A day in the bunny barn

Show last weekend

2009-09-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we attended the show in Ionia. It felt great to go to a show after not having any ARBA shows since spring. The girls won Best of Breed with thier Gray Sr. Buck named Wayne. We also took some best varieties. Had a great time and glad we went.

We were able to bring home some new rabbits. We added a broken blue Polish buck and a solid blue Polish doe. Allison also added several Angora rabbits to our barn. They are very nice bunnies. The broken black Angora came complete with 8 newborn babies. Wow a lot of new bunnies all at once.

Sheri

Full Moon

2009-08-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

In the bunny barn on the night of the full moon strange things happen. Smokey and Jasmine are gone the only one of her line is Jasper.

Kelcie a little baby. Jaspers little girl. She is such a beutiful baby. So we start to show her.

When we went out to the bunny barn on the night of the full moon. There was a lot of racket coming from the barn. It was poring rain so we where drenched. Well when we had to pull Kelcie's water dish up to the front. the rabbit went to the back of the cage she just sat there and glared at us. That is somthing that she never has done. Well we knew her blood had smokey in it. So we were a little more careful. We weren't carefull enough. She started to growl and spit at us. Before we had the dish down she had me. You could hear the skin rip and feel muscle come off bone. I screamed bloody murder. She would not come off. My mom and dad came running out of the house. They where wondering what had happened. Well my dad grabbed the dangling bunny and my mom pried her off of my arm they put her in her cage. They ran me to the hospital. I had to have stiches! By now I am to tired to care.

Well know we are very careful when taking care of the bunnies. Kelcie grew to be a beutiful doe and raised several litters but never attacked again. We now no that Smokey's blood runs threw the veins of her children and there children. It only comes out on the night of the full moon.

The final countdown

2009-07-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the final hours before the fair begins tomorrow. The girls are going to be extremely busy today. Between catching ducks, bathing chickens, baking bread and cleaning rabbits it should be exhausting.

This year we have moved to Washtenaw County for 4-H. We have a very active group with a wonderful leader. This fair is only 4-H and has no carnival or other stuff. As a mom, I really like that part.

Rabbits show Wednesday....... wish us luck.
Sheri

cutbacks

2009-07-08T13:23:00.001-07:00

Well like everyone else in Michigan, our financial situation has changed and not for the better. We have been forced to make cutbacks in our bunny barn. We have saved the best of the best and plan to continue to breed and show when possible. We will be saving up for the fall shows starting in September.

We have recently been blessed with our first litter of grey babies. We are still working on the harliquins. Keep checking back as we have a new harli doe that is bred.

The girls are headed to the fair on July 27 and are looking forward to a lot of fun.
Hope everyone is having a great summer.
Sheri

Great Weekend

2009-03-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well we just finished out a great weekend at the Michigan Spring Convention. We haven't been to a show yet this year so it was a special treat to get out and show. It was worth the wait when we won Best Opposite Breed with a blue Jr. doe (both days) that the girls have been waiting to put on the table. She is awesome with a beautiful head and great type. Her markings are the icing on the cake. We also took home Best opposite variety Blue and Best variety and Best opposite chocolate, and best variety Gray.
Allison also showed Satins and Creme D'Argents. She took Best Opposite Breed with her Creme Jr. Buck. All in all it was wonderful. We are pumped up and excited to go to the next show.
Sheri

Goodbye's

2009-02-05T18:19:00.000-08:00

It is so hard to say goodbye to the rabbits that we have had for so long. Allison's beloved Hershey went to a new home last Saturday. Hershey came as a 5 week old kit and is now 2 years old. She was quite a pet for a long time. She will have a happy home with a 4-Her that also purchased Slingshot. Good bye friends you will be missed.

Happy New Year

2008-12-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

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

Digging our way to the barn

2008-12-19T07:56:00.000-08:00

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

ARBA National Convention

2008-11-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

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

We finally agreed on a rabbit!

2008-09-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

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

Smokey attacks

2008-08-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Dog Daze of Summer

2008-08-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

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

Fair Time

2008-08-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

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

New litters a Success!

2008-02-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

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

Sooooo Cold

2008-01-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

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

christmas in the bunny barn

2007-12-31T05:58:00.000-08:00

On christmas day we had to go and feed are bunnys. When Allison and Samantha went to the barn they walked in and found three jumps and a A-frame for are agility there was a card on the A-frame that said from: Speedy and cocoa star are agility bunnys. The other present was carrots in the stocking we hang up in the barn.s

Last show of 2007

2007-12-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

What a great show we had last weekend in E. Lansing. There were over 100 entries in the youth Dutch show. We entered a few more than normal because it was only a single show. Unfortunately a lot of our animals are molting. The chocolates seem to always be in the middle of a molt when it is showtime. Cashew our blue buck with multiple wins was left behind on show morning because of his coat. You just brush your hand over him and knew he should just stay home. I am afraid that if we took him we would of had to vaccuum the van afterward :) So off we went. We got there plenty early but couldn't believe how full the building was. It was hard to find a spot to unload the rabbits.
When all was said and done we had Best of Variety Blue and Best opposite Variety Blue and Chocolate. It was a fun show and it was great to see all of our friends again that we have made this year. I am sad that there are no shows for a few months.
Before we left we were able to sell Bellairs George. A real nice blue buck, and full brother to Bubba. Mike was excited to have an empty carrier spot until he realized that we were picking up a black doe. Oh well, you know how hard it is to say no.
We would like to take time to say thank you to all of the rabbit breeders that have helped us out this year. It has been great getting to know everyone and learning more about showing.
Thanks from Mike, Sheri, Allison, and Samantha Bellairs

