Recently we had our lawn treated for bugs.  We were assured that the treatment was safe to all of our animals.  We never treat our lawn for dandelions or weeds, as those are great treats for our animals, so we were hesitant to treat for bugs, but it was a much needed thing.  

Well, in the midst of this I somehow managed to not use my brain.  We had one little buck that I had been taking extra care of, Sugar.  He was born on the wire on Valentines day.  He was the only survivor, and barely at that.  I fostered him to bigger litter to survive.  Well even at that he struggled.  So I made sure for 2 weeks to give him extra feedings.  And even with that, he struggled.  His eyes were last to open, he was very very small.  In fact, he was so small I fostered him into a smaller litter so that he matched sizes better.  As time went, he has remained very small so I have made sure to give him extra grazing time.  I leave long patches of grass in the lawn specifically for grazing.  So I went for my routine of putting him out to graze.  I check on them often and it wasn't long before I noticed he was sprawled out, much like they do in the heat of the summer.  It wasn't normal.  I quickly remembered the lawn had been sprayed the day before.  So I got him and put him back in his pen where he instantly layed down.  I knew that moment something happened.  I isolated him and began treating him.  I read up on the chemicals used and it was Fipronil.  Of course it isn't dangerous to cats or dogs, however... it is deadly to rabbits.  We can't find vets to give us proper advice... so why I thought a bug man could, was beyond me.  Why did I trust that it was safe for rabbits, just because he told me so?  
So we have been treating him for a week.  He has had a complete allergic reaction to it, with sniffles and wheezing and watery eyes.  I instantly dig up as much dandelion as I could and gave it to him every day.  It is a natural remedy for respiratory issues.  I instantly noticed improvement.  Each day he got a little better.  It's been almost 2 weeks and he looks like he will be just fine.
That being sad, he is still one I feel will always need TLC.  He is very tiny.  Just barely over a pound at almost 3 months old.  This means I would never take him to shows due to the stress it could put on him.  I wouldn't feel good selling him, because I want him to be so catered to.  So he will be staying with us.  On the bright side, he is adorable.  Possibly the best built rabbit we have.  Hard to believe he is so miniature.  

