Can you tell I'm on holidays? 2 blogs in one day is unheard of for us, especially this time of year. I'm actually having time to relax. OMG!!!
Anyway, we are cage crunched(whats new) and were figuring out holes. We have 100 holes and yet still we are out of room!! We need to move some Mini lops out fast! We are way over in the breed for our number of holes(54). 22 dwarf holes, 12 french and 12 Satin.
We have 8 Satins with 8 babies in the boxes. 11 French with 11 babies in the boxes, 50 Mini lops in our "keep list" with another 17 to decide on.. omg! Plus numerous litters that we have decided on with some that are way too nice to cull.. We are at 9 dwarfs with one upcoming litter. No mini lops are bred!
My exciting news is I'm going into poultry and waterfowl as well as the rabbits. Plus my cows too of course(Red Angus, Black Angus and a little Hereford). Anyway Water fowl we are going to raise Pekin, Cayuga, Khaki Campbell and White call ducks). Chickens/poultry we are going to raise White, Blue and Black silkies(maybe buffs too), Buff Brahmas(bantam and standard) and Cochins in Blue,Black, Buff and Partridge : )Plus have a flock of just layers in a mix of breeds :)
Anyway check our for sale page for GREAT deals.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
1/2 the barn powerwashed
We got half the barn powerwashed this morning. We did each cage, and pan. We also powerwashed the floor. We still have the 3 stackers and the other side of the barn to do but it was a good job to get done today. It is supposed to be about 100 F here today. It was up to 111 F the past couple of days. It was crazy! We all hate this heat.
We lost 3 rabbits in this heat :(
We are in the process of buying an air conditioner for the barn. This heat was too intense and with no insulation and a metal roof the barn doesn't get as warm as outside but it was 35.5 degrees C the past couple of afternoons. TOO HOT. We have 5 fans going- including an industrial fan, frozen pop bottles in each cage and a soaker hose on the roof.
Last weekend we brought home 39 ducklings- 35 pekins, a pair of white calls, and a pair of Khaki campbells. We also came home with 24 chicks :)
We are making a deal on Mini lops to make cage space- Buy any 3 mini lops on the for sale page, and get a 4th for free : )
We lost 3 rabbits in this heat :(
We are in the process of buying an air conditioner for the barn. This heat was too intense and with no insulation and a metal roof the barn doesn't get as warm as outside but it was 35.5 degrees C the past couple of afternoons. TOO HOT. We have 5 fans going- including an industrial fan, frozen pop bottles in each cage and a soaker hose on the roof.
Last weekend we brought home 39 ducklings- 35 pekins, a pair of white calls, and a pair of Khaki campbells. We also came home with 24 chicks :)
We are making a deal on Mini lops to make cage space- Buy any 3 mini lops on the for sale page, and get a 4th for free : )
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Our crazy life
Life has been so very insanely busy that there has been no time for blogs. I really and truly hope that August can be and will be a slower month for us, although I seriously doubt that.
Today we were helping a fellow breeder(Kathy Mannweiller) look through her awesome Mini Satins and Florida Whites. Watch out! She has some nice ones coming up! Kathy always gives us a run for our money in her breeds on the BIS table!!
Tomorrow we are first if we can make enough time going to start working on the chicken coop/run, and the inside pens for the chicks/ducklings. Then we have to be in Nanoose at 10:00 to get a Mille Fleur rooster and also look through some of Wally's Hollands. Then we are heading up to Comox to take 7 chickens to Kelly along with her Champagne buck, and dropping 10 rabbits off to Amanda Swan, and picking up our chicks and ducklings.
Saturday we are taking the day off and just having a farm day!
Then back to work on Sunday. Starting next Thursday I have 9 days off(possibly 10) crosses fingers! And won't have to go back to work until the following Saturday or Sunday. We have a trip planned to Kamloops in amongst everything else.
Rabbits are all doing well. The high heat has not been something any of us have liked but we've all dealt with it okay. We purchased 2 cows last weekend(total of 4 cows now) we got a Gelveigh Cow and her Red Angus/Gelveigh heifer calf. Beautiful girls! We need to get pics of the 4 cows to show them off, they look super!
French lop pages are now up on the website, although quite a few more rabbits to add on yet. Because we only have 12 holes for the Satins, and 18 for the French I'm selling some of the animals this fall(not the ones on my regular pages, just the ones on the for sale pages). Rugby Emerald and Squirrely are here for life : )
Dogs/cats are all fine. Between weddings and meetings and potlucks and company from Saskatchewan and everything else it has just been exhausting! :- ) Oh well I'll wait until October and then I'll be bored again ;) Just kidding!
