Hillsboro Hollands

Update & Changes

2011-06-19T20:36:00.000-05:00

LBF's Creme

I apologize for the length of time between blogs. The first 6 months of this year have been crazy for our family. I think life is finally getting back to normal. Our rabbitry has undergone several changes in the last 6 months also. Philip decided to no longer show rabbits. So I am now showing our Hollands in open. It is actually going well. Our juniors continue to look good. They are earning legs at shows. I went to Holland Lop Nationals in Columbus, Ohio the first weekend of May. I was thrilled when LBF's Lane took 35th in his SSB class of 122. I expected that to be the best placement of the day. Then LBF's Creme took 2nd place in the BSB class. It was awesome. That was a once in a lifetime honor. Fortunately, Melanie Price and LeAnne Caraway were there to share the moment. I want to thank them again for providing Lane and Creme to Philip when he lost his herd buck 2 years ago. Lane and Creme have provided a great foundation to our herd. They continue to produce great babies for us.

Crazy Weather

2011-01-31T18:34:00.000-06:00

The poor rabbits don't know what to do. Some of them have started molts (in January??). Of course it was 65 degrees on Saturday and felt like spring had arrived. Even some of our daffodils are pushing through the ground. Today it was 24 degrees with ice and blowing snow. By Wednesday the high will be 11 degrees. No wonder they are confused. It has been a fairly quiet winter. We only lost one Holland. Lane's babies are looking good. We are thrilled with Teddy. He may actually look like Lane. He is still very young. But he has a wide chest and great head. It would be great to add another Lane to our barn. We have some beautiful blue torts from Lane also. We are hoping for an early spring and nice weather. We hope you have had a good winter. See you at the shows soon!

Show Season

2011-01-09T18:02:00.000-06:00

Show season is almost here. YEAH!!! We have missed our friends. This fall was very good for breeding. We are really excited about some of our upcoming juniors. They are some of the best Hollands we have seen in our barn. It should be a great spring!

Seward Show - 11/20/10

2010-11-21T19:57:00.000-06:00

Philip and I attended the double show in Seward, Nebraska yesterday. It was so good to see friends that we haven't seen for several months. Seward is always a great show. Philip won best of breed in both shows with LBF's Lane. Lane is in good condition and just keeps looking better as he ages. Kelly Bliven made wonderful plaques for prizes in the second show. They are awesome.

Congratulations to Sarah Huygens from Iowa. She won BOS. She also had the BOV and BOSV in the brokens. Sarah has beautiful Hollands. We will really miss her and her mom, Barb, at shows. Sarah will no longer be showing Hollands after next week. Good luck at college!

Kansas State Convention 2010

2010-10-17T14:47:00.000-05:00

State Convention was this weekend. It was a very good weekend for us. Lane took Best of Breed. He was mentioned as one of the possibilities for Best in Show. Our juniors placed well. It was great to see so many friends that we haven't seen for a while. Heather brought us a BEW doe. So we now have a BEW doe and BEW buck. Now we will see how the BEW project transpires. We hope to develop better type in our BEWs over the next few years.

Fall Sale

2010-10-07T20:46:00.000-05:00

We have kept our juniors much longer than we normally do. The last several litters have looked very promising. So we tried to let the bunnies grow out. I think we waited a little too long. The barn is overflowing! Now we need to sell some show quality Hollands that we would rather keep. We need to sell them as soon as possible. So we are having a fall sale & reducing our prices temporarily. Despite the difficulties of letting go we are also selling some of our favorite brood does. We need to move them on so other families can still have several litters. Our for sale page on our website has been updated & is full. We hope you will stop by. Thanks.

Fall Juniors

2010-09-26T18:40:00.000-05:00

Hillsboro Hollands' Kit

Hillsboro Hollands' Heather

Hillsboro Hollands' Callie

Hillsboro Hollands' Hawk

We are so excited about some of juniors this fall. There was actually cage space to let these bunnies grow out. Some of them are looking great. We can't wait to show them at Gardner this weekend. Some of the breedings definitely need to be repeated. Cammie and Creme's babies are looking great! Expo and Simon had some nice babies also. Now comes the hard part of deciding which juniors we can keep and who we should sell. :)

Full Cages

2010-09-15T21:10:00.000-05:00

I can't even remember the last time all of our cages were full. It is time for a show so we can sell some bunnies. We have several listed for sale on our website now. We need to add some more to that list since it is time to wean Amy's babies. We have some beautiful Hollands for sale. I hate to see some of these Hollands go. But they will definitely make good additions to someone else's herd. We will be at shows in Gardner and Hutchinson in October. It will be good to see our friends again.

Amy's Babies

2010-09-12T19:56:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful day! So we brought Amy's babies outside to play. They loved the grass.

Duncan

2010-09-08T20:53:00.000-05:00

Much to our surprise we were able to attend the Duncan show last Saturday. The weather was beautiful. It was so good to see so many of our friends. We have really missed everyone this summer. Philip's rabbits did well. Rico, his BSD, took BOB in the first show. Lane took BOS in the second show. We were really pleased with our juniors. It was their first show and they placed well. Philip found a BEW Holland that he couldn't live without. Sarah Bloink was gracious enough to grant Philip's wish. So we now have a BEW buck named Yeti. He will be an interesting addition to our barn. Now we need to make room for a BEW doe. :)

Summer Breeding

2010-08-16T19:07:00.000-05:00

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

2010-08-15T17:10:00.000-05:00

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!!!!

2010-08-02T18:24:00.000-05:00

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.

Lyons Show

2010-06-19T18:53:00.000-05:00

We attended a new show in Lyons, KS today. The Smoky Hill Rabbit Club hosted this show. The facility was wonderful & included air conditioning (a definite plus since it was 99 degrees today). It was a great show. We hope that Smoky Hill continues to host this show every year. In the first show, Creme won BOV and Bluebell earned another leg. Then Lane and Sadie took BOB & BOS. In the second show, Lane took BOSV and Creme was BOB. In the Holland Lop speciality show, Creme won BOV. Then Lane & Sadie took BOB & BOS again. Creme went on to win first reserve in show. It was a great day for Philip and our rabbits.

