Aaah, such nice days we've been having. High 60s to 70, sunny, calm breezes. The daffodils have sprouted. A walk around the yard today found swelling buds on the young spring-flowering trees.
I got the Summer House all cleaned out and ready for the buns that will go out there when the weather breaks for good. I reworked the poop chute so it can be more easily cleaned out. There isn't enough pitch for everything to roll off, so it has to be pushed. The way I had it, there was barely room for a pushing tool. I added a support rail leaving plenty of room to push out. It's also much sturdier. It tended to sag wherever the rabbits piled their toilet. Got all the feed cups washed and mounted. We are good to go. I plan to move them outside around the end of March.
I have one more unit to build, but it won't take long. After all the other remodeling, I had some 18x24 cages left over. I'm going to make a single-wide 3-tier unit in the center of the Summer House and use it for groups of weanlings. I can fit up to 6 small bunnies in one of those holes. When I get that done, I'll put up a new photo on the Barn page.
I'm not using the bin system out there anymore. I decided I didn't like it. Even though there were drain holes in the bins, they got pretty heavy after 2 wks. It was a soupy mess, the smell was bad, and the worms couldn't get to it to help break it down. It was also a breeding ground for flies, and if I let it go for 3 wks, the flies were awful. I removed the bins early last summer, and the difference was amazing. Less odor, and the flies weren't rampant. Means I have to shovel it out, but I can let it go a month or so, depending on how much work I want to do in one cleanout.
The baby head count went way down this past week. I lost some of the newest ones. I don't know why. The boxes were coming in the house at nite so it wasn't due to cold. Dreamboat Annie's litter of 2 blacks and 1 choc is now just 1 black. The other 2 didn't look right from day 1, they moved oddly. Maybe she trampled them. She's big and clumsy and this is her 1st litter.
I juggled kits around and now have only 2 boxes full. All the brokens except the charlie are with Broken Trust. I'm afraid I'm going to lose her 1 broken. It's very skinny. She has the 2 brokens from Broke N Happy x Dot.com and they look fine. Looks like they are black and blue. Annie has her black, and Broke N Happy's charlie, and Broken Trust's black. Whew, I have notes all over trying to keep all that straight!
Then I lost a 3 wk old himi to explosive diarrhea the other day. That happened overnight. It was the mid-sized kit in that litter. There's just the 2 sable pts left. 1 tiny and 1 huge buck. I took the nestboxes away from the older kits today. 1 had a poopy butt and that usually happens when they are spending too much time in the box. It get impacted very quickly if they don't move away from their toilet. So I remove the box around 3 wks and I see much less of that.
Where are the doe babies??? I've sexed all but 1 of the 3 wk olds and they are all bucks! This is not good. I wanted to move some of the older does on, but I can't if I don't get does to replace them.
tnt
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Baby Boom!
This round of breedings went so much better! I'm very pleased. And this during another extreme cold spell.
HBB's Broken Trust x Garner's Gunn had 4. 3 blacks, 1 broken. She's such a good doe, never failed. However, she dragged one of the blacks out shortly after kindle, and I didn't find it until too late to save it. So glad it wasn't the broken! It has real nice markings. Needless to say, I whisked the box into the house. Not taking any chances.
Dreamboat Annie x Garner's Gunn had 3. 2 blacks, 1 choc. No brokens, which was disappointing. I wasn't expecting choc but I knew both carry it. I'm not doing choc anymore so this baby will be sold. Annie is a 1st timer and she went a day late. I was starting to expect a failure but she did a fine job. Gunn is Annie's sire and this is the 1st live litter from this sire x his daughters. I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out. Annie is a typey BUD. Yes, there is such a thing!
HBB's Broken N Happy x Dot.com had 4. 1 black and 3 brokens! Yay! 2 of the brokens have real nice pattern, and the other might be a true charlie. It's hotot-marked. Not sure on the brokens' color yet. Might be sables or dilute. Dilute would be nice. Black is taking over the barn these days.
I got so lucky on the last 2 litters! It was going down into the teens last nite, and didn't get above 20 all day. The heaters can only do so much when it's that cold. Both does began pulling fur in the afternoon. I went on baby watch, checking on them every half hour or so. They both kindled before dark. Thank you, ladies!!! I'm sure I would have lost them if they had come late in the night. I'm not one to stay up all night on baby watch. These does made my day!
There were 2 failures this round. Moonbaby x Ford's Parti Boy had 4 dead. 3 were VMs, and the only BEW was a peanut. I hoped for a better BEW to VM ratio than that, but I'll try again. I think one of the VMs was alive when born, and that's a good sign for more success next time. This is her 2nd try. Sundancer x Axl had 1 DOA and it looked like a tort. She's a 1st timer...try try again. I'll rebreed all the open does this weekend. Might even try the new himi doe. She's almost 6 mos, the perfect age for a 1st timer.
All new litters are coming in the house at night. Grand total for this round and including the older litters is 17 kits in 6 litters. Not bad for winter. Next round is due around the 25th. I think it will go pretty well from now on. Spring is not far off, and that's the main factor for more successful litters.