bunnies everywhere

2007-11-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

We have been breeding does for next years National Dutch show. We wanted to have some nice Juniors ready to go. Well we were successful in breeding and now we have bunnies everywhere. Our barn is overflowing. We still need to purchase more cages to fill our new addition and we are busting at the seams. It is exciting to check out all the new litters though. We have our eye on several chocolates, and blues. We haven't gotten any black litters yet but they are due this week and next week. We even named a couple and put them up for sale, trying to make room. Check out the pictures of Zaphod and Flower (both chocolate). They are adorable and show a lot of promise.
Next Saturday is the last Michigan show of the year. The girls have been grooming for a couple weeks to make sure their rabbits are ready. Finally we can put Domino a blue Sr. Doe and Hershey a chocolate Sr. Doe on the table. They have been home all summer between raising a litter, then going through a molt. So we are all excited to see how they will do. Then of course there are Jasmine, Banner, Slingshot and Cashew; our group that has been doing well all year. Allison has aquired a new Satin doe also. She is a beautiful broken copper and she plans to take her to the show and see how she does.
Well that is all for now. We are anxiously awaiting more cages and new litters. If you are at the show next week please stop by and say Hi. We love to talk to other breeders.

Speedy's training

2007-11-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Speedy. When I was younger two girl's would take me and my brothers and sisters to play. Then one day we where all put in a carrier then we where let out I seen a cage so I ran to it. When I got in the cage they shut the door. And they yelled I was in first place. When I got to the next level and had to run and jump to get to the cage. Know I have to run through a tunnel and jump over a jump with my buddy coco. Some day me and coco hope to do rabbit agility. With more jumps and a teeter toter also the A frame. If you liked this story look at hershey's adventure. Also keep watch for a new story.

Floor is in

2007-10-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well our barn is almost complete. When we priced the patio stones we changed our plan to concrete. Unfortunately it was in the high 80's with high humidity this past weekend when we decided to put it in. But at least it is finished. Tonight we were able to move the 2 stacks inside that were under the overhang. With cooler weather coming in this week we are glad to be moving them all inside. It is so exciting to have more space. We are hoping to get more cages in the next couple weeks. With all the litters we have coming we need some extra cages. We are looking forward to a trip to convention this weekend to pick up a new doe from Dennis and Barb Kline from Ohio. She will take the place of our brood doe that we lost earlier this year.

new bunny barn is coming along

2007-10-04T07:19:00.001-07:00

Well just wanted to give an update on the Bellairs bunny barn. Our newly added 12X24 shed is almost finished. The walls are up, and the outside has been stained. We need to do some fill in the new half and then we will be laying patio stones for the floor. After much deliberation this seemed to be the best answer. We have a gable fan in the door and have a new window waiting to be installed. I am posting pictures that include a side view of the original shed and a front view of the new addition and the new window. Just for fun I have also posted a picture of the sand pile.

OH Yeah the sand! I called to order the sand delivered and well...... I don't know that much about the capacity of a dump truck. When I ordered a half load he questioned it and said that he has a 5 yard truck and a 10 yard truck. Well since 5 is half of 10 I went with that one. When I called my husband to happily report that the sand was on the way he was somewhat dismayed by the amount. Well you know there are always places in the yard that need fill :)

This is our original shed.

This our new addition with a new window that we will install next to the door.

Who knew that 5 yards of sand would be more than we need :)

BIG WIN!

2007-09-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we attended a double show in Ann Arbor. The girls did really well with their bunnies. In show b we took Best chocolate, best opposite chocolate, and best blue. Then the blue doe (Bellairs Jasmine) won Best of Breed and our chocolate buck (Canfield's Slingshot) won Best opposite Breed. We were super excited as this is our first Best of Breed at an ARBA sanctioned show. Way to go girls!

new addition to bunny barn

2007-09-18T09:53:00.001-07:00

How exciting it is to watch the construction of our bunny barn. We began with a 10X12 shed and have doubled our size. We will be able to keep one section for the brood does and babies and one section for show animals. So just as soon as we can get some new cages we will be in business.

Beginning in blacks

2007-08-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

OK, I know I said several times that we were only going to raise blue and chocolate dutch. We don't have the room to work on 3 varieties. In fact we had a black buck for a while and sold him. After all we weren't planning on raising blacks.

Well that all changed recently. A fellow breeder needed to clear out his small herd in a hurry. We went down to his house and picked up the whole lot. Well the girls and I couldn't bear to sell the blacks that were included in the package with the blues and chocolates. They are some nice quality animals. So....... now we are going to begin raising and showing black dutch as well as our blue and chocolate.

We are excited to get to the next show table.

Sheri

Chelsea Community Fair

2007-08-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well after attending Ingham county fair only a couple weeks ago, we headed off to the Chelsea community fair this week. Today was the rabbit show. Whew, what a day. We did great with our dutch. The girls won Best of Breed with Bellairs Olivia ( a chocolate jr. doe), and Best Opposite of Breed with Bellairs Jasper (blue sr. buck). Then Olivia advanced to Best 4 class and Best in Show. What an exciting day!

Sheri