In the midst of all the sadness that has happened here, we have also had a lot of excitement.  After many misses I finally gave in and bred pretty much every doe.  Which really isn't that many here, but it still gave me anxiety.  And wouldn't you know, they all took!  
Belle who had been very stubborn and not willing to breed for over a year, finally gave in.  This was our first line breeding using son to dam.  Belle is our largest girl, and yet she is a true dwarf.  She carries our largest bone and biggest head out of the ladies.  We are thrilled to have two torts and a sable to grow out and hopefully show this fall.  She also produced Rudys last buck.  
Honey, one of our older homegrowns has never been a big producer.  We had 2 litters out of her, but nothing that we felt helped our herd.  She however has some nice features that we did want to utilize.  Before retiring her we decided to try her a few more times.  She had delivered her last litter a week early and none were developed enough to survive.  I feared she was nearing the end of her production time.  The last round she delivered 2 peanuts after a difficult labor.  I was sad to not have a baby from her, as I had hoped for a doe to carry her line.  The following day I went out and she was busy pulling fur in her nestbox.  What do you know, one healthy little tort doe!  
Clover, my favorite doe in the herd, kindled 2 cuties.  A black buck and a tort doe.  This black buck is thee widest baby we have ever had in our  litters.  He has a massive head, short and wide body and I can not wait to see him mature.  
Moonshine, my difficult girl... has a habbit of kindling on the wire.  I was lucky to save her littler of blue points.  I wasn't so lucky with her other litter.  Well day 31 came and went and she did not attempt to kindle.  Then I decided to go check her at 1 in the morning and sure enough, kits on the wire.  I began to clean them off feeling sad to lose an entire litter again.  As I peeled one poor little baby up, yes peeled, because it was literally stuck to the wire... I felt movement.  I hurried and got it in and warmed it up and cleaned it off.  I spent the rest of the night cuddling it to keep it warm against my skin.  By morning it was warm and I let it reside with Honeys little singleton.  I was hoping for a blue, however I still honestly can't tell you what he is.  In pictures he looks siamese sable according to all the smart rabbit people.  In person... he still  looks blue to me.  So I guess time will tell.  Regardless of color he has a massive head and is really really cute.  Lots of growing to do, and reality is... Siamese Sable or blue isn't known for having the best type so I'm trying not to get too attached.
On top of the baby boom, Quinne had her other litter of torts who are all looking very very nice, thanks to Little Rascals.  And we have a littler of brokens who are getting hit hard with the uglies so we have some time to tell if we have any show hopefuls.  But it looks like this fall the girls will have a few rabbits each to finally show!

Well our sad times didn't end with Buddha.  I had not even quite digested the fact that he was gone and our breeding program had to rely on his offspring, that we lost another buck.  This time it happened to be the most special buck we had bred.  Not that his type was the most exceptional, however he did throw some nice babies.  His personality was one in a million.  He loved to be loved.  He lived in an outdoor pen.  It had a flat roof on it for shelter.  He would jump up on top as soon as we came outside and await his love.  If you ignored him he would stand on his hind legs and sit upright begging.  He even got my husband in on the love.  He never went without noticed.  He spent a solid year in his pen with the full option to run free had he chose to.  But he didn't.  He was happy with the obstacles and safety.  Then one of our last big storms, something happened.  Not quite sure what enticed him to leave his pen but he did.  Sadly our puppy was elated to go out and find a friend to play with in the yard.  The bounding 65 pound puppy love was too much for Rudy to endure.  
I sit and think back, I never should have kept him outside.  But then I think he was so happy out there.  Then I think I should have kept a solid roof on his pen.  But then I think, he couldn't have jumped up and interacted with all of us like he did.  He was able to have such a fun relationship with us.  All I can do now is be thankful for that time and hope to meet another as sweet and amazing as he was in my lifetime.  The only consolation is that we have a darling Rudy junior buck growing and 3 Rudy does.  He has also left us with Vader and Hooch who both have very darling personalities.  As far as letting them express themselves in an outdoor pen I've decided nobody gets free time quite the same anymore.  