Sometimes I peruse the rabbitries or classifieds that have 6 week old babies for sale.  I look at some of mine at 6 weeks, all still with their mom snuggled up and I instantly feel saddened.  Not that I expect everyone to keep every rabbit they've ever bred, but if you are going to breed, you have to do it for some purpose other than just creating babies.  Just making money and having fun with babies is such a horrible reason to love animals.  But I think of how they must just really enjoy things.  Never being held accountable for their lies.  Just blissfully raising babies and making money.  Never dealing with the ups and downs of the uglies.  Or the immense feed bill as you grow out juniors, or the mass amounts of nail clipping and health checks.  Or the stress of cage space.  They just blissfully play with them while they are sweet and adorable and send them on their way.  How easy rabbit raising must be for them.  
I on the other hand begin routines from the day the baby is born.  We rub paws and handle so that they are very prepared for human relationships.  We check teeth on a weekly basis.  We continually monitor the health of all of our animals.  We get to know and understand each behavior and trait of our animals, so that when we do place them, we hopefully have a good match for them.  We recently had a little buck born on Valentines day.  He was found on the wire and cold, but warmed up quickly.  He was a singleton that had to be fostered to another litter.  Within days he was not thriving.  I spent much time with him in his first few weeks of life making sure he was getting fed.  Even with the extra help the cute guy just didn't grow.  Well, while spending so much extra time with a rabbit you get more attached to them.  At almost 3 months he is just over 1 pound.  Now sure, I could have shipped him off at 6 weeks and wished him luck.  Because the odds of me using him in my program are limited.  So I could have made that cut early.  But I am not in it for the money.  I am in it because I care dearly about the Holland lop breed.  Not about a specific color, or trait, but the breed itself.  This rabbit will require a very special home.  And until I encounter someone I see fit, I don't plan on him going anywhere.  
I spent some time getting pics of our juniors the other day.  Always so funny when their fur is molting across their face.  I've grown to love this goofy transition.  With our newly discovered dilute I am still working to understand it.  Our blue tort buck that we have fallen so in love with has molted into what now appears to be a blue point.  His type is however very nice so we struggle with our goal, of keeping what we can show, or keeping something that has good type that could still benefit our breeding program.  He still has some growing to do and someone who would really love to have him should we decide to bid him farewell.  
Our fuzzy Holland is, well to be honest, a mess!  I brush her multiple times a week, which I am assuming you don't have to do as much once they finish a molt.  I should have taken pictures of the mass amounts of fur that I brush from her.  She is still however adorable and lives up to her name, Glam.  Our neighbor has fallen in love with her and will be taking her soon which will be nice so that we can still see her develop.   
Belle, the dam who produced the 3 fuzzy hollands, our biggest boned doe, also produced the blue point, a blue tort and a beautiful sable.  We have been watching them grow and it is looking like this sable is probably the best we have produced.  All three have incredible type and are no doubt show worthy.  Now it's just making a decision who we feel will help us in our next round of line breeding.  Trouble, produced a  litter that at first I was less than thrilled about.  As they continue to mature I am really seeing some nice changes.  We for sure love the blue tort doe and have no doubts about her staying.  We also have two really nice sables and a solid tort doe that we will possibly be looking to place after we grow them a bit longer.  At this point all 3 are looking to be show worthy but one doe is very very small, so I prefer to put her into a home that is not interested in breeding.  I'm hoping to be listing our sale stock by the end of May.  
Honey also produced some incredible stock.  In fact she has no doubt out produced herself.  Quinne has a little broken doe that she is very excited to show, along with a nice solid buck.  Quinnes luck has been known to be bad in our rabbitry, despite the fact she puts the most effort into it.  So I am really really crossing my fingers that her little broken doe works out well for her.  She is a sassy little thing and although she can pose, she gets very irritated at our desire to have her do so.  I think this picture captures her grumpy expression when we put her on the table.  

After spending 2 years getting to know the Holland Lop Breed I have become comfortable with the knowledge of a few things.  I can pick out traits I like and don't like rather quickly.  I have a better direction than when we started.  I can officially "Feel" or "Get My Hands On" a rabbit and actually know what that means.  But one thing I have come to rely on in the world of Holland Lops, is that Mother Nature plays in opposites.  If we are hoping for bucks, we for sure will get does and if we want does, we for sure get bucks.  For spring we bred specifically for brokens.  We got one.  Out of many litters we got one.  And it's looking like she isn't even the best of the group.  We didn't want dilute and aren't as fond of the overly trendy sable, but guess what we now have a ALOT of?  We waited and were so excited for a litter out of Belle, or biggest widest doe... and we were pleased with her amazing litter!  Some of the best stock we had seen in our barn... until it turned out to be fuzzy!  I am going to work really hard to use reverse psychology on Mother Nature.  Perhaps if I think hard of what I don't want... I will instead end up with litters full of what I do want!  Wouldn't that just be great if we could really play that card on Mother Nature.  Ha.  On the bright side, our dilutes and sables are looking INCREDIBLE so I won't complain.  Our line breeding has been time consuming and frustrating, but at the same time very rewarding.  We have learned so much on recessive genes and have worked really hard to lock in some nice traits which will hopefully show next time we get them on the tables.  
We'll end this blog with our best example of our curse of opposites.  So we are most critical of our bucks.  To date... we have only kept one... and haven't used him.. just love him.  So we finally kept one buck that we were really excited about.  Kait kept the name Finn for someone special she could love. Well, before any shows could happen his sibling chewed off all his fur in a day.  One day to destroy his coat and months to get it back.  Months of missed shows.  So as if that wasn't awful enough, he somehow managed to cut his nose.  We have looked all through the cage for any sort of sharp edge and I can find nothing.  So despite the fact he won't be at any shows, we do feel he has the makings of a herd buck.  

