Happy New Year! As we are only days away from 2009 I can't help but reflect on 2008. We had a bountiful year in the bunny barn. Not all that were born made it to the show table but the ones that did have done really well. One little buck in particular named Gideon is now being shown in Ontario and other parts of Canada. He had 2 Jr. legs when we sold him and had great promise to continue to win more. We have Meadow a chocolate Sr doe that went to Nationals and took 2nd place, she has continued to do well all year. (she is hopefully bred) Another litter produced a brother sister chocolate combo that at 10 weeks old they both won thier classes and took best and best opposite variety (while still in baby coat). Whew, we are excited to continue to show this pair.
We also let a couple long time compannions leave the barn recently. Smokey was our first Dutch doe and she is no longer residing at our barn. Jasmine her daughter is now at a friends barn in Clio and Zaphod also has been moved. Still on the list of those to go are Hoopers Hershey - Choc Sr. Doe, Canfields Slingshot - GC Sr. Buck, and Bellairs Jasper - Blue Sr. Buck.
We were able to bring in a couple blue brood does (thank you JackJack rabbitry). We have our eye on a couple more blue does to be used for breeding.
All in all 2008 was a great year. The girls are well pleased with the results of thier careful breeding program and thier show wins. We are looking forward to 2009 with anticipation of a lot of fun and family time spent with the rabbits.
Sheri
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Digging our way to the barn
We are in the middle of a huge snowstorm. The girls are working on digging thier way to the barn. We are definitely homebound. The schools are closed and Mike and I are both home from work due to the weather. We already have several inches and it is still coming down. We are expecting 12 inches before it is over.
I figure it gives us a chance to catch up on some chores in the barn. Some much needed cleaning and it is time to worm again. There seems to always be plenty that needs to be done. We are running about 45 head right now without counting babies. There are 3 litters still in the barn. We did quite a bit of culling but need to cull out more babies. We have some brood stock up for sale too.
Allison is planning to breed her chocolate satin in the next couple weeks. She is very excited to get babies from her. She is a gorgeous doe that has been doing well on the show table.
Sheri
I figure it gives us a chance to catch up on some chores in the barn. Some much needed cleaning and it is time to worm again. There seems to always be plenty that needs to be done. We are running about 45 head right now without counting babies. There are 3 litters still in the barn. We did quite a bit of culling but need to cull out more babies. We have some brood stock up for sale too.
Allison is planning to breed her chocolate satin in the next couple weeks. She is very excited to get babies from her. She is a gorgeous doe that has been doing well on the show table.
Sheri
Sunday, November 2, 2008
ARBA National Convention
We were fortunate enough to send 4 rabbits to Kentucky for ARBA convention last week. I am very excited to announce that they did really well.
Bellairs Meadow (choc Sr. Doe) 2nd place
Hume's Cashew (Blue Sr. Buck) 7th place
Megan's Caspian (Choc Sr. Buck) 6th place
It was a hard decision on who to send down. I drew the limit at 4 due to cost. Caspian was picked because Zaphod, who was scheduled to go, sunburned his ears and they are still offcolor. We didn't feel he would do well so we substituted our old guy Caspian. It was exciting to know that the bunnies did well down there. It would of been great fun to attend the convention but we are just happy that we could send some down. We would like to extend a big thank you to Keith Rockwood for providing transport and care to and from convention.
Sheri
Bellairs Meadow (choc Sr. Doe) 2nd place
Hume's Cashew (Blue Sr. Buck) 7th place
Megan's Caspian (Choc Sr. Buck) 6th place
It was a hard decision on who to send down. I drew the limit at 4 due to cost. Caspian was picked because Zaphod, who was scheduled to go, sunburned his ears and they are still offcolor. We didn't feel he would do well so we substituted our old guy Caspian. It was exciting to know that the bunnies did well down there. It would of been great fun to attend the convention but we are just happy that we could send some down. We would like to extend a big thank you to Keith Rockwood for providing transport and care to and from convention.
Sheri
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
We finally agreed on a rabbit!
