Imagination Acres

So much for my New Years Resolution?

2012-01-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

I've really wanted to blog more lately and post pictures of the farm critters but life is so incredibly busy right now I haven't had much of a chance.

On the plus side starting in February I will only be working 1 night at the ER clinic a week which will open up just about every other weekend for me so long as I'm not working the Saturday at the day practice. These open weekends will be dedicated to the farm and the dogs respectively.

In farm news my Creme D'Argent rabbit litter missed so no cute orange babies on the farm.. I will rebreed the doe if we have a warm day this week and I'm going to be culling out the rest of my Rhinelanders over the next month or two so all of my cages will be open by spring for my commercial rabbit project. If the Cremes don't end up producing like clockwork like my Rhinelanders and Belgian Hares have in the past then I most certainly will bring in another rare/heritage commercial breed that is dual purpose meat/fur.. I'm experimenting with tanning rabbit hides at the moment, the goal being to use as much of the animal as possible and I hope to have a whole blog post soon all about the processes I'm trying.

In goat news I've been lax with getting on the boat with breeding... I only think my fainter Dandy is bred at this point and I'm not 100% sure.. I'm going to be staggering the Nigerian does for breeding this year, the plan being to have a kidding every few months so I'm not overwhelmed with kidding responsibilities all at one time and to hopefully have milk available year round.

In chicken news, not much to report.. the first baby chicks will arrive in a month or so which is always fun. My current hens are not too amused with the cold weather and it certainly has effected their laying as egg production is down quite a bit.

Alot of changes will be coming to the farm this year, the big project around the corner is a major clearing and landscaping project. Just about 3 acres are being completely cleared for pasture space, the goal being to use it for hay production down the line. Other areas are being thinned and clear cut respectively, a half acre plot for a garden space, a separate space for a new goat buck area that will completely separate the boys from the girls. (no more shared fenceline, yay!) And of course the dogs are benefiting greatly from all this as they will be getting a much larger play yard, an agility field and an expanded kennel.

I'll try and get some photos up soon, I'm also planning on doing a major overhaul on the farm website... stay tuned!

First post of the New Year

2012-01-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

My resolution was to be better blogger and so here it goes!

As January rolls into the farm it has brought with it very frigid weather. The rabbits water bowls freeze each night and have to be thawed/the ice banged out and refilled each morning and evening. Thanks to heated water buckets and bowls/heat in the kennel I don't have that problem with the goats, pigs, chickens and dogs.

Construction on the farm will be resuming soon, the first project of the new year is a small addition on the house deemed "the pet play room." This space is specifically designed for my evergrowing/expanding dog pack, it will function as an indoor training space and room just for the dogs in the house, the goal is to keep the dogs primarily in there so the rest of my house stays a bit cleaner.

The next big project will start after the pet play room is built later this winter/early spring which will be the much anticipated land clearing project. More will be added about this exciting project when we get closer to its start, I cannot wait to have more pasture space and garden space!

In animal news all is well and stable on the farm. I've decided to do something new with the goats this year and I will be staggering my breedings. The goal for this is to have milk available throughout the year so by breeding the does on spaced intervals I will have a doe in milk year round. In the rabbit barn my current litter of Rhinelanders are growing like weeds, the marked looks better and better every day. I have 2 does due in a little over a week, a Rhinelander litter and my first ever Creme litter.. my fingers are crossed for a whole bunch of cute little orange cremes.

I'll be ordering baby chicks soon to replenish my flock, the hens haven't been laying much due to the extreme cold and several are just finished with their molts. This year I'm going to order more Jersey Giants, Delawares, Campines and New Hampshires. I may also order some turkeys too and give the turkey raising a shot again..

That about sums up whats going on around the farm at the moment. Since my resolution is to post on the blog more often I will be checking in on here whenever I can even if its just to post 1 photo or to report one tidbit of farm news.

Current Farm Photos:

It sure looks bleak in the paddocks right now with all the leaves fallen from the trees and the sky gray with cold. The goat does don't mind and are hard at work eating their hay out of their hayrack.

From left to right in this photo: Wind Chime, Dixie, Spice, Latte, Athena, Dudette, Macara and Caddy. The fainters Ribbon and Dandy, and the nigerian dwarf Almond Joy are on the other side of the hay rack and not seen in this photo.

Here are 2 of my Domonique hens, they're still looking a bit off from their winter feather molts but they are looking so much better then they did a few weeks ago. This breed of chicken is very docile and they are excellent layers.

Here are the boys nomming away at their hay.

That's a New Hampshire hen up front, they're a big docile breed and I really love them, I'm looking forward to having more baby chicks of this breed in the next few months. In this photo Gigantor is the goat on top of the hay rack, Tambourine is the big white goat up front and Midnight and Herhsey are to the right.

Every morning my "farm hands," try to help me get chores completed. Reuben and Ritz wait at the gate to help.. Ghost the cat gets a better view from above.

Here's an upclose of hay chow time.

And another upclose view of the gals nomming away.

Pepper hates, HATES HATES the cold but she will wait patiently at the gate for me to return from feeding and watering the goats each morning.

Ritz and Reuben are much more enthusiastic about my return to the dog yard..

And here's the cute little marked baby with its sport sibling snuggling in their nestbox.

The baby just loves the water dish.

Seriously it spends alot of time just licking the outside and dipping its head in the water.. what a little goofball.

Here's protective momma Confetti with her cute little marked baby!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T17:57:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

My resolution is to be a better farm blogger in 2012!

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful new year.

And the goals for 2012 are..

2011-12-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

2012 will hopefully be another wonderful year on the farm.

Here's a tentative list of farm goals for the upcoming new year:

Clear land! This is a big one as I plan to clear a large amont of land in early 2012 for future garden space, livestock space and so forth. Smaller parts of this huge project will include cleaning up the trail on my property and adding more trails.

Re-do the goat setups again, most importantly adjust the kidding/milking pen and move the bucks farther away from the does so they no longer share a fence line at all.

Get a garden growing, do some landscaping, make the farm greener overall.

By the end of 2012 completely switch over to a commercial breed(s) of rabbit so that I can venture into more serious meat production in 2012.

So that sums up my goals for the new year on the farm. They may not seem like many but each one is a big undertaking and I really look forward to seeing what happens when the land is cleared, the garden is growing and the farm slowly transitions from a hobby to hopefully a working endeavor.

Reviewing the Goals for 2011

2011-12-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

All of us bunny bloggers do this around the end of December, we review our goals for the past year and start working on our goals for the next year!

Here was my post from December 2010 in italics, comments from today are in normal font:

Big changes are in store for the rabbitry. First and foremost I plan to re-do the whole living arrangement. All rabbits will be converted to hanging cages and an automatic watering system, this will save me considerable time with everyday maintenance. I hope to start this project once the coldest part of winter is over.

This goals was accomplished and then some! The barn is a completely hanging setup with a pressurized autowatering system and its absolutely awesome.

I will make a final decision regarding keeping or selling the Belgian Hares that I have held over. I really want to shift my rabbit focus on production for meat. I get a good number of culls from my Rhinelanders but they don't have the best dress out ratio. I'm seriously researching breeds and have settled on American Sables or Creme d'Argents, both are rare breeds with excellent commercial type. I'm also considering adding a pair of Satin Angoras for fiber and meat. I'm not sure what to do with the hares I have left, a few are absolutely pets and will never leave but I don't know if I can part with the last of my breeding stock. I'm sure I'll be blogging more about this in the future!

The Belgians were completely sold out, save 4 remaining pet Belgian Hares. Creme D'Argents have joined the farm and the Rhinelanders are being scaled back.

I will be buying a herd buck for my Nigerian Dwarf does. I've been doing my research and am starting to plan a good site for a buck barn/paddock. This means that if all goes as planned kiddings will resume in the fall of 2o11!

Accomplished! Dude joined the farm and produced beautiful nigi kids this past summer. I added the myotonics and am busy working on breedings for kids in 2012!

I'm going to seriously start clearing out some of my 18 acres of woods for more pasture/garden space. I will be doing this by running the goat wethers through small electric fenced pens, moving the pens as they clear out the space. I will then send Pumba the pig through to root/till the soil. Mature trees will be harvested on as needed basis. I may need to get a seond pig to make this project move faster.. anyone interested in some pasture raised bacon? (I'm thinking farm pig...)

This one hit the back burner and as much as I'd like to clear by hand and leave little to no carbon footprint with the goals I have for 2012 the land clearing will be done by machine soon.

Plant a real garden/more pots on the deck! I also need to overhaul the backyard and the flower/garden beds. Pumba really did a number on the yard before his permanent pig pen was built so I'm going to need to seed the lawn and edge the beds.

This one also was not accomplished as I didn't get land cleared this past year. Pumba and Timon do have their own pen but it wasn't expaned like I had planned. So this goal and the one above are still on the list for 2012!

All in all I'm happy with the progress I made in 2011 and am hard at work planning for 2012. :)

Winter has arrived

2011-12-11T14:45:00.000-08:00

Its cold again on the farm, every morning the ground is frozen and the animals all have thick winter coats of fur puffed up to keep them warm.

I still haven't gotten around to breeding the goats... This will be remedied this week as I try to set up a breeding pen at the very least for the Fainting goats, I may wait til closer to January to breed the Nigerians as I liked having summer kids last year.

Speaking of the goats, the buck pen which was where Banjo had been living seems to have recovered from the loss of our little fellow. Fiddle is spending more time with his half brother Tambourine who seems to be keeping him in good spirits which is a relief.

In rabbit news the winterized bunny barn is almost complete, the last 16 cages are getting pressure washed and rehung this week. The cages are now hung higher and no longer have any wood beneath to trap waste, the new setup is awesome, I'll post a video once its completely done. The wind blocking panels and doors will be going up on the rabbit barn too and then the rabbits will be all set up for winter!

I have a small litter of 3 Rhinelanders at the moment, 2 sports and 1 really nicely marked bunny which I'm excited about. The Cremes and a few of the Rhines will be bred in the next few days for January baby bunnies. These litters of Rhinelanders will probably be my last for a while as I plan to switch over entirely to my commercial project by the end of 2012. I do not plan to attend any rabbit shows in 2012 unless I need to go to one to pick up new stock for my Creme project. I'm hoping that with the last of my Rhinelanders I can produce a few more nice showable marked animals that can go onto new herds/exhibitors to make a positive impact on the breed.

In general farm news alot will be happening in early 2012, a large portion of my wooded land will be cleared for pasture, garden, livestock and dog use. I am planning on putting aside at least 1 full acre of the cleared land for a hayfield so I can grow my own mix of hays for my livestock. The dogs are getting the best deal as they will have a hugely expanded yard/yards to play in, including an agility field. The goat bucks will be moved to a new area farther away from the does where they will no longer share a fence line and finally the pot belly pigs yard will also be expanded.

Its going to be an ambitious new year on the farm, the begining of which will be very hectic with all the clearing but I'm looking forward to continuing to shape the farm into what I always dreamed it could be!

Here's a few photos of the baby Rhines, just under a week old now:

All 3 kits

Really nice left side

Right side looks good too!

In Loving Memory of Banjo

2011-12-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

2 and a half years ago I started this blog with a post about my farm and I shared the very exciting news about welcoming Nigerian Dwarf goats to the farm.

My saga in goats began with 3 baby wethers; a pair of brothers and their half brother.

Fiddle, Tambourine, and Banjo have graced this blog many times, with photos and stories of their antics. Over the 2 and half years I've had them they taught me so much, and because of them I have a fairly large herd of dairy and meat goats now.

When I first brought them home their setup on the farm wasn't quite finished so they actually lived in my mom's garage for a short time. (I must take a moment here to thank my mom for putting up with goats in her garage!)

From the moment I brought them home as tiny 8 week old kids I was in love. Banjo the tiniest of the original 3 was diagnosed with a heart murmur when I took them into the day practice where I was working at the time. He ended up going to a veterinary cardiologist where it was determined by an echocardiogram that he had several congenital heart defects including a PDA and ASD. I knew from that moment that his life would not be long as he would in time suffer the effects of congestive heart failure, but I vowed that I would allow him to live as full of a life as possible no matter what.

These past 2 years with Banjo have been wonderful, although his health had declined significantly these past few months his spirits were always high, he was extremely food motivated, wonderfully tolerant and always up for a scratch under the chin.

I have hundreds of photos of him and his brothers, and even more stories I could go on and on about but I think one of my favorite stories about Banjo was the summer before last when he managed to upturn himself completely upside down within the rabbit feed container, instead of flailing about wildly upset at his predicament he was content to merely stretch his neck and eat the rabbit grain upside down within the container! I did free him from the container, I'm not sure if he was relieved or not as he was more interested in returning to the container right side up to continue munching away..

I am thankful I have so many good memories of him, and thankful that I got to have him in my life as long as I did, he was an extraordinary goat.

As his health declined these last few months I knew I would be facing a difficult decision.. I didn't realize how soon that choice would come but today Banjo went down in the paddock and could not stand, he was gasping for breath and his pulses were irregular and bouding. When I went and sat with him and he lay his head in my lap and let out a soft little goat "baaa" I knew he was telling me it was time to let him go. I was able to take him into the day practice I work at now where he was put peacefully to sleep.

I am so very sad at his passing but I am glad he did not suffer long. He will be sorely missed on the farm, not just by me but by his brother Fiddle and half brother Tambourine as well.

RIP Banjo

April 15, 2009 - December 2, 2011

This was the very last photo I took of Banjo - it was taken about a week ago.

A belated Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

I'm late but I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for my wonderful family, friends, farm and for the work I get to do everyday.

Here's a few late fall photos to enjoy.

This is a young senior buck I took to ARBA Convention to sell, since he didn't sell there he is now for sale locally. He is a brood buck out of Tiger and Pumpkin, light on markings but nice color balance and type. He is showable. $35.00 w/ pedigree

Here's a junior buck that is dark in color also for sale. He is the brother to my 8th out of 32 junior buck. This guy is showable but I would consider brood due to light markings and darker color. $35.00 w/ pedigree

Here's one of my sassy hens! She really loves the camera.

I've finally made up my mind and this beautiful black and white June 2011 doeling Mascara is officially for sale. She is AGS/ADGA registered and comes from a CAE/CL/TB/Brucellosis negative herd. She is extremely friendly and dainty and wound make a great addition to any herd. Her dam Caddy has not been regularly milked so I don't have much to say about her udder. She is $300.00 OBO

Athena is always smiling, she loves being the matriarch of the doe herd.

This is Latte, one of Athena's twin doelings from this July, she is getting big!

And this is Spice, the other twin doeling of Athena's. Both are such beautiful little gals.

This is an up close shot of Mascara's twin brother Little Dude!

Little Dude just adores his uncle Banjo.

Here are a few of the young bucklings, most of these fellows will be getting neutered soon to become wethers.

Little Dude and Gigantor in this photo!

Gigantor is looking so grown up these days, check out his little beard.

Fiddle is doing well, he is such a loving goat, always looking for attention and petting.

Little Dude again, he is growing up!

And this is why it is so hard to get good photos of the rabbits - the cats are always interrupting me wanting attention!

Getting in the Swing of Winter

2011-11-20T14:33:00.000-08:00

The weather on the farm at the moment doesn't quite want to make up its mind as to if its winter or late fall, we had two nights of a good freeze and then today it nearly hit 70!

I disconnected the autowatering system for the rabbits temporarily on the frozen nights and then reconnected it, hopefully to get one more solid week of its use before it is permanently disconnected for the season. (I'm hoping it can be reconnected by the end of March/early April... so I only have about 3 solid months of hand watering a year)

I've cut my rabbit numbers way back for the winter to make my life easier and will try to breed in later winter with one litter exception thats due in early December so the babies are weaned closer to when the autowatering system is reconnected. Of my 32 holes only 24 holes are occupied at the moment - this number will be decreased to 16 by the end of the next two weeks, I haven't had that few production rabbits in a very long time!

I am keeping a small number of Rhinelanders - originally I planned to get out of them entirely at ARBA Convention but have decided to hang onto a few, I have a few blue variety carriers and would like to work on developing the blues a bit more now that they are recognized and I will keep breeding some pure blacks too. After thinking hard about it there just aren't enough Rhinelander breeders in this part of the southeast and I want to do my best to keep bloodlines open and hopefully help the breed thrive/grow. While my focus has shifted to meat production rabbits I'll keep a handful of Rhinelanders in the barn for now too.

