Summer Breeding

Sometimes I think we should just skip summer breeding.  It is so disappointing to breed and have misses or lose several babies.  But 3 months is a long time to go without babies. :)  Since May 28th we have bred  8 does.  2 have been misses.  Raz had 8 babies and 1 survived.  Her surviving baby, Slinky, is looking wonderful.  Rocky had 3 - 1 doa, 1 peanut and the 3rd baby died at 5 days old.  Amber had 2 - both doa.  Bluebell had 2 - 1 peanut and 1 doa.  Fortunately, 2 litters were very successful. Charlotte had 4 kits and only 1 was a peanut. These are our first Bomb babies.  Amy actually had 6 with no peanuts. She has 5 different colors in her nestbox!! I was so thankful to have a full litter with no losses.  Fall will be here soon and breeding will be easier again.  Thank goodness!

Culling

It is time to sort through our Hollands again.  We have promising babies that we need to make cage space for.  So we need to decide who to keep and who to sell.  That is always a hard chore.  This time we are selling one of Lane's sons.  We really expect Spike to be a great show buck.  But we have some Bomb kits that are looking great and we still have Lane.  We selling a few of our brood does and a few young bucks also.  They are listed on our for sale page at http://www.hillsborohollands.com/.  Hopefully, we have made the right choices and not sold  a future grand champion.  But if we do make that mistake, it will be great for the person who buys the Holland. 

HEAT!!!!

It is just too hot today.  We hit 107 degrees today.  That is the forecast for tomorrow also.  But at least we should drop to 77 degrees tonight.  The Hollands seem to be weathering the heat okay.  The barn stayed at 92 degrees with the attic fan and floor fans running.  But Nick's french lop and mini lop are outside.  They are really suffering.  Loppy, the mini lop, cooled off in a fresh bowl of cold water.  We moved Twister, the french lop, into the barn temporarily to cool him off.  Hopefully, everyone makes it through the next few weeks.  Most of the days are forecast for 100 degrees or above.  But there are actually a few days in the 90s.