Is it 2012 Already?

Is it 2012 already? It is true that time speeds up as you grow older........
I am chugging through the winter schedule on Moonstruck Meadow; feeding, cleaning, watering animals; thawing out frozen waterlines, hauling water, trying to stay warm and dry.

The animals are looking great. They have thick winter coats, maybe a bit of excess weight on their bones to aid in keeping them warm and healthy. It is now time to slim them down a bit in preparation of spring breeding season. I hope to begin by the the first week in February.

We have contemplated selling the farm and relocating this year but no firm plans as yet. Our place looks better and better with every new property we look at. I will keep you posted. In the mean time the breeding schedule will be low key so I don't have too many extra animals to move if we do decide to move the crew........

I have been pretty happy with the new replacement stock in both the Silver Marten and Mini lop herds. I will have to thin out a few of the seniors after their first spring 2012 litters to make room for their replacements to begin producing this season. A few really nice animals will be available. All are excellent, proven bucks and does that would make a great start for anyone.

I do have one small Mini lop litter in the barn right now from Mitchell's Lil One and Posey's Hunter. There are two nice little does, one chestnut agouti and the other a broken chinchilla (or possibly a silver tipped steel. Will know soon)

If I stay at the farm another season or two, I hope to insulate the rabbit barn to help from the water freezing problems that make the hobby difficult during the winter.

The farm has now become a regular stop for the local herd of Roosevelt Elk. What magnificent animals but also very destructive to the gardens, pasture and ivy on the house. I am torn between loving them and just tolerating them. I have resigned to loving their winter visits but will put the run on them after I begin planting the gardens.... Hope they cooperate!

I am hoping to attend my first rabbit show in 2012 this February. I sure have a hard time in the cold but i am sure going to try to get myself there this year. I haven't been physically able to make this spring show for the past two years but i hope to attend this year...... we will see. I would love to try to get a leg or two on a few of my new show stock. Moonstruck's Rulon Too, Thor, Lizzy, Lady Grey and Aaron are the Silver Martens I would like to show, Mitchell's Norman, Alexis, Jordan, Avril, Junkn the Trunk to name a few are the Mini lops I hope to get going on the 2012 show circuit.

The chickens are doing great. I am still getting a few eggs despite the cold, grey weather. A few power outages this fall has force molted the birds from the light inconsistencies but they are all almost in full feather again and they are beginning to lay. I would love to hatch out a few new chicks this year as some of the birds are getting kinda old. I can't believe how big the Partridge Cochins hens are getting. Wow, they are beautiful. Maybe I will try to find them a rooster this year as I lost 'Rupert' last spring.

I have taken on a position on the executive of RABBITS BC - Rabbit & Cavy Breeders Assoc. of BC. The secretary position has so far kept me really busy. I am also putting together the show catalogue for our club show in April. As much as I dislike being in front of a computer instead of being outside, I feel it is time to give back to the rabbit community and to help promote rabbits in our area in another way. The physical work of the farm can't last forever so it is good to cultivate my interests in a less demanding way........

I will post again soon with updates on the VIRBA show results as well as new litters.

What's New in 2011

I survived the cold and dreary days of winter. A winter that didn't seem to end. Spring hasn't yet followed into warmer weather yet and it is almost the end of June 2011.

The garden vegetables are sitting patiently waiting for the catalyst of warmer days. The flowers and trees are lush from the wet spring; flowers staying crisp and unwilted in the cool air.

The farm chickens are happily stretching their legs in their new outside run and following the elusive sun. No chickens were set this season and no new additions. Family health challenges kept the farm at status quo

A few rabbit nestboxes are full with fat and beautiful Silver Martens and a few Mini lops. I struggled with what direction to go with the Mini lops this season. The need to down size the rabbitry has made the difficult decision of dropping some varieties and numbers of Mini lops. I am keeping a few chocolates but due to the need to improve the type on this variety I have decided to mix them with my chestnut agouti line and pull chocolates out of that gene pool. I am working on selling about half of the chocolate herd. I want to work at improving the tri-color Mini lops and again I will do this by crossing into the chestnut agouti line and very selectively keep tri carrier animals for the tri program. I have held onto a trio of torts. I want to maintain a quality group of chestnut agouti, black, opal and blue Mini lops and eliminate all the other colors from the herd; chins, steels, REWs etc. I aquired a small herd of chestnuts from the herd sell out of Sunnybrook Rabbitry to add to my core herd. I will do few and selective breedings this year and trim the herd to about 20 adult Mini lops, maybe less.

