *really tiny* little guy, but he seems to be hanging on quite well right now.

One of Kahlua's chocolate chestnuts. She has two of these!

One of Kahlua's babies and her baby from Krissie that she's raising. Amazing how much bigger the baby is of Kahlua's, even though it's just 3 days older.

Just a cute picture of....well, you can see who it is by the name tag :)!

Kate, Diamond's doe that I kept from her last litter.

Ginger trying to peek out of her cage...she's such a funny girl!

Striper and his new little ramp & shelf area. He likes to sit "up" on something!

The silly little cats, who like to lay on the grooming table all the time! Which, by the way, we're expecting kittens the end of the week!

The white board in the barn. This is very handy to have. It would be nice if the full thing was a whiteboard, but this works. It's nice to be able to write down birth dates, due dates, who to breed and when to palpate.

Kahlua's babies getting socialization from one of my little sisters. It's one of her favorite jobs!

And last, the meat bunny barn which has a bunch of "ugly" meat does and litters in it. We've got 42 babies in that barn right now. And more litters on the way!

Feed Thoughts

I was on the phone for awhile yesterday with a good ML breeder/friend. We talked about all kinds of things, but one thing we talked about was feed. I asked her if she had PenPals out in her area and she said that's what she's used for 15 years!

She has been using 18% though instead of the 16%. I use 16% just because that is what I've always used in a feed and had good success with it. PenPals is such an amazing feed and the rabbits fur & condition is *always* super.

Through talking with this breeder, she said with the 18% she always gets large litters and their condition is firm. Now, my does tend to have larger litters as well (Krissie just had her second litter of 10 today actually!). But, I do get my fair share of  "smaller" litters (6 babies or so). When this breeder mentioned that she had a smaller litter born the other day....and that litter size was 7....it made me think.

I also asked her how her does do in the winter. I have always bred year round and winter has normally been the time when I have more litters. But, since I moved to Oklahoma, it has been so hard to get winter litters. From November to late January-February I get maybe 2-3 litters. Which is *not* normal for me and what I'm used to in California. This breeder I was talking to has an even less insulated barn than I do (and doesn't heat it) and lives in a climate that gets very cold (-20 to -30 below) in the winter months. And she has large litters year round with no drop in conception or production. That was very encouraging to hear.

I definitely respect this breeder (she is also an ARBA judge) and her thoughts on it. And I'm going to try out the 18% PenPals with the rabbits. It's the same price as the 16% that I buy anyways, so it won't hurt them at all. I could even do half the barn on 16% and half on 18%, but we'll see. To be able to have litters year round out here in Oklahoma would be so nice!

So, this was very fascinating for me to hear. I've always heard that if you feed the higher protein to a "smaller" or medium-sized breed that you will have reproductive problems, as in does not being able to take. But, this breeder who has studied feed on her rabbits since the '70's has never seen this.

I thought I would share this information I learned....maybe it'll help someone else :).

On other news...Krissie kindled to 10 babies between yesterday and today. She had 1 baby yesterday (not sure why), but had the rest today. She has 6 or 7 chocolates out of all of them! Yay, praise the Lord. Kahlua is raising Krissie's baby that was born yesterday. Krissie should be able to handle the rest.

New pictures of Kayla's babies will be up soon also!

Lots of happenings

Wow, I seriously have been in a posting hiatus on this blog!

A lot has gone on in the last few weeks.

12 bunnies left to their new homes in the last week: 2 to Indiana (via Ohio "mini convention"), 2 to TX, 2 to NM, 2 to a breeder in OK, 2 to KS, and 2 to another breeder in OK.

A trio of chocolates will be shipped out to New York within the next week to week and a half, Lord willing.

Diamond has been bred to Lamborghini. That should be a very nice litter! I'll be breeding Prudence & Melinda to Lamborghini soon as well.

Kahlua kindled to a litter of 4 on Tuesday night. 2 broken chocolates (yay!), 1 black and 1 black agouti. Krissie is due tomorrow. And then we have a few more does due after that.