Well with our first true baby boom I have come to one conclusion.  I am far too critical.  I sit and nit pick every little detail of every rabbit.  We have very high standards.  We have read the posts from top breeders that explain, if you want to succeed with a small rabbitry you have to cull hard.  So with that in mind we have culled for the traits we absolutely will not have in our rabbitry.  So far we have yet to ever encounter any issues with teeth.  (Now I have certainly jinxed us).  We have culled for splits and will not do repeat breedings because we do not want this in our line and will never rebreed if we have this issue.  Not saying everyone needs to do this, but this is the standards we have set.  We have recently discovered we have fuzzy in our line.  We will not repeat breed, nor use the fuzzy line in our breedings.  I have read where top breeders are doing so successfully and that is great for them, however, we have set that standard for our rabbitry to not do so.  We have spent the last 2 years studying and working with what we have to improve and I am hoping to do a great blog on it soon.  Our line breeding was done specifically so that we can lock in some traits that we like, and know as much as possible about our line before moving on.  All of our does have only produced 1-2 litters before moving on on being retired.  Why?  Because our goal was to produce something better than the dam.  Not to breed the dam a million times as a pet factory.  Our rabbits are not pez dispensers and I resent the rabbitries that are.  They make me feel vile and hostile.  Nothing disgusts me more than the breeders posting their adorable little babies for sale as show or breeding stock.  I mentally curse them every single time I read their posts and envision flicking them in the forehead.  Yes babies are cute.  Yes babies are fun.  Yes babies are rewarding for all the hard work.  But enough already.  There is a difference when you see breeders working to improve and possibly have to sell a few pets here and there to accomadate a mounding feed bill.  But when you can clearly see people aren't keeping any from their litters it's a sure sign they have no intentions of bettering anything more than their wallet.  
So now my rant of the week is over.  As critical as I am of other peoples rabbits, I am twice as critical of ours.  I have gotten rid of several potential herd bucks on a whim because I didn't like them that day.  The cute guys still  get happy lives on a farm so I don't feel bad about it, but at times, I wonder.. am I too critical?  On a whim of being critical I listed two does as pets.  Within a couple of days I canceled the listing.  Now almost 2 weeks have passed and they are looking really really nice.  Just in 2 weeks.  Huge difference.  Two weeks ago I was ready to throw in the towel on our Hollands until the Fall.  I felt like our juniors were terrible and our line breeding was a huge waste of time.  I felt defeated.  Yesterday I pulled everyone out and looked again.  Now I feel defeated in a different way.  They are all looking so incredible that I don't know where I will put them all.  Now it's more like, come on, can't one of you turn really ugly.  But no, we have some nice thick limbs, nice wide shoulders, nice big round eyes, very full hq, shorter bodies than we have had in the past.  It seems things are finally coming together!  I'm not super excited that we have dilute locked in our lines but I am happy with so many other traits.  
So in the midst of being in love with all our juniors today, I have also fallen in love with our one Fuzzy tort that we still have.  I brush her almost every day and she is so sweet.  Not like I need another pet... but I am afraid she is here to stay.  Perhaps if a special home comes along later on down the road she can go stay there but for now she is staying.  
I will be working on updating our website photos in the near future.  It was on this weeks agenda, but burrrr.  Not happening in this wind.  I think if you are going to take the time to do a website you should also take the time to keep it current.  The bucks I have on my site have changed so much since last year.  Buddah has matured beautifully.  Does are the hardest for me to keep current because when they are on a litter I hate pictures of them, then I never get around to it again.  So that will be our new chore this spring.

This Doe has reaffirmed what I thought about Fudge.  Last year she produced a kit that I felt was the best we had produced.  Sadly while on vacation she didn't fare so well.  We don't breed often so waited a long time for her next litter and only had a singleton.  Luckily she turned out gorgeous.  Fudge is now our favorite doe.  

Our cute Little Buddah.  He is such a sturdy buck.  He keeps growing but his weight stays at a constant 4 lbs.  I love him!  

Meet AceHops Glam.  My favorite part about her?  Her fuzzy little feet!