I'm currently expirementing with learning how to tan/preserve rabbit hides in an effort to utilize as much of the animal as possible when I process rabbits for meat. Not too long ago when I had more free time I was very into sewing, knitting, etc. One of the hobbies I enjoyed most was teddy bear/stuffed animal making. Rabbit hides make excellent stuffed animal furs and I'm really excited to get out some of my old patterns and give it a whirl with my finished skins, I got inspired at ARBA Convention by the beautiful products crafters had made with rabbit furs.

In other winter farm news heated buckets have been pulled out of storage for the goats and pigs, I'm going to be purchasing two more heated buckets since my goat numbers are much higher than they were last winter to ensure there will be plenty of unfrozen water for every animal.

While I'm not looking forward to the colder months ahead I feel pretty prepared for whatever winter may bring this year.

I don't have a bunch of new photos to share at the moment, my work schedule as always is pretty hectic but if I'm lucky I'll do my best to get some more new photos posted here soon.

Here's Goblin on the left and Ghost on the right the two kittens I kept from my spring batch of bottle babies. These two cats are some of the most bonded siblings I have ever seen, they do everything together. They are both excellent mousers and Goblin particularly has brought me some enormous critters including a HUGE field rat! They're about 7-8 months old now and sweet as can be, they purr all the time and love to hop into laps for a cuddle session.

And here's a bunch of my goats lounging around. A real family affair, Dixie on the left standing with her two daughers Chime and Dudette, then Caddy on the right with her daugher Mascara and son Oreo.

Planning for the future

2011-11-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

The new year is inching closer and closer and as it does with colder weather settling in my thoughts wander into farm plans for 2012.

2011 was a big year on the farm, several exciting projects were started or completed. The new rabbit barn was built, and while the format works really well overall, as it gets winterized during these next few weeks we'll be making some changes, the cages are going to be removed from the mounting racks, raised about 6 inches higher and hung to eliminate the need for an extra wire protection under the cages to keep nosey dogs from going after bunny feet and prevent any more waste from being trapped between the floor wire and the extra wire protection along with getting rid of the wood mounting which traps urine and other yuck. All in all though eliminating stacking trays and using a pressurized auto watering system when its above freezing has saved me so much time on rabbit upkeep it is just incredible. I absolutely love my rabbit barn and I think with these last few tweaks this November it will be just about as perfect as I can get it.

Along with the new bunny barn the old bunny barn was converted into a functional dog kennel which is a lifesaver with a multi bully breed home. The kennel is fully airconditioned and heated, each dog has plenty of indoor and outdoor space to play in and most importantly the kennels keep them separated and safe when I'm not around to supervise them.

The goat paddock was split this year to make a buck/doe section, a new doe barn was built and the wooded portions of each side of their paddocks was expanded, all of which makes for happy goats. A new hay/storage barn was also built for the goats which makes feeding much less of a chore with the hay stored so much closer to the goats.

Despite all of these great expansions there is still much to do on the farm and I'm making a list at the moment of the most essential projects I'd like to get completed. First on my list is a large land clearing project. As much as I'd like to do all the clearing on the property as naturally as possible, with what I want to do with the land I'm going to have to do machine work to clear about 10 acres or so in early 2012. The newly cleared land will serve many purposes; hay field, more pasture space for the goats and the pot belly pigs, future orchard/vegetable garden plots, new dog yards including an agility field - ideally I'd like to have a pretty nicely sized yard for each dog with a dog house for them to stay out in on nice days as opposed to the kennels which are still spacious for confinement purposes.

The land clearing will undoubtly cost alot of money, but thankfully some of the lumber will be sold to help defray a portion of the cost. This project will also be in stages as after the land is cut the soil will need to be worked before anything can be grown on it.

Along with this massive clearing project I'm planning there are a few smaller projects such as a new kidding barn and pen in the doe paddock for the goats. I have a bunch more ideas but of course with the expense of the clearing project most of the other ones will be put on the back burner til its completed.

Creme D'Argent Additions and Farm Life

2011-11-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

I've been home from ARBA Convention for a few days now and am slowly getting back into the swing of things with balancing work and farm chores.

I gave my new pair of Creme D'Argents a few days to settle in before I took them out of their new digs to take photos of them. They initially were slow to eat pellets but were devouring hay, they haven't figured out my auto watering system but since its almost time to winterize and the auto watering system will be cut off in favor of water bottles and crocks its okay they haven't learned to use the valves, I'm providing them with crocks for now.

Both Cremes are big, docile, super soft bunnies, I just adore them!

Here they are out on the Rhinelander's running board for the very first time.

I've never had a commercial breed before, the closest in body shape I've had before would be my English Angoras from several years ago which are compact in type. Its going to take some education to learn how to type/pose these cuties.

The doe is named Fog and she is on the left and the buck I named Quizno, he is on the right.

This is Timber Wind Acres Quizno, he was the 2nd place buck in his class and is a brother from a younger litter to the BOB ARBA Convention 2011 winning Creme. I can't thank Mark enough for this sweet, handsome buck! (Excuse his pose - I am still learning how its done!)

This pretty doe is MapleLeaf's Fig, she is so curious and playful, she likes to boing her slinky around in her cage. Thank you so much to the Bentons for this beautiful doe, we love her!

I thought it would be fun to take a photo of one of my Rhinelanders with my new Cremes to represent both breeds in the barn at the moment!

This was my top placing rabbit of the bunnies I entered at Convention this year. 11 week old Imagination's Derby took 8th place in a deep class of 32 junior bucks. I was so proud of him!

He is just a little baby with a soft little baby coat but I expect he will mature very nicely over the coming months. Even as such a young junior he really has excellent table presence and just loves to run.

The other farm critters seem very happy that their mother has returned to look after and play with them. I really missed all of the animals but the dogs and pigs were especially missed. Timon, my baby pot belly piglet has grown so much!

My goats even seemed excited that I had returned, they were right at the gates every time I walked by, "bahhhhing."

A few goats saying hello as I do farm chores.

With the goat bucks in rut its time for me to get the does bred for spring goat kids, I'm really excited for my first myotonic (fainting) kids from Ribbon and Dandy. Even though the dead of winter is rapidly approaching, the thought of cute baby goat kids in the spring will absolutely keep me warm at heart as the weather gets colder!

Judging at ARBA Convention

2011-11-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

Judging this year at Convention started a day earlier than usual, this year it started bright and early at 8 am on Sunday morning.

One of the more frustrating aspects of judging day is the table line up. Breeds with very large classes of rabbits such as the more popular breeds such as Mini Rex, Holland Lops, Netherland Dwarfs and so forth usually are first up so the judges can get classes of well over 100 rabbits examined. Its is a long and tedious process for the honerable judge, some breeds with large amounts of entries will have two or more judges in order to expediate the process.

My bunny friend and I were told that Jersey Woolies, the breed she raises were one of the breeds up at 8 am, so we rose bright and early to get to the showroom on time so she could do some last minute grooming and be ready to run her rabbits and watch the judging. I didn't know when Rhinelanders were going up but was under the impression that they would be judged mid-day so I was able to kill time by doing some last minute grooming on some of my Rhinelanders.

Unforunately the host club did not arrange for table space for woolies which was a big mistake as the breed has a large amount of entries. It was very frustrating to have to wait for table space for the breeds and both breeds didn't get started til around 3 pm.

Caleb Thomas was the judge for Rhinelanderes this year, I volunteered to assist with writing comment cards for the youth entry and really enjoyed watching Caleb judge the bunnies. The youth had a truly outstanding group of Rhinelanders on the table, they should all be very proud of their beautiful animals!

The above photo is in the youth showroom, what a great crowd of people watching the judging!

Caleb was an excellent judge! He took his time to look over each rabbit thoroughly, he gave each rabbit even the lower placing bunnies detailed comments that I did my best to write down on the comment cards in case the youth were not present to watch the judging.

These were the top 4 rabbits in the youth show, all 4 were gorgeous animals that truly represented the written standard for the Rhinelander breed!

This was a very handsome and flashy junior that really had amazing table presence.

This was the BOS winner in youth, congrats!

And this was the BOB winner! Congrats!

After youth judging wrapped up it was time to venture over to the open showroom to start judging the 97 Rhinelanders entered. At first there was some table confusion with the American Chinchilla folks but it was sorted out after a short delay. The open Rhinelander classes were deep and the quality was impressive overall. Here are some open exhibitors with a large class of senior bucks on the table in front.

For the open show I ended up doing both the writing for the comment cards and the control sheet. Its very difficult to this job alone and I did my best to still make the comment cards detailed while not falling too far behind Caleb as he judged the classes.

Caleb checks over each bunny to make sure they're the right sex and have no obvious DQ's, Rhinelanders are a breed that do not DQ for a rabbit having one or more colored toenails.

Caleb lets a junior Rhinelander try the table out

Some of the bunnies waiting in the show coops to be judged.

Rhinelanders are fast and curious, its always fun to watch them strut their stuff on the table.

Go bunny, go!!!

The best way to evaluate Rhinelanders is to let them run and to stand away from the table like Caleb is doing to evaluate how they track and how they carry themselves.

And finally at around 10 pm at night after a very long day for all the Rhinelander folks the judge picks his winner, BOS winner Evelyn Cunningham with her jr. buck

And BOB winner Evelyn Halsey with her jr. doe

Congratulations to all the exhibitors on their placements and wins! I was very impressed with the quality of the Rhinelanders on the table and had a great time writing even if I was exhausted by the end. A huge thank you to Caleb for doing such a great job judging our bunnies!!

Traveling and Attending ARBA Convention

2011-11-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

If you've never attended an ARBA Convention before it can be difficult to understand the concept of over 22,000 rabbits being kept in one place for a week and the unbelievable amount of work that goes into the show from the club hosting and from the attendees.

This year I drove to Convention with a fellow bunny breeder. Since I entered 20 rabbits it made the most sense to bring along a trailer to haul the bunnies so the car could be filled with human necesseties and that way on such a long trip (about 13 hours one way) the car doesn't get filled with the noxious ammonia fumes of multiple bunnies in a small enclosed space.

I had my trailer custom designed to accomodate my bunnies, 16 holes we mounted on the inside of a vented enclosed trailer with carrier space on the floor for additional bunnies. There was plenty of space for extra supplies such as hay, feed, water, and so forth eliminating the need to buy anything extra at the show.

Traveling with bunnies on such a long trip is taxing on both the bunnies and the humans doing the driving. Rabbits do tend to stress while in motion on the road and generally will not eat or drink. Thankfully bunnies tend to recover quickly from travel and will eat/drink once the motion has stopped.

All of my bunnies along with my travel buddy's bunnies took the trip up and back pretty well considering the long hours they were in carriers/travel coops.

Once you get to the showroom the madness of unloading begins. In our case we were lucky to arrive on Friday morning when the showroom was fairly empty and close parking spaces could be found. The first stop is the information table/check in area where entry packets are picked up and any last minute ear number substitions can be made. After that all the bunnies are taken via carrier to their assigned coop in their breed aisle. The showroom does provide food and water cups although many breeders elect to use their own from home. I brought along alot of hay to help keep the bunnies' GI systems in good shape and stuffed each of my rabbits coops with lots of hay along with filling up their food and water cups. After every bunny had been unloaded the cage doors are zip tied close to help prevent the rabbit from being harassed too much by strangers and deter theft. Each day the zip tie is clipped and replaced during feeding/watering.

Here I am in the Rhinelander aisle with a few of my bunnies behind me. You can see the soup cans used for feed/water and the hay in their pens.

In this photo of a few of my junior bucks you can see I also use paper plates with mini peds/info on them to help advertise them and identify them from the whole row of Rhinelanders to make finding your bunny in the sea of bunnies easier when it comes time to feed and water.

Here's an up close of Sage one of my Rhinelanders in her coop, the coops are much smaller then normal sized cages - my Rhinelanders all live in 36x30 or 48x30 holes at home so my bunnies tend to get annoyed at the lack of space, luckily they're only cooped for a week.

This is Glory my blue Rhinelander doe in her coop.

Rhinelanders were cooped next to Americans and Creme D'Argents. I just adore Cremes and ended up bringing a lovely breeding pair home to hopefully expand my meat rabbit project I'm venturing into. Cremes are such docile and lovely bunnies, I'm really looking forward to having them here on the farm.

Harlequins were also close by the Rhinelander aisle. I was really impressed with the Harlequins I saw at Convention, alot of them were really nicely marked which is something I can sincerely appreciate as a fellow marked rabbit breeder.

Here's another pretty Creme doe stretched out in her cage. Alot of breeders brought along wire risers to raise their bunnies above their waste inside their coops. I didn't bother with my Rhinelanders but for breeds unused to solid floors, wooled breeds or those that make large messes the wire floor risers can be a lifesaver.

This pretty bunny is a blue eyed white Beveren. Beverns are another large meat breed I enjoy seeing at shows. Maybe one day these guys will join the farm too!

Presentation rabbits are those breeds/varieties that are seeking acceptance into the standard of perfection. The presenters who work on these breeds have to go through an involved process in order to get their animals accepted. All of the presentation animals are cooped together at Convention and its always fun to see what folks are working on. This cute bunny is a Champage Netherland Dwarf.

This is another presentation rabbit an orange Jersey Wooly, unfortunately this variety failed on their presentation this year.

This alert bunny is a blue Rhinelander presented by Lorena Ferchaud in California. This variety was accepted by the standards comittee and since it was their final presentation they are an official variety by the publication of the next DR!

An adorable Chinchilla Dutch, another presentation rabbit was hard at work chewing on its feed coop. Silly bunny!

And this is a cute broken otter I believe American Fuzzy Lop!

My next post will talk about judging at ARBA Convention!

Back from Convention!

2011-11-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

I'm home from ARBA Convention 2011!

All in all it was a good if not chaotic experience. Every time I attend Convention (this one was my 3rd) I learn alot be it about traveling with rabbits, showing rabbits or running a national show.

There was alot of good things about Convention in Indianapolis and alot of things that were far from pleasant. I'll go into more details about the experience when I have some time to go into more depth about the whole event and will post photos at that time too.

As for my placements? I didn't do all that great this year, this was my first time ever showing Rhinelanders at a national convention and my highest placements were in junior bucks, I took 8th and 9th out of 32 animals, not bad considering the stiff competition and where my Rhinelander program stands.

Departure is quickly approaching

2011-10-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

It seems that all of a sudden its ARBA Convention week!

Where did all the preparation time go? I'm a bit behind on a few tasks that still need to be completed but am very much looking forward to finishing up packing, printing pedigrees and loading the trailer up for its maiden voyage.

The 3 puppies on the farm will be departing for their vacation (aka pet sitting) with my family tomorrow which will make the last minute tasks much easier without 3 small dogs underfoot getting into everything.

The farm will be in good hands while I'm away and I think I'll miss the critters alot more than they will miss me.

I'll try and get a post up right before I head out on my ARBA Convention 2011 adventure this Thursday. To all those attending, best of luck, can't wait to see you there!

Time!

2011-10-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing I wish I had more of it would certainly be more free time! I spent all of today doing a fall spruce up around the farm and I still have lots more to do...

With colder weather approaching quickly there still are a few major things that need to be finished before the first frost sets in. The autowatering system to the bunny barn has to be disconnected and drained - during the dead of winter the bunnies will go back to water bottles and crocks changed frequently to ensure a constant supply of water. Winterizing panels need to be installed over the open air portions of the barn and doors will be added on either end of the main hall.

There still is a good amount of painting that needs to be done, hopefully it will all be completed before it gets too cold and finally the dog kennels need the dog door flaps installed to help keep the heat inside the building when I start running the heat in there in the next few weeks.

I'm almost all set for ARBA Convention, I have some more tattooing and nail trimming to do, a few pedigrees to print but other than that everything is pretty much squared away. It will be nice to be able to bring everything needed in the car/trailer along this time instead of the hassle of flying to Convention like last year.

Here's a handful of photos from around the farm lately:

Convention Entries Submitted!

2011-10-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

I finished sorting through the rabbits and submitted my entries for ARBA Convention - 21 Rhinelanders all of which will be for sale at the show!

What are you entering this year? Are you excited for the big event?

Just a few photos

2011-10-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

Things are as busy as ever on the farm. Its hard to believe that the rabbit (ARBA) Convention is only a few short weeks away. I'm really looking forward to it, especially spending time with my bunny buddies!