I have read many a sad post about the loss of rabbits.  Of course I feel badly for others when it happens, but i think I was living in this bubble that nothing could happen here.  We had never lost a herd animal.  We haven't dealt with illness, or disease.  I felt so lucky and breeders would tell me how lucky I was.  
Well, our luck has changed.  I could say it changed in the fact we have hardly had any litters.  I miss them, but at the same time it's not the worst thing in the world.  But it changed because we lost 2 very special herd animals in 2 weeks.
I have been lectured time and time again for not breeding our animals more often.  I have talked to people who have lost their rabbits to Uterine cancer.  I had been worried that time would come to us, being that ours don't produce much so it increases the odds.  Well our poor little Zilla seems to have taken that fate.  I didn't take her in for an autopsy but she had the classic symptoms.  She was out of our very first littler born here.  She was our first Grand Champion.  Beyond those things, she was adorable and so very sweet.  Her cage was the first top cage directly outside our back door, and she was the first I would greet in the morning, Hello Zilla Bunz.  When she was gone I couldn't even put another rabbit in her cage for a week.  Nobody quite fits her shoes.  
I hadn't quite recovered from the loss of our cute girl then to be faced with another.  This time, our main herd buck.  The boy our entire line breeding project revolved around.  I took him out and posed him.  He looked so amazing, the best I had seen him look.  I had planned on doing a photo shoot with him that evening.  I left huge areas of our lawn with tall grass for them to graze and brought him out for some play time.  It has been a 3 year routine to alternate them so they each get a few hours in the lawn.  Well when I went out to check on him.... he was dead.  It wasn't even 80 out and the tall grass was damp and cool, but I honestly feel like he died of heat exhaust.  It broke my heart and I will forever feel responsible for his loss.  If I would have just left him in his cage that day he would still be here.  He was the most mellow boy on the planet.  When we would bring him in to play, he would instantly pose, and just sit there forever like a statue.  When I would feed him in the morning he would grab the feed cup and tip it really fast, leaving it no choice but to spill out everywhere.   He gave his offspring that same sweet nature.  I hadn't been using him lately, as I was trying out a few of his sons.  I did however do one breeding with him, however am unsure if the doe took.  I am crossing my fingers I get at least one last Buddha litter but hate to get my hopes up.  

Sadly we kept nothing out of our first littler of Zilla.  I am so sad now that we parted with babies.  We had tried for 2 years to get a litter from her again to no avail.
Buddah however will live on forever in our rabbitry.  He is the outline of everything we have.  He sired Rudy, our gorgeous Blue point buck, and Theo our cute tort buck who already has one leg.  He has sired a good chunk of our does.  Moonshine, Pancake, Belle, Tiny, Queen Bee.  Pretty much everything we have going forward came from him.  He will not be forgotten.

 Boy my mind is rambling with all sorts of stuff.  Stuff to sell.  Stuff we're excited about and stuff that bugs me.  

So our litters have been sporadic.  We have proven does that act completely bred, and make lovely nests... i swear I even feel babies.  Then come die date... nothing.  After talking with some other breeders I almost feel like it's a feed issue.  I have had one doe abort, which was a first ever for me, and other breeders have had this same problem for the first time ever.  I however am not a big fan of switching feed.  For one I have tried every type in the state and my animals hate it all.  So I am working on supplementing.  Not only did my does not deliver... my bucks have chewed their coats off.  Only the bucks.  It has to be something hormonal effecting both sexes in different ways.  Hoping to see some turn arounds soon, however this puts our pretty bucks off the show tables until Fall.  We finally get somethigng to show and bam, no fur.  Way it goes for us I suppose.
On a happier note, (I still have stuff that bugs me though) we have have some really really cute tort juniors growing.  Our only litters right now, are in thanks to a couple people.  Our friend at Wild Iris Rabbitry was super nice and let us take in her gorgeous Broken Sable Point Doe.  She was a bit snarly at first, but now all is well and she currently has a cute litter of brokens growing, making this our first broken sable in the nestbox.  Our other litter is Quinnes and it is looking amazing.  They are all torts so that always makes me happier.  This is a fun litter, because our friend over at Little Rascals was nice enough to let us borrow a buck we were transporting for her.  He was a big guy and it looks like some of that mass rubbed off onto his offspring.  This combined with a beautiful doe from the Taylors will hopefully produce some nice stuff for Quinne to put on the tables this year.

I will be listing a few animals to sell soon.  I have a few blue point bucks that I will still be growing out.  I don't plan on keeping them, as we try to focus on show stock, however they are looking so nice it really disturbs me.  So hard to let go of stuff that may be nicer than your other stuff.  With that being said, we plan on making this call by the June show.  All animals listed carry sable and dillute.  Other stock we will be listing:
Sr Black Buck (white toe nails) not showable but nice type.  125.00
Sr. Black Doe (white toe nails) not showable. Amazing type.  May get a litter from her first.  150.00
Sr. Black tort doe.  Very nice brood doe.  Still maturing, slow growing but Great  lines.  Tight crown.   75.00
Jr Sable Point Doe.  On the smaller side, balanced and typey.  75.00
Jr. Blue Point Buck. Not showable  Nice bone and width. Loose crown with some midsection length  75.00
Jr. Fuzzy Sable Point Buck.  Not Showable.   Very typey.  Would love to keep it if it weren't fuzzy.  50.00
  

