Sorry for the lost updates

Sorry I quit updating.  I don't think anyone was following anyway-

Princess Annie is now 5 months old.  She is an absolutely gorgeous, healthy rabbit.  Her color is yet to be determined- It's a lilac tort which is odd for a Satin- She has cream fiber, lilac ears and nose and red head and feet.  She's gorgeous.  And such a character.  Every time I look at her I can't believe we raised her.  She is truly a miracle and a blessing.  In January, we made the decision to give our other four adult rabbits to our friend who is a breeder.  Duke and Annie had both had a cocciditis flare up and we just couldn't handle the stress anymore.  We still have our Annie though, in the house.  The other four are doing GREAT in their new home with our friends.  I miss them but I have been a lot less stressed.  Annie is like my child and I love her to death. 

New Pictures of Princess Annie- Today is day 21!!!

I haven't been able to figure out how to post video (any suggestions?)

Day 20/21

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My, my, what big feet you have!

Princess Annie is doing well.  She is on day 17!  She is thriving and healthy so far.. Brett and I aren't, we both have colds and are quite sleep deprived.  But its worth it to see her continue growing. 

Yesterday, I finally took the plunge and finished shearing Dutchess. POOR THING!  LOL  She did really really good for me.  I think she'll feel better.  I probably lost an ounce of fiber, not cutting close enough but we didn't want her cold. (And my scissors were dull and I just plain suck at shearing! LOL) 

We have decided to rename Chocolate Mama- Madam Gruntsalot.  She is always grunting.  And it will stick with our "royalty" lol.  But we'll still call her Mama Grunts. hee hee  She is doing really well.  We let her run around for the first time a few days ago and she loved it.  She is a very sweet and mature rabbit. 

Duke and Lily are pyschotic, always want out. LOL  I took some video of them, I'll post if I can. 

All in all, all the buns are doing great.  I have been givng the rabbits a daily treat of a mix of dried fruits, oats and seeds along with fresh veggies.  Now they look forward to their treats every morning. 

Sorry for the delay

I woke up early Friday morning, October 16th, to go find out if Princess had her babies. She was almost two days late and I thought for sure she had a false pregnancy...

I was devestated to find my Princess dead in her nest box. I ran inside and woke Brett. We both balled as we tried to grasp that we had just lost our Princess. He scrambled in from the barn with a tiny baby in his hands. Princess had had one baby before she passed.... We've spent the last 12 days, spending every waking (and sleeping) moment keeping our orphan alive with the help of our friends and family. Cathy and Jim (our breeders) gave us all the info and help they could and set us up for the long haul.

"Princess Annie" is on day 12 today and is doing super so far. It's been a long long week and a half. I've been up ever 2 hours every night now checking on her. I have kept a log of what she is eating and other things that happen with her growth that I'll post when I have time.

Cathy and Jim graciously gave us another doe to replace Princess even though we knew it wasn't something under their control. None of us knew this was going to happen or we would never have bred Princess... We all decided for us to adopt Lily's mom, Chocolate Mama. She's a 22 month Satin Angora Chocolate Doe. That way, we would have an experienced doe. Cathy and Jim encouraged us to breed her to Lily's dad so we'd get the same beautiful babies that were out of Lily's litter (lilac and copper agoutis). So we agreed and will be breeding her next month. They wanted us to have a good breeding experience.... We're waiting until Choco Mama is comfortable in her new home and we're waiting till Annie is off milk when Choco Mama's babies are born. Brett built her a large, beautiful nest box that is permenantly in her cage rather than a hutch box so there are no stresses of box changing just in case...

Everyone has been incredibly helpful and supportive. Brett and I get very attached to our animals and losing Princess was devestating. Princess Annie was the only thing left that we had of Princess and we were determined to beat the odds with this orphan baby. So far she is a real fighter and continues to thrive, even through mishaps. She will always be our Orphan Annie. We are even thinking about letting her continue to live in the house with us...

I have video and pictures to catch you up on but I am at work right now- I'll post them when I can. For some reason, this isn't letting me post pictures...

Babies are almost here!

Early this week, the red satin buck baby, Duke, gave me a frightful scare.  I had been feeding the four rabbits organic vegetables I'd picked up from the Farmers Market- a small handful of red leaf lettuce, broccoli, carrots with tops. By Wednesday, Duke had developed diarrhea from too many veggies (shame on me for not knowing better!!!!).  He hated me with an evil vengence after I tried to clean him up and give him yogurt with a syringe.  I finally managed to squirt it on his paws so he'd have to lick it off.  We took away his pellets and gave him hay and oatmeal just like I've read.  He was very grumpy and sitting in a corner.  He only looked for Brett to handle him that day after I "attacked" him with yogurt and rags.

By evening, he was getting back to his normal self.  By the next morning he was fine and back to standing at his door, waiting to be held.  Whew.  It was a lesson learned.  NO more veggies for juniors.  I stopped giving them all the vegetables this week and I am sure the other three were furious with me!

Thursday, I got Duke out and gave him a good grooming.  He was back to his lovey self.  Brett will be handling him in and out of his cage and the pen until he learns to quiet down as he is very unruly and very strong.  I've been letting Dutchess out this week too and she is loving it.  She loves to be groomed and to run around the pen.  They both are learning that it's a good thing when I walk up to the cage with treats, food and the opportunity to be out of the cage.  They are becoming like Lily and Princess in their affection and trust. 

Princess is the only one I haven't been letting out as she is due in just a few days!  She has had ALL the signs.  Nesting, grumpiness (as grumpy as she can get.  She only hopped away from me once), lethargic, less eating.  Earlier this week, I took out her hutch box to see if she'd meld to the nest box.  This morning, I found that she had finally taken the loose hay and finished up the nest in the box that I had started.  Victory!  Can't wait for Wednesday!

We are also getting our English baby next weekend.  Cathy and Jim are bringing him out so they can see the babies and meet my new rabbits too. 

Exciting days for the rabbit world! LOL

(Funny Picture of Princess in her hutch box)

New Pictures of the English Angora baby

Cathy just sent me new pictures of my 5 1/2 week old English buck baby!  He's so pretty and very cute!  I can't wait to get him in two weeks!

We tried to take Princess' hutch box out and put the beautiful nest box Brett built into her cage but she hated the nest box and was very distressed so Brett built a ply platform for the hutch box to sit on.  We took the ramp off the box so we could lift it easier to see the babies.  She was extremely happy about the box being back and made her new nest that night.  She has all the signs of being pregnant and I can't wait till the Wednesday after next!

New rabbits

We picked up the two new rabbits at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.  The festival was overwhelming and fun.  We learned a lot about goats and switched our focus from Pygoras to Angoras.  We forgot about the other booths and animals and headed for the rabbit barn.  Before we knew it, we were picking up the two rabbits from Daisy Hill Farm and headed home.  We missed the whole Alpaca barn and my friend, Cathy!  The rabbits have been here 4 days now and seem to be settling in really well.  After just a few times of being held and let out to play and groomed, and of course papaya treats, they now look forward to me walking into the barn.  The doe has turned out to be a lovely rabbit, very sweet and absolutely stunning fiber.  The boy has a most unusual color and has begun to warm up to me.  

I've decided to rename them after getting to know them a little bit but haven't decided yet.  A friend recommended some names and we might go with Bonzo for the boy.  I haven't decided for the doe yet. 

I found Princess Pink yesterday morning with hay overflowing from her mouth.  She was on a mission to building a nest inside her hutch box.  I again found her at it this morning.  I am piling in the hay and she is making her nest.  I am a little worried because we really need her to nest in a nest box not in her hutch box.  Hopefully she'll make her new nest in the nest box when we set it in tomorrow.  We still have 2 weeks.  But she is definitely acting pregnant ! Yay!! 

I finally learned how to spin on a top whorl drop spindle.  Here is my very first yarn!

New name for our new red buck

DAISY HILL'S KORBON

I finally came up with a name for the red buck.  Daisy Hill Farms was naming their rabbits with a K this year so I thought it would be good to do that.  I finally realized that Brett's last name from Germany used to be Korbon.  His great grandfather had changed it after coming to the states in WWI.  So we are going to name him Korbon.  We've had fun with the pronounciation. 

Sue came up with "korbunn".  So cute!  Brett came up with "korbon fiber" (as in carbon fiber to build boats and things or as in our red buck's fiber. LOL)   The actual prounounciation of it is "core-bawn" but we'll probably use korbin or korbunn.

New picture

This is a picture of our English baby buck at 4 week.  He is so much prettier in person.  He is very dark with his tort color starting to come through.  He has blackish ears and muzzle and a blue tint on his sides instead of tort.  Very interesting coloring.

Here are new pictures of my red buck and the chinchilla doe (Karen) coming...

New Pictures

Well my lettuce garden was doing great until Tuesday night.  I got home and went out front to check on it.  All the good, healthy one were chewed to the ground!  I doubt they'll come up again before the cold.  Lessons learned about country living.  Unfortunately I only got a picture of the eaten Lettuce. LOL

I plucked Lily the other morning, it was coming out in handfuls.  Her undercoat is very dark and very shiney.  She is ratty looking with some long hair and some short but her coloring is beautiful. 

