Two Bucks for Sale

I have two bucks for sale at the moment. One was born 8/7/09 and is 7 months old, and the other was born 12/17/09 and is 4 months old.


The REW buck shown below was born in August and is out of Spang's Sabini (Tort doe) and Spang's Akeno (REW buck). He is pictured here with one month's growth on his first Senior coat. He has good color (a very bright, crisp white) with great density and adult texture coming in. He has good shoulders and a nice mid-section.





The Tort buck below is 4 months old and still carrying his baby coat. He is out of Spang's Margaux (Sable Pearl doe) and Spang's Giacomo (Tort GC buck). He is going to be large with good color and a fantastic adult coat with really great density. His sire is pictured in the side bar of this blog.





Both these rabbits are available for $100 each. I can deliver them to Hamburg, PA on March 20, Old Bethpage, NY on April 10, Rhinebeck, NY on April 17, or Rutland, VT on 5/29.

Have a great week and enjoy the spring weather!:)

Snow and Bunnies

Well, it looks like we are having a long awaited respite from snowstorms and power outages now, and by some miracle the temperatures have been rising and it looks like spring is actually on it's way for a change:).

With all this wintry weather the does have been reluctant to breed, but it looks like things are finally starting to pick up now. I got Margaux bred to Anton and Kimba to Akeno this week, and tomorrow I am planning at least 4 more breedings.

Here are a few pictures of our yard right after the snowstorm that dumped about 2 feet on us last week. The first shot is of our garden and garden shed, and the next is of the chickens hanging out in the only dry place left under the porch next to the dryer vent:).











And speaking of breeding, this bunny pictured below is named Mardiney's S'more. He is a Seal buck out of two rabbits I sold more than 6 years ago to a local 4Her whose mom is a very good friend of mine. This woman's daughter showed the bunnies many times over the years, even winning BIS at the county fair, and she eventually bred them together to produce a single litter from which this Seal buck was kept.

S'more is now an old man at 5 years of age. I mentioned to my friend that I was trying to revive the Sable color in my herd and she offered me the use of this fellow. I tried bringing a doe over to meet him but she was uncooperative and he was too wooly and a little too tired, LOL!

Anyway, to make a long story short, my friend then kindly offered to loan S'more to me to see if I could get some babies out of him:). I have 4 does clipped down and ready for him now, and this morning I went ahead and sheared the guy himself to give him every possible advantage in the access and mobility departments, hahaha.

Below are two pictures of this boy. He was never taught how to pose commercially so he is sitting up like a arched breed right now, LOL. His coat is hard to see in this position and he was long overdue for a clipping, but even at 5 he still had nice wool and impressive density.

Next I posted the after-clipping picture, and hopefully this baldie will now feel chipper enough to get down to business in his S-L-I-C-K new birthday suit:-)





More again next time. Have a great, warm week!:)

Bunny Stuff

It looks like coats for the Spring season are really starting coming in now, which is making it necessary to have marathon grooming sessions every weekend just to keep everyone neat and presentable (especially those bucks:( ). I have to say I pine for the day when I will be able to remove these silly crocks and put my handy dandy water bottles back up. Trust me when I say that it is no fun spending 45 minutes grooming a doe only to find her standing in the water dish when you come back into the barn to get everyone fed later on--grrrr!

The warmer nights now have left everyone with unfrozen water all the time so everyone has been eating and drinking very well. The first show of the season is going to be in Hamburg PA this year, so if everything goes well (knock on wood, cross fingers and hold breath), everyone should have 4-5 inches of dense growth piled on and be very ready to compete.


The babies are looking good, and I will be starting a new wave of Spring breeding this week also. I took a few bunny pictures here to post.


This beautiful baby below is a Sable F4 Cross doe out of Kimba and Giacomo. She has fabulous depth and color right now, but as with all crosses I'll have to wait and see how the Senior coat turns out. It is absolutely wonderful to have Sables in the barn again. I am going be working my tail off 24/7 from this point forward to make sure they stay for eternity, LOL. This little girl is 11 weeks old:).