Brianna went to her new home this week...which happens to be to a breeder just a couple miles down the road :). She is also bred to Lamborghini and I'll be getting a baby back from her. Those should be some VERY nice, colorful babies.

So, there's a quick run-down of what's been happening in the barn :).

Lamborghini

The buck who arrived from California a week and a half ago is doing great. He's out of quarantine & settled in well. So, I got some pictures of him. He's a beautiful buck and I'm thrilled to have him & his line back in the barn. I can't wait to breed him to my chocolate does.

Isn't he cute?!

Litter Pictures

Well, the babies are all getting big & doing great. The weather has been gorgeous lately, which has been nice for everything. The trees are growing their leaves. Grass is everywhere and the buns are enjoying nice weather.

Here are a few pictures of the babies, but the direct link to pictures of them all is:

Rum's babies
Abby's babies
Diamond's babies
Kayla's babies

A few of Diamond's babies. They are all very promising little ones.

A couple of Abby's.

This first one is the doe I'm keeping. Hoppin's Lisa. She's a really promising girl!

And the chocolate chin doe. She's amazingly promising. So pretty. I should've kept her for sure. Oh well. Will rebreed Abby & Scotch.

A couple of Rum's babies.

And Kayla's little munchkins who ended up just being heavily "frosted" pointed whites. Pretty interesting, huh!

This beauty arrived all the way from California via some breeders in OR and finally to ML Nationals this past weekend. He's a beautiful lynx buck out of 2 rabbits I sold a few years ago. I'm so glad to have this line back!

Kayla babies & Auction Find

The bunnies are all doing well. Yesterday (Sunday) the weather was so sunny & warm, but today has been cold, rainy & windy. That's Oklahoma for ya though!

Saturday there was a college auction here in Tahlequah and we scored on crocks for the rabbits. While they aren't specific "rabbit crocks," they are the perfect size for watering the rabbits in the freezing weather. They are about the size of the 5" crocks which go for a good $5+ each. But, we scored on these and got them for $1/each! I've been looking for these for over a year now, so it was perfect to find these! And, I got 30 of them!!

And Kayla's babies had me stumped for a bit on their color (even though I knew no other color was possible out of this cross). But, come to find out they are just very "chilled" or "frosted" pointed white babies. The frostiness will all fade to their points. Hopefully they'll have very nice dark points!

Kayla's darkest baby ~

Her "medium" baby ~

The rest of the buns are all doing well. Krissie's babies are going to their new homes. Whiskey is sold to a new breeder and left yesterday.

I bred Brianna X Scotch on the 28th, Courtney X Jordan on the 1st and Kahlua X Landon on the 1st. I'll be breeding Krissie X Landon, Shirley X Scotch & Rum X Cameron soon.

So, since I want to get to bed soon, I'll close with a nice sunset picture from the other day.

Abby's & Rum's babies!

Abby's & Rum's babies are 3 1/2 wks old now, so they were overdue for their baby pictures.

You can see their pictures at:

www.hoppinherdofhares.com/whiskeyXrum.html  & www.hoppinherdofhares.com/scotchXabby.html

Kayla has 3 babies left out of her litter of 7 (although 1 was DOA). Her litter most certainly has me puzzled. I know who the sire is. I know what color the babies are supposed to be. But, I also know what color they look like at the moment - something which is genetically impossible. So, we'll see what color their eyes are when they open!

New baby pictures!

Krissie's litter of 10 is 5 1/2 wks old now. So, I went ahead and typed them all yesterday and took pictures. Wow, I'm very impressed! What an extremely consistently typed litter. There are only a couple in the litter which aren't my favorites. But, overall they show tons of promise.

All but 7 or 8 of the babies are reserved at the moment. If you are interested in a baby, let me know though! I forgot to add the names onto the babies which are reserved, so will do that sometime.

If you have a baby reserved from this litter, I'll email ya more later hopefully. At least the pictures are up!

You can see them here: www.hoppinherdofhares.com/landonXkrissie5wks.html