We are preparing to expand our herd with the red buck and the chinchilla doe.  We'll be getting the English baby and Princess' babies next month.  I am so excited to expand the herd.  Cathy (at Beacon Bend Alapacas) and I are going to get together and knit and spin with each other.  She's going to teach me how to make hats and spin.  I can't wait to use Lily's fiber in a project this winter.  Princess' fiber is also coming in (after being plucked a few weeks ago) and it is lovely- The fiber has a reddish tint to it and a creamy tint.  Beautiful.  Cathy was showing me her "bands" on her coat- She is considered a wide band coloring. 

This week I took a crash course in color genetics (failed the test horribly) but learned a lot about the color genetics of the rabbits.  Betty Chu has a website with a color genetics page, full of information and examples.  Cathy had me figure out my new English tort baby's genetics and I got them right! 

I still have to come up with names for the red buck and the English baby.  (any ideas?)

Princess Pink was bred

After weeks of research and talking to a dozen breeders, we decided to bring her back to Cathy at Beacon Bend Alpacas and breed her to one of her bucks. Even though she wasn't in heat, we took her over there and put the two virgins together. It was successful in just a few minutes. She spent the night at their farm and they attempted a second breeding today but Princess wouldn't have any of it so I will be picking her up today and keeping my fingers crossed for the next 31 days. The buck has a beautiful and unusual color so I am really curious as to what color babies she'll have. We decided it would be best to go back to Cathy for Princess' first breeding where she was familiar and I was familiar.

We have had to adjust which rabbits we're getting from Daisy Hill Farms. We will be getting the red buck and the chinchilla doe, Karen in just under two weeks at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. I am really excited to go to the festival and learn more about the angoras, Pygoras and spinning. I hope that Brett can find silkie bearded bantam chicken breeders while we are there as well.

Settling In and Making Plans

Brett has planted grass inside the play pen of the stall for nights and rainy days.

Princess Pink shows a more daring side, throwing hay around everywhere and chewing up every basket and toy in sight. She leaves strings of giant rabbit pellets everywhere too. LOL

Her fiber is coming in nicely. She is a gorgeous dark red. As the fiber gets longer, it will lighten but she is a beautiful and fun rabbit.

Miss Lily has shown herself to be a neat and tidy little rabbit. She eats little and is very clean. The two couldn't be more different! LOL I have been plucking Miss Lily's fiber these last two weeks. She seems to enjoy the plucking and I have gotten some gorgeous fiber from her junior coat. Her undercoat is quite dark brown which surprised Brett and I. It will be interesting to see what her adult lilac coat comes in as.

Cathy finally found me the right comb for them. I had purchased a fancy, expensive stainless steel comb, a rotating teeth comb and a slicker brush. She sold me a comb with wide teeth and a wooden handle. The difference in combing is astonishing. The wooden comb is SO much better than the expensive comb. The slicker brush and new wooden handled comb make a perfect combo for grooming. (We will be investing in a blower as well. This will help with grooming and get their coats conditioned for showing, especially with the English Angoras.)

They both LOVE to get out and play every night in the stall playpen. Brett has set up the hay on a piece of ply on wood blocks and the "den" is their favorite place to dig. Princess Pink loves to dig. She gets her face brown. She gets in the "den" and starts pushing out the dirt and hay with her forepaws.

I have been doing a lot of research and have found more rabbits to add to my herd. I have found a breeder in Washington, Daisy Hill Farms, that has a beautiful red buck for me that I can breed to Princess. She also had several hybrids. I chose the white doe hybrid for her white fiber and the chinchilla doe for her color and the satin sheen she is showing in her wool. They will be joining us via the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby in two weeks. I can't wait! Brett will be building more hutches for our new tenants.

We also went and visited Beacon Bend Alpaca Farm where our does came from. Cathy's English Angoras had their kits. She is reserving one for me, the dark slate tort baby. I am so excited to get this adorable English to add to the herd. He is from excellent lines and showable. He is a gorgeous color as well.

I have just found out another litter of Satins was born a couple days ago. I was put on their waiting list and will be able to pick a buck from the litter. I am also hoping to get a doe from the litter as the lines are BCM and Daisy Hill, far from my girls. I can't wait to see them either.

Rabbits are very addictive. Their color and breeding, their fiber. I love to groom them and care for them every day. They are wonderful companions.

I am excited about my new rabbits coming. We will be breeding Princess Pink to the new Daisy Hill red buck coming the end of the month. The two should produce gorgeous red babies. Now I have to figure out names for the white doe, red buck and English baby!