Wichita Show

2010-06-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

The Wichita show went well today. The numbers were down from last year. We missed our friends who couldn't attend. I can't remember the last time Philip only took 6 rabbits to a show. Most of the does have babies or are pregnant. The juniors are too little. So we really didn't expect much. Our 6 Hollands decided to go for quality today. Creme and Lane won their classes in the first show. Then Lane took BOSV. Creme took BOB. In the second show, Philip won 5 of the 6 classes he was entered in. In the 6th class he took 2nd place. We were thrilled especially since Mike Avesing was the judge. Lane took BOV. Bluebell took BOSV. Then Creme took BOB. Creme also took 1st Reserve in Show A. What an amazing day for not having many expectations.

Orea

2010-06-09T18:33:00.000-05:00

I am so sad. We lost Orea this morning. She was our beautiful broken black doe. We had just weaned her first litter last week. She was fine yesterday morning. Last night she had diarrhea. So I gave her our prescription anti-diarrhea medication and probiotics. That usually does the trick even for the babies. I went out to the barn this morning and she was gone already. I can't believe we lost her so fast. My heart is really heavy.

Summer

2010-06-05T20:39:00.000-05:00

Summer is definitely here! It is 98 degrees today. I am so glad the rabbitry is shaded in the afternoon. The inside of the barn is showing 84 degrees. We have a solar attic fan and two floor fans running full time. This at least helps keep the barn a little bit cooler. I hope all of our Hollands make it through this summer. We lost a few last summer. Summer is so much harder on the rabbits than winter is. Fortunately, spring was nice this year. So we will hope for a more mild summer.

Seward Show - Memorial Weekend

2010-05-30T19:37:00.000-05:00

It was a good show this weekend. Four shows - 3 best of breeds. Lane won one BOB and Creme won two. Basil picked up another leg. Bluebell picked up her first leg. It was great to see so many of our friends. We love Seward shows - great judges, great friends!

Russell Shows

2010-05-09T20:30:00.000-05:00

We attended 3 shows in Russell yesterday. It was good to see so many of our friends. Philip did well with his rabbits. Basil earned 2 legs - first place in his class in two of the shows. Lane picked up 2 legs - including a BOV and a BOS. Creme earned 3 legs - 1 BOSV, 1 BOV, and 1 BOB. We were pleased with the placements for our other rabbits. It was nice to see 124 Hollands there. The Russell show committee did a great job hiring excellent judges.

Smash went to his new home yesterday. I am sure he will be well loved by his new family. Disco finally find his new home, too. It was a good day!

Mr. B

2010-05-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

This little guy was born 4 weeks ago. His head is almost bigger than his body. So Allen named him Mr. Bobble. He is second generation Lane baby. He is looking incredible. He is also a sweetheart. We are so excited about him. Annie (one of Lane's daughters) is his mother. Creme is his father.

Lane Grandbabies

2010-04-25T21:02:00.000-05:00

We have our first Lane grandbabies! Raz is a baby from Lane and Sabi. She is a first time mom and had 9 babies this morning. We haven't had a litter this big in the last 3 years. We bred Raz with Creme. So we can't wait to see how these babies turn out.

Holland Lop Nationals 2010

2010-04-19T16:11:00.000-05:00

Holland Lop Nationals was in Loveland, Colorado last weekend. The Hollands and Friends club put on an excellent show. Philip did great with his rabbits. He showed 10 rabbits and 8 of them placed. He had 5th, 9th and 13th SJB. His BSB placed 5th. He placed 4th, 9th and 14th with his SJD. His best placement was his SSB. Lane took 1st in his class. That was unbelievable by itself. Then Lane went on to take BOV in the solids. Hollands and Friends sponsored another show on Sunday after Nationals. Lane took BOB at that show. There were some really incredible Hollands at Nationals. We were fortunate to be able to compete with them.

Seward Show

2010-04-04T15:48:00.000-05:00

Basil is Creme's first son. Creme was Best in Show last month at Gardner. Yesterday we attended the Seward show. It was a double all breed and Holland Lop Specialty show. Basil took first in his class at both all breed shows. Then he took Best in Show at the Holland Lop Specialty show. I guess it is like father like son. Basil is very promising. Philip decided to take him to Holland Lop Nationals next week. He is still very young. So I don't know if he can place in the top 10. But it will be exciting to see him on the show table. We took a few pictures of Basil with our spring flowers today.

Emporia Show

2010-03-27T17:11:00.000-05:00

We attended a rabbit show in Emporia today. There were 92 Hollands entered in youth. Philip's rabbits won 4 of the 8 classes. Lane took SSB, Basil took SJB, Creme took BSB and Charlotte took BJD. We were really excited about Basil. This was his first show and he just made weight to show. He needed some road trip experience since we taking him to Seward next weekend. Creme went on to take BOV for the brokens and Lane took BOV for the solids. Then Lane won Best of Breed. It was a good show. Lane is pictured above.

Spring has arrived!

2010-03-25T20:13:00.000-05:00

Spring is finally here. At our house that means flowers and baby bunnies. This is the longest winter I can remember in recent history. It is so good to see the flowers blooming and experience some warm sunshine. Expo had two babies last week. Amber and Sadie are due next week. In this picture is Mocha. She is one of Sugar's babies.

Gardner Show

2010-03-06T18:52:00.000-06:00

We had a great day at the Gardner show today. This morning Creme, our BSB, took BOB. Then he took BIS this afternoon. This afternoon Philip managed to win BOS and BOSV in both solids and brokens. Lane took BOB and Cammie took BOS. Creme and Cammie were both granded today. Spike, one of Lane's babies, earned his first leg as a SJB. We took pictures of Creme, Lane and Cammie when we arrived home.

New Pictures

2010-02-28T19:25:00.000-06:00

We tried to take pictures yesterday to update our website. However, we had a few hams in the barn that wanted to show off instead. Spike and Simon wanted to look around. They are so cute!

Spring is coming!