Allison and I frequently (almost always) have different opinions on the rabbits. It is hard when it comes time to choose who stays and who go's. Allison sees flaws where I don't and vice versa. She usually is better at determining the show stock. Allison and Samantha learned a lot through the 4-H opportunities they had this summer.
Well we have this cute little blue doe that I fell in love with. She is out of our Grand Champion buck "Bubba" and a blue doe from Bergene's line. I thought she was special and wanted to keep her but wanted Allison's opinion first. We looked her over together and both agreed that she was really nice. I couldn't believe it, WE BOTH AGREED! That was so cool that we both felt the same way about this rabbit.
Well we named her Nikita and Allison took her to the county fair. Nikita won Best of
Breed and Sammy won Best opposite with a tiny little black buck. That was exciting. Nikita has traveled to 2 open shows recently and won Best variety and a Best opposite variety.
I hope this is a new beginning for our rabbitry. The girls can use the skills they learned and we can keep learning together. Our goal is to have consistency in our stock.
Dutch bunnies are awesome, but my kids are even better than that!
Sheri
Well we have this cute little blue doe that I fell in love with. She is out of our Grand Champion buck "Bubba" and a blue doe from Bergene's line. I thought she was special and wanted to keep her but wanted Allison's opinion first. We looked her over together and both agreed that she was really nice. I couldn't believe it, WE BOTH AGREED! That was so cool that we both felt the same way about this rabbit.
Well we named her Nikita and Allison took her to the county fair. Nikita won Best of
Breed and Sammy won Best opposite with a tiny little black buck. That was exciting. Nikita has traveled to 2 open shows recently and won Best variety and a Best opposite variety.
I hope this is a new beginning for our rabbitry. The girls can use the skills they learned and we can keep learning together. Our goal is to have consistency in our stock.
Dutch bunnies are awesome, but my kids are even better than that!
Sheri
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Smokey attacks (Fiction)
It was a wet warm summer day, not everything in the neighborhood was well. There was a barn in a supposed to be deserted yard. Nobody except me knows what is in that barn. I will be telling you the story of Smokey Attacks!
One fabulous blue doe named Smokey kept working on opening the lock of her cage. She always said she would get out but in her mind she knew she probably wouldn't get out. Smokey kept trying, they had been locked up for a long time. When Smokey gave one last pull at the lock it came open. A black buck named Speedy started working on his lock. Smokey got a chocolate buck named Cocoa out of his cage. Then went to help her daughter Jasmine get out with her litter of six. At the same time Smokey got Jasmine out Speedy got out. They all were out pretty quickly. Copper a satin buck found straw that was warm and fresh. But nobody cared they where too hungry. A chocolate doe named Hershey said, "lets get the food cans open."
Smokey didn't like that Hershey was trying to tell everyone to get food but she didn't say anything. All the bunnies helped open the cans. When the can was opened Jasmine's babies started to hop to the can Jasmine skreeched, "behave your selves. " All the babies Skidded to a stop turned around and looked at there mother she said, "You should wait till I say it is okay." "I think you should have waited till your turn next time." "Okay mom, we will fulfill your wishes and wait for are turn" sighed the babies.
The food smelled so good that the babies started naghing there mom that they where so hungry and needed something to eat. Finally there mother said they could eat. She said "when your done ask grandmother Smokey to tell you stories. When they where done they listend to Smokey tell stories. Then they fell asleep in a bed of straw.
After two more days the rabbits ran out of water and it was pouring rain outside. Well when all looked lots Cocoa found a hole. He said he would go in and search. When he did he found it led right out of the barn. He told everybody but they didn't want to run away. So Cocoa went and found the hose and found a way to turn on the hose. Well he brought the hose next to the barn and the hole. He turned it on and got a nice refreshing gulp of water and went in and told everyone that there was water outside. So everyone went out and got a drink of water. when everyone had there fill he turned it off. Well three days have past and no people came.
When they thought they where abandoned the people walked in. All the bunnies hopped into there cages and the people went and fed and watered them. Smokey was releived to know they where not abandoned. And once again someone else was in charge.
One fabulous blue doe named Smokey kept working on opening the lock of her cage. She always said she would get out but in her mind she knew she probably wouldn't get out. Smokey kept trying, they had been locked up for a long time. When Smokey gave one last pull at the lock it came open. A black buck named Speedy started working on his lock. Smokey got a chocolate buck named Cocoa out of his cage. Then went to help her daughter Jasmine get out with her litter of six. At the same time Smokey got Jasmine out Speedy got out. They all were out pretty quickly. Copper a satin buck found straw that was warm and fresh. But nobody cared they where too hungry. A chocolate doe named Hershey said, "lets get the food cans open."
Smokey didn't like that Hershey was trying to tell everyone to get food but she didn't say anything. All the bunnies helped open the cans. When the can was opened Jasmine's babies started to hop to the can Jasmine skreeched, "behave your selves. " All the babies Skidded to a stop turned around and looked at there mother she said, "You should wait till I say it is okay." "I think you should have waited till your turn next time." "Okay mom, we will fulfill your wishes and wait for are turn" sighed the babies.
The food smelled so good that the babies started naghing there mom that they where so hungry and needed something to eat. Finally there mother said they could eat. She said "when your done ask grandmother Smokey to tell you stories. When they where done they listend to Smokey tell stories. Then they fell asleep in a bed of straw.
After two more days the rabbits ran out of water and it was pouring rain outside. Well when all looked lots Cocoa found a hole. He said he would go in and search. When he did he found it led right out of the barn. He told everybody but they didn't want to run away. So Cocoa went and found the hose and found a way to turn on the hose. Well he brought the hose next to the barn and the hole. He turned it on and got a nice refreshing gulp of water and went in and told everyone that there was water outside. So everyone went out and got a drink of water. when everyone had there fill he turned it off. Well three days have past and no people came.
When they thought they where abandoned the people walked in. All the bunnies hopped into there cages and the people went and fed and watered them. Smokey was releived to know they where not abandoned. And once again someone else was in charge.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Dog Daze of Summer
Well it is still getting hot during the afternoons and nobody feels like doing too much in the barn. We have several Juniors that need to be tatooed this week before we go to the show next weekend in Charlotte. We are going to put a few on the table including a couple out of Cashew. We are anxious to see how they do.
The rest we will be putting up for sale at the show. I am pretty proud of the girls for the way they culled out the herd. We ruthlessly critiqued the jrs and took a lot of them out and sent them to auction only keeping the best. Another great learning opportunity for the girls with thier bunnies.
The girls and I are really looking forward to spending a day at a show. It is always fun to see our bunny friends.
Sheri
The rest we will be putting up for sale at the show. I am pretty proud of the girls for the way they culled out the herd. We ruthlessly critiqued the jrs and took a lot of them out and sent them to auction only keeping the best. Another great learning opportunity for the girls with thier bunnies.
The girls and I are really looking forward to spending a day at a show. It is always fun to see our bunny friends.
Sheri
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Fair Time
Well it is great to have the fair over. The girls did excellent with thier bunnies. We go to the Ingham County Fair in Mason. They took Best and Best Opposite Dutch, Best Fur, Best poster exhibit (Allison), Best Satin fur, and Reserve Grand Champion meat pen (with Satins).
In the open show that follows the 4-H they kept up the good work with Best Dutch, Best Satin, Grand Champion meat pen, Best normal fur, Best Satin fur. Not to mention that Samantha is the reigning bread champion with a 1st place for her Sourdough bread 2 years in a row.
On the other hand Momma's Bunny didn't score so well. You see I own one rabbit in the whole barn and was so excited to show my little chocolate Polish doe. OOPS! The judge pointed out that my doe was actually a buck. HUH! Imagine that happening. I was pretty dissapointed with my DQ. That is ok though, there is always another show.
It seems the summer has flown by. Here we are in August and soon it will be back to school time. It is hard to believe. The weather has been hot the last few weeks and our rabbits are roasting. We need to work on more ventilation in the barn. We are going to cut big windows in the back of the shed this week. Of course we will cover them with heavy wire to keep the racoons out.