I don't have much to show but it will be fun to move the Rhinelanders out and see what I can find that suits me in terms of a meat breed. I have a few last minute things to do such as finalize my entries, tattoo some of the bunnies and get the trailer ready to go.

I do still have space available for transport. $15.00 a hole one way, e-mail me if you'd like a spot.

I've decided to continue my sales policy as I did last year at Convention, all sales will be conducted in person at the Convention center and I will not be accepting any presales. I will have a good number of entered Rhinelanders for sale along with several more brood animals available for purchase outside the show room. I'll have my contact info posted on the coops of my entered show rabbits so you can call me to setup time to see the rabbits that aren't entered in the show.

Anyways onto the photos!

Timon the piglet is adjusting to life on the farm pretty well. Pumba isn't too impressed with him yet but hopefully they will be good buddies some day soon.

The always lovely Mascara, Caddy's now 3+ month old doeling.

Some of the girls in their paddock, the rain has just been awful to my farm lately, much of what was grass is now mud..

Latte and Spice, Athena's two doelings.

Dudette, Dixie's doeling, this little girl is such a sweetie.

A few of the Rhinelander juniors I'll be bringing to Convention

They're such little goofballs!

They're learning how to run down the running board at the moment

Some of them just haven't gotten the hang of it yet, they think its snooze time! :)

Time is flying

2011-09-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

There really isn't a to much to report on the farm. Except for a big welcome to Pumba's new baby brother Timon the pot belly piglet!

Fall is in the air, the leaves in my forest are getting their first hints of yellow and soon they will all be changing into reds and oranges too.

I'm working a whole bunch lately, anywhere from 6-7 days a week at the day practice and ER clinic so all my time not spent at work has been going into routine farm upkeep.

The animals are all doing well, the piglet has just been weaned off the bottle and is growing like a weed. Unlike baby Pumba this piglet is alot more social and demanding of attention. He is very feisty and hopefully will be friends with Pumba once he's bigger, right now he's way too small to meet Pumba except through a cage wall.

The goats and rabbits are all doing well - ARBA Convention for the bunnies is rapidly approaching which means its time for me to make my final show list and get the trailer all set for the bunnies' journey.

The only goat news to report is that the fainters will be surgically dehorned once the last of fly season is over and then they will be bred for spring goat fainter kids.

I'll do my best to get some more regular updates on here - just trying to find the time between work and farm fun is hard!

September!

2011-09-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness its September.

Things are insanely busy right now on the farm, not to mention extremely wet with all the rain we've been having. I'm working a ton of hours at the moment and still getting adjusted to my new schedule.

Everything on the farm is doing well, we're starting to gear up for Fall - my favorite season.

Here are a few cute photos of some of the current Rhinelander babies we have on the farm - the last batch of young juniors for Convention!

Earthquake in VA?

2011-08-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes events in life remind you how very little you can control!

Today I experienced my very first earthquake - it was scary to say the least.

My farm is about 25 minutes from Mineral, VA the epicenter of today's 5.8 magnitude earthquake. Mineral is a depressed town in Louisa, VA not farm from Lake Anna.

I had spent the morning picking up a load of hay and then was planning to spend the rest of my day off doing fun farm stuff like attempting to get photos of the goats now that they are clipped. I quickly realized the goat photo shoot was a bust and would need a helper to get "posed," photos of the goaties.

I let the boy goats out into the woods to browse and was just heading back through the girl's side of the paddock to play with my dogs when the quake hit. It was a surreal experience nearly falling to the ground as the land literally shook up and down - I had a view of my entire yard - all the outbuildings shaking like leaves and nearly every critter in site freaking out in various way.

I was able to video tape about 30 seconds into the quake (gee wish I remebered I had my camera on me sooner - I missed filming the buildings shaking) but due to slow upload times on the farm satellite internet I won't be able to upload the video til later when I have access to cable internet.

Pictures in the house fell, a few lamps and knick nacks also fell but nothing was damaged, no critter was hurt - I am feeling incredibly lucky and thankful. There were a few aftershocks but nothing too significant. The animals have all recovered from the experience and I am hopeing that this was one of those once in a lifetime experiences...

Photos from today:

First up my trio of "damaged," goat fellows

Dude showing off his "show clip. Excuse his "locked," rear legs - he has some sort of illness affecting his rear gait and as of yet the diagnosis is unknown as no treatment has been helping. He still eats, drinks, and carries on normally so I'm not sure what to think.. additional diagnostics will probably be necessary to get to the bottom of it.

Fiddle was being photogenic. He still has pretty significant nerve damage in his rear legs, he drags his back left leg and is weak on the right but he gets around very well considering the significant damage the meningeal deerworm did to him. I'm looking into holistic treatment options now that its obvious the nerve damage is permanent, herbal remedies and possibly acupuncture may be in his future. He is the sweetest goat in the world and just lives for pats and attention.

And finally mister Banjo, Fiddle's twin is doing really well, especially now that it has cooled down for the season. Banjo's heart conditions have worsened but he handles his ASD/PDA causing CHF really well and is not taking any medications at the moment. Just like big bro Fiddle, Banjo just loves getting chin rubs.

In the doe paddock here's a clipped Joy feeding her enormous twin boys Midnight and Hershey! They are 2 months old now and have matured into a handsome set of goat bucklings. They're ready to be fully weaned/moved into the boy pen and I'm sure mom will be thrilled to be rid of them.

Gigantor is also ready to move into the big boy pen too, he is SO handsome and personable.

Gigantor is posing with his brother from another mother Lil Dude.

Lil Dude munching on some hay and enjoying a chin rub, he is getting dark spots on his face which is interesting.

"False Twins," Gigantor on the left out of Wind Chime and Lil Dude on the right out of Caddy.

Dudette wanted some lovings too, she is a really beautiful little doe and looks so pretty clipped down. She will be "officially" posted for sale very soon.

Goblin is one of the 2 kitties I have left from the original 4 I bottle raised. Gremlin and Ghoul found a wonderful indoor home together leaving Goblin and Ghost behind. Goblin has a bit of a URI after her spay two weeks ago but she is getting better every day with antibiotics.

This is Ghost the other kitty I still have. Ghost and Goblin are very closely bonded, always sleeping, playing and hanging out together. They are both really cool kitties and alot of fun to watch.

Pumba was really upset by the earthquake today and spent alot of time afterward feeling needy and wanting attention. He kept climbing into my lap which when he was the size of a loaf of bread this time last year was fine.. but now when he weighs well over 100lbs its a little painful...

And finally Biscuit a fairly new farm addition who will be getting a full feature on my dog blog soon was no worse the wear from the quake. This little mini poodle puppy who is about 14 weeks old just bounced around like nothing special had happened - oh to be a blissful puppy!

What to do with my Rhinelanders..

2011-08-20T00:49:00.001-07:00

Next year will mark the 3 year aniversary for the farm and 10 years I've been "in rabbits."

With the ARBA National Convention only 2 months away I find myself doing alot of thinking about the rabbits. I don't have much to show at Convention this year - Rhinelanders are a tricky breed to get showable, nicely marked and well typed offspring out of and many litters produce rabbits with disqualifications and faults. A great many of my litters this year have produced unshowable animals..

I enjoy the breed immensely - they are smart, easy maintenence and generally very healthy. These good qualifications don't match up with the challenges of breeding for showable animals..

I am disapointed I won't have much to show and I have doubts about how competitive the stock I will be bringing to Convention are.

Thinking about my lack of strong entries for the "superbowl," of rabbit events makes me really wonder if its time to make some drastic changes in the bunny barn following Convention this year...

As my interests in the farm develop and my plans for the future change I think the shift towards a more commercial outlook in rabbits would be appropriate. I am seriously considering moving the Rhinelanders out completely this winter to make room for a heritage or rare meat producing breed, something like an American Chinchilla.

While the Rhinelanders have a decent dress out ratio, they are a fancy breed at heart and I breed them mostly for show purposes. Since showing rabbits is something that I've lost interest in it makes more sense to bring in a breed that will better serve the purpose of production.

I do not know at this point in time if I will be selling out of the Rhinelanders at/after Convention this fall - it is a decision I don't plan to make over night and one I will carefully contemplate over the coming weeks. Outside input is always appreciated - many of you have been there almost from the begining of my rabbit program and I'm sure that you all will have thoughts and opinions on converting to a meat production program that haven't occured to me.

Goat Clipping

2011-08-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

Today one of my co-workers from the ER clinic I work at came out and clipped some of my goats down so I can take photos of them for my website that is SO out of of date and so prospective buyers of this years crop of kids can get a better idea on body type.

Dude was very well behaved and so were most of the other gals, Dixie gave us a run for our money but she tends to be a bit of a diva here and there. We still have Athena's two little gals to clip down - they need reburning on one of each of their horn buds so we'll clip them after their vet trip to have them reburned - they're also still a little young for sale purposes so I want them to mature a bit more before they get their photos taken!

I'm going to do my best to get photos of them on Saturday and have them on the website/on facebook by Tuesday at the latest.

Not much else to report, all is well here on the farm as we progress into the last stretch of summer!

Busy busy!

2011-08-10T07:15:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to get back into the swing of working day practice and ER work along with managing the farm.

My days and nights are pretty busy but alot of fun.

On the farm weaning the goat kids is in full swing, they aren't thrilled with the process but should be fully weaned and ready for their new homes by the end of the month.

I had my last 3 bunny litters of the season born this weekend, 9 to first time charlie doe STC4 with 6 marked surviving and 7 beautifully marked to first time charlie doe STC5. The last litter was only 3 kits and none are showable which was a disapointment!

Here are a few photos from the week:

Pumba my pot belly pig will be getting a baby brother in a few weeks, here's a cute photo of the piglets we'll be picking from! They are just adorable!

I don't know if its the heat but I have 2 Rhinelander juniors from 2 different litters that are having some "ear confusion," and are imitating lops as best they can!

Hershey the sweetest little chocolate buck kid you'll ever meet is enjoying the hay part of weaning!

Some Rabbit thoughts

2011-08-06T03:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much specifically regarding the rabbits lately.

Things with the rabbits are going steadily, my interest in my rabbits has not diminished but I feel my focus with them is shifting in a different direction then where I stand currently with my herd.

I'm at a cross roads of sorts.

I had quite a few succesful litters this year with some decently marked Rhinelanders born. I have my last 3 Convention litters due this weekend for very young juniors.

Overall though I'm not thrilled with my Convention prospects - in ways they're nice enough especially regarding type but markings in my opinion will not be nationally competitive. Its a bit of a disapointing prospect to attend Convention this fall with rabbits I'm not 100% pleased with, especially after doing so well last year with my Belgian Hares. That being said I do have to remember that this will be my first year EVER showing Rhinelanders at Convention and we all have to start somewhere - heck at the '08 Convention in Louisville some of my Belgian Hares were the first rabbits off the table.

Rhinelanders are still my favorite breed of rabbit, apart from the weird genetic dwarfism of sorts I've run into in a particular line they are very healthy, playful, and easy to manage. I love that each litter is a mystery in terms of what markings you'll get and I love how the Rhinelanders dance about in their cages when you walk through their barn.

I have 38 holes dedicated to my Rhinelanders and at the moment every single hole is filled. This weekend I will be cutting my numbers back by culling out some young rabbits that are not up to par of my herd standard, including several charlies/sports I was growing out as fryers anyways.

I am not going to be posting anymore sales lists after I do this round of culling til closer to Convention at which time I will post up who I'm bringing along to the show. As with last year's Convention, all rabbits I bring along with very few exceptions will be for sale. Prices will include cooping fee if they are entered in Convention and will probably start at $75.00.

So now that I have my Convention plans presented its time to consider the most immediate taks with the bunnies in terms of Convention prep - get them all tattooed, trained to the running board and so forth.

I don't plan on attending any other rabbit shows following Convention except for the local one in Doswell, VA this fall/coming spring as I would like to dedicate my time to my other hobbies. I am researching starting a small commercial operation as well and looking into appropriate breeds that would work - if this thought comes to fruition the Rhinelanders will be sold to accomodate a meat breed.

The end of summer is inching closer

2011-08-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

Its really hard to believe that its the first week of August, it seems like this summer is flying by. I'm feeling very thankful that the oppressive heat we've been having has finally broken and its a bit cooler. The animals are obviously appreciative of the break in the heat too, they're much more active and playful when its a bit cooler.

With summer winding down its time for me to submit my entries for the state fair, this year I'm planning to enter both rabbits and goats which will be interesting to say the least. I have a few more days to make my final decisions on what I'm going to enter...

The animals have been pretty photogenic, especially the goats. The baby goats are starting the weaning process (except for Athena's doelings who are much younger) and so far they're not too thrilled with it. There's alot of screaming and temper tantrums going on at the moment..

Before I talk about some thoughts I have on my website here are some recent farm photos to enjoy:

Athena's doeling Latte up front and Caddy's buckling 'Lil Dude in the back on a browsing session in the woods, look how big Latte is getting!

Pumba the pot belly pig visits some of my retired Belgian Hare does in their pen.

Almond Joy's buckling Midnight with Caddy's twins 'Lil Dude and Mascara

Wind Chime's buckling Gigantor (looking very bucky!) and Athena's doeling Latte

Midnight, Joy's buckling on the go, he is SO jet black its amazing, such a big handsome fellow too!

Hershey, Joy's other buckling who is chocolate colored, he has the sweetest face and most expressive eyes.

Dandy, a fainting goat, she is getting big! Her horns will be removed this fall after fly season.

Here's one of my retired pet Belgian Hare bucks who lives "free," with the goat does. Two other retired Belgian bucks live free with the goat bucks in their paddock.

Mascara, Caddy's doeling being adorable!

And a charlie first time mom getting ready for her babies which are due tomorrow. All 3 of my last Convention does are busy nesting, hopefully lots of beautiful marked babies if I'm lucky!

Now I have some thoughts about my website. Since I'm just so busy right now with keeping up with the farm and working at 2 veterinary practices I've been doing some major thinking about my website.

I'm planning on stripping it down to the bare bones of important information such as general info on the animals/breeds I raise along with sales policies. Instead of having individual animal photos/herd pictures on my website I'd have that on facebook instead. I would provide links to my facebook farm page from my website.

In addition to utilizing facebook for things like photos of my herd animals, for sale animals, and most recent farm updates I would expand this blog to add additional pages also, I'm not sure what those pages would include at the moment but possibly an about the farm page similar to the one on my website and a for sale page too.

I've still got some thinking to do on how best to do all these big website/facebook changes but I hope to have things converted over to a more facebook based online farm presence in the next few weeks.

Free to Good Home - Theo!

2011-08-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

Theo has been a wonderful stud bunny on my farm these past 2 years but its time for him to be placed into a retirement home!

Theo is 2.5 years old and he carries a genetic defect so he is available without a pedigree on the condition his new home will not breed him. I can have him neutered before he goes home but a small fee will apply to help cover the sugery expense.

Theo is very sweet and just loves head rubs. He is BIG boy with a blocky head, he weighs in at about 10 lbs.

Theo is used to dogs, cats and so forth, he is easy to handle, gentle, loves to binky and is an all around great bunny.

Because he's a big boy he is prone to fur loss on his feet, his feet are tough and leathery, he has not had an actual case of sore hocks but if he is housed in a wire floored cage he needs at least 2 resting mats.

Please e-mail me if you'd like to bring Theo home.

I am going to try and get the website up to date as soon as I can, I'm working 2 jobs at the moment so I don't have much down time but I have most of the photos I need taken, just need to sit down and do some editing.

Side note: I have gotten a flood of e-mails asking about baby goat sales. Wethers will be $75.00 each or 2 for $125.00.

Bucklings start at $200 and doelings start at $250

All goat kids will be held on the farm until September, bucklings/wethers will be able to go home mid-September and doelings will be available AFTER the VA state fair which is the last week in September. We appreciate your understanding and will respond to your e-mails soon.

At this point in time Wind Chime's buckling "Gigantor," is being retained for our herd, we have not made any decisions on the other kids yet, several more may be retained..

The Weekend Improves!

2011-07-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

While the start of the weekend was no fun with losing Ruby and the hen, the weekend did improve even if the temperature remained unbelievably hot.

My mom came to visit and we finally took a trip to Montpelier, the home of James Madison which is about 30 minutes from my farm. While it did rain some, the trip was alot fun and the grounds are really impressive.