2010-02-16T17:50:00.001-06:00

We have crocuses peaking up in the flower beds. Suga had a litter of 5 babies yesterday. Sabi had a litter of 3 today. New life is popping up everywhere. Now the snow just needs to stop and the sun needs to come out. We are definitely ready for spring in Kansas.

Illustrated Guide for Holland Lops

2010-02-14T12:38:00.000-06:00

I found a great post on Hollands last night. Oak Ridge Rabbitry has a new post that describes what the different parts of Hollands should like. They also have pictures that illustrate good and poor characteristics. You can find this information at http://oakridgerabbitry.weebly.com/holland-lop-type.html. Thanks to Oak Ridge Rabbitry for taking the time to put this information together. It is excellent.

Abilene Rabbit Show

2010-02-13T21:15:00.000-06:00

We finally had a rabbit show this weekend. We haven't been to a show since the middle of November. But it feels like much longer than that. It was great to see our friends again. We were able to show our new juniors for the first time. They did great under Scott Wiebensohn. He was very complimentary. He judged for our Holland Lop specialty show. We showed 12 Hollands and 11 of them placed in the top 5. We know we are on the right track when we do well under a judge who likes posed breeds. Creme, our broken sable point buck, took BOS. We did okay in the 2 all breed shows. I think we have decided to attend a few less shows this year. Then we can continue to focus on our breeding. We are so thrilled with the results of focusing on breeding last year. We want to continue to make those improvements. Then we can share our Hollands with others.

For Sale Updated

2010-01-09T14:40:00.001-06:00

Well, after 3 weekends straight of Christmas celebrations the holidays are over. I finally had time to update our for sale page. It is time to start selling some of our quality Hollands and keep their babies. I really hate selling the Hollands I am already attached to. But to keep improving the Holland breed it only makes sense to keep the babies who are better quality than their parents. Maybe some day this will get easier. But somehow I don't think it will ever be easy to sell a rabbit. I wish I had the time, space, money and energy to keep all of them. But this is not reality. So the sales page must be updated.

Updates

2009-12-30T22:01:00.000-06:00

It has been a very busy month. Rico made a beautiful nest but didn't have any babies. Expo had 6 babies from Creme on 12/15. She still has 4 - 3 broken torts and 1 solid tort. Amber had 6 babies from Lane on 12/22. She lost 3 of them. But the other 3 are doing well. Whiskers laid her first litter on wire Monday night. Sugar had 1 baby last night. Unfortunately, it is a peanut. So we will lose it within a few days.

Our first two litters from Lane are approaching 4 months old now. They are looking awesome! We are so pleased to have little Lane babies in the barn. Cammie's litter with Sub-Zero is looking promising. We have a siamese sable in the barn again from Ash. Siamese sables are gorgeous.

We have three does due in January. Hopefully, it will warm up for a few days soon. Then we can do more breeding.

Pictures

2009-12-13T21:53:00.000-06:00

We were trying to get some good pictures today for our website today. But there always a few hams in the group. Frazier just wanted to stand up and look around. RJ just wanted Philip's attention. We also took some pictures of Gracie's litter. The litter includes a fawn, a chinchilla and a frosty. The frosty was hiding at the bottom of the basket.

Unexpected Babies

2009-12-07T21:20:00.000-06:00

It is supposed to be 17 degrees tonight, 5 degrees tomorrow night and 3 degrees on Wednesday night. We could get 8 - 12 inches of snow tomorrow. I think winter has come to stay. When I came home tonight Rico had pulled fur in her cage. But we weren't expecting her to have babies. Maybe Lane successfully bred her when I had my back turned last month. We should know in a few days. It would be a nice surprise if we had unexpected babies. :>

Seward, Nebraska Rabbit Show

2009-11-22T20:39:00.000-06:00

It was a great weekend. We attended a triple show in Seward, Nebraska. This is one of our favorite shows because the show is relaxed, well organized and well attended. We took several Hollands who left the barn for the first time this weekend. Crash, a SJB, from Lil' Bit Farms' Cammie and Lil' Bit Farms' Juneau attended his first show this weekend. We were excited because Crash is from Cammie's first litter. The other two Hollands (Smash and Bash) from this litter look promising, too. Crash was even more promising than he looked. He took Best in Show at the Holland Specialty show on Friday night. On Saturday he won both of his classes. But Lane, our SSB, beat him for BOSV in the first show and BOV in the second show. Lane also took BOS in the first show. Several of our other juniors did very well this weekend, also.

Patience?

2009-11-12T20:29:00.001-06:00

I think I could use a little more patience. We listed George on the for sale page last month because he really wasn't looking good. He is broken tort buck from Zoe and Moose. He just turned 4 months old last week. He is really starting to pop. He is a pretty junior buck now. If cage space wasn't such an issue, I think that would help. But because we want to have a small rabbitry this will always be an issue. We want to be able to give all of our Hollands attention especially when they are babies. Needless to say, George was removed from the sale page tonight. He is a keeper for now. I don't know how many times it will take for the patience lesson to stick. Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later.

Home

2009-11-09T21:48:00.000-06:00

I arrived home Saturday afternoon from San Diego. Convention was great. I am so glad I went. But I love being home. We were blessed that Spunky placed 4th in his class. We sold four rabbits. One of our junior does is going to Japan. I hope she travels well. My family was really amazed when I arrived home with a broken black French Lop. Nick has been asking for a big rabbit for the last few years. Now he has one and it is his favorite color. The French Lop's name is Twister. He seems huge compared to our Hollands. It is like having a puppy in the house. I am sure that he will add a new dimension to our family.

Youth Best in Show Winner

2009-11-04T10:00:00.000-06:00

Check out this beautiful Holland. Aislin Hall from West Virginia won youth Best in Show with her solid senior doe. This doe is gorgeous! It is just awesome that a Holland Lop won Best in Show. Hollands Rule!