At the moment I have a litter of tri-colored Mini lops; 2 tris and 3 harliquens out of Mitchell's Maddy and Sweetbriars Tony Tiger. I also have one orange? and one chocolate kit out of Mitchell's Snickers bred to Mitchell's Blake. I also have a nice litter of blacks and chestnuts both solid and broken from Mitchell's Black Dawn and Mitchell's Tommy Jr. Mitchell's Cubby has five kits out of Rah's Huffle; 2 chins, 1 sable, 1 bkn chestnut, 1 broken blue.

The Silver Martens have been producing wonderfully and have kept my fryer supply steady. Many beautiful animals have been raised, kept and sold. The quality is very consistant and the litter sizes healthy. I am running a herd of eight senior does with two to three junior does growing as replacements. I am upto four herd bucks with two juniors growing nicely as replacements. I will thin down the herd as the fall approaches to 8/3.

I will post again soon with an update of upcoming litters. The show season begins in about eight weeks.

August Update

August has begun to cool down. The rabbits are taking a sigh of relief and the garden is exploding with the few days of rain.

Mitchell's Lil One, a broken chestnut agouti Mini lop has been showing off her litter of chestnuts and broken chestnuts. The little bundles are popping in and out of the box. They are as cute as buttons.

I just weaned Mitchell's Twilights litter. There are two chocolates, two lilaces and three sables?. Only one is a doe. They are the friendliest litter of lops yet this year. They crawl all over my hands as I feed them hay. A very fun litter.

Posey's Raven, a black Silver Marten doe just raised a litter of five blacks, sired by Preston's Jericho/Soldier. This was his last litter in the barn before he headed to a new home and herd.

Moonstruck's Onyx had a large litter of 8 kits today sired by Silver Streak's Blue Manchoo, my new buck from Scott Rudolph. I am really excited to see how this litter turns out. They all look like blacks but not 100% sure. I just peeked and counted as Onyx was giving birth this afternoon.

Moonstruck's Rosemary is expecting a litter sired by S&K Froy. See hasn't been working on a nest yet so she may have missed....... will palpate her tomorrow to check.

Willow's Catalina is bred to Posey's Kayden my new REW buck from Sunnybrook Rabbitry. I will find out more of Kayden's genetics with the arrival of his first litter.

Most of the Mini lops in the barn are either in or just finishing a heavy summer molt so I will hold back on breeding anymore lops for a few weeks. I may try to breed one or two Silver Marten does this month and will probably be the last litters for this season. I hope to get Magic & Tori bred. Springer will be old enough for breeding after the show season. I am hoping to have litters sired by all three new herd bucks this season.

Most of the chickens are moved into their fall/winter digs. I only have a few extra roosters to find new homes for. I will post again after the show season.

August Heat and Unlazy Days

The calender page just turned to August. The heat has been thick and heavy for weeks now. Endless trips with frozen waterbottles to and from rabbit cages and fans a humming, sluggishly moving the hot summer air. The garden plants are growing and maturing heavy with summer produce, the perinneal flowers bring a buzz of activities with fat bumblebees & beautiful butterflies collecting their life source of pollen and nector. Hummingbirds zip around my head and squabble and fight with each other.

The fast growing chicks are proudly strutting their beautiful adult feathers and wait patiently to graduate into the laying coop. All the rabbits are sprawled out like furry mats in their cages waiting for the cool of the night to come to life.

I have been loving the summer with all the life and activity but creaking through the chores with aging bones in protest. Many really beautiful animals are going to new homes as the herd is begin to dwindle, in preparation for the colder months to come. I am trying to slow down and listen to the need to rest and heal.

Most of the spring litters have grown and many are sold and a few kept to show and replace their parents. I sold two varieties of Mini lops this season; the steels and chinchillas as well as all the Californians, as I try continue to cut back the workload. I still have four litters of Mini lops to grow and sort and one litter of Silver Martens which will end the spring/summer litters. I have two late summer/fall litters of Silver Martens due next week. I have held back on breeding more does for now but I do want to breed a few before I part with the sires.

I have been trilled with the quality of the chocolate Minilops born this year. I am reaping the benefits of selective breeding and tough culling to acheive offspring with good depth, good width, heads, crown and color all in the same animal! I will be working on the tri-colored Mini lops this fall and next spring. I have only a trio but I am working with Kim Posey and she has a breeding pair of Tri's as well.
I still have a pair of torts and a handful of chestnut agoutis. I plan on using these two varieties to increase the genetic diversity of my tri-colors and to help improve type & color (mostly heads, crowns, bone and orange factor).

I just love the Silver Martens. I have many beautiful juniors I raised this year. They have such nice personalities and are wonderful mothers. What a pleasure to have them in the barn. I have high-hopes to do lots of winning with some of these beautiful animals this show season. I however will be missing a few of the shows due to holidays and company but i sure hope I can get to at least a few this season.

I want to really enjoy this season as I know that there will not be too many more ahead of me.

Spring is Here?

I have been working slowly, very slowly but surely this spring with my broken-up back and other health issues. The vegetable garden is finally in. The lack of sunshine has slowed the growth of alot of the plants. The liquid sunshine has been wonderful for others. The perinneal gardens are busting at the seams. I have been relocated and splitting up alot of the plants so the massive growth doesn't overtake everything. I believe if I didn't trim or cut back plants all the time the wilderness would take over in less than a year and you would never know someone ever lived here! LOL

The first round of litters of rabbits have been born. Many really beautiful and promising youngsters are now growing. I now have the difficult decisions to make on what seniors will be replaced by their offspring and how many show bunnies to grow for the shows. Many really nice juniors and seniors will be sold as I hope to downsize the Mini lop herd again this year.

RABBITS BC held a spring show. The Silver Martens did really well with Mitchell's Magic taking BOV in both shows. Cedar Hill's Onyx took BOS both shows and BOS in show A. Mitchell's Tom Jr took BOV broken Mini lop.

I will be working on the tri-colored Mini lops with Kim Posey this season. We both have a new animal to add to our tri herds in June. I will be keeping Dizzy's harli kit and Dizzy will go to live with Kim. My new broken orange doe from Rebecca's Rabbitry will take her place.

I have a few litters from my chocolate/carrier Mini lops. Mitchell's Twinkle has two gorgeous kits; a lynx doe and a broken lynx buck out of Mitchell's Blake. Mitchell's Moonshine has five kits; one broken chocolate buck and all the others are carriers, one chestnut doe, one black doe, one broken chestnut buck and a black buck. Mitchell's Geronimo is the sire. Mitchell's Liberty has a litter of six sired by MTR's Hershey. There are three chocolate chestnuts in the litter. The others are carriers. Posey's Joni had three really nice kits out of Mitchell's Blake; a chocolate buck, a chocolate 'charlie' buck and a choc. 'charlie' doe. Both Mitchell's Twilight & Mitchell's Blu are expecting with a litter from MTR Hershey, a chocolate buck on loan from George.

I have one chinchilla litter from Mitchell's Taylor bred to Posey's Brayden. There are four nice kits; a seal buck and doe and a broken chinchilla buck and doe.

Willow's Catalina has a litter out of Mitchell's Riley; a broken black buck, a black doe, two broken golden tipped steels (unsexed) and a steel. Mitchell's Button had a litter of three sired by Posey's Brayden. A nice little blue steel doe; the two bucks with missing toes and tail from a difficult birth will not be kept.
Mitchell's Tammi has six kits sired by Posey's Brayden also; there is an opal, chestnuts and blacks.

Mitchell's Ariel had five kits sired by Mitchell's Hawk. They are the first tortoise litter this year. There are two blue tort does and three tortoise does.

The Silver Martens have also been productive this year. Mitchell's Tori had five beautiful blue kits. I have kept a nice buck to replace thier dad Mitchell's Twin. Mitchell's Saree had seven kits; three blue does, three black does and a black buck. Mitchell's Rosemary has a wonderful litter of seven kits also; three blue bucks, two blue does and two black bucks. Mitchell's Nakita had four kits; a pr. of blacks and a pr. of blues. Mitchell's Magic is bred SS Blue Manchoo, a beautiful new buck from Washington and Posey's Raven is bred to Preston's Jericho.

I will hold off on too many more litters as the growing cages are full. I hope to do a second breeding on some of the does again this year. Many senior does will be sold this season.

I have been having lots of fun with the chickens. We just love having farm fresh eggs. I now like eggs again. There is no comparison to store eggs..... I raised a few chicks from my own hens. I kept a really nice Partridge Cochin hen. All the roosters have been sold. I purchased a small flock of Buff Brahma Cochins - Standards and will be selling the Bantam Buff Brahma Cochins. I also purchased six Ameracuana chicks. I will keep the hens to add more blue egg layers to the flock. I also have a Silver Lace Wyndotte/Ameracauna chick that will stay if it turns out to be a hen. I still need to build the outside chicken run. Hope to tackle this project this month now most of the gardening is done.

The love of farming has kept me motivated but down-sizing is a must with my back and health issues. Keep watch on the website for the sale of some really nice animals.

Spring Showers

It is the beginning of May and we are still having our spring showers. The property is in a flush of green and the rabbits and chickens have babies in the nest. I got an early start on the fencing and completed another section. Some things are coming up in the garden. I have built the deck at the back of the chicken coop but I haven't yet gotten to putting in the outside run.