My mom outside the home of James Madison

Me and the sign for Montpelier from the train tracks

Along with a trip to Montpelier, the Orange county fair was being held across the street so we stopped by for some old fashioned country fun. This is a real agricultural fair as there are no rides, the highlights are the exhibits and the livestock the youth raise in 4H.

This was a neat planting exhibit I liked!

I loved these sculptues made from old barrels.

Ducks at the fair

They were offering oxen rides and all I could think of was that my wagon would sink when we forged the river and I'd need to buy new oxen.. lol you can tell I'm from the Oregon Trail generation!

A handsome calf

The pigs drank out of water hoses!

These pigs actually make Pumba look small!

its not a fair unless you eat a funnel cake!

Dairy cows

Angora goats!

I also had some more farm visitors, my mom's boyfriend's kids and grandkids came to visit the farm.

The goats enjoyed the attention!

Kid with kids!

Even the baby got to enjoy the critters

Pumba loved the extra treats and attention after he warmed up to his visitors!

This Heat..

2011-07-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

The heat index hit 117 today and unfortunately I lost two animals as a result.

The first was a Dominique hen I found I thought to be sleeping in the goat buck barn, I assume she passed from the heat, why she wasn't out in the yard with the other hens, I don't know..

The second is a really horrible loss, Ruby my beloved Angora was completely clipped down but still was having trouble with the horrible weather. I moved her into the A/C mid-day when she was showing heat stress despite having frozen water bottles and being misted... Her core temp was not that high by rectal thermometer and she was cooled off using the same methods we use in the veterinary clinic. Unfortunately she continued to decline after being adequately cooled and began to seize. I made the very difficult decision to humanely euthanize her when she began to seize. Ruby was the start of my rabbit show hobby and will be dearly missed. :(

The other animals are tolerating the heat, the chickens really worry me as they are complete idiots and will stand in the sun instead of in the puddles Pumba the pig makes when he splashes in his baby pool.

So far the goats are doing okay, Banjo who have severe heart problems due to congenital defects is the only one who is really concerning me besides the kids.

The Rhinelanders are handling the heat as best they can, there are fans blowing air around 24/7, ceiling fans and exhaust fans, frozen water bottles and misting as often as I can.. I hope that these two losses will be my only ones to the heat but tomorrow is slated to be just as bad..

Busy & A Family Farm Visit

2011-07-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've updated the blog, my apologies! Even though I'm working a little less for a short while the farm is taking up more time then ever with goats in milk and a barn FULL of rabbits!

A few weekends back I had a really nice visit from my immediate family; my mom, her boyfriend, and my grandparents all came to visit. I got to share my baby goats and kittens with them and all in all we had a wonderful time.

Here they are on the way to the goat paddock, my grandma has one of the kittens in hand!

Here's my grandpa with another one of the kittens

My mom and my grandparents each have a kitten in this photo!

By the way these kittens would still like good homes, they are learning to be mousers and are now mostly outdoor kitties but still have access to litterboxes if someone wants to transition them back indoors. They are VERY friendly.

Grandma meets the goat kids, everyone is excited!

Grandpa and Grandma with some of the kids

Mom with Caddy's buckling

Goats everywhere!!

Grandpa and Wind Chime's buckling

Grandma with Athena's doeling and Caddy's buckling

Mom, Athena's doeling and Steve

Even the rear ends of goat kids are cute ;)

And finally Steve, my mom with "Mascara" Caddy's doeling who matched my mom's shirt perfectly!

I'm going to have more farm visitors this weekend so I'm trying to get the place cleaned up a bit since the majority of construction is now over for the season. The buck paddock was expanded so that the boys have a larger wooded space to play in which they seem to be enjoying. With all the outdoor projects at a wrap except for some debris pickup I'm trying to plan out how I want to fix up the backyard and garden beds, there's alot to think about.

Rabbits are all doing well, I lost my most recent litters I suspect to heat so I'm crossing my fingers my next 3 does kindle healthy litters, the 4th doe I bred did not take and its too late at this point to rebreed her for Convention juniors, they'd be way too young. At this point I have a few things to show at Convention and am looking forward to seeing how every bunny matures over the next few months.

Baby chicks will be arriving soon, I delayed shipment due to the extreme heat we've been having but I'll have a bunch of cute baby chicks on the farm again soon which will be alot of fun.

That's all the news for now, I'll try and update the blog more often and actually get to some website updates soon.

Updated Sales List

2011-07-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

If you visit my facebook page for the farm (see the link in the box to the right) you can see an album of some of the rabbits currently for sale.

I still have more bunnies to photograph and upload, I'll try to get them up by Friday!

Athena Kidded! - Its TWINS!

2011-07-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to report that kidding season of 2011 has come to a wonderful close.

Athena kidded two beautiful healthy doelings this morning on day 159 of her pregnancy. The delivery was fairly uneventful and the two kids were up and nursing in minutes.

Its a great relief to not have to worry about any more deliveries and just be able to enjoy the 8 beautiful kids born on the farm this year; 4 doelings and 4 bucklings.

The first little girl arrives!

The second doeling followed just moments later

The first doeling is up and ready to go

Her sister followed just a few minutes later

The two sisters together

A very proud Athena keeps watch on her new babies

Doeling # 1 almost dry and completely fuzzy

Doeling # 2 also almost dry and fuzzy

The other kids are growing like absolute weeds, the first kid celebrated his one month birthday today! They are such a joy to play with, they love to leap into laps and snuggle.

From left to right, Dixie's doeling "Dudette," Chime's buckling "Gigantor," and Caddy's buckling (un-named)

Caddy's twins napping in the hay rack, the doeling on the left and the buckling on the right, these two cuties are so flashy!

Almondy Joy's twin bucklings, the chocolate on the left and the black on the right.

In Rabbit News, I've had some disapointments with my ARBA Convention litters and will have to do some last minure re-breeding for very young juniors at the show. Sage has 4 marked babies in her litter and Nutmeg has 2 marked babies in hers. Tibs had a DOA litter of 1 and Churro has not kindled yet.. I'm going to breed some first time charlie x sport crosses and see if I get lucky for the next round of litters.

I'm off to start the long process of updating my poor website, hope to have it finished by tomorrow!

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday. I'll be celebrating by helping save animal lives at my job. One of the hazards of working emergency veterinary medicine is every holiday is a work day, but I can't complain; I love what I do.

Quick Post

2011-06-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

I hope all is well with everyone!

My sister's wedding was this past weekend and it was fantastic, many congratulations to her and her new husband! It was alot of fun to see family members I haven't seen in years and to celebrate such a joyous occasion. Their wedding will certainly be one to top!

I'm getting back into the swing of things on the farm after being gone for a few days for the wedding, the goat kids continue to grow like weeds, in a few weeks they'll all be weaned and ready to go to new homes. I'll be updating the website with their photos and posting most of them for sale sometime very soon.

A few of the kids playing on the milking stand

All 6 kids together!

Athena is the last goat left to kid, she is due tomorrow but I suspect she'll be kidding late based on her ligaments and udder development. She's huge and looks very uncomfortable so hopefully it won't be too long of a wait. I'll be watching her closely and will post here when the kids finally arrive.

I have ALOT of bunny stuff to do. Blues, Confetti and Pumpkins' litters all need to be sorted through, they're already weaned just need to be separated into pairs/trios in their own cages for grow out. I did a bunch of culling earlier this week and will have more to do once the unshowables reach processesing weight. A few of the showables that won't work for my program will also be for sale, photos and more info to come soon.

I have my last 4 ARBA Convention litters due this weekend. Nutmeg has been busy nesting and Sage looks like she's about to burst, hopefully these litters will provide me with some nicely typed, colored and marked juniors to show in Indianapolis this fall. Its hard to believe we're only a few months away from Convention again, even though there's still a good amount of time left, its never too early to get final plans underway. The hotel is already booked and I'm starting to figure out how much space/holes my travel companions and I will have for the big trip.

More updates will be added sometime soon, with the wedding over and working only a few nights a week at the moment I don't have any excuses when it comes to keeping the website and blog up to date. :)

Joy Kidded - Its TWINS!

2011-06-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

And the goat posts continue!

Almond Joy decided to kid a little early which was a welcomed surprise for me. Her ligaments loosened on Monday and I actually took her into the emergency vet I work at on Monday night because I didn't want her to progress into labor alone as a first freshner. Joy is my tiniest doe and was a bottle baby so I worried her mothering instincts might be a little lacking without human encouragement.

She held out to kid until around 6:30 on Tuesday evening, she required major assistance, much more than Dixie and Wind Chime. Her first baby a beautiful almost completely solid black buckling presented breech with one leg tucked back - sparing the details I was able to rearrange him and deliver him succesfully. Fifteen minutes later her next little baby an almost solid dark brown (chocolate) buckling presented head first with no legs - once again with assistance he was rearranged and delivered.

Joy did really well and immediately started cleaning off her two healthy, big boys.

Joy with her two new kids, the chocolate buckling in the back and the black buckling in the front

Joy doing a great job of cleaning her kids off

The nosey pit bulls were right there to help too.. not that their help was needed..

The solid black buckling - he has a bit of white on his ankles, the chocolate buckling has a small amount of white on one of his flanks.

These two cuties have such different colors/markings then my other Dude kids, its so interesting to see the range in markings/colors you can get from different parents - genetics are fascinating.

These two little fellows will be available as pet wethers in about 2 months. Future bucklings from Joy almost certainly will be able to be kept as intact bucks, her FF udder is gorgeous! I can't wait to get her on the milkstand.

With Joy having succesfully kidded, there will be a short break til my last doe of the year, Athena kids around July 1st. I'm looking forward to the end of kidding season 2011, its time to milk and enjoy the babies and not worry about all that could go wrong with delivery!

I'm headed to my sister's WEDDING this weekend! (Yes the BIG day is almost here) so there won't be time for blog updates/website updates but I will have lots to post next week, and I promise to have some rabbit news/photos to add at that time too.

Until then I wish you all well and ask you to please keep Kristen of Keep's Rabbitry in your thoughts/prayers; she sufferred a tragic loss of many beautiful rabbits due to heat stroke. Kristen is a beloved bunny friend and I can only imagine the pain she is in at the moment - I know had it been my bunnies I would be just as devastated and lost.

Heat related incidents can happen to ANYONE, Kristen's tragic loss made me think about my bunnies and the heat. I know that if my bunnies were still in their old barn (now the dog kennel) if I lost power and the A/C failed without a doubt I would lose many rabbits to heat stroke if I were not home as the barn's temperature would soar without A/C. My current setup does expose the rabbits to warmer temperatures but it is open aired which keeps them cooler from the cross breezes and fans. Most importantly the bunnies in the new open air setup are safe from the dangers of an enclosed barn but this is far from perfect and there is a very REAL and scary chance that any bunny could overheat and die on warm days even in an open air barn...

With that said, I'd like to tell Kristen that I'm sending kind thoughts to you and your bunnies and I am certain all of your bunny friends world-wide are wishing you well. <3

Caddy Kidded - Its TWINS!!

2011-06-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

Seems like every post lately has been goat related!

I'm happy to announce that Caddy kidded this morning to a pair of beautiful buckling/doeling twins!

Caddy kidded right before I got off from work, the babies were still damp when I got home. Both were active, nursing and doing really well as was momma Caddy. She did great, had them on her own without assistance and was doing as well if not better than she did with her triplet bucklings last year. She has a tiny udder that hasn't developed much from last year but we'll see how it fills out in the next few weeks when she starts getting milked.

The two kids are super cute, a black and white doeling and another tan(red) and white buckling that looks just like the buckling born about 2 weeks ago to Wind Chime.

Both kids are really big so its a good thing that she didn't have any trouble delivering them. They are super sweet little babies and will be alot of fun to raise these next few weeks.

Photos:

Only about an hour old in this photo

The little buckling with momma Caddy

What a sweet face, already a lap baby!

The doeling, she's got cute markings

Momma Caddy nursing her twins

Siblings, such cute baby goats

And Gigantor and Dudette born earlier this month are doing well, they've both been disbudded and are growing like weeds.

Dixie Kidded It's a GIRL!!!

2011-06-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Since I had been keeping my Nigerian Dwarf goat buck - Cornestone Farm Almon *S ("Dude") free with my does since January I was doing something rather taboo in the goat world. Running a buck with your does can mean you miss breedings and then not know when to expect the kids. Since I have a small goat herd of only 5 does I felt pretty confident that I would see all the breedings and not run into the issue of not knowing when a doe would be due.

While I was able to have certainty about 4 of the goat does' due dates, I never figured out when Dixie would be due. I knew she had settled so I figured I'd watch her closely and be prepared in the June-July time frame.

Sure enough yesterday Dixie's udder had filled and she was looking very close to kidding.

Here's a photo of Dixie yesterday, spending time with her daughter Chime (pink collar) and grandson "Lil Dude," aka "Gigantor."

Yesterday she was very interested in eating her hay, she didn't seem super close to kidding until late at night. Since last year she kidded while I was working an overnight and one of her twins passed away - I made certain to either be home or have another "goat professional," on the farm for every goat's kidding this year to help prevent losses.

This morning at 9:30 am she kidded a beautiful, BIG single doeling that just like Gigantor born on Sunday looks alot like her daddy Dude!

Just minutes old..

Dixie is such a good mommy, the dogs are being super nosey in the background..

She was up and standing on her wobbly legs very quickly

Walking is a challenge when you're just a newborn

She has 3 brown legs and 1 white leg, so cute!

She started nursing right away, she is just precious!

Website is up to date!

2011-06-08T13:11:00.001-07:00

www.imaginationacres.com

I posted a bunch of photos of "Mini Dude," aka "Gigantor" the cute new baby goat arrival on the kids page in the goat section.

Individual photos are up of the Rhinelander kits in the current litters.

Sales page is the only page not up to date, I will try and get it updated later this week.

Wind Chime Kidded - Its a BOY!

2011-06-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

Go figure that Wind Chime would decide to kid after a long night working at the ER vet!

I came home to discover Chime on day 149 of her pregnancy with a very full udder with a tight glossy appearance. I felt for her ligaments and they were gone which usually means kidding will happen within 24 hours. She also had a wide eyed look and her tail was arching all signs of prelabor.

I moved her into the "kidding pen," AKA Reuben's dog kennel (he is kenneled the least of all my dogs so his kennel is the perfect choice.) The kennels are near enough to the paddocks that Chime can still "talk," to her herd and see them.

Here's Chime in the kidding pen

Here she is just before she started to enter serious labor. She had a difficult labor and I ended up having to go internally and assist by pulling the kid out. After the kid was out, Chime took her parenting role very seriously by assisting me with cleaning her little buckling off .

Moments after birth a proud momma Chime cleans her baby boy off. If you look closely beneath the dog door into the barn (to the left) in this photo you will see Pepper under the barn looking into the pen.. I have such nosey dogs!

A closer view of the new baby and mom. (Yes Pep's in the backgroud of this photo too!)

He's a strong, smart little baby that was up on his feet in minutes and ready to nurse within about 10 minutes. Here he is trying to nurse for the first time.

What an adorable little buckling Chime gave birth to, he looks an awful lot like his daddy Dude!

Chime being a good momma and bonding with her baby.

Lots more photos of this cutie are to come, kidding season is officially here and now I'm going to go get some much needed rest, I'm exhausted!!

Not too much longer now

2011-06-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe its less than a week til the first due date for one of the goats this year. First Freshner, and last year's only doe kid Wind Chime will be at day 150 on Monday. Last year her momma Dixie kidded pretty much right on time, it should be interesting to see if Chime follows in her momma's footsteps.

There's alot of construction going on in the goat paddocks at the moment so its hard to get good photos but here are a few around the new hayrack that was made using a modified horse hay rack and cattle feeder.

Tambourine sticks his head through the rack

Dude, I have a zillion photos just like this one because he is so curious about the camera and if it is edible or not..

A posterior shot.. Joy is due around June 25th, her little first freshner udder is filling nicely.

Wind Chime has filled out nicely. Her horns have fallen off and in the fall her scurs will be reburned. She is such a shy, gentle goat.

Caddy is the goat with the next due date here she is in the hayrack, her first possible due date is the 16th of June but her udder hasn't filled in much so she may be due later. Chime's little udder can be seen in the background.