Sightseeing

2009-11-03T23:03:00.000-06:00

We took the day off from the show barns today. It was a nice change of pace. This morning Karen, Debe, Sarah and I went to Del Mar beach at 6:30 AM. We wanted to find seashells. We didn't have much luck at Del Mar. We fed the rabbits and then went to Tijuana Estuary with our friend, Mark Carson. He is an avid bird watcher. He had a great day because he spotted about a dozen new birds. After visiting the estuary we traveled north to Imperial Beach. There was a huge pier there. The sand was great - soft and white. While picking up a shell I underestimated how far in the tide would come. My shoes and socks were soaked.

After lunch we drove across the Coronado - San Diego Bay Bridge. It felt like the bridge was a mile in the air and two miles long across the water. It was nearly that big. It just felt like it. Coronado Beach was our best find of the day. All of us found bags of seashells. We found several sand dollars that were intact. There were a lot of baby sand dollars also. I think we combed the beach for over an hour. The sand was beautiful. It had flecks of gold in it. On this beach, I removed my tennis shoes and socks. I enjoyed walking in the surf.

At sunset we drove to San Elijo State Beach. Unfortunately, the fog rolled in right before sunset. So it was very hazy and turned cold. The beach was still full of surfers, though. The cliffs were awesome.

Tonight we fed the rabbits. I took a picture of Spunky, our broken junior buck, who placed 4th yesterday.

More Rabbit Pictures

2009-11-02T21:54:00.000-06:00

I took pictures of several breeds of rabbits today.

Miscellaneous Convention Pictures

2009-11-02T21:43:00.002-06:00

I thought I would post a few more pictures from Convention. It was bright and sunny this morning. The weather suddenly changed this afternoon. The fog rolled in and it felt cold at 63 degrees.

There are beautiful plants and trees everywhere we look.

One of the exhibitors from Japan let me take a picture of his show coat.

The Holland Lop booth had some great decorations.

Purina has a great display.

Youth Hollands & Open Hollands

2009-11-02T21:42:00.000-06:00

Ty Gorden had an excellent day. He placed in a number of classes. His solid senior buck took BOSV. I took a picture of him with our judge, Jay Hriez. Aislin Hall from West Virginia took BOV with her solid senior doe. She went on to win BOB. Kelly Pedrotti from California took BOV with her broken junior buck and BOSV with her broken junior doe. She won BOS with her BJB. There were some excellent Hollands on the table today. I told Ty that his buck could come home with us if he didn't want him.

Jennifer Poprawski won BOB in the open Hollands. Linda Jinnings won BOS. Congratulations to all of the winners! They deserve it for the hard work it takes to breed a good Holland.

Philip's Rabbits

2009-11-02T21:33:00.000-06:00

The Holland judging is finished. I already posted the SSB and SSD results earlier. We didn't have any solid juniors at Convention. Frazier, our broken senior buck, placed 14th. I was really pleased with his placement. He is a small but well balanced buck. Todd Naragon gave him credit for that balance. We had 4 broken senior does. Rico and Yoshi weren't up to their other competition. However, Zoe and Judy both placed in the top 20. Our 2 junior does, Peaches and Minnie, finished on the bottom half of their class. But there were some great junior does in that class. In fact, the best broken junior doe to best of variety. Our last shot for top 10 placement was our broken junior buck, Spunky. He placed 4th. That was great! It means that I get to bring a prize home for Philip. Those will be awarded on Wednesday night at the Holland Lop banquet.

SSB & SSD - Holland Youth

2009-11-02T13:43:00.002-06:00

Jay Hreiz is the youth Holland judge for this morning. There were 50 solid senior bucks. Ty Gorden from Utah had a great morning. He placed 1st, 4th and 6th in the SSB class. I enjoyed visiting with him this morning. Lane placed just out of the top 1/2 of the class. Not bad for a young buck. There were a number of 2 and 3 year old bucks that were awesome. Lane should be more competitive next year. Moose and T-Bone were no places. But we weren't expecting them to place.

There were 31 solid senior does. Miss Expo placed in the top half of the class. I was thrilled because it was a deep class. I have never seen such a nice group of does. It took 3 1/2 hours to judge those two classes. It is going to be a long day. I spent the morning running Hollands to the judging table and talking to Ty. That made the morning go faster. I continue to see people that I know from around the United States. I didn't think I would know this many people at Convention.

Sunday ARBA Convention

2009-11-01T23:43:00.000-06:00

Today was very busy. We spent 8 or 9 hours at the showrooms. It took 3 hours to feed and groom Philip's rabbits. Now they are ready to show tomorrow. The competition looks tough. I am just hoping that one of Philip's rabbits places. :> I toured the exhibitor booths. I found a great Holland Lop necklace. Another booth was an artist from Tuscon, Donna Wahl. She paints animals. Her paintings of Hollands and Netherland Dwarfs are awesome. So I had to take advantage of that opportunity. I have another surprise for my family. But that will need to wait until I get home. We sold one rabbit today. It was like a big swap meet with rabbits. Sarah sold her Netherland Dwarf doe as a pet. It is amazing to me that a family would pay Convention price for a rabbit as a family pet. But this is California. I took pictures of the fairgrounds and several breeds of rabbits today.

Beaches and Raiders

2009-11-01T23:09:00.002-06:00

This morning we visited Carmel by the Sea before we went to the showroom. Tonight we went to Solano Beach to watch the sunset. Sarah and I collected shells while Debe waded in the water. Karen and I also collected rocks. It was a beautiful evening. Then we went to Albertson's for groceries. That was an interesting experience. We saw fresh herbs and vegetables that are not available in Kansas. There were 50 pound bags of carrots. We saw a man in the checkout with two bags of them. So I asked him what he planned to do 100 pounds of carrots. He said they were for his horses and that is why they are called horse carrots. Well, that seems logical doesn't it? Except we have never seen a 50 pound bag of carrots before. There were two guys behind us in the check out line. They were obviously Raiders' fans. We asked permission to take their picture. California continues to be interesting.

