Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The new rabbits..

My Man and Boy have really gotten into the rabbitry this summer.  We started out the summer with two rabbits: Spot, the pet lop buck of the Boy.  He has been a survivor, I think because everyone that comes onto the farm either holds or pets him.  Then there was Mopsy, the red New Zealand doe.

Mopsy had a litter of two in April:  Mopsy Jr (a red doe cross) and Jacob, Jr.  A white and red 'broken" (Which means he has spots).

Jacob, Jr.
Mopsy had another litter in June.  8 kits: 4 red, 4 broken.  They mostly have floppy ears like their dad.
All the broken are girls and 1 red girl.  We had an unfortunate accident and ended up having one of the boys for lunch....long story....some other time. 

We've sold the solid red girl. 
The "girl" cage
We wanted to get a male New Zealand so we weren't using Spot to breed as he is very small and ultimately we are breeding rabbits as a protein source.  So Jack and Jill because a part of our herd:
Jill is the broken black, Jack is the solid black buck.
Well then, along about July, Man decided that he would like to breed Florida White rabbits.  They are smaller than the New Zealands, but have a great feed to meat conversion.  Finding a breeding pair was quite a challenge and Man hunted and inquired for a month.  Finally for his birthday, I went and picked up:
Lightning
Lightning is the Buck, Sally is the Doe.

In the meantime, we needed to add cages.  Man and Boy went up to Manfield and got two really nice sets.  The next day he found a nice breeding White New Zealand near Waldo
Waldo...otherwise known as Killer (sorry blurry picture)

Boy decided that he wanted to be just like Dad, but breed rabbits as pets, so he needed a pure bred Holland Lop Doe.  We found a nice one on Craigslist.  He did all the email correspondence and arrangements.  Lucie was added to our farm.

Then a week later found a family that was getting out of rabbits not far from us.  They had a nice 6 cage set up with all the accessories....the only thing was....it came with 3 more rabbits.  And all different breeds than the ones we currently have:

A Lionhead, named Snowball (or Wiz) I personally think the name should be Einstein:
Snowball

A Thrianta Doe named Niki.  Seperate post about this one as it is a fairly rare breed and I have some more info to share.
Niki
 And a little Black Polish...that I don't seem to have a picture of named Scottie-dog.

You would think we were done.....you would be silly!  Then we went to an animal auction last week.  Man wanted just 1 white New Zealand Doe for Waldo.  Boy won a Black Holland Lop that is already pregnant (and due this week).  Two white New Zealand Does, and my broken red New Zealand Doe, Speckles. (no picture of Speckles, yet)

 
So....as of now...we have 19 rabbits, with 6 of them expecting litters in the next two weeks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

HOLY SMOKES BATMAN! IT'S A BUNNY-OPOLIS!!! they all look great, tho! wow - Niki looks nice and fat! The rabbit, not the cuz, just to be clear now - can't have anyone saying i'm being nasty & all...I think you should start calling your farm The Maternity Ward or The Nursery! LOL anyhoo - i'm glad to see a post from you :-)
Sheryl

Niki said...

Ditto on post happiness.
I love Niki's auburn coat, but i think the super-fuzzy white one (wo/ creepy red eyes) is the cutest.