I'm so excited for goat kids!

History Repeats Itself

2011-06-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

This past Memorial weekend was insanely busy. My sister celebrated her Bachelorette on Saturday night and her Bridal shower on Monday. I worked most of the weekend too so it was a challenge to go from down south up 95 to Washington DC and then do it all over again all while very sleep deprived.. I work nights after all. Despite being completely exhausted it was a great time!

On the farm things are continuing as normal, its unbelievably hot for the first week in June and so the baby pools are full to the brim for the dogs and pig to lounge in and for the goats/chickens to drink from. The rabbits have fans in their barns and frozen water bottles to keep cool, so far they seem to be taking this awful weather okay, the worst part of the heat is the reality that this is just the begining.. Virginia summers are relentlessly hot and humid.. here's hoping we make it through okay.

I was sorting through the baby bunnies today and made a horrible discovery.. last year I had a strange seemingly genetic disorder pop up in two of my Rhinelander kits. Basically the rabbits suffered from skeletal deformaties, muscle atrophy, ataxia, stunted growth (dwarfism?), malocclusions (due to skeletal deformity) and both eventually became acutely paralyzed. Popeye lived to be about 7 months before he had to be euthanized, his sibling lived to be 4 weeks of age.

Two of Confetti's kits have the same symptoms that Popeye had. Confetti was bred to Theo who was the same sire to the previous litter that had the issue. The dam to that litter was Sage. Last time I thought it was a fluke and repeated the Sage/Theo cross and had no issues (Dream and Wish below are offspring from that cross.) But, now that I have a different doe (granted Confetti is from very similar lines to Sage/Theo) its clear that I will have to cull Theo since he is the carrier. Unfortunately I had already bred him to Sage before I sorted through the kits so I'll have to see what his next and last litter looks like in a month's time...

For those who weren't reading my blog back when Popeye was around feel free to read here, here and here about him.

Affected kit is up front on the left, notice its compact box like shape compared to its normal sibling hopping in the background.

The two abnormal kits, their eyes already have the distinct bugged out shape..

The kittens are growing like weeds, here they are in their large dog crate, I installed an old towel as a hammock, they love playing in it and wrestling. I put collars with bells on them the other day which makes rounding them up after they're allowed out in the house to play much easier. The bells give away their hiding positions!

Here's a not so great unposed photo of Wish at 5 months of age, when she poses nicely she looks really great. She's a pretty gal!

Here's Surf a jr. buck, he's very playful and zooms down the running board

Here's Summer, she's dark but I love her spots!

This is Splash, nice spots on her too, I'm worried her stray spots will end up as a DQ shoulder spot as she ages which is such a shame..

Dream, she is such a pretty rabbit, 5 month old her right side which is not pictured is much nicer marked then her left.

Beach another cute jr. doe!

Quick Post

2011-05-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy!

Alot going on at the farm lately. The farm vet was out yesterday for annual blood draws and updating vaccinations/de-wormings on a few of the goats. 14 goats to restrain for blood draws and assorted other pokes and prods is exhausting! Thankfully Pepper is actually an amazing herding dog and was able to round up the wilder goats who don't like needles.

This year I'm doing CAE, CL, Brucellosis and TB. After consulting with my vet I decided against Johne's testing since she is not confident that the test is accurate enough to warrent doing. Hope to have the results in next week just in time for the first kidding of the season!

I'd like to make a quick aside here to encourage ALL goat owners in my neck of the woods to vaccinate their goats for rabies when old enough. The farm vet let me know that there have been several confirmed rabies cases in cows and one goat this year so please vaccinate your goats for this deadly and ZOONOTIC virus! (I just completed my pre-exposure series too so I'm on a rabies education rampage at the moment.)

In other animal news, the baby bunnies are growing like weeds and I should have new photos up soon. I'm about ready to place my chick order for the year, I just love baby chicks so it will be alot of fun to have some cute baby chickens peeping around in a few weeks.

So that's the update for now, I promise my next post will include a bunch of photos!

Restarted my pit bull/bully breed blog

2011-05-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

http://multibulls.blogspot.com/

Since the dogs are such a big part of my farm life and I'm pursuing several activities/sports with them I thought it was time to restart the dog blog, this way my farm blog isn't flooded with dog only related posts!

Those kittens I mentioned

2011-05-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well the kitties I've been raising have been growing like weeds. All 4 of them are just about 5-6 weeks old now and are all eating solid food both fancy feast turkey kitten wet cans and iams dry kitten food. They are healthy, playful, curious, well socialized babies just about ready for new homes.

They all like to be held, cuddled and purr like crazy!

In order to be as responsible all possible with placing these kitties I'm going to have them spayed and neutered prior to placement. They will be up to date on age appropriate vaccines and dewormed. They'll be ready to go in probably a month as they need to weigh a certain amount before they can be spayed and neutered.

Let me know if you're interested in one or more of them. Indoor/outdoor homes are fine, just wants them to be loved and well cared for.

Stripey, male

Confident, playful, loves to cuddle and explore

No-name, female

Gentle, sweet, loves to pounce, plays well with the dogs, very cuddly

No-name, male

Easy going, playful, loves to purr and be held, likes to explore with Stripey

Gremlin, female

Long haired most likely, very cuddly loves to be held, purrs very loudly, she likes to pounce on things

I did get updated photos of a bunch of the Rhinelander juniors today, hopefully I'll get some of the pics on the blog tomorrow.

Ribbon and Dandy

2011-05-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Ribbon and Dandy are my two new fainting goat doelings. They are beautiful, shy gals who are slowly adjusting to life on the farm. I haven't moved them into my doe group yet becuase there's alot of goat construction starting this week and I'd like to try and tame them down a bit so they're easier to handle.

Here's a couple of photos:

Ritz likes to play with them, they all like to climb on the construction piles..

Browsing in the woods, Dandy is up front

This is Ribbon

Dandy stretching for the best browse

Oh and Reuben and Ritz are enjoying the tall grass

My happy boy!

Website updates and more to come later this week or next week once my schedule is a little less full. :)

Settling in

2011-05-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

Scout, Dandy, and Ribbon the new fainting goat kids are settling in pretty well.

The baby Rhinelanders are also doing well.

I don't have much time to update in depth on farm progress but here are a few photos until I have some more time to blog. (Next week is my last week working day practice and ER work so after that I will have ALOT more spare time when I'm back to just ER work which I am very much looking forward to!)

The 3 nestboxes lined up in the kitchen

Blues' box, all 11 of her kits are still alive and well

Pumpkin's box, she's down to 9 kits

Confetti's box, she's down to 10 kits

Confetti's bunch, 1 sport, 2 charlies and 7 marked

Pumpkins litter of 9 marked

A comparison of a black and blue Rhinelander kit, black on the left, blue on the right

Black vs. Blue Rhinelander sports, 2 blacks on the left, 2 blues on the right

Scout my new fainting goat buckling! He's very cute and personable. The horns will be removed soon.

Scout, Oreo and Patches. Scout is only about 5 months old and he's as big as my year old Nigerian Dwarf wethers!

Ps. Don't Oreo and Patches look so much better hornless?!

Quick Update

2011-05-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today was a very long day and it isn't over yet!

I'm killing time before my overnight shift in a few hours by posting this quick update to the blog.

The 3 new fainting goat kids from Fainting Hills in WV are home safe and sound. I picked them up after Lady's obedience school this afternoon. They need some time to decompress, but I promise to have photos up some time next week of Scout, Dandy and Ribbon.

In bunny news I have lost a few kits from the 3 litters, I elected not to cull anything at birth and let nature and first time mothering take its course. Alot of the kits are suicidal - already jumping out of the box after nursing, or for who knows what reason.. its frustrating since I'm too busy to do my usual "lock up the nestbox" and bring it out to the does to nurse twice a day. I'll post more updates when the kits reach their one week birthdays and see how many from each litter is left. The markings on the marked kits are generally good which is nice to know, all of these breedings will definetely be repeated later this summer once this batch of kits is weaned and the moms have a bit of a break.

Oh and here's two kitten photos.. they're growing like weeds, more pics of them to come!

Can you see Pepper's kitten?

Kitten wrestle mania

Photos of the large litters

2011-05-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

Blue's litter of 11

Confetti's litter of 12
Pumpkin's litter of 12

Not sure if I'm going to cull these litters down slightly.. thats ALOT of babies for first time moms to raise..

24 new babies so far.. EDITED - 35 new babies!

2011-05-04T01:44:00.000-07:00

It's almost 5 am and I haven't gotten much sleep on the night before my day off so far!

I'm bottle feeding 4 kittens that I picked up a the e-clinic I work at, they're about 3 weeks old and SUPER demanding.. thankfully they can start solid foods very soon. Anyone want a kitten? LOL

As for baby bunny news, on the coldest, windiest, rainiest night Confetti and Pumpkin have both kindled new litters. Both are first time moms, Pumpkin is a year and a half old and they both kindled 12 beautiful babies each!

Pumpkin's litter is 100% marked since it was a charlie x sport cross, even though her sister Nutmeg gave me a bunch of beautiful show prospects in her first litter, Pumpkin appears to have given me a bunch of unshowables.. can't tell for sure since they're way too little to tell at this point but it looks like several have DQ's so far unless alot of orange fills in.

Confetti's litter has 8 marked, 2 charlies and 2 sports. The marked overall look okay, same with Pumpkin's litter though, they need more time for me to be certain.

Blues is still due today, I'll be checking her in a few hours to see if any babies are born before I have some errands I have to run later this morning. I'm hoping for some blue Rhinelander kits even though the chances aren't too high. I'd be happy with a smaller litter too so I can do some fostering.. I don't normally cull baby bunnies at birth but these 2 litters are huge for first time moms and with no bunny to foster to I may have to cut the litter sizes down so they are more manageable.. I'll cross that bridge later on if I have to, for now both nestboxes are in the house on this cold and rainy morning.

EDIT: Blues kindled a little later this morning around 8 am or so before I left for my errands. She gave me 11, she didn't want to go with the traditional 12 I suppose.

The most exciting part of her litter? She gave me my FIRST BLUE Rhinelander kit! Looks nicely marked so far! There are 4 sports - 2 are blue sports, 4 charlies - can't tell if any are blue since they're all very lightly marked, 3 marked - 1 is BLUE!!

Photos to come later today if I have time!

So much to do.. the rain interferes

2011-05-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

"Honey Bunny," the rabbit from my previous post departed on his way to a NJ rabbit rescue group yesterday. One of my former clients who has a pet rabbit from me was able to use her rabbit rescue networking skills to find a place for the rabbit.

I'm glad that he will be going to a rescue and hopefully find a new home soon. With that said, I stand by my last post about being a repsonsible breeder. From here on out anyone who approaches me with a need to find a home for their rabbit that was not bred by me will be referred to this rescue group for assistance; hopefully eliminating any chance of having a similar situation arise in the future.

Today is my day off and I got a bunch of things finished but a rainstorm that just washed in is preventing me from getting everything completed, especially the yard work. The pet Belgian Hare doe stall was cleaned out as was the chicken coop and the goat buck barn. I wanted to get some more cleaning in the old bunny barn finished but I need to get a new shop vac first since my old one completely died on me while I tried to use it this morning.

This week is a break in construction around the farm, but next the new goat doe barn and the interior of the dog kennel will be started. After those projects are finished I'll be done with construction for a while which will be a nice.

I have 3 Rhinelander rabbit litters due mid-week, all 3 are first time moms, so here's hoping they do well. They're all HUGE and very preggers, I gave out nestboxes today and so far they are all interested. I have Wednesday off this week and will snap some photos if the weather is nice of the Rhinelander juniors I'm keeping along with the ones for sale.

Well I'm off to try and get a few things in the house completed until my overnight at work since the weather isn't going to agree with me doing anything outside!

Pepper and Ritz just love the new dog bed I got from my sister for my birthday! Ritz is getting so big, he's almost bigger than Pepper at 4 & 1/2 months old!

Being Responsible - The Limitations

2011-04-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

Breeders of any animal be it a dog, cat or rabbit are often targeted as the reason why there are so many homeless animals in shelters.

While I do sympathize with the millions of pets stuck in animal shelters throughout the world I do have to say that as a breeder I cannot be held responsible for those animals. Pet owners who choose to purchase or adopt an animal without doing research or without consideration for the lifetime commitment they are making for the pet are the reason why there are so many animals in shelters. Are there bad breeders out there? Of course, puppy mills and unethical people who pump out litter after litter come to mind, but I will not allow myself to be lumped in with the bad eggs when I take every precaution to ensure that the animals I produce do not end up in shelters.

My sales policies state I will always take an animal I have sold back no questions asked. I especially expect pet buyers to utilize this part of the sales policy should they no longer be able to care for their animal. With that said the only exception to taking an animal back is if it is infected with some sort of contaigous pathogen. In this case I will make every effort to assist my buyer with rehoming or euthanizing their animal if it is too ill to be treated.

Perhaps I'm lucky that I raise farm animals, and YES bunnies are farm animals. While bunnies are a popular pet throughout the nation, make no mistake rabbits are multipurpose agricultural animals that fill a variety of purposes from beloved pet, to healthy dinner on the table, all the way to lab animal fascilitating breakthroughs in medicine.

I am VERY supportive of all uses of the domestic rabbit which is why I am an ARBA member - an organization that promotes all aspects of the domestic rabbit. I am extremely leery of PETA like organizations such as the House Rabbit Society which are bunny terrorists in my opinion. Have I owned "house rabbits," in the past? Absolutely! Do I have pet rabbits now? Yes!

The key difference with me is that even though some of my rabbits are pets, the majority of them are considered livestock and while they are all treated with dignity and respect, and spoiled absolutely rotten with toys, treats, and playtime, each agricultural rabbit serves a purpose be it show animal, brood animal, or food animal. Whether a rabbit is destined for slaughter for meat purposes or the show table the way they are treated is the same. They all live happy lives in large cages with play time, adequate nutrition and mental stimulation. For the rabbits that are going to be processed to feed my dogs, they are humanely euthanized by an AVMA accepted method and after death are quickly dressed.

I am a firm believer in not inflating the already full pet marked with rabbits. While I do sell rabbits as pets from time to time, the majority of my sales are to fellow breeders which I prefer. I am well aware of the many rabbits that are dumped into animal shelters or set loose this time of year after Easter. Instead of selling rabbits as pets I have the option of processing them for meat where they serve a greater purpose by providing my dogs with a healthy meat source saving me money on their rather expensive premium dog food. I am of the opinion that it is far better to live a short happy life then a long life of neglect that far too many bunnies live when their owners' become bored or the family forgets about the bunny living in the outside hutch. I process a steady number of rabbits each month, each of these bunnies are not displacing a shelter rabbit from a home as so many "only adopt, don't buy," campaigns claim.

What prompted me to blog about the measures I take to ensure I'm not having rabbits I produced end up in shelters is this little bunny below.

The gray area of being a responsible breeder is what do you do with the homeless bunnies out there?

Should we take in rescue rabbits? What if someone you know approaches you about a rabbit they don't want or can't keep? I always avoid these scenarios as much as possible as I feel if a person signs over the rights to the bunny as an owner to me then I can do what I see fit with the rabbit, be it rehome it, or euthanize it for meat.

I was contacted by a neighbor the other day about a bunny they had found hopping loose in the parking lot of a McDonalds. The bunny above is that bunny, an agouti and white 4-5 lb. Lionhead mix of some sort (he has a small mowhawk.) This intact male rabbit would never have survived for long and he was friendly enough that he was easily caught.

Most animal shelters around here aren't prepared to house rabbits let alone try to adopt them out and with Easter just a few days past their intake on rabbits is high which means a great number are euthanized. Personally I hate to see a healthy rabbit injected with a euthanasia solution when it could be euthanized with another humane method and then processed to feed another animal. What a waste to inject a meat producing animal with a toxic substance making their yield worthless. I agreed to take in this rabbit they named "Honey Bunny," to spare him an instant injection of death in a scary shelter. Instead he can live out a week at my farm where he can eat as much as he wants in a stable rabbit savy environment while I see if I can find him a home. If not, then after the week I give him I can humanely euthanize him and process him for meat.

I didn't breed this mixed breed rabbit, and I'm of the opinion that it is not my responsibility to take him in and rehome him. Yet, I did take him in and now that he's here I have to figure an appropriate end for him wether it be in another screened pet home or a humane end with a purpose.