Saturday

2009-11-01T00:53:00.000-05:00

We woke up at 6:00 AM (Central time) in Gallup, New Mexico this morning. We drove from Gallup to Phoenix this morning. It was 23 degrees when we left Gallup and 84 degrees by the time we arrived in Phoenix. We drove through Tonto National Forest. There were beautiful gray squirrels with white tummies. I wished that I could have snapped a picture of one. But they were too fast. We were driving through a regular forest and then the landscape changed suddenly. The mountains were covered with Sagauro cacti. It was incredible. We drove through numerous mountain ranges today. They were all different - pine forests, Sagauros, sage brush and pure rock. We also saw sand dunes when we crossed into California. We made it to San Diego by 6:00 (Pacific time). We arrived at the coast just in time to see the sunset.

The scenery was gorgeous today. But the trip will be memorable because of the ladies I traveled with. I don't remember the last time that a road trip went so fast. Karen, Debe and Sarah all have a great sense of humor. We were slap happy by the time we reached California due to the lack of sleep.

We did check in and get all of our rabbits in their coops tonight. The rabbits seemed to have weathered the trip okay. Now we just need to get some sleep!

Friday's Travels

2009-11-01T00:18:00.000-05:00

The Colorado ladies called on Thursday. They were still snowed in. So our departure time was delayed. So I was able to spend Thursday night with my sister in Oklahoma City. Then I drove to Hamlin, Texas to meet up with Sarah. It was an interesting day. I saw a field of camels west of Wichita Falls. (I am not joking.) There were at least 10 camels in the pasture. Then I met Sarah and her boyfriend, J.W., in Hamlin. They took me to their place in the country. While we were waiting for Karen and Debe to call us I toured Sarah's barn. She has some beautiful Hollands, Netherland Dwarfs and English Lops. I never knew that English Lops were so gentle. I also saw a wild pig that Sarah and J.W. trapped on Saturday morning. Evidently, they are quite prolific in Texas and very destructive to the crops.

Karen and Debe called us at 3:00 in the afternoon. They were finally able to leave Denver. Denver had 18 inches of snow (50% of their annual precipitation)!!! Sarah and I drove about 7 hours to Albuquerque and arrived at about the same time that Karen and Debe arrived at 10:00 in the evening. Albuquerque was beautiful at night. I can't wait to see in the daylight when we come back. We pushed through to Gallup, New Mexico and stopped for the night at about 2:00 A.M.

Still Snowing

2009-10-29T08:07:00.000-05:00

It is still snowing in Denver. They have even cancelled school. So the first leg of my journey will be to Texas instead of Denver. San Diego here we come!

Traveling to Convention

2009-10-28T19:32:00.000-05:00

Well, we have our first glitch with Convention plans. I am supposed to leave for Denver in the morning. However, Denver had a huge snowstorm today. It will continue into tomorrow. So I need to decide whether to chance the roads to Colorado tomorrow or head south to Texas. Then Sarah and I could meet Karen and Debe in Albuquerque on Friday. This was not part of the plan. :<

Cammie's First Litter

2009-10-24T16:36:00.001-05:00

Cammie's first litter was born on 6/29. Nick and Philip named the three babies - Smash, Crash and Bash. They are really looking good now. We can't wait to show them. Smash, broken tort buck, is the weakest of the litter. He still has some great features. Crash and Bash are both very compact and looking great. They will either be small Hollands or are just developing slow. Crash and Bash both just reached 2 pounds and they are close to 4 months old. Crash is our solid tort buck. Bash is our broken tort doe.

Ash and Rocky

2009-10-22T10:27:00.000-05:00

Ash, our black silver marten, had 3 babies yesterday. Unfortunately, one of them didn't make it. But the other two look healthy. Ash is doing well. Rocky is a first time mom. We bred her to Frazier. She had two babies yesterday - 1 doa. So we fostered her remaining baby to Ash. It is nice to have 3 new litters in the barn.

Babies Again

2009-10-20T18:11:00.000-05:00

Cammie had babies this morning. She had 6 (only 1 died). Wow! We bred Cammie with Sub-Zero. So we hope to get some great babies out of this pairing. They will be ready in time for Holland Lop Nationals in Loveland, Colorado next April. Babies are so exciting. It is like getting a new lease on life every time we have bunnies. We hope that you are experiencing good luck with your breeding this fall. :>

Kansas State Convention

2009-10-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

Philip and I attended Kansas State Convention this weekend. It was busy. There were 1725 rabbit entries. Wow! There were over 130 Hollands entered in youth. Rico, our BSD, took 2nd place in a large class. We left our best Hollands at home since they are going to San Diego. So the rest of our Hollands did okay, not great on Saturday. Philip was awarded a plaque at the banquet on Saturday evening. He took second place in Kansas State sweepstakes for the last year.

San Diego

2009-10-08T21:03:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that I leave for Convention in 3 weeks. It seems like there is so much to do. Philip and I went through our Hollands last night. We entered 12 Hollands. I hope they are in decent condition by the time they arrive in San Diego. Now I am just going over the packing list again. Hopefully, I have most of the items covered thanks to friends and Convention blogs. Now we just need to finalize our sales list. I hope to see you in San Diego!

Gardner Show

2009-10-03T19:22:00.000-05:00

We attended a double show in Gardner, Kansas today. It turned out to be a good day. We were able to see a number of our friends. We sold some rabbits. Philip's Hollands did pretty well on the table. In the first show, Cammie took BOS and earned her second leg. Rico won her class and can be granded now. There were several other top 5 placements with a total of 91 youth Hollands exhibiting. In the second show, Lane won his solid senior buck class. Rico took BOSV. It was a gorgeous day. We were glad to be showing again. Kansas State Convention is two weeks from now. So we need to work on those entries.

Babies from Lane and Sabi

2009-09-27T14:22:00.000-05:00

Lane and Sabi's babies are really growing now. They are looking nice! We have 4 solid torts. Nick named this litter - Apples, Cherry, Raz, and Berry. Apples is Nick's little girl. She is the smallest baby. But she makes up for her size with her energy. Berry is Philip's boy. He has a huge head. Cherry is fairly quiet. Raz is an another active baby. We are very excited about the potential of this litter.

Selling???