Today we were helping a fellow breeder(Kathy Mannweiller) look through her awesome Mini Satins and Florida Whites. Watch out! She has some nice ones coming up! Kathy always gives us a run for our money in her breeds on the BIS table!!
Tomorrow we are first if we can make enough time going to start working on the chicken coop/run, and the inside pens for the chicks/ducklings. Then we have to be in Nanoose at 10:00 to get a Mille Fleur rooster and also look through some of Wally's Hollands. Then we are heading up to Comox to take 7 chickens to Kelly along with her Champagne buck, and dropping 10 rabbits off to Amanda Swan, and picking up our chicks and ducklings.
Saturday we are taking the day off and just having a farm day!
Then back to work on Sunday. Starting next Thursday I have 9 days off(possibly 10) crosses fingers! And won't have to go back to work until the following Saturday or Sunday. We have a trip planned to Kamloops in amongst everything else.
Rabbits are all doing well. The high heat has not been something any of us have liked but we've all dealt with it okay. We purchased 2 cows last weekend(total of 4 cows now) we got a Gelveigh Cow and her Red Angus/Gelveigh heifer calf. Beautiful girls! We need to get pics of the 4 cows to show them off, they look super!
French lop pages are now up on the website, although quite a few more rabbits to add on yet. Because we only have 12 holes for the Satins, and 18 for the French I'm selling some of the animals this fall(not the ones on my regular pages, just the ones on the for sale pages). Rugby Emerald and Squirrely are here for life : )
Dogs/cats are all fine. Between weddings and meetings and potlucks and company from Saskatchewan and everything else it has just been exhausting! :- ) Oh well I'll wait until October and then I'll be bored again ;) Just kidding!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
New pictures!
Lots of new pictures have been posted on our website. Juniors pages (all but 1 junior is now pictured!), Bucks page, and some on Does too!
Lots of new pics of the For sale page too!
See website here!
Shipping available for trios or more, and there is room left on our Waiting list for this Fall!
Lots of new pics of the For sale page too!
See website here!
Shipping available for trios or more, and there is room left on our Waiting list for this Fall!
Monday, July 13, 2009
The first of the cut backs
As we try to get the Mini lop herd down to 40 animals(this is tough)!!!
We've decided to part with so far:
Well I guess I should say first that we have 7 chocolate carrier animals, 6 of them being from Flick!!
So we are going to keep a trio. Cristina looked through them yesterday and I trust her opinion so I'm going to post the first 4 animals that we were going to keep available. Now, a couple of these won't be for sale until after at least VIEX which is August 22/23 weekend as we would most likely want to show them(dont want to sell too many of the show animals before our 2 shows that weekend and the labour day weekend. Anyone coming off Island to VIEX that might be interested can take them end of that weekend, otherwise we might keep them until the labour day weekend to show and then they can go.
Anyway the 4 chocolate carriers available are:
Posey's Grace- Beautiful broken smoke pearl senior doe. The only reason for letting her go is we are keeping Porter her son. Grace has small litters(3 in a litter) but has had 2 nice litters for us. We love her son Porter, unfortunetly her 2nd litter only one survived and he just can't beat Porter.
Mitchell's Papaya- I love this little buck(Broken lilac tort) but we are trying to cut back just like Jody is, and decrease our huge feed bill each month as well!
Posey's Rider- Blue jr buck- really promising buck- want to show him
Posey's ? Broken Chin jr buck- our pick of litter from GC Apple Cinnamon, and Posey's Flick. Want to show him as well.
So those 3 bucks and 1 doe will also be for sale... More to be added!
Will write more blogs this week. Probably won't have time to go through anything else until at least Thursday but there is a start!
Our 3 chocolate carrier keepers are a broken blue jr doe, full sibling to Rider. A lilac jr doe(full sibling to the broken chin buck) and Porter a broken lilac buck- really nice son of Grace.
Kim & Cristina
We've decided to part with so far:
Well I guess I should say first that we have 7 chocolate carrier animals, 6 of them being from Flick!!
So we are going to keep a trio. Cristina looked through them yesterday and I trust her opinion so I'm going to post the first 4 animals that we were going to keep available. Now, a couple of these won't be for sale until after at least VIEX which is August 22/23 weekend as we would most likely want to show them(dont want to sell too many of the show animals before our 2 shows that weekend and the labour day weekend. Anyone coming off Island to VIEX that might be interested can take them end of that weekend, otherwise we might keep them until the labour day weekend to show and then they can go.