While some people may not like the fact that the rabbit may end up being used for meat, I just say to those people that every day thousands of animals are euthanized because there aren't enough homes. Isn't it better that the rabbit be used to feed another animal rather then euthanized and thrown away?

What to do in a situation like this is something every breeder should think about..

Photos and more photos!

2011-04-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of photos from my family visiting this weekend for my birthday, we had a whole lot of fun!

Ritz is getting so big!

My adorable nephew Miles at 10 months of age. So fluffy and cute.

It got HOT, so Pumba went for a swim in the baby pool

Miles is convinced that Pumba will one day play with him...

HAPPY piggie!

Pumba was doing a "dog shake," in this photo, he sprayed Miles with water!

My grandparents checking out the goat paddock

My huge puppy Ritz and my beautiful sister

My grandma giving Tiger the bunny some love

Pumba enjoying a treat from my sister

My grandma needs more arms, all the goats wanted attention at the same time!

My lovely niece, Lexy almost 3 years old

My nosey goats.. a pregnant Caddy up front

Goats right off the front porch = fun

Pumba getting some num nums from grandma

Some VERY tired doggies

Ritz looking cute on the deck

My grandpa and Ritz on the sofa

Goats resting by the cars

My grandma and Dude the goat on the front porch

My sister and her two adorable fur babies

Family photo

The only photo with me in it! ;)

All in all it was a great weekend. I have another hectic week ahead but if the weather agrees with me on Wednesday I'll get new photos of the junior Rhinelanders and possibly some of the goats.

Birthday!

2011-04-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

To celebrate my birthday today I worked the overnight last night and will work the overnight again tonight.. LOL I know how to have a good time, right?

On the plus side I have tomorrow off and my family is coming to visit which should be alot of fun. My niece and nephew the fluffy goldendoodles Lexy and Miles are coming down with my sister and her fiance, I can't wait to let them run around and walk in the woods. They're city dogs so they should have alot of fun on their trip to the country.

Two Rhinelander juniors departed to a new home today, its always exciting to place Rhinelanders in homes with new exhibitors. I'm always hopeful that new folks will stick with the breed even though it can be a challenge to get showable babies. I wish them and their new family lots of luck.

I'm starting to look over Nutmeg's showable marked kits and make some decisions, a few of the girls are very promising even though their faces are dark - their side spots and clean marking pattern make up for the lack of color balance on their faces. I'm excited to see how they grow and develop.. next week new photos of them all - I promise ;)

I took a few "fun" photos today while out and about around the farm.

A very promising junior doe in Nutmeg's litter. I just hope her dirty ear base stays an ear base and doesn't become a shoulder spot. She is beautiful and my POL at the moment.

Imagination's unnamed.. I was going to name him Scout but I have a goat named Scout coming home in a few weeks.. he has a suspicious shoulder spot like marking but I'm growing him out to be certain. He is VERY friendly and actually likes being held and handled which is uncommon in Rhinelanders which normally like head rubs and petting but not to be carried about.

Imagination's Wish - 12 week old jr. doe - promising little lady

Imagination's Dream - Wish's sister, promising, LOVE her type - check out that arch!

And then of course there's the pit bulls here's cate training at its finest..

Things have stabilized a bit with the dogs. I'm continuing to keep Pepper and Lady separated most of the time unless I can keep a close eye on them and monitor their interactions together. The dog kennels are halfway completed and are turning out to be very useful. I'll have photos of the kennels put up once they're a bit more complete.

And before I sign off, thank you very much for all the birthday wishes! :)

Happy Birthday/Easter

2011-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend is my birthday and since I'm working my mom was kind enough to celebrate with me today and then the rest of family is coming down on Sunday to celebrate some more.

My mom found this awesome cake with funny bunny glasses on it.. dog torture followed of course..

Hopefully some time in between work and animal fun this coming week I'll have a chance to snap updated photos of the junior Rhinelanders and update my sales page. The junior Rhinelannders get cuter every day. Its hard to believe in another week and a half my first "official," ARBA Convention litters are due too!

Spring has absolutely sprung here on the farm, now that the construction projects are winding down slightly (goat barn updates start in a few weeks) I need to get the garden rolling, I'm very behind on that this year but hope to get at least a few pots planted and something in the raised bed..

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it and I'll try and post again soon. :)

Still here!

2011-04-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

I've been neglectful of website updates and blog posts! My apologies, I'm working day practice and emergency at the moment so I'm working about 6 days a week and that doesn't leave much time for internet updates, all my free time goes to making sure the animals are well cared for.

The new bunny barn is working out even better than expected. The amount of time I save with no longer having to clean trays is really incredible. Also having all the bunnies at the same level enables me to really play and interact with each bunny as I feed and hay them each day. I'm having a new longer running board installed, I can't wait to get some of juniors on it to get them trained for the show table.

I haven't updated the wesbite yet but all the sale rabbits are sold. I'll be sorting through Nutmeg's bunch of kits next, although at the moment I'm planning to hold on to all of the showable kits. There is a baby with a double cheek spot and a baby missing a cheek spot that will be for sale, both bucks if I remember correctly. All of Churro's kits which are 2 charlie does and a sport buck will be for sale. I'll try and get updated photos of them this coming week if I have time.

In other farm news I took Ritz to a UKC dog show and entered him in the novice puppy class, he had a great time and we got to see lots of beautiful dogs. The goats are nearing the end of their pregnancies, we have about a month and half to go til the first babies are born in June. All 5 goat does are begining to develop udders and are looking pretty big, it will be so much fun to have goat kids on the farm again. My fainting goat trio of kids I reserved will also be coming home in early May so lots of goatie excitement is soon to come.

Here are some recent farm photos:

This pretty gal took 1st place in the novice puppy class, she turned 6 months old the next day and got to compete in the puppy class for points!

Ritz is getting very big, here he is playing tug with Lady

Here is Ritz and Reuben with a bunch of goaties grazing in the backyard

That scruffy looking goat is Dude, he's shedding his winter coat at the moment and there's Ritz bouncing about.

Ritz would really like to chew on the nylabone Reuben has

I thought this was a neat shot of Lady and Dude the goat

Here's a pregnant Almond Joy, she has a tiny little udder developing! (Ritz is in the background..)

The goats are mowing the back lawn in this shot. Its so nice that everything has turned green again, I love spring!

Bunny Faces

2011-04-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some faces within the new bunny barn.

Anyone who's been following my blog both here and my old Suburban Bunnies blog will recognize this floofy face, its Ruby my beautiful pet English Angora! Ruby's experienced alot of change over the past few years and she's taken it all in stride. She's the BEST! <3

Ferchaud's Blues being an asbolute goofus! She is pregnant and due in early May, can't wait for this litter, its my first possibility of blue Rhinelander kits.

Imagination's Pumpkin being antisocial in the back of her cage.. She is also pregnant, she is Nutmeg's sister so I'm hoping for a bunch of beautiful babies just like Nutmeg.

Eeyore's Rupert, my favorite Rhinelander in the whole world. He is such a sweetie.

Imagination's Charlie stretched out, this is my best hopping rabbit. I have some videos I'll have to share of him, he's made alot of progress.

Padlina's Confetti showing off her bootay.. she is pregnant too and not amused by cameras.

Mister Bumble, he is a fiesty fellow!

I still have a bazillion things to do this week on the farm but everything is going slowly.. As the bunny projects wind down and get completed it means its almost time to get started on a bunch of goat projects, seeding the doe and buck paddocks, building the new doe barn, improving the fencing for the upcoming summer goat kids, etc.

One thing is for certain when you live on a farm there is always something to improve!

Bunny Barn 2.0

2011-04-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos of the in progress and functioning Bunny Barn 2.0!

Life without dropping trays is pure bliss!

One side of the bunny barn where the autowatering pressure regulators are mounted.

One of the 2 pressure regulators for the auto watering system. These are connected directly to buried hoses so the bunnies have a constant supply of fresh water. One of the sides of the bunny barn, Sage is up front on the right. There are 16 cages on this side. The other side of the cages, still a work in progress, there will be 32 holes total inside the barn. Sage in her cage, and Bumble in the back The lighting inside the barn along with ceiling fans!

Quick Update

2011-04-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a week on the farm. The frequent rain has hindered painting the bunny barn so often that an executive decision was made to post-pone barn painting and instead go ahead and move the bunnies into their new setup. The bunnies are adjusting very well to their new open air home, the ventilation is superb, not a whiff of amonia in the air! The chickens scratch through the waste that falls beneath the cages helping turn it into "black gold," for the garden.

The electricity is hooked up, there are 8 fluorescent tube lights and 2 ceiling fan lights to keep things bright within the barn. The ceiling fans are excellent for keeping the air moving on warm, stuffy days. The auto watering system which is pressurized by two hoses has been installed and the bunnies are all learning to use the new valves without too much trouble, they're really not that different than the ball tube water bottles I've been using for the past 3 years. With the autowatering system and the hanging cage system my time on rabbit maintenence has been signficantly reduced and it doubles the "fun time," with the bunnies.

There is still a bit more to do but the project is nearing completion, a few more cages need to be cleaned up and installed, and autowatering valves will need to be added to these cages. I have a few more hay racks to build out of a spare roll of wire and all the bunnies could use some new toys, resting boards and name tags. I'm so happy with the new barn and can't wait to share some photos in my next blog post.

In other bunny news I went and visited my friends from Keep's Rabbitry earlier this week and brought home Suburban Bunnies Bandit a Belgian Hare from my very first hare litter 3 years ago. Bandit has returned to live out his retirement on the farm. He is a sweet, handsome hare full of personality and spunk. Its nice to have 2 bunnies from my very first litter on the farm to enjoy, Bandit and his sister Trixie. I really had a nice time visiting my bunny friends at Keep's Rabbitry, I really wish my bunny friends lived closer!

And in non-bunny news; the goats gave me a scare the other day, the whole herd free ranges most days and they somehow all got into something toxic which resulted in much cud spewing, frothing at the mouth and depressed/lethargic behavior. Thankfully they all recovered but I'm being cautious about letting them range for the time being, some new spring growth or even some mushrooms could of been the culpruit so until I can take a walk through the woods and check to see what they got into they're being confined to their respective paddock space, I don't want to take any chances! Both sides of the paddock, the buck/wether side and the doe side got new picnic tables for the goats to climb and play on, so far they seem to be a pretty big hit with the goaties.

The dogs have been continuing to give me alot of trouble. I had a major fight between Lady and Pepper that Reuben got involved in on Wednesday. I am going to have to completely change how I manage and keep the dogs in order to ensure that Lady is safe and not getting attacked. The reality of managing a multi-pit bull home is not glamorous or easy. I'm having 2 dog kennels installed tomorrow, the old bunny barn which is being converted into an indoor/outdoor kennel isn't quite ready for the kennels but we'll have to make do for now. I'm going to use the kennels to rotate groups that get along, Pepper and Reuben compromising one group and Lady and Ritz making up the other. So that's how things are going on the farm at the moment, hopefully I'll have some new photos to share on Sunday!

Website is Up to Date

2011-04-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post here and say that the website is up to date with videos and photos of the sale rabbits and individual photos of the bunnies in the youngest litters. www.imaginationacres.com

Rhinelander Madness

2011-04-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

Baby bunnies just melt your heart. <3

My older babies are 9 weeks old and they are all of a sudden morphing from pot belly cuties into awkward lanky little Rhinelanders. Its so much fun watching them grow and change.

The younger batch all have baby fuzz distorting their markings, none the less I got individual photos of all of them today and will be updating the website tomorrow with those photos. I also got some videos of the sale rabbits for anyone interested in the 4 I have left for sale.

All in all I'm having a great time with all my farm animals but especially my Rhinelanders.

Here are some photos of my current babies:

Friendly little doe and siblings says hello to the camera

This little cute buck was the one that fell out of the nestbox and nearly froze, I went above and beyond to save him and am glad that I did, while he did lose his ear tips and nearly all of his toes to frostbite (no show career for him) he is the friendliest, sweetest most proud little guy and he's just so bright and orange!

Another baby says hello!

Some of the older Rhinelanders, these are Tibs and Tiger's kiddos.

They are always hoping for a headrub or a treat, very friendly babies!

Momma Churro is ready to wean her batch, she keeps looking at me like "I know I only had 3 of my OWN babies, why is it that I got stuck with 3 MORE?" She's the queen of fostering!

Here are some of the babies Nutmeg is raising, bunch of rolly pollies.

Gotta love baby bunny booms!

No new photos for now

2011-03-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

I meant to post yesterday but life interferes! Not much else to report, the bunny barn still isn't finished thanks to all the weather we've had. (Snow on Sunday morning!) Hopefully by next week though it will be complete and the bunnies will be settling in. I have 3 Rhinelander litters to breed this week and several more in about a month or so. The litter of 9 is a month old and they are SO cute, several of them look quite promising which I'm very excited for. I had a nice time at the Richmond show this weekend, my schedule does not permit me to show often but it was good to catch up with bunny buddies and put a rare breed up on the table. The Rhinelanders I brought were very popular, unfortunately I was poorly prepared and didn't bring any buisness cards with me to hand out. It was fun to educate other rabbit exhibitors on the breed and do at little "publicity." Rhinelanders are alot easier to promote than my Belgian Hares were since they aren't as sensitive and don't have special housing requirements. Bumble my senior Rhinelander buck showed himself off pretty well, and the juniors liked to sniff the table, at just 8 weeks old they went for fun only, they can't be "really," evaluated on type when they're this little since they still have potty baby bellies and their coats still have alot of baby guard hair which makes evaluating their markings a challenge. I won't be attending any more rabbit shows for quite a while as I'm busy with dog related, work related and other commitments but I look forward to possibly hitting some shows before Convention this fall, just have to see how my schedule works out. Even though I won't be showing much there still will be plenty of baby bunnies around for Convention juniors in the next few months. I updated the website with the spring layout. I still have 4 unshowable Rhinelanders for sale, they can be seen on the website, more photos will be available in my next blog post, all are $35.00 with pedigree or $25.00 without. The younger litter will be evaluated in about 3 weeks, I should have some showables for sale from that litter. That's all for now, hope everyone is doing well and those of you who have bunnies have full nestboxes!

Had Fun at the Bunny Show!

2011-03-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures and am about to get some sleep before work tonight, but I went to the Ricmond Rabbit Breeders show today and had a great time!

I'll have lots more to blog about tomorrow. Congrats to all the winners this weekend! :)

Another pit bull post

2011-03-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

With so much rain lately the progress in the bunny barn has been stalled, the lights are up and two ceiling fans have been installed (instead of box fans) but the sealing and painting needs to take place before the cages are permanently mounted..

The baby bunnies are growing like weeds, Sage and Tibs' kits will be at their first show this weekend in Richmond, VA and several of the brood quality baby bunnies will be for sale.

So with not much bunny stuff to report, and similarly nothing much new with the goats I thought I'd take a moment to talk about my dogs again and a serious issue that they have.

One of the biggest challenges that pit bull owners who have mutliple pits face is pack management and dealing with incompatible personalities/fights. Any other breed that isn't of "fighting" heritage can usually have their dog aggression managed without too much trouble. Pit Bulls on the other hand can cause significant damage to other dogs when they get "in the zone," resulting in costly vet bills and potentially a dead dog..

Within my own pack of 4 there has been some trouble brewing. Most of my photos show the pit bulls getting along and truthfully 90% of the time there aren't any issues but they don't always play nicely with one another.

I chose to have multiple pits and thus any fights that break out are ultimately my own fault.

The most important thing to remember when owning a pit bull no matters its socialization is that these dogs were bred to fight for hundreds of years, these genes do not disapear over twenty to thirty years of selective breeding. Always assume a pit bull will fight with other dogs.

Pepper the oldest and smallest is the one who causes the most problems within my pack, ironically outside my pack she is quite submissive with strange dogs.

Pepper is "bitch" aggressive and has exclusively had problems with other female dogs I've added to the pack (Sally my former foster dog, and now Lady.) Both Pepper and Lady are spayed adult females and when they get into it, its ugly. I've learned after their 6 or 7 spats they've had since Lady joined the pack last year that Pepper is extremely "game," which is a term that means when she gets into a fight she doesn't let up for anything, she has to be physically removed from the other dog which is not an easy task, unlike other breeds that slash and strike, Pit Bulls latch on and shake, their grips are very strong and pulling them off is not easy without the aid of a break stick.

