SUCCESS!

Keep's Fiona kindled four beautiful babies for me yesterday! They are all healthy and warm. She was bred to my buck Keep's Tryon, so I'm expecting all seals and siamese sables! My fingers are crossed that at least one of them is a doe, preferably a seal!

Lyle Creek's Kendra kindled six. Unfortunately, she's a piggy-fat-fat doe and ate all the hay out of her overstuffed nest. So all six babies froze to death. Ugh, that's one of the most frustrating parts of raising rabbits- losing a healthy litter to a doe who decides to act stupid!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Beautiful Weather

The weather has been GORGEOUS lately! We made the most of it yesterday by pressure washing a few of the rabbit cages. They are so clean and shiny, I don't know how I ever made do without a pressure washer! We got 8 cages and pans taken care of in an hour, which isn't bad considering it was the first good cleaning they've had (other than pan dumping) this winter.


I swept out the areas the cages were in and put down old feed bags to help catch any mess that comes out of the side of the cage- mostly food droppings from the diggers and feed dust from the J feeders.

I'm still waiting on babies. I'm going to call Kendra and Delaney no takers again. I'm still holding out for Fiona. Maybe I had better go tell her that if she doesn't give me babies, she has to go back on the show table. Hmm...


I also got a few pictures yesterday, so my website is a little more updated. I still have plenty I need to get, but so many rabbits are molting!

I put a pen out for a few of the does to roam around in. They really enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather. Since the forecast is 60 for today, I may have to let them out to play again!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

She's NESTING!

I was talking about my grand plans for one particular doe in my rabbitry- Fiona. She's a beautiful girl who has two legs (she's only been to two shows!) and I feel could easily gain her third for her grand champion.

Silly me, to make plans to show her.

SHE'S NESTING!

I'm so incredibly happy that she's pulling wool, this winter the only two litters I've had born have both been tanked.

Of course, I need to bring it down a notch and just wait until she kindles. I'm not confident in counting a litter until they are 2 years old and I have multiple offspring! :).

Two other does are due, Kendra and Delaney. I'm also down to just the fines in my hay bin. Looks like tomorrow I'll be calling around and seeing what I can find.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Shipping

I'm getting ready to send a shipment of rabbits out to California. It will be my second time shipping and the second time I'm shipping them out to California! I'm going to miss the bunnies leaving- it's hard to let them go sometimes, especially when it's cross country, where it is more difficult to get back offspring. At least the buyer is an excellent breeder who takes good care of her animals. That makes me happy! I also can't wait to have the empty holes. It should be enough for me to move everyone in to my barn. Tim is thrilled that soon the garage can be used to park the car!

A doe I sold to help a friend get started in woolies is coming home soon. I can't wait! She was VERY hard to let go as a junior, but I finally just sucked it up and let her go, keeping her sister. I told the buyer at the time that she was probably the one I should have kept and while I can't complain about her beautiful sister, I'm happy to get a chance to see how this other doe has grown.

The NCRBA show is coming up in March. I can't wait for it, it's such a good show and so many folks come out for it. I love when friends from several states away come down/up/over. It's also in a great facility- not to mention that it is now super close to my home! That's probably one of my favorite parts hehe.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Mocksville, NC Show

Wow, what a great show! It helps that it was in a heated building- I can't stress enough how nice that is!

We have a new youth wooly exhibitor, which is EXCITING. She's starting out with shadeds which make me happy too! She seems thrilled with her buck, which is so great.

We also met a new open exhibitor! He went home with a trio, two selfs and a shaded, so HOORAY! It's so nice to see new folks getting in to the habit and starting out with woolies (which are really the best breed out there anyway).

I also made a pet sale that was fantastic- the little girl was dying over her new Jersey Wooly!

My rabbits REALLY showed off today!

My Opal Jr. Doe was the only Agouti- booo. She got a BOG automatically both shows though ROFL! I got really promising comments on her, I can't wait until she grows up!