The next photo is of one of my newest does, Spang's Bijou. Bijou is a daughter of Devaki, a doe I had who consistently gave me 10 oz. per shearing, and I am positive that she will do the same, if not more:). Here she is in her first senior coat (about 2 inches so far), and below her picture I tried to take a closeup of her wool which shows the quality of texture she is already displaying at 8 months. This is an example of one of those cases where the body is not perfect (Bijou's type falls off over the loin), but it was necessary to keep her anyway because one of her other parts exploded off the map, LOL. I will be bringing this doe to shows but how she does will depend on what type of judge she gets. A meat judge will place her lower than other entries without a doubt, but a wool judge will shoot her up in the ranks, possibly even giving her top placement. This rabbit is so dense that I probably will not be able to brush her in another month. I think I will end up using the blower with a touch up afterward with the slicker.






Anyway, hopefully everyone is getting through the end of the winter alright and we are all dreaming of spring and planning our next breedings:). Have a great week and see you again next time!

PA Convention Pictures

Here are some pictures taken by my mother Lesa during the Sat. PA Show. Most of these are of only one show (the morning Open show) because later that day and on Sunday Julie and Pam took over the photography and took pics which will show up on the UARC website and the UARC Newsletter later on.


The first shot here shows the conditions at the hall parking lot on Saturday morning as everyone was attempting to get into the show:







This second picture is of Janet Gruber and I behind the UARC table. Janet is busy setting up the raffle as I am filling out entry forms, etc.





This is the wool room and grooming area as it began to fill up on Sat. morning:





These next photos below are of the first Open show with Roger Cota judging the French Angora class:








And this is a picture of Jenna (left) and Lorie (right) holding their bunnies and waiting for the White Sr. does to be called:




This is Janet again, writing for the same Sat. Open show:





And this is another shot of one side of the grooming area. Fortunately the circuits only overloaded once the whole weekend with everyone blowing their animals out this year. Last year with more exhibitors in the room the whole thing shut down several times from what I remember. LOL!





Again, I'm sorry for the lack of photos covering the entire weekend, but the other ladies took many more which I'm sure will surface shortly on the UARC site. Despite the weather this year the Convention was a very exciting show and I'm sure we'll be ready to do it all over again in 2011 (Big Grin!)

Have a great week:)

PA State Convention

After a long week and weekend I am finally getting around to posting again, LOL.

We arrived home yesterday from the PA Convention, where the Lebanon, PA area got hit with a snowstorm that left close to 2 feet in some places by Sat. morning. We got in on Friday afternoon around 3PM, and left around 4 on Sun. Unfortunately I plugged my camera battery into the wall at the hotel to recharge and then promptly forgot it the next morning (LOL), so now I have no pictures to add to this post until my battery arrives in the mail, where the hotel people so graciously agreed to put it today:).

Basically there was a severe shortage of entries in every show both days due to the weather, so numbers on the tables were much lower than usual. For my own part I did not enter any rabbits at all, but that was because I had no one in the barn above 3 inches of growth, and I was not ahead of myself enough this year to be sure I had Seniors bred and juniors produced at the right time:(. Clearly I will need to get my tail in gear over the next couple of months and plan breedings to produce rabbits who are in coat for next winter, but as we know angoras are all about timing, timing, timing:-).

The UARC held two specialties at this show, and the results of Sat. and Sun. were as follows:


Saturday Show
Judge: Scott Wiebensohn


EA

BOB--Linda Cassella
BOS--Linda Cassella

FA

BOB--Pam Barnes
BOS--Charlotte Schweikart

SA

BOB--Sharon Rowe
BOS--Sharon Rowe

GA

-None shown

BIS--Linda Cassella
____________________________________________

Sunday Show
Judge: Dave Cardinal


EA

BOB--Linda Cassella
BOS--Linda Cassella

FA

BOB--Charlotte Schweikart
BOS--Pam Barnes

SA

BOB--Miranda Fasnacht
BOS--Pam Turner

GA

BOB--Miranda Fasnacht
BOS--none


BIS--Linda Cassella


The Open show results are not all known to me since I was busy elsewhere and on Sun. I wrote for the specialty at the same time as the Open was going on. There were also Youth shows happening both days that I did not get the results of (unfortunately), but I understand that the Youth BOB French Angora went on to take Youth BIS on Saturday, and that is quite a feat considering the level of competition usually present at this show.