Anyway the 4 chocolate carriers available are:
Posey's Grace- Beautiful broken smoke pearl senior doe. The only reason for letting her go is we are keeping Porter her son. Grace has small litters(3 in a litter) but has had 2 nice litters for us. We love her son Porter, unfortunetly her 2nd litter only one survived and he just can't beat Porter.
Mitchell's Papaya- I love this little buck(Broken lilac tort) but we are trying to cut back just like Jody is, and decrease our huge feed bill each month as well!
Posey's Rider- Blue jr buck- really promising buck- want to show him
Posey's ? Broken Chin jr buck- our pick of litter from GC Apple Cinnamon, and Posey's Flick. Want to show him as well.
So those 3 bucks and 1 doe will also be for sale... More to be added!
Will write more blogs this week. Probably won't have time to go through anything else until at least Thursday but there is a start!
Our 3 chocolate carrier keepers are a broken blue jr doe, full sibling to Rider. A lilac jr doe(full sibling to the broken chin buck) and Porter a broken lilac buck- really nice son of Grace.
Kim & Cristina
Friday, July 10, 2009
40
Cristina and I are finding that we don't have the sales for pet stock or meat stock in the Mini lops. We can sell the French lops and the Satins for meat no problem because of their size. The Netherland dwarfs easily sell for pets.
The mini lops we normally just donate to the local raptor centre, but with the Mini lops being so prolific and for every 5 does we have bred we have ended up with over 40+ babies with those 5 litters for the most part. We are not complaining about that at all, but, when you have 30+ babies to cull and the raptor centre is full, and your freezer is full, and you can't sell them as pets(everyone wants Holland lops) what do you do? We've luckily found someone up Island that will take our 20+ culls this weekend and butcher them for dog food. Which works great for us, but the next time we have another 20+ babies and everything is full what should we do?
We are going to cut back to 40 Mini lops. We have lots of show and breeding sales, but as you all know you don't have a litter of 8 with 8 top show prospects at least not usually. We have enough breeding/show sales until next spring with a big waiting list.
If we cut down to 40 Mini lops we can save a little bit on our feed bill as well which is about $200 a month(just on feed!) not including hay, treat mix, or shavings.
So by the fall we plan to be down to 40 Mini lops which is still lots and we should be able to do that! look at Nicole Velotta's awesome Mini lops(Velotta's Rabbitry) with I think she has under 15 holes. Maybe it was under 12. Something like that! And her quality has only improved since she cut back so much.
Mini lops will still be our largest breed, as the other breeds only have 18 holes for French lops, 12 for Satins, and 15 for Netherland dwarfs. The other 15 holes from the Mini lops that we are cutting back on will probably go towards the Netherland dwarfs and Red Satins.
The mini lops we normally just donate to the local raptor centre, but with the Mini lops being so prolific and for every 5 does we have bred we have ended up with over 40+ babies with those 5 litters for the most part. We are not complaining about that at all, but, when you have 30+ babies to cull and the raptor centre is full, and your freezer is full, and you can't sell them as pets(everyone wants Holland lops) what do you do? We've luckily found someone up Island that will take our 20+ culls this weekend and butcher them for dog food. Which works great for us, but the next time we have another 20+ babies and everything is full what should we do?
We are going to cut back to 40 Mini lops. We have lots of show and breeding sales, but as you all know you don't have a litter of 8 with 8 top show prospects at least not usually. We have enough breeding/show sales until next spring with a big waiting list.
If we cut down to 40 Mini lops we can save a little bit on our feed bill as well which is about $200 a month(just on feed!) not including hay, treat mix, or shavings.
So by the fall we plan to be down to 40 Mini lops which is still lots and we should be able to do that! look at Nicole Velotta's awesome Mini lops(Velotta's Rabbitry) with I think she has under 15 holes. Maybe it was under 12. Something like that! And her quality has only improved since she cut back so much.
Mini lops will still be our largest breed, as the other breeds only have 18 holes for French lops, 12 for Satins, and 15 for Netherland dwarfs. The other 15 holes from the Mini lops that we are cutting back on will probably go towards the Netherland dwarfs and Red Satins.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
For Sale page updated
Our for sale page was updated today. A few new juniors added, and new pictures of Kingston!
We did get dwarf pictures today, I will work on adding a Dwarf page tomorrow evening... Also Satin pictures of the 2 junior does we are keeping from our litters earlier this Spring.
I did add several pictures on my Facebook account, for anyone who wants to see tonight. Otherwise, will post tomorrow once up!
We did get dwarf pictures today, I will work on adding a Dwarf page tomorrow evening... Also Satin pictures of the 2 junior does we are keeping from our litters earlier this Spring.