We have several nice juniors up for sale right now. We spent time in the barn sorting them out. Can 't wait for the next show to take some of them and see how they do on the table.
Well that is all for now,
Sheri
In the open show that follows the 4-H they kept up the good work with Best Dutch, Best Satin, Grand Champion meat pen, Best normal fur, Best Satin fur. Not to mention that Samantha is the reigning bread champion with a 1st place for her Sourdough bread 2 years in a row.
On the other hand Momma's Bunny didn't score so well. You see I own one rabbit in the whole barn and was so excited to show my little chocolate Polish doe. OOPS! The judge pointed out that my doe was actually a buck. HUH! Imagine that happening. I was pretty dissapointed with my DQ. That is ok though, there is always another show.
It seems the summer has flown by. Here we are in August and soon it will be back to school time. It is hard to believe. The weather has been hot the last few weeks and our rabbits are roasting. We need to work on more ventilation in the barn. We are going to cut big windows in the back of the shed this week. Of course we will cover them with heavy wire to keep the racoons out.
We have several nice juniors up for sale right now. We spent time in the barn sorting them out. Can 't wait for the next show to take some of them and see how they do on the table.
Well that is all for now,
Sheri
Friday, February 8, 2008
New litters a Success!
Well after having such a low conception rate in the bunny barn in early winter, we continued to breed several does at once thinking that we would have several miss. Hah, the joke is on us. We bred 4 does and all 4 had litters. Two weeks later the other 4 does that were bred also had litters. This should be a good thing, right. Well...... it is good but what about when they all need to be weaned. :) The other thing is we didn't have small litters this time. All but one litter is 6 bunnies or more. Any way you add them up, it is a lot of babies.
So what was different? Well we changed two things. We are running heat lamps in the back half of the barn and we also changed feed brands. Not sure which one had the most effect but either way we have bunnies. So who had babies? Glad you asked. As reported Jasmine was the first one. Then we had Issabel bred to Bubba, Domino bred to Cashew, Abbie bred to Caspian, and Smokey also bred to Bubba.
The second group was Olivia bred to Cocoa, Nellie bred to Bubba, and Banner bred to Caspian. It has been warm enough (above 0) so that the nest boxes were able to stay in the barn. And I am happy to report that Jasmine's babies have been in the barn for a week now and are doing super.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that we have a copper satin litter due any day? woohoo baby bunnies on the way. I will let everyone know when they come.
Sheri
So what was different? Well we changed two things. We are running heat lamps in the back half of the barn and we also changed feed brands. Not sure which one had the most effect but either way we have bunnies. So who had babies? Glad you asked. As reported Jasmine was the first one. Then we had Issabel bred to Bubba, Domino bred to Cashew, Abbie bred to Caspian, and Smokey also bred to Bubba.
The second group was Olivia bred to Cocoa, Nellie bred to Bubba, and Banner bred to Caspian. It has been warm enough (above 0) so that the nest boxes were able to stay in the barn. And I am happy to report that Jasmine's babies have been in the barn for a week now and are doing super.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that we have a copper satin litter due any day? woohoo baby bunnies on the way. I will let everyone know when they come.
Sheri
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Sooooo Cold
Well it has been extremely cold. We haven't had a very good winter for breeding but things are looking up. Most of our breedings earlier this winter were misses. We had one doe give birth but it was below zero that night and the babies froze. The last litter born were to Jasmine and Bubba. They are quite a pair. The babies were born during the day and were found shortly after birth. We felt we didn't have a choice so we brought the box into the house. We take them out twice a day to have momma feed them. This seems to be working out quite well. Hopefully the deepfreeze we are in will thaw before the next group of does get ready to kindle next Wednesday. We will keep you updated.
We are really excited about a couple of babies born about 10 weeks ago. They are out of Bellairs Bubba and Bergene's Alena. The doe is black and the buck is blue and we saved one of each, both does. Very nice babies! The girls can't wait to get these two on the show tables.
Bellairs Bubbles Bellairs Pixley
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