Gameness historically is a trait fighting pit bulls where bred for, a dog that exhibited gameness was prized since it would keep going no matter its own injuries until it was exhausted. While this trait can be great when it is modified for dog sports like agility, weight pull and so forth it is highly undesirable in a pack setting like my home. Managing Pepper's issues with Lady is usually no problem, as I said earlier 90% of the time they're fine, playing with one another, sleeping with one another, eating out of each other's bowls and so forth. I have discovered that there are triggers which heightens Pepper's gameness and Lady's reactiveness - toys such as tennis balls, having certain guests over and so forth.

The reality is that I need to step up my management practices if I want Lady and Pepper to live together peacefully. I have a plan in place and will discuss that further in another blog post.

Pepper and Ritz, hard to believe that something as cute as Pepper can be such a brat..

Ritz posing for the camera with Reuben in the background.. boy dogs are so much easier than girl dogs..

Ritz bits.. cutie!

Pepper playing tug with Ritz.

Bunny Photos!! Sales Info too!!

2011-03-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

The new bunny barn is coming together nicely. It will be complete and ready for occupency next week! (I am SO excited)

Here's a preview:

All cages will be "hanging," which means no trays, the open air design provides excellent airflow during the hot summer, box fans will be mounted inside to help keep things cool. Heavy duty tarp curtains and solid panels can be added in winter to keep drafts out.

The inside, 32 holes will fit, all 36x30 or 48x30, there will be an auto watering system and all cages are single stacked to make loading/unloading much easier on my back.

Test fitting the cages is going well, the bunnies seem to like the new setup!

And now the bunny photos I promised!! All bunnies marked as for sale are $35.00 with pedigree, care sheet, starter food/hay. They can also be purchased for $25.00 without pedigree as pets/rabbit hoppers.

These two does are NOT for sale, they are my keepers from Sage's litter.

My two keeper does again being cute.

The Following baby bunnies are FOR SALE, save one kit I'm watching, the marked babies are all out of Tibs x Tiger and the charlies/sport are out of Sage x Theo.

(right side) Jr. Doe #1 - FOR Sale - DQ marked, she has too few markings to show on her left side

Left side jr. doe #1 - FOR SALE

Right side jr. Buck # 1 - still unsure if he will be showable, on hold for now, may be for sale later..

Left side jr. Buck # 1

Right Side Doe # 2 - FOR SALE - DQ too few spots

left side Doe # 2 - FOR SALE - DQ double cheek spot - you can see the faint orange in this photo of the double cheek spot

Buck # 2 - FOR SALE - DQ too few spots to show - NICE TYPE

Right side - Buck # 2 FOR SALE

Right Side - Doe # 3 - FOR SALE - nice type, DQ too few spots to show

Left Side - Doe # 3 - FOR SALE

The charlies below are all sisters to Nutmeg who recently produced a litter of 11 babies, 9 of which had nearly perfect showable markings when crossed to a sport, these charlie does would make excellent brood prospects!

Charlie Doe # 1 - FOR SALE - note she does have a permanent head tilt due to a head injury as a young baby, she is 100% healthy, vet checked and fine.

Charlie Doe # 2 - FOR SALE

Charlie Doe # 3 - FOR SALE (more orange than the other 2)

Sport Buck - FOR SALE - brother to the above charlies, very spunky little fellow.

E-mail me with interest, these babies will be weaned next week and ready to go by the weekend of the 26th.

You're going to be mad at me!

2011-03-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

Uh oh... here's another blog post without updated bunny photos! Do I hear angry yells?

Tomorrow will be bunny photo day, I absolutely 100% promise.. ;)

Today I had to run into town to pick up paint for the new barns, along with several other errands, while I was downtown I took Ritz and Pepper to a park by the Rappahannock River. All the rain lately has resulted in a very high water level. Normally this is a great spot to let the pups swim and splash but it was so high I didn't want Ritz to even attempt wading, he could of been swept away in the current!

Pepper contemplates morphing into a retriever and swimming out to "fetch" the geese..

Pups on the river bank!

We played a few rousing games of fetch the kong

Pepper was TIRED after this, time to get her back into tip top shape..

Ritz just being adorable.

Puppy Pics

2011-03-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

The weather is still yucky.. thankfully it should clear up by tomorrow or Friday at the latest according to the weather man. In lieu of cute baby bunny photos here are some pics of Ritz being a goofy pup.

Weather didn't want to agree

2011-03-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to take updated photos of Sage and Tibs babies today but while the weather started out shiny and sunny it turned gray by the time I was ready to start the baby bunny photo shoot, and overcast is far from ideal for taking mostly white colored bunny photos - the grayness makes them wash out...

So hopefully tomorrow will be sunnier and I'll get those long promised photos taken and uploaded.

I did get massive amounts of barn cleaning completed today. Hopefully within the next 2 weeks I won't ever have to clean a tray again except in my isolation stackers since the new bunny barn construction is underway!

Here are 4 of my retired Belgian Hare does enjoying a romp together. I connect multiple metal xpens together to give them lots of room to bounce about.

Here are the 4 retired girls with pit bull guards in their stall. I'm going to have a ramp put in to connect the hutch mounted above so the girls have even more space to play in. I'm contemplating an outdoor playpen being attached with a lockable dog door like in the stall across from this one where Pumba resides.

The goats were loafing around their pen... such lazy goaties!

The new hay barn, just needs paint and to be filled with hay. I can fit over 30 bales in here and still have room to park a tractor out of the elements.

The loft area for extra storage.

The benches where the bales of hay will be stacked.

I can't wait to share the new bunny barn photos, but since construction is just getting underway on that project it may be a few days til those photos are posted.

Puppy Observations and Pack Musings

2011-03-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

Puppies are always on the move making snapping a good shot a challenge!

The new puppy has been named Ritz! (as in Ritz Bits, but according to my sister he's Snickers.)

He's fallen into place within the pack exactly as I expected. The older dogs have gone above and beyond my expectations of them in terms of annoying puppy tolerance, engaging Ritz, playing with him and most importantly educating him. House breaking a puppy is a thousand times easier when you have adult dogs to guide him to the potty spots, he's catching on quickly.

Ritz amazes me, he's my third puppy and I can't help but be impressed with him, he is incredibly smart and that confidence I mentioned in my last post about him grows every day. He attended his first day of puppy class on Saturday afternoon and while initially I saw some typical puppy "I'm not so sure about this," hesitation by the end of class he was doing really well. I can't say enough how important puppy socialization is, puppy class is just one part of it, it also includes exposing young pups to new positive experiences and people every day during the critical window which closes when the pup reaches about 4 months old.

Now that he's had his 3rd round of puppy boosters I feel better about taking him out in public to areas where other dogs visit like Petsmart, TSC, the parks and so forth. Every day we will go somewhere new and meet someone new. Today we went to TSC and Petco, he had a great time riding in the feed cart at TSC, getting a cookie at the checkout, getting lots of love and attention at Petco and even getting to meet a very pretty Papillion. He waltzes right through these big stores, his favorite part of both stores was the dog food section, he unsuccesfully attempted to open several bags with his naughty puppy teeth.

A candid out-take of the adult pack, Reuben looking serious as usual, Lady in mid tail-wag, this photos shows off her poor conformation, cow hocked front feet, slightly bowed legs and poor HQ and of course miss Pepper getting her nose lick on!

Lady absolutely adores, "her puppy," and spends lots of time playing with him, watching him, licking him and generally making sure that Pepper and Reuben are aware that he is her puppy and not theirs..

Pepper is tolerant of Ritz, she isn't thrilled that he is ball obsessed like her, which means she must share her beloved ball from time to time. She mostly ignores him, but will ocassionally knock him down the deck stairs for fun and can be coersed into wrestle mania with a few play bows.

Reuben who I was most concerned about due to his "short fuse," especially with puppies is the one I'm most proud of. He actually plays with Ritz! Sure it doesn't last long and if Ritz dares to put his paws on Reuben's back he gets tossed across the room but this is way better than I expected and is a huge relief that Reuben sees him as part of the pack and not a threat to his domain. Sometimes when Ritz and Reuben are play wrestling Reuben will look over to see if I'm watching, if I am he promptly quits playing with the pup but so long as I watch out of the corner of my eye the play will go on and on.. I think secretly Reuben adores the little tyke but just doesn't want to admit it.. Ritz absolutely LOVES Reuben even more than his beloved surrogate mamma Lady.

Pepper just wants the wrinkly puppy to leave her ball alone..

Nap time!

Stretched between his beloved "mama," and sister.

The hay barn is nearly complete, tomorrow's blog will have photos of it and the long awaited photos of the baby Rhinelanders that will be for sale!

Baby Rhinelanders

2011-03-10T06:16:00.000-08:00

Nutmeg's litter is growing, I ended up losing two kits - literally lost them.. Unfortunately I've been so busy lately I haven't been able to keep the nestboxes inside like I normally do and 2 kits in Nutmeg's box disapeared.. its a shame but the remaining 9 babies are very cute and 7 of them for sure look showable so far. I really can't wait to retry this breeding sometime this summer and breed Nutmeg's sister Pumpkin to Tiger too this month.

I had a scare yesterday one the nicely marked kits escaped from the box and chilled but with super lifesaving mesaures including warmed sub-q fluids and oral dextrose/goat's milk the baby survived and is doing well today. As a result both nestboxes are in the house til the babies are old enough to move about their cages, probably til sometime early next week.

Sage and Tibs' kits are finally old enough for individual photos but the weather is dreary today so I won't be able to get new photos til sometime tomorrow at the earliest. Sage's marked kits are both does, I haven't checked Tibs' kits yet.

And photos:

Lots of promising show kits in this bunch! :)

Yes there is a new puppy!

2011-03-08T05:53:00.000-08:00

There's another new puppy on the farm! (Yes that makes 4 pit bulls for those of you who are familiar with my pups.)

This little fellow is a handsome 11 week old black tri who absolutely oozes confidence. I've raised and help raise a good number of puppies over the past few years and I can honestly say that this little guy is one of the best I met. I prefer a puppy that has been well socialized before he comes home, one that is confident, not overly dependent on reassurance with new scenarios and one that instantly warms up to change, this little guy absolutely full fills all those requirements and more.

Now of course, when the first fear period begins he can change a bit but in my experience the temperament you get when you bring your new pup home is usually a good indicator of what you'll end up with as an adult factoring in the temperaments of the parents if you're lucky enough to meet them.

My pack has accepted him with open paws.. at first Reuben who is the most overtly dog aggressive of the pit bulls was a bit apprehensive but the pup's laidback attitude enabled him to warm up quickly. He still needs a name, any suggestions??

In general farm news, I'm excited to report my new hay barn and bunny barn construction has begun! Hopefully by the end of March it will be complete and I can move the whole herd over to their new setup. The old bunny barn will be used for isolation purposes, I'm keeping a few stackers for this purposes and converting the rest of the old bunny barn to 4 indoor/outdoor kennels for the dogs.

We visited the cousins the other day, here's Reuben and Miles napping together. Miles and Lexy the goldendoodles got their spring hair cuts!

The new puppy fits right in!

He really needs a name! His ear crop is still quite new, I'll be taping them so they stand a bit more correctly.

New Pics

2011-03-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of the marked babies from Tibs and Sage's litter, they are a little over 5 weeks old now.

They are super cute and playful!

Sorting through the babies

2011-02-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

My older Rhinelander litters are just over a month old now, their baby fuzz is finally starting to disapear and their individual personalities are really begining to shine. There are some curious kits, adventurers, lovebugs, cuddlers and even some sleepyheads.

This is the age when I start them on the running board more seriously, I closely evaluate them for the show table and I start making my culling cuts in my mind. At this young age they mostly binky accross the running board but you can see "stand outs," with good tracking even when their this little.

All 3 charlies and the sport kit from the Sage x Theo litter will absolutely be for sale. Their sister from an older litter, Nutmeg just kindled a nearly perfect marked litter of 11 babies and along with that all former babies from older litters have had beautiful type so these charlies and sport kits will make great brood prospects for any Rhinelander program. I'll be sexing them and photographing them in the next few weeks and place them on my sales page. I will also post a photo of Diego, a buck sibling from and older litter so you can get an idea of the expected adult type on these babies. (I'd post one of Nutmeg but she just had a litter so she's in brood mode at the moment!)

The unshowable marked kits from the Tibs x Tiger litter will also be for sale, unshowable marked rabbits can make great brood animals, all of these kits lack on markings so by crossing them to a congested or heavily patterned marked Rhinelander they will produce much better and more balanced offspring. Type looks good so far on these cuties.

All of the babies seem confident and would make suitable agility/hopping rabbits when they are older and their skeletal growth is finished, they also would make fantastic pets too.

I won't have any showable babies for sale from these litters since so few are show quality but hopefully my newest litter from Nutmeg and my upcoming litters from Churro, Confetti and Blues will offer more prospects!

Prices for all DQ babies, regardless of whether they are marked, charlie, or sport are $35.00 with pedigree as future brood prospects and $20.00 without pedigree as a pet/agility bunny.

As always any charlie/sport that is not sold by 12 weeks will be culled - permanently, so if you want one make sure you let me know before mid April. Delivery is available to the NC Convention and Richmond, VA show in March.

Photos and sexes of the sale babies will be posted in the next blog. The babies will be ready for new homes the weekend of March 19th.

11 New Rhinelander Cuties

2011-02-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

Imagination's Nutmeg outdid herself on her very first live litter! 11 beautiful, all marked Rhinelander kits in the nestbox!!

So far the majority look showable, nice side spots, decent spine/other markings. It is going to be SO much fun watching these cuties grow. I was a bit diaspointed in my last charlie x sport cross, but I am now beyond impressed!

Yay for new baby bunnies!!!

All stock has been sold!

2011-02-25T11:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks for your interest in the hares everyone, they have all been sold!

Belgian Hare Sell Out

2011-02-24T19:38:00.000-08:00

This is copied from my post on the Belgian Hare yahoo group. Photos will be added to the blog this weekend. E-mail me with interest.

In order to focus on my Rhinelanders and pursue other animal projects I am selling out the last of my Belgian Hares.

I moved the majority of my stock out at Convention and kept a few old reliables but its time to move them on to where they will be better appreciated.

Shipping is available at Buyer's expense with payment in full. Local pick up and delivery to the NC Convention/Richmond VA show and even the MD shows in April/May is available with paid deposit.

All of these rabbits are considered brood in my opinion, although they can beshown with one exception. Posed photos will be added to my BLOG at some point this weekend, I'll post here when they're up.

Senior Buck:
Imagination's Duke, 1 jr. leg, proven, almost 2 years old, he is the sire to the1st place sr. doe and 2nd place sr. buck at ARBA Convention. $110.00

Senior Does:
Imagiantion's Emmer, proven and excellent mother, sister to Duke, she is themother to the BOS winning hare at ARBA Convention 2010 and the 2nd/3rd seniordoes. $115.00

Imagination's Cherub, Sister to the BOS winner at ARBA Convention, she fractured her hock as a junior when she got it stuck in the xpen wire, and cannot be shown but gets around justfine. She is very refined in bone/type and is ready to breed now. $85.00

Imagiantion's Beso, Just turned senior doe, will be an excellent brood doe in the future, niece to Duke/Emmer. $100.00

10% discount available for multiple purchases/to youth. I also have a sibling set of half black and tan hare/half standard rufus red young senior hares available to a home seriously interested in pursuing thisproject.

Bunny Fun

2011-02-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

Its my day off and its cold and rainy out so its a perfect opportunity to play with the growing baby bunnies.

They are still quite fuzzy but by next week I'll be able to post individual photos of them and begin to sort through which unshowables will be for sale.

Lots of Photos

2011-02-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

I had been hoping to spend the whole day asleep after a long overnight at work but my cell kept going off and waking me up so I suppose a higher force was telling me to get outside and enjoy the beautiful 70 degree weather!!

I ended up cleaning out the bunny barn, turning out all the bunnies into the playpens for romps around and doing a small amount of yard cleanup and repotting. I also cut off Fiddle's fiberglass cast since it was too heavy for him to walk/support himself while wearing it and he was absolutely miserable. He is in much better spirits with the cast off.. only time will tell if he will heal properly.

Photos: (bunny heavy!)

