Long time no blog!

It’s been way too long since my last post! So much has happened in the rabbit world since the spring, it’s crazy.

The rabbits are doing well. They’re surviving the winter, which hasn’t been nearly as bad as last winter…so far! The temperatures haven’t been too bad, but we do heat the barn to keep it above freezing. We have a few litters on the go: 4 litters of Dutch (one just born this morning) and 2 litters of Mini Rex. Lucky for us, our does are still willing to breed, despite the winter bringing shorter daylight hours. We had a few does miss last week, and we lost 2 litters to first time moms but we’re in the process of rebreeding and all in all we’re not complaining. We’re very excited to be producing some promising babies with some new stock mixed into our herd.

Since my last post we attended many shows. We had quite a bit of success with our rabbits, winning several BOBs and BOSBs in all breeds, as well as some RISs and Runner-up in shows. There’s too much to get into detail here but overall it was a good show season.

We also attended ARBA convention in Indy this fall. What an experience it was! We met so many wonderful people, and got to put some faces to names. Best of all, we had the privilege of purchasing some stock from some amazing breeders. Mini Rex from Joey Martin (Martins Mini Rex), Dutch from Kevin Hooper and Barb & Dennis Kline (Megan’s Dutch Hutch), and Holland Lops from Jenna Buchenauer (THF Saynora). At the convention I also wrote my Registrar’s test, which I passed! I’m really excited to start working under judges this spring, it will be a great experience, I’m sure!

Well, I better get going! We have rabbits to tattoo and breed today. I’ll try to update more often this year but in the meantime have a great winter and may your nestboxes be full!

May 9

The grass is green and it looks like the warmer spring weather is here to stay! The rabbits will soon be moving back out to the rabbitry and show season is starting up.

We’re breeding into the warmer weather this year, a little more than we usually do. I got a bright Idea to breed several Hollands to my older bucks so I could replace them with some younger ones, but it didn’t exactly go as planned. We had several misses, but I guess that’s what can happen when you breed older bucks. I re-bred some does over the weekend and there are a few more I have to work on getting bred ASAP. I have a few nice-ish Holland juniors, particularly a broken junior buck, but I think the best are yet to come. Better late than never though!

We have some adorable mini rexes in the nestboxes, we’re really looking forward to growing out some of these babies. We have chocolates, lilacs, REWs & Blacks, and we’re waiting on 2 more litters. We kept 3 junior mini rex from our winter breedings, a REW buck, a black doe and a chocolate doe.

In Dutch, we’re waiting on one last chocolate to have her babies, we have had problems with her before so we have our fingers crossed for her this time. Out of our 18 junior dutch we had this winter we kept a black doe and a chocolate doe. The black doe has gorgeous markings, the chocolate isn’t bad either but has unreal type, she’s so solid, probably the nicest type I’ve produced out of my Dutch breedings.

I love spring, there's so much to look forward to! Hope to see you all soon at the show tables!

March 23

We have had a crazy March so far with lots of decisions that were made and more babies of course! I have to say that I’m really happy with where we’re at right now with our herd. Some of our current babies and juniors are looking better than ever.

The weather is changing and we’re seeing more sunshine and warmer temperatures, which is great! Most rabbits are not molting…yet! I’m waiting, knowing it will be anytime. Since the rabbits are in the garage, they’re not feeling the temperature changes much yet.

As far as decisions go, one of our major decisions was to part with our English Lops. This was a huge decision and an especially tough one for me because I definitely have a special soft spot for them. They’re a lot of care though and breeding them seems to have its ups and downs. They’re always going to be a breed I love but I’m ready to move on. Besides, I have a “secret” rabbit project in the works that I’m insanely excited to get started on, some of you know what it is, but I’m keeping it on the down low for a bit, for personal reasons.

As far as babies go, we had 3 litters of Dutch, which gave us 18 babies (2 chocolates and 16 blacks) and a few litters of Mini Rex, we have REWS, blues, blacks, chocolates and a broken tort. No more Hollands born yet but I have a litter of due on the 2nd of April, and I also bred 3 does over the weekend. I have one more Dutch bred and a Lilac Mini Rex too, we’re also planning to do even more breeding in the next moth and we’ll take most of the summer off except for the odd litter here and there.

