This installment is about my own color management and history with color over the years.
On the way home from work one Saturday morning in 1999, I saw a sign in town that said "Rabbit Show". Really? I didn't know there were rabbit shows. I had a pet rabbit at the time, so I swung into the show to see what it was about. They were just setting up and told me when it would open, and yes...there would be rabbits for sale. So I dashed home, grabbed whatever I had for a carry cage and went back.
The showroom was packed by the time I got back. I had no idea there were so many beautiful rabbit breeds! I saw some that looked a lot like my pet bunny which led me to believe he may have been a Havana mix.
There were a lot of Netherland Dwarfs. I'd heard of them, but had never seen one. How cute! I brought home a pair for $25 each w/ pedigrees. Since they were adults, I decided to raise a litter of pets that would be bonded to me from a young age. I knew nothing about color! The buck was a Chinchilla and the doe was a Himi. I got one litter out of that sweet little doe and then she had to be put down for wry neck. Research said this was sometimes due to weaning stress. The litter was 2 himis and a chinchilla. I kept the chin doe for my pet baby bunny and gave the other 2 away.
I had internet by this time and used it to research this adorable little breed. I learned there were rules to breeding color and my pair was a big no-no. I had fallen in love and wanted more, and began to look for local breeders.
I found a couple in my neighborhood, and since I had the chin doe and her chin sire, I went with what would be compatible for them. I came home with an otter doe from one breeder, and a seal buck and smoke pearl doe from another who specialized in shadeds. I was off and running and various colors began to appear in the nestboxes.
I lost interest in the agoutis, and focused more on the shadeds. The otters were around for awhile, and the occasional silver marten came out of that group. I learned himi was a good mate for shaded and acquired a pair of those. Those original rabbits are still in some of my pedigrees way way back!
Then I heard about Blue-Eyed White. Oh my. I had to have some! I found a breeder in Canada in 2001. I was in Michigan and it was an easy drive to the Canadian border. I bought a sr doe who was bred, and her daughter from the same sire. I then found another BEW breeder in MI and got a blue VM buck and BEW doe from them. So began the BEW project. I won't go into the problems I encountered with this early BEW stock. This is about color.
It was probably close to 2 years before I got up the nerve to enter a show. In the meantime, I went to them to learn and pick up new stock. A wonderful little Sable Marten became an important foundation buck. I began to specialize more in the shadeds and shaded martens. More himis joined the herd to breed to the shadeds. I leaned away from otters and silver martens, expecially when I learned the shaded gene wasn't good for silver marten unless you were doing shaded marten. I got some badly colored silver martens in litters.
For many years, the herd consisted of shaded, himi, BEW, and a few tan patterns. I dabbled in orange for a very short time but quickly lost interest when I saw how difficult the variety was to acquire and breed correctly. The BEWs were taking up quite a bit of valuable space by this time.
In 2004, I retired and moved to Tennessee. I brought about 25 rabbits with me. I sold off a lot of rabbits to make the move easier. The varieties still included shaded, shaded marten, himi and BEW. Before I left MI, I picked up a few more from top notch breeders, and that included a blue otter out of import lines. So I was back in otter again.
I worked with the ones I had, and bought some southern stock to compliment them. I lost interest in the otters again and sold all but a son from that blue otter buck. I learned he carried everything, and I used him effectively with almost any doe. He sparked my interest in selfs, especially chocolate. I learned about recessive genes, and that I needed more chocolates. A good friend sent me some from MI. He also sent me a sable point buck. This was another recessive gene I had tried in vain to acquire by breeding. This buck finally got that project going.
About this time, brokens came on the scene. They were about a year from being accepted, so at the same time as the chocs and sable pt, my friend sent me 3 brokens...2 does and a buck. I was one of the first in the south to have them, and the first to put them on the table as soon as they were recognized.
I soon cut out the shaded martens, and only kept selfs and shadeds that came from the otter buck. His type was important and he became herd sire to the brokens. He also added his wealth of recessive color genes. I preferred the broken selfs, and tried to work the broken shadeds. That didn't work out as well. All the brokens carried self and I got more selfs than shadeds. The choc gene now being carried by most of the brokens also put a glitch in shaded brokens.
Soon other breeders were working with brokens and because they had otters (currently the best type in the country), I was falling behind. I could still claim the best patterns consistently and culled harder than everyone else for that. I don't care for tan pattern brokens, but needed type from somewhere. I had by this time a chestnut VM buck for the BEWs, and I realized how pretty agouti + white is. Enter the agoutis. This was the next best option for broken type improvement, and I acquired a pair from the best chestnut breeder in the south. I've come full circle to one of the original varieties in my herd.
I'll wrap this up to the present day. I've already talked about this in recent blogs so I won't go into details again. This past year, I took stock of the herd, my goals, and other things, and decided it was time to cut way back. I'm now down to selfs, agoutis, himis and brokens. I plan to maintain a much smaller head count in the future and work hard to move forward in my current varieties. My focus is the brokens. The selfs and agoutis won't be shown that much, they're mostly here for breeding to broken. The himis are my easy variety and I'll keep them to always have something respectable to enter in a show.
Happy Spring!
tnt
