My BEW is here!

After a few day's wait, it is now confirmed that Kassidy's "pink' baby is surely a Blue Eyed White :)

After I was just ranting about my BEW "project" this little one decides to surprise me :)

Of 48 babies, this one will surely be a favorite -- because it is staying here!

Random Ramblings

As I sit here not studying for finals, and having no homework to do, I feel no other inclination than to blog :)

First and foremost, our Steer A Year project is overwith. It feels weird not to go down and feed or doing other things. We have our final results and we did awesome for the first year back. I was elected Public Relations officer, it's a position that begins right away and runs all through the year. What a chore! I am prepared for it though :) Since I am only taking 16 credits this fall, I think I can get away with that.

I have one week of classes left, with a final on Thursday. I leave Friday for Newport. I am having my rabbits brought to me. I am showing 6, with 1 presold, picking up 1, and 3 I hope to sell! I am giving a presentation at the judges conference. It's an erie feeling since I am the only one who is not a judge giving a speech, but I hope to get there sometime soon! I was asked to give one on the Mini Lop breed, of course!

I will also attend the banquet. It's the highlight of our state convention. Who knows, maybe one of these days I will help send a youth to convention like so many people helped me out!!! I am not working there this year, so I'll actually get a chance to relax, chat with breeder friends and actually show my rabbits. It would probably be more effective if I didnt have an Ethics paper to write or study for two Monday finals :D

I get to go home Monday evening. My final starts at 4 and I hope to be out of there at 4:30. It will probably take me an hour to pack up my remaining belongings. I get to go HOME for 5 weeks! Home has never sounded like such a good place before being away for so long!

When I get home, I will be blessed with FOURTY-EIGHT babies and SEVENTY rabbits to take care of. Thus, I probably won't be working for the next 5 weeks, that alone is a chore to deal with in the summer heat. And one must ask, what is my intention for those 50 newborns, and why so many? Convention of course! The more you are blessed with, the greater variety to choose from for competitive juniors and room for backups. I will not be showing any seniors this year, it's not worth it, especially since I will nothing left that hasn't had a litter. What is my cull plan for all of these babies? -- I have a unique cull sheet in which I evaluate my youngsters with... In one or two litters, this is best effective for keeping the best rabbit out of the litter. This sheet will be to sort through only the top ones, and keeping only the best ones. It's likely I won't have a lot of the ones "left over" for sale, I can't afford to keep feeding them or spend my time advertising them for sales. Whatever I so happen to pre-sell, will go sold.
With that, I have two litters easily out of the way. Maddelyn's litter was specifically bred for color, and even though I didn't get color, I didn't really breed her for type, so I'll keep the best typed out of the litter and move her on. With Kassidy's litter, my elusive aim was for a BEW and I think I might have gotten one! There is one "pink" baby in the nestbox, and where I have learned from my friends, It could always be an orange, so I am crossing my fingers and toes for WHITE fur to come in. I should know within a couple of days. Since Kassidy is doing well with her litter, I am selling Kenai.
Selected does are being sold after their litters, some does, I will have to wait and see what they produce before I know if I am parting with them or not. Either way, I am excited to see what I get out of my best does, and again thanks to Nicole for letting me use her awesome bucks! I am still very sad about the loss of Zeus, he would have kicked tail at Nationals :(

After Newport, it's just strictly feeding rabbits out and evaulating evaluating and culling culling. I don't have another show until the end of August, where I'll head down to Crescent City for a kick butt weekend on the coast!

July 27th is when the Benton County fair starts and I'll be up here till Sunday. I'll probably move some things into the apartment there since our lease starts on the 1st. I have been offered a job up here, so we'll see if I can get that one or apply for another one (most likely both?). That will keep me pretty busy, but hope to go back and forth for various weekends/days off.

So, that's my next week and my whole summer -- The rabbitry faces some big cuts after San Diego, so if you are interested in a rabbit, don't hesitate to ask, it's likely to be for sale in the future. I'll probably send out a sales e-mail after Newport when I get settled in at home.

Round 2 edited :)

Kassidy has 5/5 babies!
Kendall has 8/8 babies!
Chestnut has 1/11 babies [fostered to Kassidy]
Ellie Mae has 5/5 babies!
Hades has 4/4 babies!
Obnoxious has 7/7 babies!
Maid Dignified has 5/5 babies!

Plus Mia's 8/8 and Maddelyn's 5/5, we are at....

48 live babies, and a litter of 10 DOA (Which was MY fault, not the doe's)

100% live except for that... I think I see a pattern :)

I consider that pretty darned good - I am SO happy right now! I am very ready for the increased head count.

Here we go!

I just placed nest boxes in 7 of my does cages. They are due in a couple of days....the barn will be FULL

LHHR's/Velotta's Ellie Mae x Velotta's Twitch
Sieber's Obnoxious x Velotta's Twitch
LHHR's Kendall x LHHR's Boomerang
LHHR's Maid Dignified x Velotta's Danger
LHHR's Kassidy x LHHR's Kenai (could get BEW's!)
LHHR's/Velotta's Hades x Velotta's Twitch
LHHR's Chestnut x Velotta's Danger? or Twitch? or LHHR's Titan? <-- yes that is bad

LHHR's/Velotta's Hera is due in a month to LHHR's Dominic

If SS4 doesn't sell in a couple of weeks she will be bred. MTR's Cris and Velotta's Kristie are coming home from state convention, will breed them soon after.

