Last night I bred several of our does: I bred three of my newer Polish does, two chocolates and one black. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this breed. Not only are they the perfect size for both our rabbitry and for me, but I find them to be quite funny little rabbits. I am really looking forward to these litters and showing my own Polish rabbits in 2007!
We also bred some of Jody’s Holland does. We bred Shorty to Candycane and the Narragon ’sweety’ doe, and bred Muggins to the doe that Tina Zabler gave us at the last show - this should be a nice cross, with Muggin’s exceptional crown, ears and bone!
We also bred a doe to Kelly’s only Holland Lop, Zack - he’s not a showable color and he’s about a ounce over the top weight limit for Hollands, but he’s got just an awesome body, ears and head, plus an outstanding personality. The doe we chose to breed to him produces tiny rabbits, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping we don’t create a mess of strange Hollands with this cross.
Last month we went through all our Holland Lops. We did need to step back and take a serious look at our Hollands and decide which ones can contribute exceptional qualities to our herd.
It can be difficult to cull with the lines we have - almost all are very slow developers and many don’t mature until they are well into adulthood. As an example - YRA Shorty; we got him from Eric Henning when Shorty was just a little guy - probably 3-4 months old at the most. Other than his obviously short body, he was quite an ugly Holland with major airplane ears and just a plain underdeveloped type to him. Eric kept promising he’d turn out nice, “be patient” (there’s that evil word again - Patience, this word haunts many Holland breeders)
Well two years after we got Shorty, this rabbit placed 2nd senior broken buck at the 2005 ARBA Convention! He deserved it too - he is an absolutely gorgeous Holland Lop, but he spent his earlier days as quite a strange looking creature.
Well I am certain I’ll need another dose of patience for our youngsters and upcoming litters.
Back to work -
Cathy
