Sunday, April 19, 2009

Rhinebeck Show and Babies:)

This past Saturday my local club held it's annual show in Rhinebeck, NY. It was a double show instead of the usual single, and it was a nice chance to meet up with friends that I haven't seen in a while, (or at least that I haven't seen since the last show:)). I recently decided to get my Registrar's license also, so I spent a lot of time yesterday getting the signatures I needed and just running around in general to talk to certain people and folks in other breeds.

Our first show yesterday was judged by Robert Frizzell and was won by Nancy Platte, who took BOB and BOS. The second show was under Howard Keller and was won by my bunnies, with Giacomo as BOB and Spang's Indira as BOS. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to post of this show because the few times that I did remember to take my camera out the pictures did not come out:(. I have been learning how this new camera works and eventually I will get the hang of it and become a perfect photographer (maybe, haha), but until then some of the shots will be fuzzy or maybe even non-existent:).

On the homefront here I have been very busy with new litters, and I posted pictures today of some of the latest babies I have, the youngest of which are 11 days old. Evariste and Ismati are also due this coming week and I think that both are pregnant. I will also be breeding another group of does next weekend: Morwenna will be bred to Giacomo, Etienne to Akeno, and Margaux to Giacomo.

Colors in my current litters include (as usual!) Tort, Fawn, Black, REW, and Pearl, but a Blue baby has also surfaced surprisingly in Althea's litter. Below there are a bunch of pictures of the newest little rascals, but since they are incapable of sitting still for even 2 seconds, some of them are fuzzy:).

First below is a cute photo of Juno's litter and one of the beautiful, DARK Pearls that she produced. Juno is not the best mother in the herd by any means, (she is the classic case of a great show rabbit who is a less than perfect parent, LOL) but there are still a couple of Pearls left in her litter, all of whom have this beautiful dark shading that grows into an exemplary senior coat.





And here are a few shots of Althea's litter. Althea is a black doe that I held back out of Pascha who does not have wonderful type and is not being used as a show rabbit, but who has beautiful intense color that is a throwback to old style French who had poor wool but outstanding color. I named her Althea (which means 'black night'), and I am trying to preserve her color and inject it into the main line. The colors on these babies look good so far, so I am hoping that there will be buns in the bunch with her fabulous color and Angelo's solid type.






And here is a picture of Natalya's litter (at 11 days old). These are mainly Torts and Blacks:)


And here is the most MISCHIEVOUS bunch in the group---Donatella's NZ/FA cross litter (surprise!:)). This morning these bunnies decided that a nestbox was a very boring place to be, and so they took it upon themselves to jump into the box next door to pay Juno's babies a visit. At this moment they are situated on the other end of the living room under a laundry basket, and that should put an end to their adventures for now until they go into the barn permanently and become their patient mommy's problem:-).




Here are some pictures of Keith holding one of Juno's little Pearls. This dark color will eventually extend itself along the hair shaft as the wool grows out and her coat will become off white with a nice Sable shading. I will be sure to post continual pics of these babies as the weeks go by.




And these last two pictures are of Yvonne's older litter that is now 4 weeks old and permanently living in the barn. They will all be weaned in about 2-3 weeks.



There are five more little ones in the barn (Morwenna and Henryi's litter) who are 12 weeks old and will be taken out today for grooming and evaluation (my favorite part of rabbit raising:-)).

Well, that's it for today and I hope all of you are enjoying the beginning of spring and lots of full nestboxes!

Have a wonderful week.

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