These are all of my breedings for San Diego, I will be back down to 15 holesbefore that.... its something called "critical culling" and "much selling", aka I hate keeping a working herd in college. Wish all my does luck. Only two of the 7 have kindled before so I am uber excited to see what I get!

I will post updates as I get them, I am headed back up to school later today.

Long Week

It's been a long week -- had an exam last week and two midterms this week. Lucikly I did well, made it through and get to relax this weekend! On Wednesday I interviewed for a Steer A Year position and I was elected Public Relations officer. After my judging for 3 hours, [after class & a chem lab] I had my chemistry midterm on Thursday evening, I left for home. I brought Roxy home, since these next couple of weeks will be hectic.

The rabbits look great! I am so happy. My two litters consist of 5 broken blacks (4 showable), and a litter of 8. 2 are Chocolate Chestnuts, have 2 Broken Chestnuts & 4 solid Chestnuts. Mia and Maddelyn are doing a great job! It looks like all of the does I bred took! They will get their nestboxes tomorrow. I will post updates as each one kindles, though I wont be able to see them until June 8th.

My feed is working excellent on them. I have 6 animals I am so excited to show! I will also have a few to bring to Newport to sell... I need the cage space so I hope to part with them. I make out my entry here soon... I'm taking Theodore, Titan, Taylor, Mason, Dominic and Last Minute. I considered showing Waffles but I dont think she has enough substance to top a class so I'm just going to leave her home.

Newport here we come! It will be great to relax for my monday Finals!

Home for the weekend

Chestnut Jr/Sr Doe

Regretfully, for sale. I will be breeding her if she doesnt sell at Newport....
Theodore.... is growing up!

Last Minute.... a beautiful decision.

Taylor -- love her!

Mason - has had an incredible first few shows, and has proven himself with a litter of 8 by Mia. He carries chocolate.... He will be a great show/herdsire!

Dominic - has had a great first showing. Bred him to Hera today for a June litter. He may be for sale in the future... we'll decide after the State conventions.

Titan - has grown up so much in the last couple of weeks. He and Theodore amaze me!

Waffles... A baby I've never gotten much chance to see... shes growing by leaps and bounds!

Maddelyn's litter of 5 broken blacks, 4 are showable w/1 having no nose markings :( Carry Chocolate and Dilute!

Mia's litter of 8... 2 Chocolate Chestnuts, 2 Broken Chestnuts, 4 Chestnuts

Mia passed out... 8 is a lot to take care of... :)

The litters begin!

Our first two of our convention litters arrived this morning!

LHHR's Mia kindled to 8 babies! Sired by LHHR's Mason, a super promsing jr buck, who was 9th in the National and 2nd & 3rd the next day in the West Coast Classic.[This fine buck is for sale, Mia will be for sale after her litter as well :)]

LHHR's Maddelyn kindled to 5 babies! Sired by "Chocolate" a Bkn Chocolate buck out of my lines. Hers are all brokens, I hope all showable ones :) [Maddelyn will be for sale after her litter, however we're probably holding out on Chocolate for another litter or two].

LHHR's Hera is *hopefully* bred, but not showing any signs of nesting. It is possible Theodore threw blanks, he wasn't even 4 months old when I bred them. I won't give up on her yet, this would be an incredible litter if she did take!

That's all I have for now :) As always, I'll try to get pictures. I'll be home in less than a month, yahoo!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

We'll start with the good news first, since I have less of that...

Headed into week 7! With only 3 left, its hard to believe.... but easy to believe it does not slow down from here :( In the next couple of weeks, I have midterms, exams and finals. We have steers left to send, projects to plan and jobs to obtain. I am loving my livestock judging class, the weather is great and I got my computer fixed! Had a 4-H show today at the fairgrounds... the kids did great :)
The rest of my weekend is filled with papers to finish (or start...ha ha!) and an officer position application. I also have other homework to do and I still need to make my advising appointments! So I'll try to keep my post short.

My bad news is my lack of a summer -- I turned down the job I wanted because I wanted convention juniors more (and I can get a decent local job too)... so I went ahead and bred 10 does for convention.... When I went to go pay my rent deposit for this fall [we expected a September move in] they told us the yearly leases ran from August 1st to July 31st... We need an apartment, this is really our only option and I'm not going to pay for an apartment and not live in it for 2 months.... so I had to rearrange my plans. I'm home for a whopping FIVE weeks. :( I will barely get to see my juniors at 8 weeks old. Talk about hard culling as it is... So I leave July 22nd and hopefully, will get to come home a few weekends to look at my stock! On the brighter side, I have 3 does due in a couple of days... Mia, Maddelyn & Hera!

The new website is completely updated, including the sales page and the does pages, which show the does we will have available pending sucessful litters. Check it out!

Change is inevitable ~ Update your bookmarks!

As soon as I get used to a web host I like, something happens... We had AOL for 3 or 4 years and have had Geocities almost 2 years now... and really enjoyed it! Unfortunately, Geocities announced it's closing last week, so I am forced to change hosts.... again.

Please update your boomarks to: http://lanashiphoppinrabbitry.synthasite.com/

So far, it's going alright. I don't really like it, but that's what you get for free websites. We are trying to save all of our pictures and the webset we paid for. Maybe someday I'll get to use it again.

When this new website is up and running, most everything will be deleted from our old site and a link will be up on our old one until it's shut down.

I don't have any rabbit news to report... I have some sale rabbits left and a bunch of litters coming up :) My new purchase is settling in well, that's always good news :) Other news.... went to a cattle show today and we have Ag days at the university this coming week, and a 4-H rabbit show this coming weekend at the Benton County Fairgrounds.