2009-09-19T14:07:00.000-05:00

The barn is full and overflowing. So Philip and I took pictures today. The point of taking pictures is to post more Hollands on our for sale page. However, as the weeks have passed some of the babies have really developed. So the babies we planned to sell look good now. So who do we sell? That is a good dilemma to have. Three years ago it was obvious which bunnies needed to be sold. Now we can't decide which ones to sell. It is great to see that much improvement in our breeding program. So now we need to learn to cull harder. (While we were taking pictures we decided to get a picture of Philip's new doe, Raven. What are the chances of snapping of picture when she is sticking out her tongue?) Thanks to JoAnn Snodgrass for Raven.

Babies from Gracie and Ash

2009-09-13T18:14:00.002-05:00

We were able to play with Gracie's and Ash's babies today. After a little bit of running on the couch they tuckered out. We are still trying to figure out the color of Ash's baby. Our best guess is blue otter - white tummy, brown accents with fawn and blue coloring. We will just need to wait and see. Whatever color the bunny is he or she has a wonderful head and great bone. Gracie's babies have great heads, too. In another few weeks we should have a good clue about their type.

Dixie and Sabi's babies are growing fast. They have full bodies already. Their eyes should be opening this week. Every last baby is a tort. So it will be easier to just look at type with them. We are just glad to have babies from Lane.

Kansas State Fair

2009-09-12T21:32:00.000-05:00

We only took 4 rabbits to the State Fair this year - 1 fuzzy and 3 Hollands. We are hoping to sell our fuzzy. He is pretty. But we just don't have time to keep him brushed out. Today we arrived at the fair right at the end of the Holland Lop judging. Moose took 2nd place in class. We are not sure where T-Bone placed. But Khufu went up for Best of Breed. Vic Vogts spent a lot of time looking at Khufu and the solid buck. The solid buck had the edge today. We were really pleased that Khufu placed well again. He has earned two legs in the last week. He is a promising young buck.

Gracie's Babies

2009-09-11T19:56:00.002-05:00

Gracie's 3 babies opened their eyes today. They are so cute. They are starting to run circles in their nestbox. In a few days we will be able to bring them inside and play with them. Here is a picture of them on Sunday. When we start playing with them then we can choose names.

We tattooed 3 litters of weaned babies on Wednesday. We found a few surprises. We try to tell if they are does or bucks when we start playing with the bunnies. Then we name them. We thought Scooby (our broken fawn from Eden's litter) was a buck. Turns out Scooby is a doe. That is great. Philip has another doe to work with and Scooby can keep her name. However, Lily (our broken tort from Zoe's litter) turned out to be a buck. I don't think we can keep that name. Philip is thinking about changing Lily's name to George. We always thought Lily was extra friendly for a doe. Now that we know he is a buck that explains his friendly personality.

Seal Marten

2009-09-09T18:16:00.001-05:00

We had an inquiry about black silver martens last week. Ash had babies last week. But the potential colored babies were peanuts and died. At the Duncan show last weekend Lops of Enchantment had a seal marten buck for sale. He came from two black silver martens. So we purchased him hoping his color would be close enough for the family who inquired. Alas, they bought another rabbit already. So now we have this darling little seal marten in our barn. Philip named him Remy. He is a sweetheart. Philip would like to keep him. But we just don't have room. So we posted him on our sale page. He actually has nice type and would work well for an otter project. I hope that I don't get too attached to him before we sell him. It would be easy to do since he is a sweetheart. Starting an otter project is too much of a temptation for a small rabbitry.

Expo & Pearl

2009-09-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

Expo had 3 babies on Sunday. We will lose two of them because they are peanuts. But one is a healthy broken tort. Philip is excited because this is RJ's first live baby. If RJ produces like his father (Nacho), this baby should be nice.

Pearl had one huge baby. I felt so bad for her. But at least her labor is over. So we will try again in a week or so.

In two weeks it is time to start breeding for Holland Lop Nationals. They are being hosted by the Hollands & Friends club in Loveland, Colorado. April seems like a long time away right now. But it will be here before we know it. We will definitely breed Dosie and Pearl to have juniors for Nationals. But we need to decide who else to breed on 9/21. We would really like to breed Zoe and Cammie. But we are planning to take them to San Diego in November. So their breedings will need to wait until the end of October. Sometimes this rabbit business is more complicated than we expected.

Duncan Show

2009-09-06T19:02:00.000-05:00

Philip and I went to the triple show in Duncan, Oklahoma this weekend. It was a 5 hour trip one way for us. That is the longest we have traveled for a rabbit show. It was great to see our friends again. As usual our friends were gracious and very helpful. They helped us evaluate our rabbits and answered questions about new situations we have encountered with our rabbits. We came home with a few new does. Thanks JoAnn and Melanie!

The shows were successful. Philip's rabbits earned 8 legs this weekend. He was able to grand Frazier, his little blue tort buck. That was great. Khufu, our broken tort junior, took Best of Breed in the second show. He is pictured here. Yoshi, one of Sampson's daughters, took BOS in the third show. Overall, it was a very good show.

Dixie

2009-09-05T21:04:00.001-05:00

Dixie had her litter today. Her poor belly was stretched as far as possible the last several days. I was afraid she was carrying one large baby. In the past she has only had one or two babies per litter. She had 6 babies today! One is a peanut. But the rest are normal size babies. No wonder she was so big. Lane is the sire. He was also the sire of Sabi's babies. Normally, she only has two babies also. She had 5 this time. So I guess Lane is very good at his fathering duties. Now we hope that those little babies look like Lane. Only time will tell. In the meantime, we are very grateful to Melanie and LeAnne for our new herd buck.

Sabi

2009-09-03T17:54:00.003-05:00

Sabi had 5 babies today. One is a peanut. But we only expected her to give birth to 2. The best part is that Lane is the father. So we have our first babies from Lane. We are really excited!!!

ARBA Convention

2009-09-01T20:52:00.001-05:00

Has anyone seen the Convention show catalog? All I can say is WOW! It is terrific. Even my non-rabbit friends are impressed. The catalog has helped educate them about the great variety of breeds and how big our hobby really is. Thanks to all of the California breeders for your hard work! We appreciate your efforts.