Lots of new Silver Marten and Mini lop litters born since my last post. Posey's Joni has a nice litter sired by Mitchell's Blake. There are two chocolate charlies and one chocolate in the litter. Mitchell's Ariel has five kits sired by Mitchell's Hawk. All are either torts or blue torts. Mitchell's Taylor has four kits sired by Posey's Brayden. There are two broken chinchillas and two seals. Willow's Catalina has five kits sired by Mitchell's Riley. Not sure of the colors yet but there are both solids and brokens. Mitchell's Moonlight has five kits sired by Mitchell's Geronimo. There is one broken chocolate, black, and chestnuts in the litter. Mitchell's Twinkle has two kits sired by Mitchell's Blake. Looks like a lynx and a broken lynx in that litter.

Mitchell's Rosemary has seven kits sired by Mitchell's Twitch. One black and the rest are blue. Mitchell's Saree has seven kits sired by Mitchell's Twin; four blacks and three blues in that litter. Mitchell's Nakita has four kits sired by Preston's Jericho/Soldier; two blues and two blacks. Moonstruck Tori just weaned five blue kits sired by Moonstruck Twin.

There are five Mini lop does yet to kindle this month; Mitchell's Dizzy, Mitchell's Ray, Mitchell's Liberty, Mitchell's Blu, Mitchell's Tammi. I have held off on breeding any more Silver Martens until I receive my new buck out of Silver Streak's stock. I am also getting a new doe from Scott Rudolph.

I did get to the RABBITS BC spring show in Parksville, BC. My Silver Martens did well. Cedar Hill's Onyx won BOSV black and BOS in both shows and went on to winning BOS in show A. Moonstruck's Magic won BOV blue in both shows. Mitchell's Tom jr. won BOV in the broken Mini lop group. It was a fun show. I came home with a new junior black Silver Marten buck from Stan & Kathy.

My silkie chicken successfully hatched three strong chicks; two Standard Partridge Cochins and one Silver Lace Whyndotte. I have two Partridge Cochin hens setting on a dozen eggs right now;9 will be Buff Brahama Cochin bantam chicks and three Whyndotte/Americana cross chicks. They are due to hatch the third week of May. Exciting.

The first fryers went into the freezer today. The winter was long and the food stocks are low so time to fill the freezer with beautiful organic meat and produce again.

I will sign-off but will post again soon!

New Year at Moonstruck Meadow

It is the beginning of the farming season at Moonstruck Meadow 2010. I am not yet recovered from the hectic season of 2009. Due to health considerations I have downsized both the rabbit herds and the farm projects.

I did get most of my new chicken coop built. I still have to finish it this spring but it has a nice new metal roof as does the barn it is attached too. I have a dozen purebred chickens and hope to raise a few chicks this spring. I have Bantam Buff Brahma Cochins, Standard Partridge Cochins and a pr. of Silver Laced Whyndottes. I also have a very broody Silkie who is setting on seven eggs due to hatch next week. I also have a lone Buff Orpington hen and a muffed Americana hen who gifts me with beautiful blue-green eggs. Both Annie and I love farm fresh eggs!

I have tilled the garden once but will need to till it again to completely turn in the fall rye. I hope to get the first seeds in the garden by mid month. I have a few seeds started indoors but more to do next week. I have cleaned out most of the perineal flower beds and the plants are already growing. Most of the bulbs are up and the daffys are opening. How wonderful after such a long dreary winter.

I have the first few rabbit litters in the box already. Two nice litters of Silver Martens and a litter of Mini lops. The Silver Martens are growing in popularity and lots are arriving at the shows with the competition fierce. Great fun! The first round of Mini lop litters didn't survive the cold snap last month but I have three cute little bundles in Mitchell's Buttons first litter bred to Posey's Brayden. Not sure the colors yet but one is a dilute, one an agouti and one a solid. I hope to have six more Mini lop litters in the next three weeks and three more Silver Marten litters. Many of the Minilop litters will be chocolate line animals. Exciting!

I sold my herd of Californians early spring to Desiree. She will continue my lines. I miss them but the reduction in work load was much needed. I also cut my Mini lop herd in half from last fall. I will be thinning it some more this spring after the first litters are born.

I have few projects planned this year. I hope to enjoy the spring litters but keep the work load to a minimum. I will finish the chicken coop and yard. I might paint the barns this year and do a bit of fencing. I would love to be able to leave my German Shepherd outside more to keep the predetors away. It has been heart breaking to loose valuable stock from raccoons, bears, dogs and owls. To keep Kira safe however, I need to finish fencing the entire acreage. It has been a four year endevour already..... I might hire help to finish the job.

I hope this post saves properly. It would be nice to post more often as I hope to have more time.....