I did add several pictures on my Facebook account, for anyone who wants to see tonight. Otherwise, will post tomorrow once up!
Friday, July 03, 2009
Netherland Dwarfs
So a new project for our farm. The Netherland Dwarfs. For those that remember when Selina lived with us a few years ago, she bred Himi and Shaded Dwarfs. She really enjoyed them, however after she moved back to Yellowknife, Kim and I were busy with our breeds and decided to part with the dwarfs.
Over the last few years, as Selina is out to visit, she has mentioned that she missed the dwarfs, and quite honestly so did we!
So, after taking several months to think about it, we decided to convert the one sheep shed into another rabbit barn, to house the Dwarfs (as well as the cavies, and over-flow Mini Lop juniors).
Selina is looking forward to working with them again, and I know she will be giving us her opinion through pictures and will be out here as much as she can (she should be moving closer shortly).
This time, we are breeding Black Otter and Chestnuts. We picked up 4 animals from Mike Ritter, and Shauna Kennedy of Twig's Rabbity kindly gave us a super cute Chestnut buck and Black Otter doe to work with as well! Thank you Mike & Shauna.
Dwarf Herd:
Twig's Joel (Chestnut buck) - Twig's Cade (Chestnut) X Twig's Skaha (Blue)
Twig's Emma (Black Otter doe) - Hobb's Winston (Chestnut) X Twig's Naughty Pine (Chestnut)
Ritter's Matt -CA- (Black Otter buck / 1 leg) - Ritter's Ace (Black) X Ritter's CET (Blue Otter)
Sonshine's Keno - AR1- (Black Otter buck / 3 legs) - R&S Ariston (Black Otter) X Tanglewood's Rhonda (Black Otter)
Ritter's Olivia -S5- (Black Otter doe) - Hill's Samson, 9 legs (Black Otter) X Stapleton's SSM5 (Black Otter)
Ritter's Mae - S2- (Black Otter doe) - Hill's Samson, 9 legs (Black Otter) X BGB's 1 (Black Otter)
So, those are the dwarfs. We will try to get pictures of them all shortly!
Over the last few years, as Selina is out to visit, she has mentioned that she missed the dwarfs, and quite honestly so did we!
So, after taking several months to think about it, we decided to convert the one sheep shed into another rabbit barn, to house the Dwarfs (as well as the cavies, and over-flow Mini Lop juniors).
Selina is looking forward to working with them again, and I know she will be giving us her opinion through pictures and will be out here as much as she can (she should be moving closer shortly).
This time, we are breeding Black Otter and Chestnuts. We picked up 4 animals from Mike Ritter, and Shauna Kennedy of Twig's Rabbity kindly gave us a super cute Chestnut buck and Black Otter doe to work with as well! Thank you Mike & Shauna.
Dwarf Herd:
Twig's Joel (Chestnut buck) - Twig's Cade (Chestnut) X Twig's Skaha (Blue)
Twig's Emma (Black Otter doe) - Hobb's Winston (Chestnut) X Twig's Naughty Pine (Chestnut)
Ritter's Matt -CA- (Black Otter buck / 1 leg) - Ritter's Ace (Black) X Ritter's CET (Blue Otter)
Sonshine's Keno - AR1- (Black Otter buck / 3 legs) - R&S Ariston (Black Otter) X Tanglewood's Rhonda (Black Otter)
Ritter's Olivia -S5- (Black Otter doe) - Hill's Samson, 9 legs (Black Otter) X Stapleton's SSM5 (Black Otter)
Ritter's Mae - S2- (Black Otter doe) - Hill's Samson, 9 legs (Black Otter) X BGB's 1 (Black Otter)
So, those are the dwarfs. We will try to get pictures of them all shortly!
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Website Updated!
Two blogs in one day. Wow... It must be summer!!
So as you can tell, we haven't been very diligent about writing blogs daily, like we used to. But, we need to try and write them more often then we have.
We went through a whole slew of Mini Lops earlier today before it heated up. It was smokin' out there this afternoon (at least for the Island it was... was 85. I know, I know, not bad compared to other parts of the world. But still! I like 20 C the best, like last week. Lol)
Anyway, before I get TOO off topic. Our website has been updated - see the updated for sale page as well as the new Mini Lop Pre-Junior page.
We have LOTS of Mini Lops for sale. All breedings have stopped for now, in Mini Lops, as the does did such a fantastic job we are over-run with juniors. What a great breed they are! :-) Looking forward to a few months break though.
So in the mini lops for sale, we have lots of color variety this time. Not just all Steel! Wow.