I can't believe that Convention is only two months away and that I am actually going. This should be an incredible experience. It will be my first ARBA Convention. I hope to bring my laptop so that I can update my blog daily. Then I can stay in touch with my rabbit friends that aren't able to attend. Philip is not happy that he has to stay home and attend school. But I will feel better that I am there to take care of our Hollands. Now we just need to start choosing which Hollands will be going to San Diego.

On the Road Again

2009-08-31T15:36:00.001-05:00

Show season is starting again. We have really missed seeing our friends. The Duncan, Oklahoma show is on Friday night and Saturday this week. It will be good to get the rabbits on the table again and see our friends. We can't wait to see how some of our juniors will do. We wish that we could bring Spunky and Disco. But they are just 3 months old. We don't want to risk a long trip on their first time out. They will just have to wait for the next show. Disco and Spunky are two of Sampson's babies. Spunky, the broken tort, looks good. But Disco, the solid tort, looks awesome. They will just need to wait to till our show in Gardner on October 3rd. September will be really long since we won't be attending any shows. We hope to see you soon!

P.S. Ash, our black silver marten doe, had babies yesterday evening. She gave birth to three - one peanut. We are really excited. Now we will wait and see what colors she and Sub-Zero made in this litter.

Nest Boxes, Babies and Colors

2009-08-30T17:07:00.000-05:00

Gracie is our little opal doe. We bred her with Nacho (one of our grand champion bucks) last month. She had 3 babies yesterday. They are doing well - no peanuts. We are so excited to have babies again after a few misses earlier this month. Ash has a nest box and is pulling fur today. We have nest boxes in with Amber, Pearl, Sabi, Dixie, Expo and Daisy also. Even though Daisy gave birth to 3 babies early last week she may still have more babies. Better safe than sorry. :> We usually don't breed this many does at a time. But the weather was so cool at the end of July and first of August that we took advantage of the opportunity. It continues to be unusually cool. The highs were in the 70s yesterday and today. Is the world coming to an end?? It is actually cool in August.

This round of breeding is exciting for us. Expo is one of the first babies from our new lines. This will be her first litter. I hope she has live babies. She is a sweetheart. But she has been really agitated for the last few weeks. Hopefully, she isn't going through this process for nothing. We bred Expo to RJ (Nacho's son). They should have beautiful babies. They are both compact Hollands with beautiful bodies.

Gracie, Ash, Sabi and Pearl are our colored does. We are really missing the colors in our barn. We have been focusing so much on type that we have lost most of the color in our barn. When we started in Hollands we didn't know about color. Some of our first Hollands just happened to be colored. So we have been used to seeing color in the barn. With the change in lines most of our barn has been transformed to tort. We are so thankful for the improvements in type. But we like the excitement that comes with color. We know that typey colored Hollands are possible. We had those in our old lines and gave them up when we changed lines. So if we can keep the consistency with using the colored Hollands, we will continue to work with them. Otherwise, we will just love our tort Hollands. The excitement of seeing excellent tort babies still outweighs the excitement of an average colored Holland.

Molting & Herd Bucks

2009-08-25T18:14:00.000-05:00

I feel like I am covered in fur every time I go to the barn right now. The cages, ceiling and walls are covered in fur even after we clean them. It will be so nice when the summer molts are over. We desperately need to update our website. We have several Hollands to add to the website. But we can't take pictures during their molts. We are really excited about Lil' Bit Farms' Lane. Melanie and LeAnne sold him to us this month. He is our new herd buck. Lane is awesome. He has a wonderful body and head. His personality is awesome - very friendly. We are very fortunate to have such a great Holland in our barn. We are still sad that we had to replace our other herd buck, Sampsom. We lost Sampsom this summer. That loss was devastating to our rabbitry. We didn't expect to be able to replace Sampsom with a new herd buck so soon. We were really excited when Lane came up for sale. We never dreamed we would have a Holland of his quality this soon in our rabbitry's life. We started showing a little over 3 years ago. We expected it would be about 8 - 10 years before we would have great Hollands. But thanks to our friends selling us Hollands and mentoring us that process accelerated quickly. Philip has been very successful in Kansas and nationally. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to that success.

Poor Daisy :<

2009-08-24T20:33:00.000-05:00

Daisy was due to have babies on Saturday this week. We were supposed to put her nestbox in her cage tonight. This morning I found 3 babies on the wire. They were just too early. This was her first litter. It was also the first litter that RJ had sired. Hopefully her next pregnancy is more successful.

Another Beautiful Day

2009-08-23T09:55:00.001-05:00

I can't believe we are experiencing such great weather in August. Usually it is just hot in Kansas this time of the year. But it is gorgeous right now. It is supposed to heat up for a few days this week and then cool off again. I just had to share some pictures from our yard this weekend. We had several different butterflies in the yard yesterday. But this is the only one I could capture with a camera. Holland lops are my current obsession. (I don't think that will change.) Flower gardening was my previous obsession. I spent years planting flowers that would attract butterflies. It has paid off. Every year we have numerous types of butterflies that visit our yard. We really enjoy the visits.

Beautiful Day

2009-08-22T20:59:00.002-05:00

Today was a gorgeous day! It felt more like the end of September. We spent almost the entire day outside. The bunny barn is clean now. We moved all of the babies from the basement to the barn. They are really growing. We are excited to see how they will do at the shows this fall. We took some time to take a few pictures today. Eden's babies are really cute. Marissa is pictured on the top left. Scooby (Philip's favorite) is pictured on the top right. Nilla Wafer (my baby) is listed in the center below. Zoe's baby, Sadie, is pictured on the bottom left. She is the most promising doe in our litters. Disco is pictured at the bottom right. He looks awesome. We are hoping that he will show at Convention this fall. Cammie's babies are just too fast to get pictures of. They are sweeties. We hope that you are enjoying the mild August weather.

Selling.....

2009-08-14T19:16:00.011-05:00

We sold three rabbits tonight - 1 buck and 2 does. They are all sweet Hollands. We will miss Ruffles the most. She was one of Cinnabun's babies. Cinnabun was our original brood doe. Ruffles is a siamese sable. The picture on the left is of Ruffles with her sister, Houdini, when they were babies. They were one of our first show quality litters. I remember that we were so excited about that litter. The quality of our Hollands has really improved in the last few years.