I should talk about the older litters. They're almost 3 wks now.
Jean Geni has 2 smutty sable pts and a himi. One sable pt is an enormous buck so he's outta here as a pet. The other sable pt is very tiny, and I'm half expecting it to be a fader. The himi is the most promising but doesn't have much color. That's to be expected with a non-extension "ee" himi. It will be a fine sable pt brood bunny.
Same for Nahani's himi. She's also raising the broken black from Ayasha x Dot.com. Also promising.
Ayasha has her 2 solid blacks and 1 is a promising baby. Haven't sexed these yet either, but the larger one is a BU and maybe a bubba. He'll be petted out as well as the sable pt bubba. (bubba is my name for big ugly bucks -BUB)
After today, the weather is predicted to be real nice. 40s today, and then 50s and 60s for as far as the forecast goes. I hope this was our last extreme cold snap. With southern winters, it's wait a day or 2 and it will be nice again. Upnorth, it was wait a month or 2 and maybe you'll get a nice day. I'll take a southern winter any time. Did I mention I'm originally from Michigan? Ohyeah, I know a little bit about that.
I plan to take advantage of the mild weather to catch up on some things in the yard. Have to clean out and do a little work in the Summer House so the bucks and jrs can go out there as soon as the weather breaks for good. I figure another month or so. I don't have any Feb shows so there's no excuse to put it off. Also want to do garden cleanup so I can get a jump on that for a change. I haven't touched the gardens since before fall.
Oh I almost forgot to mention. I finally really finished the barn remodel! See the Barn.
tnt
HBB's Broken Trust x Garner's Gunn had 4. 3 blacks, 1 broken. She's such a good doe, never failed. However, she dragged one of the blacks out shortly after kindle, and I didn't find it until too late to save it. So glad it wasn't the broken! It has real nice markings. Needless to say, I whisked the box into the house. Not taking any chances.
Dreamboat Annie x Garner's Gunn had 3. 2 blacks, 1 choc. No brokens, which was disappointing. I wasn't expecting choc but I knew both carry it. I'm not doing choc anymore so this baby will be sold. Annie is a 1st timer and she went a day late. I was starting to expect a failure but she did a fine job. Gunn is Annie's sire and this is the 1st live litter from this sire x his daughters. I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out. Annie is a typey BUD. Yes, there is such a thing!
HBB's Broken N Happy x Dot.com had 4. 1 black and 3 brokens! Yay! 2 of the brokens have real nice pattern, and the other might be a true charlie. It's hotot-marked. Not sure on the brokens' color yet. Might be sables or dilute. Dilute would be nice. Black is taking over the barn these days.
I got so lucky on the last 2 litters! It was going down into the teens last nite, and didn't get above 20 all day. The heaters can only do so much when it's that cold. Both does began pulling fur in the afternoon. I went on baby watch, checking on them every half hour or so. They both kindled before dark. Thank you, ladies!!! I'm sure I would have lost them if they had come late in the night. I'm not one to stay up all night on baby watch. These does made my day!
There were 2 failures this round. Moonbaby x Ford's Parti Boy had 4 dead. 3 were VMs, and the only BEW was a peanut. I hoped for a better BEW to VM ratio than that, but I'll try again. I think one of the VMs was alive when born, and that's a good sign for more success next time. This is her 2nd try. Sundancer x Axl had 1 DOA and it looked like a tort. She's a 1st timer...try try again. I'll rebreed all the open does this weekend. Might even try the new himi doe. She's almost 6 mos, the perfect age for a 1st timer.
All new litters are coming in the house at night. Grand total for this round and including the older litters is 17 kits in 6 litters. Not bad for winter. Next round is due around the 25th. I think it will go pretty well from now on. Spring is not far off, and that's the main factor for more successful litters.
I should talk about the older litters. They're almost 3 wks now.
Jean Geni has 2 smutty sable pts and a himi. One sable pt is an enormous buck so he's outta here as a pet. The other sable pt is very tiny, and I'm half expecting it to be a fader. The himi is the most promising but doesn't have much color. That's to be expected with a non-extension "ee" himi. It will be a fine sable pt brood bunny.
Same for Nahani's himi. She's also raising the broken black from Ayasha x Dot.com. Also promising.
Ayasha has her 2 solid blacks and 1 is a promising baby. Haven't sexed these yet either, but the larger one is a BU and maybe a bubba. He'll be petted out as well as the sable pt bubba. (bubba is my name for big ugly bucks -BUB)
After today, the weather is predicted to be real nice. 40s today, and then 50s and 60s for as far as the forecast goes. I hope this was our last extreme cold snap. With southern winters, it's wait a day or 2 and it will be nice again. Upnorth, it was wait a month or 2 and maybe you'll get a nice day. I'll take a southern winter any time. Did I mention I'm originally from Michigan? Ohyeah, I know a little bit about that.
