First of all, here are pictures of some of the adults who are (or were) in coat over the last week or two. This first is of Spang's Oomi, a beautiful doe who is not yet in full coat but who has great density and balance and a very good body. She will hit the showtable for the first time at Rhinebeck, and maybe a few shows after that if I can find something to enter her in later on:
Next is Nereida, a Blue doe who is getting sheared today and bred sometime next week. She has wonderful color, but unfortunately Blue seems to be one of those varieties (along with Choc. and Lilac in my barn) that just does not have the density and coat quality of some of the other color varieties. I am going to breed more of this color in litters in the future to see if I can work to improve it some more, but as of now I have never had a Blue that has the kind of density that some of the other colors have.
This is Devaki, who was sheared last week but who had a really beautiful, balanced coat. I will be breeding her for the first time next week also. This was her first Sr. coat.
The next few photos are all baby shots. Below is a picture of Juno's litter of 4 (several of the original littermates faded early on), and the color on the Torts and Pearl (especially) look really intense at this point. I am hoping for several nice show bunnies out of this bunch.
This is Pascha's litter napping after a feeding, with 2 foster babies added in from Echo. The Fawn in this litter (which is difficult to see, unfortunately), has the best Fawn color of any of the babies of these breedings so far, with bright orange color and very little smut :
Here is the rest of Echo's (large) litter of REW, Pearl, and----ta da---- SABLE!!
As I mentioned earlier, my last Sable rabbit died a few months back and I was really upset because I didn't know if I would be able to produce it again here. Then suddenly, what looked like Blue babies in Echo's litter from the beginning turned out to be the long sought after color, and now I am thrilled to death because this is one of my favorite colors in the universe and I will probably develop a pure Sable line sometime in the near future. Below is a closeup of one of these babies in natural light (ignore the ratty, torn up rabbit jacket behind it though:)):
Sable is an unusual color because it can start out either blue OR brown in the nestbox. It then becomes almost frosty looking at one point (as you can see here), after which it settles out and becomes the dark, Sepia brown that is so stunning on the showtable and in spun garments. These babies started out Blue which threw me for a loop in the beginning because 90% of the Sables I've had have started out brown, but as soon as I realized what they were I was just about beside myself with excitement, LOL. There are 3 Sables in her litter and I will try to keep at least one to perpetuate into the future, working the color up until the offspring are purebred and registerable.
Finally below are pictures of my two youngest litters (who are not yet outdoors permanently). These babies below are out of Morwenna and Dijon and I am hoping for nice prospects here too because both parents are nice, and the doe tends to throw very consistent quality.
It is hard to know anything about these babies yet as this is the first litter for Evariste (and Dijon). The colors here are Black, Tort, and REW. We'll see how everyone looks in a few weeks:).
It is hard to know anything about these babies yet as this is the first litter for Evariste (and Dijon). The colors here are Black, Tort, and REW. We'll see how everyone looks in a few weeks:).
That's about it for today. There will be more later on as things heat up and get more interesting this Spring (now that the long and boring winter is over:)). I did a very hard cull at the end of last Fall in order not to have as many rabbits to bring through the winter and also to raise the quality of my breeding stock a notch. As a result I have only (gulp!) 14 adults in my barn at the moment, so I am looking to build things up and get a larger working herd in place over the spring and summer again.
Have a great week and lots of luck with the buns!:-)
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