A year ago when we realized we had our first blue point buck we were unsure of what to do with him.  We listed him, then quickly changed our mind.  He had this massive head that we needed and his personality defines a Holland.  He is beyond adorable.  He is like a puppy and a cat combined.  When you call him he runs to you and rubs his head against you like a cat.  So clearly we were attached to him.  So we figured why not, what could go wrong.  He has the type we need and want so he shall stay.  Well... we now find ourselves with 4 blue point junior bucks!  And they aren't just random bucks.  They are all looking very very nice.  Quite the goofy dilema.  So clearly I don't want a solid herd of unshowable gorgeous blue points, but they are so nice they will really help someone elses herd in time.  So on that note, let the growing begin!

I read all too often of people going out of their way to keep their rabbits from winter.  I learned long ago that ours love it!  They relish it more so than summer.  I captured a cute picture of Rudy playing.  He has a big pen with a nice cozy bed.  Due to the amount of snow, it created enough of an area that he was able to jump out, onto the lid of his pen, and cross over to my snow covered garden cart.  From there he could roam the yard, but he is content just owning that area of the yard.  He always looks so cute when I go out in the morning, sitting like he is king of the hill.  

It's almost funny at this point.  I know so many people that breed specifically to get sables and get everything but.  I breed for a line breeding project, prefer not to get sables and am getting almost complete litters of sables.  That being said, I sure can't deny their cuteness.  Kait is in Fuzzy denial, but I am almost certain at least 2 of our kits are fuzzy.  

As the kids are all enjoying the fluffy babies I am more and more in love with our juniors.  We are fighting over a name for our cute black buck so for now nothing is confirmed.  I had to share this funny funny picture of him.  When he was born I said right off his head was massive.  It has  not changed.  He is 3 months old and his head is surely too big for his body at this phase in his life.  It is comical to me.  He looks like a bobble head.

So I am clearly insane... because January is a terrible time for a baby boom!  After several does missing, and first time mom troubles I went on a frenzy and now... well, we have babies!  However we did have some new lessons learned which equated to losing a few kits.  
As I posted before CreamPuff kindled 9 kits, one was DOA.  That left us with 8 kits, so I fostered 2 to a first time mom, as that was our only option.  Little did I realize the first time mom wasn't feeding good and we lost them.  That put us down to 6 sables.  And at 3 weeks we had a fader, so down to 5.  Looks like some gorgeous babies though!  Huge heads.  Can't wait to watch them grow.  
Star had 2 little babies, that were in the group not being fed.  They are so tiny they don't even look real.  It's as if they grew fur but are still newborn sized.  I spent a solid week feeding them by hand with cat milk replacer.  It kept them alive, however they didn't grow much.  Finally, after Cream Puff was down to 5 kits, I fostered these 2 in with her.  They are now looking much better... but very very small.  
Our first time mom Pancake, never appeared to be pregnant so I wasn't getting my hopes up but then she surprised me with 3 gorgeous fat short chunky babies!  She is a very attentive first timer!  Maybe too attentive so I have to watch her close.  After a few years under our belt of babies... I usually can tell what they are at birth.  We have torts, and blacks and sables, so easy enough.  Well, I have no clue what her babies are.  None of them have the tort lines, or saddles?  I'm so impatient, I want to know the second I see them, but looks like I will have to wait a few days for fur.  I'm leaning toward blue torts or blue sables though.
On that side note, Moonshine, our cute little blue tort doe, finally kindled.  She has spent a week making the fluffiest most detailed nest I have ever seen.  Then had one baby on the floor.  Sigh.  Luckily I found it in time to revive it and it's doing well.  It also happens to have thee largest head we have ever seen on a baby holland born in our herd!  Being a singleton I transitioned it with Pancake.
Our juniors are looking fantastic.  Our 2 black babies out of Rudy are so exciting!  The buck is by far my favorite buck we have produced.  He may end up being on the smaller side, but I love so much about him, he really exemplifies what we have been aiming for in our herd.  The doe has such a nice full body and heavy bone.  So excited Rudy is able to produce well.  Hopefully the same goes with Pancake and Moonshine babies.
Our other juniors ebb and flow.  I have loved my little doe from the get go, AceHops Queen B.  I also really liked a buck in the group.. but now I am unsure.  As for the other buck and doe, I wasn't as fond of them, however got them out yesterday and wow!  They are really nice.  Back to the grow tank for them all.  
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