Linda Cassella took Open BIS with a Colored EA in the Sat. show, and I believe the Open BIS on Sun. went to a Satin (short-furred breed).

Overall this was a very exciting weekend despite the weather. I'm sure next year will be better since the last time they had a storm like this in Lebanon it was 1922 from what I hear, LOL! There was also an incredibly interesting perspective given by the judges of our two Specialty shows, Scott Wiebensohn and Dave Cardinal. Scott Wiebensohn is a Brittania Petitte and English Spot breeder from the west coast, and he had some very interesting points to make about bone and balance in a rabbit. He told us that every part of a rabbit is proportional to all it's other parts, so a rabbit with extra long ears (for ex.) will also have a longer-than-average face. A rabbit with long shoulders is also more likely to be longer than usual in other areas such as the back feet, etc. Aside from gauging bone quality by wrapping your hand around a front leg, he said that another good measure is to flip the rabbit over and observe the width of the back feet across the hock area. He said that bone quality can be evaluated before a litter even leaves a nestbox this way. Thinner boned animals tend to have feet that are longer and narrower, while better boned specimens have feet that are short and broad.

Scott W. is also a spinner so he paid special attention to wool quality, and he was very open to comments from the breeders afterward:).


In contrast to Scott, Dave Cardinal (the judge of our second show), was a hard-core, serious meat judge who specializes in New Zealands and Satins. His perspective was vastly different from Scott's but also incredibly educational, because he talked more about musculature and the importance of a good loin and lower hindquarter. He stressed the need to FEEL your animals without necessarily looking at them to gauge type and bone quality. Compared to Scott who was a very visual judge (due to the need to visually assess the balance of an arched breed), Dave was almost completely tactile, relying nearly 100% on his ability to feel the meat condition and type traits. Both judges were incredibly different but very good, and it just goes to show how people interpret things in different ways, and how the breeds you raise can shape your perspective and even your method of evaluating other rabbits!

Anyhow, there were tons of people to see and meet at this show (as usual!), but it was also great to come home and get back to my normal bunny routine with my own rabbits (that is, until the next show comes along:)). Hopefully the cold will let up soon, temperatures will even out, and it will be far easier to keep the herd on an even keel of eating, drinking, and wool growing. All my litters are now currently weaned, and I am planning on breeding more does next week and over the weeks to come.

More stuff next time (with some pictures hopefully!)


Amy:)

Assorted Stuff

This week I set up a different way to evaluate the rabbits I have in order to set up compatible breeding pairs. I am always checking and rechecking animals whenever I have them out to see how type and wool are developing and to keep tabs on the herd in general, but I have found that there is also such a thing as too much 'face time', LOL. Every breeder at some point or another suffers from 'barn blindness', where the eyes begin to cross and you lose the ability to judge your stock objectively. At these times, it is a good idea to step back and take a somewhat more scientific approach:).

I took a piece of paper and drew two columns (entitled DOES and BUCKS) and listed every member of my base herd on one side or the other. FYI, a 'Base herd' is composed of all the rabbits that make up the core of your rabbitry--those who are proven to be the best woolers, show animals, breeders, producers, etc. Your base herd is the source of the best stock your rabbitry is able to produce, and consists of the most valuable animals you have.

After listing each member of my base herd, I went ahead and listed the positive and negative traits of each rabbit. For ex. my NZ/FA cross doe Spang's Yvonne was listed this way:

Yvonne:

+hardy
+good type
+good bone
+no woolblock
-poor wool

You could get much more detailed than this if necessary. Instead of simply writing 'good type' you could list exactly which parts of the type are good, such as good shoulders, good depth, etc. If you were planning breedings based strictly on type (if you were working on one specific trait in this breeding cycle), then this information would come in handy to know which strengths to combine with what flaws. For my purposes this week I only wanted an overview, so further detail was not necessary.