We have 3 does that will be available this Fall, with the possibilty of more Bucks & Does. We will hold off for now on deciding.
Next blog to come will be about the Dwarfs... Stay tuned!
So as you can tell, we haven't been very diligent about writing blogs daily, like we used to. But, we need to try and write them more often then we have.
We went through a whole slew of Mini Lops earlier today before it heated up. It was smokin' out there this afternoon (at least for the Island it was... was 85. I know, I know, not bad compared to other parts of the world. But still! I like 20 C the best, like last week. Lol)
Anyway, before I get TOO off topic. Our website has been updated - see the updated for sale page as well as the new Mini Lop Pre-Junior page.
We have LOTS of Mini Lops for sale. All breedings have stopped for now, in Mini Lops, as the does did such a fantastic job we are over-run with juniors. What a great breed they are! :-) Looking forward to a few months break though.
So in the mini lops for sale, we have lots of color variety this time. Not just all Steel! Wow.
We have 3 does that will be available this Fall, with the possibilty of more Bucks & Does. We will hold off for now on deciding.
Next blog to come will be about the Dwarfs... Stay tuned!
Updates for around here
Finally have a chance to post an update on here!
All the sheep have now been sold. The last 3 leave sometime next week. I will miss the old Ram, but not the one ewe lamb who is a pain in the you know what! She jumps out of the feeder constantly and comes to find us, which would be cute except she goes into the rabbit barn when we are feeding and you have to start grabbing your feed buckets and put them up. And then she goes into the feeders in the lower cages. Yesterday she broke one of the feeders right off, and is not making us too happy! She probably got 3lbs of grain yesterday between her sheep text and all that rabbit feed- NOT good for her. Soooo... I'm really happy she is leaving SOON!
Today our plan is to go through the barn (Mini lops) and make some more cage space.. Since we are completely cage crunched in the Mini lops.
I got a new Red Satin buck from WA State Convention from Cathy Armstrong, Rosalind(ML) doe came back home, and I also got a Black French lop buck from Helen Eden.
The girls got 6.......... Netherland dwarfs :- ) Black Otters and one Chestnut. I will let them write a blog about that, but, I will let them write about that : ) They absolutely love them, and were thrilled with the breeders that sent them stock. So that is great!
We figured out our holes... 55 holes for Mini lops, 10 for Netherland dwarfs(so far), 18 for French lops, and 12 for Red Satins.. i figured it out last night, I haven't finished the Mini lops yet since we are going through them today. But, we have 6 ND's, 16 French lops, and 6 Red Satins. I have 2 Red Satin does bred, with a 3rd to be bred shortly, and 3 French lops bred.
No more Mini lop litters until August or September(breeding then), as we are full in our Mini lop cages, and have 8 litters yet to cull through!
Saturday is our friends Stan and Kathy's wedding. We are the photographers, so we will be busy today and tomorrow practicing shots!!
All the sheep have now been sold. The last 3 leave sometime next week. I will miss the old Ram, but not the one ewe lamb who is a pain in the you know what! She jumps out of the feeder constantly and comes to find us, which would be cute except she goes into the rabbit barn when we are feeding and you have to start grabbing your feed buckets and put them up. And then she goes into the feeders in the lower cages. Yesterday she broke one of the feeders right off, and is not making us too happy! She probably got 3lbs of grain yesterday between her sheep text and all that rabbit feed- NOT good for her. Soooo... I'm really happy she is leaving SOON!
Today our plan is to go through the barn (Mini lops) and make some more cage space.. Since we are completely cage crunched in the Mini lops.
I got a new Red Satin buck from WA State Convention from Cathy Armstrong, Rosalind(ML) doe came back home, and I also got a Black French lop buck from Helen Eden.
The girls got 6.......... Netherland dwarfs :- ) Black Otters and one Chestnut. I will let them write a blog about that, but, I will let them write about that : ) They absolutely love them, and were thrilled with the breeders that sent them stock. So that is great!
We figured out our holes... 55 holes for Mini lops, 10 for Netherland dwarfs(so far), 18 for French lops, and 12 for Red Satins.. i figured it out last night, I haven't finished the Mini lops yet since we are going through them today. But, we have 6 ND's, 16 French lops, and 6 Red Satins. I have 2 Red Satin does bred, with a 3rd to be bred shortly, and 3 French lops bred.
No more Mini lop litters until August or September(breeding then), as we are full in our Mini lop cages, and have 8 litters yet to cull through!
Saturday is our friends Stan and Kathy's wedding. We are the photographers, so we will be busy today and tomorrow practicing shots!!
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