Confetti about to race around her playpen

The always photogenic Rupert, he LOVES the camera. (This is one of my favorite bunnies..)

Blues being adorable, she is so pretty and such a talented hopper/agility bunny.

Blues about to take off for a binky bonzana. One of the friendliest does in the bunny barn by far!

Bumble being a cutie. He is getting better and better tracking on the running board.

Theodore, hard to believe he's 2 years old now! You can see photos of him from some of my first blog posts if you go back to 2009 on the navigation bar - those are from when I flew him in from California as a junior.

Fiesta and Lady saw something interesting.

A pregnant Churro says hello to the camera.

Churro, she's due in a week.

Rupert also standing up to say hello

Rupert washing his face, I just love when bunnies groom themselves.

Some of my hens were so excited when I filled up this water bucket for the pit bulls..

Trixie's beautiful face, she is the foundation of every bunny with "Imagination" in their prefix, they all can be traced back to her. She is from my very first litter of Belgian Hares. She has a permanent spot in the rabbitry.

The moment you pet her she "puddles," or melts into the ground and she purrs with her teeth to show how happy she is. She is the sweetest doe in my barn and I'm very thankful for what her single litter has produced over the years.

Oh and I didn't let the baby bunnies out yet, they're still a little small to go out in the playpens, but they were being cute so I took some photos. Sage's kits munching on alfalfa cubes.

Tibs and 2 of her babies chowing down on bunny food!

Another Visit to the Battlefields

2011-02-17T10:02:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about where I live is that I'm only a short drive from some of the most significant battlefields in the Civil War. I'm not a history buff by any means but I enjoy the subject and enjoy visiting historical areas and museums. One of my favorite battlefields is Spotsylvania - full of monuments, trails, open and wooded spaces that with a bit of imagination can take you on a time warp back to when cannons were firing and soldiers were marching across the fields.

The NPS permits dogs on leashes to walk the trails, I really love bringing my pit bulls there because it is so quiet and there aren't too many other dogs around and bicycles/horses are not permitted so you don't have to worry about sharing the trails. My dogs have varying degrees of "strange," dog aggression so its nice to have space to get away from other dogs and not have to worry about dogs running wild off leash like at some of the other parks in the area.

My dogs don't have perfect leash manners, Pepper and Reuben are pretty well behaved but Lady needs work. My dog training skills aren't exactly wonderful either but I'm doing my best to teach Lady how to behave on leash. I have faith in her, she's a smart, gentle dog and with some direction, lots of treats and plenty of discipline she should be walking with the pack like a pro soon.

It was an absolutely beautiful day in Spotsylvania, a light breeze, temps in the 60's, and a pale blue sky with lazy clouds in the sky... Its easy to forget yourself walking the trails, letting your thoughts wander. We hiked a good 4 miles or so before returning home, the dogs are pretty exhausted but they enjoyed themselves, hopefully we can make these walks a more regular occurrence, especially since I'd like to take them out to Shenandoah this spring.

The Photos:

An exhausted Pepper taking a break just west of Bloody Angle

Pups on alert during their break

Yup, they're tired.

Group shot, Lady was gazing off into the distance, perhaps she's imagining what the field looked like during the raging battle so long ago?

Maybe she isn't picturing the battle, but she's definetely deep in thought.

A little Bummed

2011-02-15T14:11:00.001-08:00

Fiddle the goat, one of my wethers and absolute favorite furry buddies injured his leg about a week ago. I tried pain meds and strict stall rest but didn't see improvement, he had weight bearing lameness on his pelvic left leg. My first suspsicion was an injury due to getting his leg stuck off of one of the sleeping benches but with little improvement after a week of home treatment I took him into work for radiographs and a more professional evaluation.

Unfortunately the diagnostics were inconclusive although we have some ideas, a possible cruciate tear (very uncommon in goats but very common in dogs) or another soft tissue injury. The radiographs had some minor changes/increased opacities but no obvious fractures or dislocations.

To stabilize the leg and hopefully fascilitate faster healing we put on a fiberglass cast and he and his twin brother Banjo my goatie with the grade VI/VI heart murmur/severe cardiomyopathy are being stalled together for the next few weeks until the cast comes off. Neither goat is happy about this, Banjo is less annoyed than Fiddle since he doesn't have a hulking cast on his leg. I've been giving them extra treats and attention but its going to be a long few weeks til the cast comes off.

I'm bummed out since Fiddle was doing so well with his leading/pack training. This injury will probably prevent any further hiking trips which is a real shame. :(

Banjo and Fiddle with cast in the hospital stall munching on some pine branches.

Nom nom nom nom, at least his appetite hasn't been affected!

Baby bunnies being cute, that big mass on the right is Pepper's head..

These babies are so friendly

Lady is getting better and better with bunnies every day.

More bunny cuteness

These two LOVE alfalfa cubes

Sleepy bunny pile

Pumba my pig wanted his photo taken too. He is a pit bull in a pig suit!

More Bunny Photos

2011-02-13T15:46:00.001-08:00

The baby bunnies have officially hit the "super cute," stage which is also my favorite age - the 3 week mark. They are little springs bouncing around their cages, niblbing hay and kibble for the first time, spending lots of time sleeping in piles and exploring. This is a great age to sit with your babies on the couch watching a movie, bonding with them.

Rhinelanders being a running breed literally come out of the nest box running. All of these kits track well but that can change as they age.

I really love Sage's two kits markings, I cannot wait to repeat that breeding and hopefully get more marked in the next few months. Tibs' babies are very cute too, I will also retry her breeding down the line.

Photos:

Tibs' babies nestled in the nestbox, they are very sweet. The dark mass in the middle is the lone Sport kit that is Sage's. Tibs has been raising this kit from the start so I've left it in with her litter.

Sage's two marked babies, I just love them! Look at those little arches already ;o)

Hewo dere.

Sage in the background with one of her marked babies.

Doggies

2011-02-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

I love dogs!

I'm more of a "big dog," kind of girl but I like dogs in all shapes and sizes, colors, breeds, etc. I am extremely fortunate that every night when I go to work I get to provide nursing care to dogs of all kinds.

Obviously my favorite breed of dog is the pit bull, followed by a variety of other powerful breeds like Rotties, Presas, Dobies, German Shepherds and so forth.

Thanks to my sister and her fiance though I have a soft spot for big fluffy dogs too. They have a pair of Goldendoodles, (a cross between the standard poodle and golden retriever.) Doodles are intelligent, calm, sweet-mannered, playful and very happy go lucky. Added bonus is neither of their dogs shed which is great for allergies, although their coats can drag in an entire forest after they have played outside if you don't thoroughly brush them off.

Lexy the black doodle will be 3 years old in March and Miles the golden doodle is just over 8 months old they are both great dogs and I love seeing them even though our visits are few and far between. Today I got to see them at my mom's house, I brought along my pack of pit bulls and they had a great time romping together.

Pepper my pit bull in the middle is the oldest of the pack and she's also the smallest. Miles is double her weight and still growing!!

They had alot of fun chasing the basket ball around until Pepper punctured it... :( When you have pitties you go through toys quickly...

Miles totes around an easy and FREE toy, the wonderful, incredible STICK, just be sure to supervise pets with sticks they can be ingested and cause blockages and can poke eyes and the mouth causing injury.

Inside break time between romps outside

Its hard to get a photo of the whole pack but here's the 5 of them, Miles & Lexy the doodles, Reuben, Pepper & Lady the pits

Reuben saw something in the trees worth barking at, Miles is SO photogenic!

Siblings! Hard to believe Miles still has alot of growing left to do, my guess is he'll be close to 100 lbs fully grown.

Oh and another rare photo of me! Here I am with my girl Lady Bug. :)

Just in case anyone is curious, all 3 of my dogs have now made a full recovery from their toxicity last month. Thanks for the kind words and thoughts for them, its a relief to know that they have not had any significant lasting damage from the experience.

Windy Day

2011-02-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

Its a windy day on the farm, all of the leaves that have fallen down from this past autumn are blowing about.

I went out and did some major bunny barn cleaning today and will tackle the chicken coop and goat paddock tomorrow. The bunny barn was swept, cages were cleaned and all the bunnies got pedicures and play time in the x-pens. I also got a bunch of updated photos of the bunnies in the herd and will start working on getting them cropped and uploaded onto the website.

The baby bunnies and their mothers will be returning to the barn at the end of the week, their cages are all set up and ready for them now.

And onto the photos

Ruby my pet English Angora, still looking lovely at nearly 3 & 1/2 years old.

Reuben bonding with Blues, one of my Rhinelanders

Pepper wanted her picture taken, she will be 3 years old in March!

Fiesta, this is the 6 month old sr. doe I mentioned in my last post that is nearly 9 lbs.

Of the half black & tan/half rufus red 6 month olds, Fiesta has the best type and color overall, she is just enormous! She will be bred to a tan (the breed) buck this spring.

Pepper and Lady were playing tug of war

Diego a too few markjngs to show sr. buck, once his first litter is born he will be for sale, he has an excellent spine marking and a very clean, correct face/butterfly/cheek spots. Nice type overall on him, runs well.

Confetti, one of my Convention purchases. She's a bit cobby in body but has nice markings except for her DQ shoulder spot. I look forward to breeding her this spring.

Churro looking around in her x-pen. She's due at the end of the month, bred to Diego.

Churro very brood now, messy congested markings but throws cute babies.

Blues hopping away!

I love Blues! She will be bred to Bumble next month. Can't wait to see what she has.

Blues again.

Beso, she's 6 months old now a Gem x BJ daughter. Very big girl, definetely a brood doe (and she's pure hare - no black & tan in her!)

Beso again being a silly goose.

PaSRBA & Other News

2011-02-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

I went up to PaSRBA on Sunday morning with my friend Holly of TriStar Rabbits. I brought along a handful of half black and tan hare/half rufus red hares to show for comments and comparison purposes and a single Rhinelander buck, Bumble. Holly brought along a pair of sale rabbits. The drive was long and uneventful, thankfully - apparently it was very icey and dangerous on Saturday morning so I'm so glad we didn't have any problems going up a day late, although the parking lots was certainly a skating rink!

It was so nice to see all my bunny buddies even if I didn't get enough time to chat with them. PaSRBA is a great show, but this year it seemed smaller than normal, or maybe Saturday had a better turnout than Sunday did. There were only a few Rhinelanders there and a decent number of Belgian Hares being shown.

I really don't like to complain about judges as I know they work hard, but overall I was less than impressed with the Rhinelander judging this weekend. It amazed me how neither judge bothered to open their standard, I suppose they judge Rhinelanders so often they didn't need to... or perhaps their memory of the standard is really that good.. They both seemed bored and rushed - they barely ran the rabbits and didn't give them an opportunity to pose naturally on the table. The comments and placements were surprising to say the least. I think alot of judges don't realize that 54 points of the standard go to color and markings, add the 5 from condition and 5 from fur and thats 64 points just for the overall apperance of the rabbit not including the conformation/structure of the bunny which is 36 points. While type is how they should be judged first color and markings are the defining features of the breed and are worth equal points in the standard - a better marked, correctly colored rabbit with good overall balance should be the best animal. If anything watching the Rhinelander judging this weekend has certainly inspired me to pursure my judges license down the line...

The black and tan crosses I brought performed pretty poorly which was expected, I brought them for comparison purposes and to get some comments. I'm trying to figure out what to improve in my black and tan line and I have a very good direction to head in now. They were all around 6 months old and were by far the biggest, heaviest boned hares on the table, my Sr. doe alone is already 9 lbs! Their color is also brassy from the black and tan genes, not the bright rufus red it should be. I'm going to be crossing some Tans (the breed) into my black and tan developing lines and work on bringing the size and bone down to where it should be. The type needs work too but I have pure bred rufus reds in the barn I can cross to down the line to fix that. I am really enjoying the black and tan project and I can't wait to see how my line changes and hopefully improves over the year. While I still will have an occasional purebred rufus red litter in my barn, my focus for hares is on developing my black and tans.

Alot of folks don't like that black and tan crosses are being shown. I personally have no issues with it, I knew that my crosses were not going to take a placement from any purebred animal on the table and I think its important for those of us working on new varieties to see how our breeding animals compare to what an ideal specimin looks like, we need to know what we're breeding towards. The quality on the hare table was very good and I have alot to work on to get my black and tans to the standard rufus red level.

Congrats to all the winners from the weekend, alot of my bunny friends did super well! Good job guys, keep up the good work!

Back on the farm all is going well. Patches the goat knocked off one of his banded horns a little earlier than expected but he's doing well as a "unigoat."

The baby Rhinelanders are continuing to grow like weeds. I can't wait for my next few Rhinelander litters to be born in the next few months. If I'm lucky I will hopefully have something to show at Convention this fall!

Oh so cute

2011-02-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Sage and Tibs' kits are growing like weeds, their eyes are open and they are bouncing around, soon the nestbox will be removed and by the end of next week they will be moving back out to the barn full time. (Yay no more bunnies in the kitchen!)

I'm still pretty disapointed with Tibs' kits markings, only 2 will be showable out of the 5, none the less I will repeat this cross if the babies have nice type to see if they throw better marked next time, I have another litter due from a different charlie doe to the same sport buck so it will be interesting to see what the markings from those kits will be like.

Sage's 2 surviving marked kits are beautiful, fairly dark in side spots but nice spacing, balance and their type should be great, I'm excited about these two babies and am having alot of fun playing with them.

The Rhinelander baby boom will hopefully continue, I have two litters due at the end of February and will be breeding Blues and Confetti my Convention purchases as soon as they are mature enough in March/April. Breeding Blues will be my first chance at blue Rhinelander kits, a small chance but an exciting one none the less.

And photos of course:

Sage's 2 kits - love them

The awkward baby... lol it will look much cuter as it grows!

My favorite of the two so far, very personable at only 11 days old

They are so sweet

Goodnight friends!

Website Overhaul - mostly complete!

2011-02-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

I did a complete re-design of the farm website, it is uploaded and mostly complete. I need to take updated photos of the entire rabbit herd, I'll start that project next week - weather permiting of course!

This new design should be easier to update and add to then some of my old setups.

I added some new sections to the site including a happy homes section for the rabbits, I'll post updates and photos from buyers who have kept me up to date on bunnies they have purchased from me. I'm working on this section at the moment and have some beautiful photos to add thanks to some wonderful pet buyers.

I also am hard at work on the rabbit hopping section with photos, videos and training information to help get new hoppers started.

In the goat part of the website I'm working on the packing/carting page. I'm training Fiddle and Tambourine 2 of my adult Nigerian Dwarf wethers these activities, expect photos and videos of them on there soon along with training advice.

Most of the pages are uploaded but I still have some more to add, hope you like the new site!

www.imaginationacres.com

Another Hopping Video

2011-02-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

Charlie is making progress with his hopping skills, he does very well with multiple jumps and is getting better with higher bars. We've been doing most of his practice in the house since there's still a good 2-3 inches of snow outside. Once it melts and dries off a bit he'll get to practice on the outside course which has more jumps and higher jumps than the portable indoor jumps. (and no dogs at the end of the course.. lol)

I'm also working with Blues, Tiger and Diego (all Rhinelanders who have DQ's and cannot show) on rabbit hopping. Blues is very good and very fast, I'll get a video of her hopping too once the snow is history.

Baby Bunnies are Growing Up

2011-01-29T18:27:00.000-08:00

Blink and they're all grown up...

Baby bunnies do alot of growing in their first month, they go from blind, hairless little monsters to adorable hopping, nibbling balls of fuzz.

Tomorrow Sage's litter will be 1 week old and Tibs' litter will reach their 1 week birthdays on Monday. They're doing well so far, I did end up losing one of Sage's marked kits but on the bright side so far it looks like the 3 remaining will be showable, their spine markings have filled in as have their orange spots.

Tibs' litter isn't so lucky with markings, while there are 5 marked it looks like only 2 will be showable which is too bad. The unshowable marked could be used as brood animals in my breeding program or another exhibitor's program if they have the type. The sports and charlies from Sage and Theo should all be good choices in a breeding program based on their previous litters' type, but only time will tell for certain.

Here are some photos:

Tibs' litter - 5 marked
The two showable kits from Tibs' litter, of course my dogs keep a watchful eye in the background
Sage's 3 marked kits, they look good so far!
Reuben on babysitting duty, he is a wonderful bunny mom.
Up close of one of Sage's charlies resting near Reuben's paw.