Another decision I made was to do some Holland lop buck-shifting. I parted with a great buck, Nutar’s F2 and have decided to sell another, Bunny Hop’s Landslide. It’s hard sometimes but I have a great doe out of “F2” and I have 2 does bred to Landslide, so I can justify it. Landslide is a great rabbit, awesome type and head and he’s a small little buck. His ears are short though and he has control over them most of the time, it may change with age but I can’t wait forever so I’m taking my chances with him. I only want to keep the best and if a buck is not being used for breeding or showing, than what’s the point? I bought an older buck from Bunny Hop Wabbitry, Bluestorm’s Milo. I’m really excited to have this guy and see what he can produce for me. I’m keeping back 2 junior Holland lop bucks to grow out, and will probably hold onto more once the next few litters arrive.

That’s all for today! I hope everyone is enjoying the nicer weather (at least here in Atlantic Canada) and best of luck with those spring litters!

Almost Spring!

It’s already March and I’m hoping spring will be here before we know it! It has been a rough winter here weather-wise. Lots of snow, lots of wind, and all of that fun stuff that goes along with it. The rabbits are lucky this year, because they get to stay warm in the heated garage. They do get a little spoiled, maybe, but we have had great luck with our litters.

We have several litters on the go now, which is exciting. I don’t want to get too much into detail because there’s so many, and they’re all posted (along with pictures!) on our site www.kritterkorner.net.

We have two more litters of Mini Rex due in a few days and several other does bred including 3 Dutch and one more Holland lop. We also have 3 new rabbits arriving from Ontario next week, hopefully by Wednesday. 3 Mini Rex are coming from Kristen May of BKM Rabbitry. We’re super excited to be getting some new blood, while keeping with some of our current lines that we enjoy working with including McCabes and Cresthill’s.

We thought long and hard about our Mini Rex herd before eventually deciding to give up our Castors and really focus on self colors. We’re raising Blacks, Blues, Lilac, Chocolates, Brokens, as well as the occasional REW to give that fur an extra boost.

As far as our events go, for those of you wondering what the heck happened to our events page...We haven’t completely stopped doing events, and we still have booking for the next few months but our plans as of now are to slowly move away from it. Maybe someday we will get back into it, but right now we are just too busy with our lives and want to have to really enjoy our animals, especially our rabbits! I’m still available to help out with rescues in any way that I can and all of our critters will be staying with us! It has been a great few years and I would like to thank everyone for their support along the way!

I don’t have much other news! We do have our hotel booked for ARBA convention this fall, which is exciting! I also was able to line up a pair of black Dutch from Barb Kline of Megan’s Dutch Hutch. There’s a lot to look forward to this year! I plan to TRY blogging at least a little more often to keep everyone updated! I hope everyone is having a successful winter full of healthy babies!

Winter is Here!

Well, I know it has been awhile! Things have been really busy for us lately, but it's been a great fall nonetheless. We had some awesome feedback from the judges at the fall shows and I think we definitely left the 2010 show season on a great note.

At our October show in Amherst we won reserve in show with Kritter Korner's Aero, a broken chocolate Mini Rex Sr. doe, as well as 1st runner-up in show with Kritter Korner's Risk, a black Dutch Sr. doe. We also got BOSB with Kritter Korner's Rufus, a Broken Jr. Holland Lop buck. Overall it was great show, and we were very pleased with how or rabbits did.

Our November show, also in Amherst, was another success for us. Kritter Korner's Rufus, a broken Sr. Holland Lop buck, won Best in Show! We also won BOB Dutch with Kritter Korner's Risk, and BOB Mini Rex with McCabe's 59M.

So enough about wins! As far as our nestboxes go, they have been pretty empty lately! We have one litter of Mini Rexes, just born yesterday, December 1st. J's Flo (Broken Blue) had 2 broken lilacs and a solid lilac. The sire....can you guess which color?....Was our lilac buck, McCabe's 59M. We have a few more does bred now, so I'll keep updating with our litter information.

Well, I have to run! I hope everyone has had a great show season like we have and post our new litters once they're born!