I plan to take advantage of the mild weather to catch up on some things in the yard. Have to clean out and do a little work in the Summer House so the bucks and jrs can go out there as soon as the weather breaks for good. I figure another month or so. I don't have any Feb shows so there's no excuse to put it off. Also want to do garden cleanup so I can get a jump on that for a change. I haven't touched the gardens since before fall.
Oh I almost forgot to mention. I finally really finished the barn remodel! See the Barn.
tnt
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Triple Crown
One of my fav shows. This was held in Spartanburg, SC and sponsered by our dwarf club - Southeastern Dwarf Fanciers in conjunction with the local Holland Lop club. It's a Triple ND, Triple HL specialty, but the main focus is the NDs.
Weather forecast was a bit iffy for an early morning drive over the mts, so I went down Fri night and stayed with others at the motel. It's an easy 2.5 hr drive. Those of us that were there hooked up for dinner at a local buffet restaurant. I didn't sleep well at the motel, never do, so I was really whipped at the end of the day.
I pulled a few legs. Back In Black, little black JB earned 1 BOG leg. He might have got another, but I won't be sure until I get the show report. Also got the report from his last show and there was a BOG leg. That gives him a total of 3 for sure. I just realized he's 5 mos old. Yay! There are does waiting in line for him!
Sia Sable JB Foxtrot got his 1st leg for BOG. That surprised me! He's an itty bitty bunny with a lot of filling out to do.
Broken Black SB Dot.com earned his 2nd leg for BOG. I was losing to a Dwarfs R Us broken SB all day until we had Jamie Green in show C. He gave Dot his first leg a few months ago. He likes Dot.com!
Broken Blue JD Sweet Dream was BOSV and BJoV (Best Jr of Variety) all day, and BJoG twice. No legs for that, there were only 2 broken does. Best Jr isn't an ARBA leg, but I'll take the brag.
Sold the last bunny on the sale page, and bought a young himi doe - Mortenson's DC. She's almost ready to breed from a southern rabbitry whose himis I've admired. She's a self bred himi. Meaning she's almost pure himi with black self as a base. The only sia sables are a couple in the 3rd generation. She's the perfect mate for Back In Black as that's what he was "designed" for. Her pedigree is heavy on Woollet's and Covert's, some of the best himi herds in the land. I'm looking forward to what she can do for my himis.
Show ran a bit long, even tho it was very well organized. It's fun b/c you can have rabbits on 3 different tables at the same time as they split up the judges and groups to keep it moving. It was actually 2 tables at a time for me. Now I know how multi-breed exhibitors feel. I didn't get out of there until 5pm. Got home about 7:30. Put the poor tired buns away and gave them a special treat of hay. Paint Job was so exhausted, he just stretched out and didn't move again while I was tending to the rest. Then I wound down catching up on the internet. Slept like a log.
Don't have another show until March. That will be the big Dalton triple. Unusual to not have a Feb. show, but I can catch up on some other things during the break.
tnt
Weather forecast was a bit iffy for an early morning drive over the mts, so I went down Fri night and stayed with others at the motel. It's an easy 2.5 hr drive. Those of us that were there hooked up for dinner at a local buffet restaurant. I didn't sleep well at the motel, never do, so I was really whipped at the end of the day.
I pulled a few legs. Back In Black, little black JB earned 1 BOG leg. He might have got another, but I won't be sure until I get the show report. Also got the report from his last show and there was a BOG leg. That gives him a total of 3 for sure. I just realized he's 5 mos old. Yay! There are does waiting in line for him!
Sia Sable JB Foxtrot got his 1st leg for BOG. That surprised me! He's an itty bitty bunny with a lot of filling out to do.
Broken Black SB Dot.com earned his 2nd leg for BOG. I was losing to a Dwarfs R Us broken SB all day until we had Jamie Green in show C. He gave Dot his first leg a few months ago. He likes Dot.com!
Broken Blue JD Sweet Dream was BOSV and BJoV (Best Jr of Variety) all day, and BJoG twice. No legs for that, there were only 2 broken does. Best Jr isn't an ARBA leg, but I'll take the brag.
Sold the last bunny on the sale page, and bought a young himi doe - Mortenson's DC. She's almost ready to breed from a southern rabbitry whose himis I've admired. She's a self bred himi. Meaning she's almost pure himi with black self as a base. The only sia sables are a couple in the 3rd generation. She's the perfect mate for Back In Black as that's what he was "designed" for. Her pedigree is heavy on Woollet's and Covert's, some of the best himi herds in the land. I'm looking forward to what she can do for my himis.
Show ran a bit long, even tho it was very well organized. It's fun b/c you can have rabbits on 3 different tables at the same time as they split up the judges and groups to keep it moving. It was actually 2 tables at a time for me. Now I know how multi-breed exhibitors feel. I didn't get out of there until 5pm. Got home about 7:30. Put the poor tired buns away and gave them a special treat of hay. Paint Job was so exhausted, he just stretched out and didn't move again while I was tending to the rest. Then I wound down catching up on the internet. Slept like a log.
Don't have another show until March. That will be the big Dalton triple. Unusual to not have a Feb. show, but I can catch up on some other things during the break.
tnt
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