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
