Current Litters All the current litters are doing great! We still have 7 kits, but 2 are for sale (pet only) and the other 5 will be grown out, as they show promise :D FireFly X Fonzie = 3 potential keepers/grow outs. 2 Does and 1 Buck I believe :) They are so nice and friendly, they just turned 9 weeks old and are hitting uglies, so trying not too evaluate as much for a couple weeks! Effie X Duke = 1 potential keeper/grow out. She is a doe :) One of the kits is a big false dwarf, will probably mature to 4-5lbs I'm guessing. He is being sold as a pet, and he's so friendly! The other kit had to be culled due to health problems :( But the keeper (Narcissa) looks beautiful right now! These kits also just turned 9 weeks! Saphira X Fonzie = 1 potential keeper/grow out. Not sure if it is a buck or doe, Foxface has quite the attitude so maybe that's a sign towards doe? S/he got it from her momma for sure! The other 2 kits have been sold, 1 to a pet home and the other to a pet/4H home. Foxface is about to hit 10 weeks I believe. Upcoming/Planned Litters
I am so excited about all our upcoming litters! Hoping to have a baby boom ;) I bred them on April Fools last time and they all nested and then nothing, so rebred them on Mother's Day ;) FireFly X Fonzie = FireFly has been breed again to Fonzie, I like a few of their kits from the previous litter and want to see what happens this time! Expecting Black Tort in broken and solid. Due 6/2/16. Effie X Tman = Effie has been bred to Tman! SO excited to get some babies out of him and use him, I love him a lot ;) They seem to balance each other well, so we'll see what happens with this litter! Expecting Black Tort and Black in broken and solid. Due 6/8/16. Technicolor X Tman = Tessi have been bred to Tman! Tman really balances her out, and we will have a wide possibility of fun colors with good type (I hope!) Expecting Black Tort, Black, Chocolate Tort and Chocolate in broken and solid. Dilute is also likely! (Tman has a high chance of carrying it) Due 6/8/16. Saphira X Tman = Saphira has been bred to Tman also! They are both really nice and balance each other well, also excited about broken blacks and possibly broken chocolate! Expecting Black Tort and Black in broken and solid. Chocolate is also likely! (Saphira has a high chance at carrying it) Due 6/2/16. Gloria X ??? = Gloria...I tried all 3 bucks with her, but she won't for the life of her lift! I really just need to get a litter out of her since she's never had one. I will watch her and palpate her just incase, but it's very unlikely she took. If she did take she will be due 6/8/16. Mini Convention started today, with conferences and being able to check in and coop your rabbits, so no showing today.
Tomorrow kicks off the showing, with national and specialty shows, including Holland Lop Nationals (which sadly, I missed the entry deadline for)! Also on Saturday are the youth contests! Something I am considering participating in (the youth breed ID and/or youth judging)! Then Sunday we have the all breed single show, and probably some other stuff I don't really know about (lol). This will be my first time showing at Mini Convention, and my second time attending :D I am SO excited! Quinn will be picked up to go to her new home from Mini Convention, and Fonzie is being shown. I also want to buy a rabbit...the rabbit buying bug has bitten me! Also CANNOT wait to see/meet some bunny friends!! I am bringing my best friend who has just recently started to get into rabbits, it's gonna be SO fun! I hope to take lots of pictures to share later! If anyone wants to find me at the show on SUNDAY I'll be wearing a blue "Hollands Make Me Happy" t-shirt (and possibly a brown GAP hoodie), jeans and cowgirl boots, I WILL have cage tags on my coops too!! I will be attending Saturday but won't be wearing my standard show outfit or have any rabbits there yet ;) - Winning is great, but it's really just icing on the cake, in my personal opinion we show for comments, good times, and memories. Not saying winning is bad or anything, but I think we all should be a good looser and a humble winner, don't pout if you don't win (yes, I've heard/seen this happen before). Just a reminder as this is a big show, just HAVE FUN and enjoy it! At the end of the day, it's about what's improving YOUR herd, not ___'s herd! Everyone has different faults and strengths in their herds, and every judge has different opinions and looks for different things. And again, at the end of the day, one of the most important things is loving your bunnies and caring for them well! Anyways, lets make this a memorable mini convention!!! LETS DO THIS! I thought this would be a fun thing to do, 5 Breeds I don't want to raise and 5 Breeds I want to raise (and why) :D I saw it on my friend's blog, Holly's Hollands Rabbitry, and wanted to do it myself!
So at the time of writing this post, here are the... 5 Breeds I Don't Want To Raise
I still love the looks of all the breeds, they just aren't for me! I'm not hating on anyone or any breed :) 5 Breeds I Want To Raise
S0 those are my 5 breeds, what are yours? Every breeder evaluates their herd to the Standard of Perfection (at least I hope they do!). I am one of the people that do. I will get out a rabbit and look at it. I will take pictures and ask opinions. Evaluating your herd is important. It helps you decide which rabbits to keep to better your herd, and which ones it's time to let go of. Knowing how to evaluate a Holland is also good to help make decisions on if you should buy a Holland. So today I am going to upload some pictures of my Holland(s) and evaluate them. It can be hard to evaluate Hollands through pictures, but I've seen all these Hollands in person also :) -- Below is POB's Saphira. Just turned senior black doe. I outline her body and ears. This helps me 'see' her better and make sure she is properly posed. - First I would like to touch on her color. She has beautiful rich black color, with hardly any white hairs for a black! The judges always commented on that ;) Saphira has a slipped crown. See the circle in between her eye and ear? That means she has a slipped crown. If you can fit a finger in between her ear and eye, the crown is slipped. - I like her ear length, probably my shortest ears and best crown at this time. See how her head has the little bump above her ears? She has decent crown definition. - Saphira lacks curvature to her head, cheeks could be a bit more defined and puffer ;) he doesn't have a shoulder dip either, I WILL RARELY keep a rabbit with a shoulder dip, it is a fault. - like her HQ and body is decent too. She doesn't drop off over the HQ but her HQ is nice and full to the table. - Saphira has weak ankles, that is probably her biggest fault. See how her ankles aren't hitting the table like stumps? That's because she has weak ankles. Saphira also has a dewlap, that's the flap of skin below her head. A lot of does have dewlaps. - Overall Saphira is a good brood doe. The judges always say she flat and heavy in the shoulder. She's has good depth too, see how you don't see daylight between her front and back legs? I hope this helped you learn more about judging Hollands! Here are some examples that are helpful when evaluating a Holland (thank you Grace @ Grace's Hoppin Hollands for helping me with examples!): (above)This is an example of perfect ankles. They hit the table flat and straight all the way down! (above) This rabbit has a slipped crown. I outlined his eye and then put a circle between his eye and ear. His ears area also a bit long. The shortest line is how long I'd like his ears to be. (below) here is the same rabbit as above. He is properly posed, just pictured at an angle. You can see his length of ears and slipped crown here. Also note he has short, thick and straight bone all the way to the table, unlike Saphira. This buck is my friend's, and normally places well in shows :) Data has good crown definition too. (above) Nick's Fonzie. He has short, straight and thick front limbs, as well as good crown definition and ear length. He has a nice head, not really snippy. Fonzie won BOB at our last show ;) He has different faults then Saphira, so I bred them together. He has a SLIGHTLY slipped crown. He needs a bit more depth and width. Fonzie also has good crown definition.
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January 2019
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