Selling is still a hard process. We love our rabbits. They are not only show rabbits but pets. One of our friends used to tell us that we had to choose between being a breeder or a pet owner. We have embraced both. But when it comes to selling we must put on our breeding hat. We know that we can't continue to breed unless we are willing to sell. So in order to enjoy the babies we must be willing to sell our other Hollands that we are already attached to. That is never an easy thing. But it is not as difficult as it used to be. There is a balance now. We are so excited to share our Hollands with other people who will love them as much as we do. But we will certainly miss them. It is just great to know that we are selling show quality Hollands to other families. We know that the quality of Hollands continues to improve in our region as we sell good Hollands to others. We are happy to do that. The sadness that comes with each sale is balanced with the joy we find in helping other Holland Lop lovers. We want to thank everyone who has purchased Hollands from us. We appreciate the love you give to your new Hollands.

Break in the Weather

2009-08-06T20:10:00.002-05:00

The weathermen predicted 100 degree temperatures for every day this week. Thankfully, we have received a reprieve from the hot weather. It was only in the low 90s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today it was rainy and only reached 84 degrees. That is so much easier for the rabbits. We did move Micah and Dosie inside on Tuesday night. They are due to have babies on Monday. We didn't want them to stress due to the forecasted heat. We have bred several more does in the last week or so. This summer has been so strange. We have never been able to breed throughout the summer before. It is normally too hot after mid-June to do any breeding. So we are thankful for the opportunity to breed more this summer. We hope your weather has been good this summer and your nestboxes are full. Take care.

Robin and Philip

Growing Babies

2009-08-01T15:48:00.002-05:00

The babies grow so fast. Eden, Zoe, Cammie and Judy all have babies that are around 4 weeks old. They are so cute at this age. We love to let them run and play in the living room. Smash, the single broken tort above, is our favorite right now. He is one of Cammie's babies. His personality is adorable and he loves to run as fast as he can. Zoe's babies (in the basket) are our quietest litter. They don't explore much yet. Eden's babies are funny. Nilla Wafer, the cream, comes to the door as soon as we call his name. Scooby, the broken fawn, is pretty friendly, too. Mars and Max are still warming up to us. These adorable little bunnies are what keep us going during the discouraging times.

Back from Vacation

2009-07-26T20:40:00.004-05:00

We had a wonderful vacation in Colorado. The hiking was great in Rocky Mountain National Park and the scenery was beautiful. The weather was cool. We hiked 20 miles in the first three days. The hikes were definitely rewarding. We saw beautiful waterfalls, lakes and numerous animals. This year provided the greatest variety of animals we have ever seen - squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, deer, elk, quail and a coyote.

It was great to see so many animals. We had fun taking pictures of them. But they still can't replace our love for Hollands. We really missed our Hollands. Jim and Luke took great care of them while we were gone. But it is great to be back. Ruffles had one broken black bunny while we were gone. She was due on the 14th but didn't have her baby until the 18th. The baby's father is Frazier. So we expect great things from the baby.

Unfortunately, Zoe lost her broken sable point while we were gone. But the rest of the bunnies are doing well. It is amazing how much they grow when you don't see them for a week. Now we can start playing with the babies. That is the best part of coming home.

Babies

2009-07-18T22:47:00.002-05:00

Ash had one large baby on Thursday night. It was doa. We feel bad for her. She is still trying to find her baby. Ruffles still didn't have babies. But on the good side of things our other litters are doing very well. Judy has one broken tort and 4 foster babies from another rabbitry. Cammie has one solid tort and two broken torts. They are still small but growing. Zoe has two solid torts, one broken tort and one broken sable point (we think). We are really excited about Zoe's and Cammie's babies because they are both from our new lines. Eden has 4 beautiful, chunky babies - one solid tort, one cream, one broken tort and a broken fawn. They are mix of our old lines and new lines. So far they are looking good.

Expecting Babies

2009-07-14T10:10:00.003-05:00

Ruffles and Ash are both due today. We are excited about these two litters. Ruffles was bred with Frazier. Ash was bred with Sub-Zero. We are working on developing our new lines. These babies will be part of our new lines. This year we have cut back on our showing to concentrate on breeding. We have pulled new lines into our barn (mostly Saynora lines). We are aiming for more consistency in our breeding. So far we are experiencing success. Our babies are looking good. We have been able to produce Hollands with great bone, bodies and heads. Now we just need to tweek the other Holland characteristics.

It is really hard to change lines. We worked with our previous lines for 3 years and had a lot of success. But those lines were not always consistent. We had to sell a lot of bunnies as pets because they weren't show quality. Now the majority of our bunnies are show quality. But changing lines is almost like starting from scratch. It takes a lot patience. It will be a while before we fill the barn with our babies. The change has definitely been worth it. We really appreciate our friends helping us with the changes. Melanie and LeAnne Caraway, Nicole Baldwin and Janet Smith have sold us Hollands that are making a real difference in our lines. Thanks for all of your help!

Hot and Humid

2009-07-12T15:05:00.001-05:00

We are small family rabbitry located in Kansas. We have really enjoyed following our friends' blogs about their rabbits. So we decided to join them. We hope you enjoy our blog.

It is a typical July in Kansas. Yesterday was so humid! During morning feeding we discovered our little REW (Rudie) developed diarhhea overnight. We moved him inside and dosed him with Albon. This has saved many Hollands for us. Then we gave him some probiotics. We thought he would pull through. But he was gone by evening. We will really miss him! We have only had 4 REWs in the last 3 years. Our REWs have always been special and very spoiled.

The heat and humidity was so bad that we were concerned about our moms and their babies that are still in the nestboxes. We don't have air conditioning in the barn. We do have a solar attic fan and 2 floor fans to move air. But it was too humid. So we moved 4 moms and their litters to the basement yesterday. They are feeling much better now. We can rest easier knowing they are more comfortable.

We hope your bunnies are staying cool this summer.

Robin and Philip