Broken Senior Doe- BOSG Show B

Self Senior Buck- BOB Show A, BOG Show B!
Self Senior Doe- BOSG Show B

Shaded Senior Buck- BOG Show A, BOB Show B.
Shaded Senior Doe- 1/5 Show A, BOSB Show B.

So overall it was really a good time. Very laid back and everyone was cutting up and just having fun! I got to help with BIS for the youth (I checked ear numbers, GO ME!).

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

The Culling is Almost Done!

Wow. In just a few short weeks, my barn is going to be almost EMPTY I worry! I'm removing 4 bucks from the barn, in addition to the large herd reduction I've just completed.

I've also earmarked a few bucks for growing out purposes. I'll revisit them in a few months and will decide if they leave or not.

The Mocksville show is this weekend! I scraped together a few to show- I'm mostly excited to get comments on a pair of babies I'm taking!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Falling In Love

I'm getting barn blind. I know I am.

It's because I'm falling in love.

I go out to the barn and babies run to the front to say hi. Bucks stick their noses against the wire wanting me to come by and talk to them, does flick ears at me, like they are waving a sophisticated greeting.

It wasn't until I took pictures of one sweet buck that I finally saw his type for what it was and was able to look past who his parents are and his track record for wanting snuggles.

Sometimes, it would be so much easier if we could breed for sweet rabbits instead of perfectly typed ones.

*sigh* I think I need to really take the time to go over my herd again. No snuggling involved this time.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

I feel ALIVE!

I'm finally starting to feel alive again after the nasty cold/flu/plague that hit me at Taylorsville. *whew*.

I've been doing fairly well on my herd reduction, I think. It hurts my heart to let bunnies go, especially some older ones that I've grown very attached to. In typical "me" fashion, I pulled a few after I had said I was going to let them go. Ahh well, my bunnies, I can do it if I want to :).

Though it's been cold, the bottles haven't been freezing lately. That makes me extremely happy! The fur chewing epidemic seems to be passing too. I wish I knew what had caused it, since it's cropped 5 of my pretty little juniors and took out two seniors I'd really like to show as well. Since one is a doe, I have to make the decision to either go on and breed her or wait and risk having trouble getting her started later.

Time is marching on so quickly! I was looking at pedigrees last night and can't believe how old some of my favorites are getting! It seems like just yesterday they were weanlings!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

UGH

I'm so mad. It seems like a good number of us that went to the Taylorsville show have gotten sick! GAR! I did NOT know plague was free with every entry!

Thankfully Tim has been taking care of the rabbits for me. I haven't felt like moving.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

GUESS WHAT?

I'm super psyched.

I'm falling over excited.

I may die from excitement RIGHT NOW.

NC is putting in bids for both JW and AFL nationals 2012! It would be in conjuction with the NC State Convention, which is always a REALLY good show anyway.

The best part is it would be 20 minutes from my house! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I'm so tickled.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry

Happy New Year!

Well, I wish the first show of the New Year had been a little warmer- but it definitely WASN'T! The building held the chill and we were actually colder inside than those who ventured outside into the mist and rain to warm up!

It was an interesting show with a lot of new faces- we had folks from GA, TN, NJ and NY up- and those are just the license plates I checked in the parking lot :).

I saw today a beautiful animal- as soon as the owner put her down so I could look at her, I knew that was the BOB animal- I had even told a few folks that I'd already seen the winner. Sure enough, she took BOB and again, my gifts of prophecy game in to play! I correctly predicted that REW senior doe would also be our BIS winner. Congratulations to her owner, a new wooly breeder who has had them for only a year, and brought the first doe out of her first litter to her FIRST show (showing woolies).

I did fairly well. Unfortunately Joni and I were the only shaded exhibitors, so neither of us got any legs- which sucks because Heart Throb would have finished his GC with a BOSG and Keep's Prancer took BOG- for no legs!

In the second show, I took BOSB (to the doe I mentioned above) with Keep's Poplar! Keep's Fiona took BOG and Keep's Heart Throb took another BOSG.

So I didn't light the world on fire, but I did fairly well!

I forsee a BIG cull coming!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry