February kindling

What you might be able to see in the pictures is the nest box in the cage, the tags on the front are to keep track of who was bred to whom and when. We are tired of losing babies, lost 2 more this am. So I broke down and cleaned a used 8 stack we had purchased, found a tarp and moved the expectant Mommas into the basement. I can't stand the mess, the smell and having animals in the house, but I hate losing prospective Hollands even more. They are so darned hard to get bred in the first place and then to lose babies is just heartbreaking. Emme delivered last night, a day earlier than I expected and had 2 little kit-cicles. I think it bothered Chris more than it did me! He is the one who said we really didn't have a choice anymore, they  have to come inside. I couldn't even talk him into the garage, he said "Basement, just do it". What a guy. We'll let you know if anyone is successful- 3 due this week and 3 more next week.

Could this mean spring is on it's way?!?

I doubt it, but we have a couple of chicks, anyway! Chris set 40+ eggs, but only 2 have hatched, so far. The others aren't even pipped, so we are worried they may not hatch. But he has 40 more ready to go. These will be mixed breed chicks for egg-layers. Since we put all the chickens together for the winter there have been all sorts of 'couples'!

Sparky is a Grand Champion!

Here is Rebecca's Netherland Dwarf. He is a Siamese Smoke Pearl senior buck named Sparky. She had one leg on him from an earlier show and this weekend at Huntington, which was a double show, he won Best of Breed in both youth shows! Three wins that have enough comptetion to earn legs = Grand Champion. She also won Best Opposite Sex to Sparky with her Smoke Pearl Marten senior doe named Taco. Rebecca has bred all the Netherland's she showed. She was very excited to do so well at her first show of the year.

Avis Acres had the only Silver Fox in the youth shows, so we swept BOB and BOS in each.

Our Hollands are getting better, we earned lots of seconds and thirds, but no big wins.

It was a long day, we got up before 6am and didn't get home until after 10pm. It was so worth it to see all our rabbit friends again. Noble County and Whitley county shows are next month in Columbia City. Hope to see more of you there, weather permitting!

We did learn a valuable lesson regarding our new "rabbit-mobile"- it has a great alternator! Nicholas ran the battery down watching movies, so we had to beg jumper cables and a jump at the end of the day. The battery re-charged before we got to the restaurant for dinner so we were able to eat without leaving it running!

A word from Rebecca

I was very excited to win so much at the show considering it was my first generation of Netherlands. I took four rabbits and each at least got one leg. My mother was a bit flustered that my first year of breeding Netherlands I have won so much and she has been breeding Holland for a few years and has only had one BOB and one BOS. I am very grateful to have started off so well.
So long,
Rebecca