Thursday's News

Fall is definitely here! After our heat wave at the beginning of this month, things really started to cool off. I'm happy in a way that the cooler weather is here, I'm sure the rabbits are too. Many of the animals are just finishing up their molts right now. I'm looking forward to feeling some new winter Mini Rex coats!

The litters in the nextboxes are doing very well, we had 2 more litters yesterday. 5 Castor Mini Rex out of Justine, and 2 Tort Hollands out of J's Tabitha and Frank's F2.

I'm glad the heat didn't stick around long enough to effect those nice litte ears on our Blue Mini Rexes. There is a really sweet little buck in that litter he's a Broken Blue, I called him Blueberry. He had a rough start for awhile, he had a really infected eye so I took him in and babied him. He's all better now but is just the sweetest little bunny we've had around in a long time. He looks like he could be a keeper, I sure hope so.

Lickity Split's litter of Hollands is looking great. 3 really nice bunnies in that litter and I'm very proud of them. I made a big decision with the Hollands, I've decided to get out of Saynora lines. I have already found homes for most of my stock carrying those lines. In a way it will be very sad to see them go, at one point I think I produced some pretty nice nice using those lines. But things change, and some lines just don't cross well. Right now, I'm having a bit of luck and a lot of fun with some of my newer additions.

I actually have Lickity Split and her litter indoors too. Sadly, I had to part with one of my favorite rabbits last weekend and I brought Lickity and her litter in to cheer myself up. Harmony, was a Brokan Opal English Lop, and was such a sweetie. She was a bit of a house pet, so I'm really going to miss her. Since we weaned her litter, it was just one thing after another with her and eventually she just got too sick, so we had to put her down. I'm hoping to have another litter of English Lops soon, I bred Miley, my Solid Blue Tort doe last night.

This weekend is the Spencerville show in Ontario. Although I'm not going to be getting there myself this time, I'm looking forward to having some rabbits brought back. We have a nice pair of Lilac Mini Rexes bred by Adam McCabe, and a Holland Lop Buck Bred by Donna Williams of Snowberry Rabbitry, arriving next week. I want to say a big Thank you to Julie Hartford from Bunny Hollow Rabbitry for selling us these rabbits! I can't wait to get them here!

Well, I guess that's all that's new for now. I'm looking forward to having a nice QUIET weekend for once! I know I'm a day early but, have a great weekend everyone!

Finally Some News!

It`s been awhile since I`ve had the chance to blog! Talk about busy... school as been taking over my life, BUT only 4 more courses until I`m done. There is so much to say about the rabbits but I`ll start with the most exciting news first!

BLUE DUTCH. Yes that`s right, BLUE. Checkers had 7 babies on Tuesday and one those babies, is a Blue. Not only is it Blue but it`s also decently marked so I will definitely be keeping him or her. I was definitely not expecting this, since there is very little Blue in Checker`s pedigree but it was a great surprise.

We also have other new babies in the nest box, all born within the past week. 2 Blue and 1 Broken Blue Mini Rex, which is almost as exciting as the Blue Dutch (haha). Our Broken Red Mini Rex had 3 Broken Castors (there was one lovely broken red but it was a peanut). We also had a litter of Hollands, Lickity Split had 3 Broken Blue Torts.

There are so many young rabbits I`m looking forward to growing out, it a way I`m glad the shows are happening late this year.

It`s so hot here, 39 with the humidity today, yesterday was over 40. We`re lucky the rabbit barn gets a bit of a breeze. I feel guilty sitting in my air conditioned classroom, hoping they are not too hot. I actually lost one of my older hedgehogs today and I`m wondering if it isn`t the heat. We definitely have to keep a close eye on all of the critters when it`s this warm. Luckily the heat isn`t supposed to stick around for much longer.

This weekend is the Evangeline Exhibition, I`ll be going down tomorrow (Friday) to judge 4-H rabbits and then Saturday is the open show. We`re expecting 35-45mm or rain Saturday, hopefully it won`t affect our show, or the rest of the Exhibition too much!

Well, I have to get back to work. I hope everyone has a great long weekend and hopefully some of you will make it out to the Exhibition this weekend! I`ll try to update again soon!