Welcome to Our Rabbitry Journal
For 2002!!!
December 2002
Well, it looks like I have lost an entire half the year! We have been very involved in so many family projects along with local shows and other activities. Our biggest news is that we have moved to Bellingham, WA and our bunnies have a nice new barn!! I will try to post a few pictures of the new barn as it has been great!! The bunnies are now in a nice big insulated barn along with our newest passion, mini horses! The new barn has made all the difference for our winter breeding this year. I am getting lots of live babies with the addition of the insulation and the 24 hour lighting. It is very exciting to have babies this time of year as we usually have trouble getting does bred and live babies born. So, this is quite exciting news for our little rabbitry!
Click on the picture above to enlarge. This is an older picture of our barn before the pasture was mowed and the rabbits were in their new home but it gives you an idea of the big blue bunny barn. We are so happy to have a new home for our bunnies. The bunnies share their home with some mini horses. Here is a couple of pics of our kids with their horses:
Our Family wants to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays and we hope that your nestboxes are full of babies for the upcoming spring shows!
June/July 2002
Somehow I let time fly by so quickly that I didn't update this website last month! June was a busy month for shows and lots of new babies in the nestboxes. I love the summer as it's time for the big cleaning of the rabbitry and lots of bunny time outside. So far our temps haven't been too extreme so the hot weather hasn't been trouble with the bunnies like it can be in the summer. Everyone has been doing well with the summer sunshine which is always a relief. I worry about the bunnies a lot in summer as the hot temps can really be dangerous for them. I am thankful for our fairly moderate temperatures in the Northwest at this time of year.
I am really looking forward to next month and the NWNDRC Cluster Show. It's always a fun show and the day is usually sunny and wonderful. It's definitely a fun show and as a family we look forward to it. Hopefully some of our juniors will be big enough to hit the tables and we can begin showing some of our youngsters. It's been a long time since we had juniors to show!!
Well, keep those bunnies nice and cool and see you at a show!!!
May 2002
Well, it looks like I lost track of time and May flew by me before I knew it! I finally have tons of babies in the nestboxes and hope they grow up to be nice bunnies for the end of this year's show season. I have everything from chocolate otters to opals, chestuts and silver martens. It is quite a rainbow of colors in the rabbitry these days. But, then that is the best part of the hobby I think...reaching into the nestbox and finding whatever color gem might be waiting there. When they say it is the gem of the fancy, it truly is because each new litter are diamonds in the rough (if we are lucky!). Our weather has been so odd lately and I know this has affected the breeding season for most of us. Hopefully now that summer is nearly here and temperatures are starting to become a bit more predicable, we can all count on lots of new baby dwarfs and a nice summer ahead. Time to pull out the cages and use the power washer... time to really scrub down and let things dry in the sunshine. It's a busy time of year but it's so great to walk into a freshly scrubbed rabbitry:>
Well, lots of shows coming up next month including the Washington State Convention in Ellensburg. If you have never been, it's a lot of fun!! I hope to see everyone there!!!
April 2002
We just got back from the 2002 ANDRC Nationals and what a time we had! It was a very interesting adventure to say the least but we met some very wonderful people and saw some incredible dwarfs along the way. Our own bunnies did very well this year with a 2nd in class chestnut senior buck, 3rd in class chestnut senior doe and a 4th and 6th place junior otter bucks. We were very happy with our bunnies and had a wonderful show overall!!
Congratulations to my good friend, Carrie Engel, for her BOV Lilac Senior buck!!! She sure does have some beautiful Lilacs and Chocolates coming up!
Now that we are home, we are looking forward to many new spring babies in the nestboxes and more local shows. Time to rest a bit and get the bunnies back into condition for the shows coming up. Hope this next month goes well for everyone and you get tons of new spring babies in those boxes!!
March 2002
Spring is finally here!! I actually have a few babies in nestboxes and the show season is really in swing. We have been to a few shows this month and we are really happy with how we have done!! A few Best Opposite Breeds and other bunnies did well in groups so good start for this show season.
I have a few bunnies in the nestboxes including black, black otters and chestnuts. It's nice to see some new baby bunnies again! I have many does breeding now so next month should see lots of new spring babies. We also raise parrots and I have Quakers on eggs too so spring is definitely here!! Baby bunnies and baby birds are so much fun!!
We look forward to more shows coming up including the ANDRC Nationals in Wisconsin next month. If you are going to be there, I hope I see ya! It should be lots of fun!!
Well, off to clean some bunny cages and check on a doe that is pulling fur... It's always exciting to get new babies. Kind of like Christmas because I never know what Santa will leave in those nestboxes. Or at this time of year I should say the Easter Bunny I guess:>
Have a nice month!!
February 2002
Well, I finally have a few live litters which I have been waiting for all winter! My does just haven't been cooperating, although I can't blame them in the winter time. I have some blacks and otters in the nestboxes out of a few does that I have been eagerly awaiting babies from over the last year or so. I will be eager to watch these babies grow up. It's nice to have little ones in the rabbitry again. I had missed having those little fur balls running around:>
My friend, Carrie of C & D Rabbitry, and I went to the ORCF show in Shelton, WA yesterday. It was a lot of fun and we won BOSB with a little otter buck named Sunnyside's Sir Lancelot. He was one of my favorites from the time he was about 2 weeks old so it's fun to see him actually turn out the way I had hoped. Judy Paris won BOB with the most beautiful little chestnut doe. We had great fun at the tables and it reminded me of why I love this hobby. The fun I have with my friends at the shows makes it all worthwhile. I met some great new folks including Lisa and Hayley Paulsen. Hayley ended up getting a BOSB in the Youth Show which was pretty exciting for her I bet!! Congratulations Hayley!!
Next month is a busy show month with shows almost every weekend. So, for the rest of this month I hope to get some things organized and some does bred for spring. If the sunshine can hold out for just a few hours, I might be able to convince the does that spring is already here! In April we are going to attend the ANDRC National show in Wisconsin so the spring time should be a lot of fun for playing bunnies with my friends!
Well, hope everyone has a great month and has lots of babies in those nestboxes!
January 2002
I can't believe it is the New Year already!! So much has happened in the last month. I recently purchased another rabbitry's bunnies and have added a lot to my herd. I would like to thank Kathy Smith for her beautiful bunnies and all her help and support with this hobby!!
I have been doing a lot of breeding this December and January which I don't usually do this time of year. I am really excited to get some new babies even if it means bringing nestboxes in during the night's due to cold. It is going to be like opening new packages every time as I merge Kathy's lines into mine. It's very scary but in the same way also very exciting!! We should be getting a rainbow of colors in the nestboxes this month including blacks, black otters, chocolates, chocolate otters, blue or blue otters, REW's, chestnuts and probably a few others. Litters are going to begin coming January 7th and should continue right through to February. Of course, these are dwarfs and there are never any guarantees with live litters but I am hoping I get lucky atleast a few times this month with some new babies.
I am excited to begin this show year as well. I am planning on attending a lot of local shows and really having fun this year. My good friend, Carrie Engel, of C and D Rabbitry and I are going to really live it up this year and have some fun on our bunny "road trips"!
I hope that everyone has wonderfully full nestboxes during this New Year and I hope to see everyone at a show soon. Tap me on the shoulder and say Hello!!!