'-Poor Wool' in Yvonne's case referred to the quality of her Senior coat, which is uneven in length, non-synchronized, and uneven in texture. The only time I might pair this rabbit with another of poor wool quality is if I wanted to set a particular type trait as much as possible. Otherwise, I would choose a buck with excellent wool to complement her so that at least a portion of the resulting litter would contain both traits. It is important to note that good wool is much easier to set than good type, so a 'poor wool/poor wool' combination might not be out of the question if both parents were capable of producing typey babies. It all has to do with what your goals are at the time.

The overall categories I included for the rabbits in my herd are as follows, but there are many traits that others would find important in their herds or that they want to strive for in the future:

Good Wool
Good Type
No tendency to Woolblock (no woolblock)
Hardy
Good bone
Poor type
Medium type
Good eater
Good drinker
Good color
Poor color
Non-synchronized coat
Even growth

These categories may seem a little haphazard, but they fit with what I am working toward at the moment and I know what they all mean in reference to my rabbits. Other breeders will have different categories and sub-categories, but the standards in angoras typically revolve around type and wool.

'Hardy' refers to a rabbit's overall thriftiness or 'toughness'. In other words, it measures their ability to stay consistent in eating/drinking/wool growth/ and maintain good health. They are the most reliable rabbits.

A 'Good Eater' description is self-explanatory (and often ties in with rabbits who are not prone to woolblock). 'Good Drinker' seems like a wierd trait but it is very important because rabbits who consume a lot of water are healthier, rarely get woolblock, and are much, much easier to condition than rabbits who do not drink as often. Even growth vs. Non-synchronized refers to coat type but may be positive or negative depending on the type of rabbit you prefer (shearing or plucking).

Looking at the traits of your rabbits on paper can make things much easier and take some of the guesswork out of choosing compatible breeding pairs. Of course, the best breeders in the rabbit world may not use any of these things, but rely instead on an instinct for identifying rabbits with potential and combining them to produce specific results. The important thing is to always keep breeding, keep checking, and keep adjusting your priorities to stay on track with the type of rabbit you are trying to produce.


Last of all it looks like I finally got some baby pics snapped! The first two below are of Margaux and her litter by Giacomo (now 5 weeks of age), and the third is of two of Natalya's babies just before weaning (now 7 weeks old).



















And last of all here is just a gratuitous shot of my three sons in the Baseball Hall of Fame, which we visited last week:). It was amazing to see all the old equipment everyone used and all the old uniforms (made out of WOOL!). The boys read all about Babe Ruth and got to sit in a locker that once belonged to Hank Aaron. BIG thrills!!:-)

Current Events

There has not been a lot going on here lately other than bitter cold weather and a couple of litters of babies growing out. My oldest litters are now 5 weeks old and the youngest are 3, so there will be a few more juniors hopping around and it will be time for breeding again soon as soon as Spring rolls around.

The PA Convention is also coming up in a couple of weeks, and I won't have much to bring again this year since I didn't do a lot of breeding for Winter buns. My best rabbits seem to be lining up for the Spring season right now, so what will probably end up happening is that all the proverbial eggs will be in one bunny basket this year, LOL. Once the season is over (somewhere around May or June), I will breed all the best does for some (hopefully) very good litters.

As my own kids get older and hit the teenage years, life is getting a whole lot busier then it used to be:). Between driving to different activities, cooking TONS of food (who would have thought it was possible for three boys to eat so much??!!), and stepping up our homeschool schedule at the same time, life has gotten very, very hectic:). I have my herd at a stable number of rabbits right now that makes it possible to keep up with grooming and maintenance and still produce a number of litters, but I will have to keep things relatively small for a couple of years until everyone grows up and doesn't need as much 'upkeep' anymore, LOL. Eventually I will be able to expand my herd again, start breeding more, and show more often in places that are further away (especially Convention:)).

The great thing about cold weather, however, is that it makes wool grow at an unbelievable rate. No sooner do you clip a rabbit but the coat is springing right back, and even the babies' wool seems to be coming in faster than usual right now. Despite the difficulties of managing a rabbitry at this time of year, there are certainly benefits to raising angoras in sub-zero temperatures:-).

More next time when I try to get some baby pictures posted.

Have a great week!