It's been awhile...

Hi everybody, it's been awhile since our last post.  All the buns are doing great, and we have had several litters since our last post.  It has been super cold here in Indiana, but luckily with the barn being virtually air tight, it stays comfortable for all of the critters inside.  Other than having to break water crocks 2x a day, the bunnies are doing great, and we have several litters over the winter.


Last year we competed in 22 shows, and finished up the year 41 in the nation in Holland lop Sweepstakes points, 26 in Quality points and tied for 9th place in the nation in Herdsman Points.  Not too bad for our 1st full year of showing.  Some of our homegrowns did well on the show table.  Five Pines Long Kiss Goodnight granded with 6 legs overall for the year.  She is now currently a stay at home mom.  Five Pines Montana is also doing well, she has had several wins since we started showing her in July.  We were also able to Grand Karrot Kreek Carson, Camelot's Rigby, GBF's Tinsel, and LL Bama.  Overall a pretty good year of showing.  We were also able to make lot's of new friends by attending shows.


One of the rabbits we sold last year, Five Pines Checkerz was able to win a BOS for his new owner at their fair.  We were so happy for him.


We currently do have a pet quality Holland for sale, he is and Orange Buck with a great personality.  We are planning on attending Holland Lop Nationals in Wisconsin in April and should have several more buns for sale after that.  If you are interested see our sale page for contact info and sales policy.


We have attached some pics of our most recent show in Huntington Indiana, and Remember to follow us on facebook.  Check out our show news page and Buck and Doe page for updates.

More Nest Box News:

Five Pines Nugget and SSR's Bunny Boy Blu, 7 kits yesterday all alive and warm.  Her first live litter, 1st litter doa.  We are so excited.  3 broken, 2 Tort, 1 Black, and one Otter.  Can't wait to see these little guys grow up.

Earlier last week, Broo's Kaci and Karrot Kreek Carson had a litter of 2 very fat and shiney kits.  Both appear to be blue tort, but time will tell.  They are doing great.

With all of these babies, we should have some for sale in about 8 weeks, so check back.

Nest box News

We had 2 Does kindle this week, GBF's Tinsel bred to SRR Bunny Boy Blue, and FP Nugget bred to GBF's Contraband.

Tinsel had 4 kits, but 2 were DOA, 1 was a peanut, and 1 was alive and kicking.  Sadly the peanut died at 4 days old.  It was really hard to have this happen.  Tinsel is a broken and so is Bunny boy, but the little peanut was going to be a full fledged broken.  The baby that did survive, and is doing well, appears to be a charlie.  We will see when he/she gets older if he has enough color to show.

Nugget was a 1st time mom, and unfortunately lost all 6 of her kits.  She pulled fur and had them in the nest box like she was supposed to, and we even had a heat lamp on them.  But it just wasn't meant to be.  They were all black.  I was really wanting to see how these turned out.

So out of 10 babies born, one survived.

We bred Broo's Kaci and LL Bridgitte both to Karrot Kreek Carson this week.  Hopefully we will have better luck with these litters.

I will post pics of our new little charlie as soon as he is old enough.

Until next time, Beth.

BOB for FP Long Kiss Goodnight

FP Long Kiss Goodnight went BOB today at the GPRBA 4H Show.  She received her first ARBA leg today.  Kelli Slack was the judge.  Five Pines Manny also won his class today out of 6 giving him his first ARBA Leg.  We are really excited to have 2 homegrown rabbits do so well.

FP Long Kiss Goodnight BIS

FP Long Kiss Goodnight went BIS at the Elkhart County 4H Learning Show on Saturday 2-23.  She is by Karrot Kreek Carson and Broo's Kaci.  She beat out her daddy for Best of Breed, he got Best Opposite.  She then went on to win best 4 class Rabbit, and then BIS.  This was only a learning show, and not ARBA Sanctioned, but we were excited and floored none the less, she just turn 3 month's old.  I hope she keeps her type as she matures. 

Baby Bunnies part II

Hi everyone, wanted to share with you the latest pics of the twins as I call them.  They really aren't twins, but they look so much alike it's just hard to tell them apart.  We officially named them Five Pines Ebelskiver and Five Pines Nugget.  Ebelskiver is a buck and Nugget is a doe.  The jury is still out on whether we are going to keep them or not.  I like their bodies, but the ears are way too long.  Also they have narrow faces.  I will give them a chance, I think the doe is better than her mother, so this is a plus.  Here is the buck, love his ear placement and top line, face could be chunkier.

Here is the doe, love how the crown is currently, but time will tell.

 

 

 She wasn't cooperating much when I took this picture. 

 

 

I am really amazed at how fast they grow.  Saturday they will be 10 weeks old.

We bred one of our newer does, Tinsel, back in Sept.  She had her babies last Saturday.  Unfortunately, they were all DOA.  A lot of times, 1st time Holland lops loose their first litter.  I am going to give her a little more time to recover and then breed her back.

We also purchased two more rabbits in the last couple of weeks.  A 8 week old Tort Doe, and a 5 month old buck, he is blue and white broken.  Both have great, wide bodies, wider then the rabbits we currently have.  We got the buck at the rabbit show we attended last weekend.  As soon as I get a minute, I will post pics.

Until next time, Beth.

New Babies part II

Hi everyone, just wanted to update you on the progress of Kaci and her babies that were born on Aug 4.  The last time I posted, Kaci had hurt herself and we had to seperate the babies from her.  As of today, Kaci is doing very well.  She only shows a little sign of her injury.  She is getting around great, but every now and then she will get off balance.  We are still nursing the babies once a day off of her, but by the end of the week, we are planning on weaning them.  I don't think they will mind too much.  Here is a video taken 3 weeks ago.  You can't see them very well because they are so black.

Also here is a pic of French Fry taken at the same time.

 

As soon as I get a chance, I will add a more recent video of them.  We also purchased a new Doe several weeks ago and bred her to Contraband on 9-5.  I am hoping for brokens out of her.

 

 

New Babies...

Hi everyone, I wanted to share with you some news.  It has been a super busy summer, but we managed to get our doe Kaci bred to Contraband.  We did this on July 4th.  It has been so stinkin hot this summer, I was afraid he would be sterile, plus it was his first time.  We bred them twice in a row, waited an hour and bred them one more time.  We did this in the morning before it got too hot.  Well, 31 days later, Kaci had 2 babies for us.  Woo Hoo.   She had them last Saturday during the night sometime.  When we got into the barn, one was on the wire, but still warm and dry, so back in the nest box he went.  Babies and Momma were doing great until Tuesday night.  We went out in the barn to take care of them, and Kaci was lying by her food dish and could not move.  I immediately thought broken back.  Don't know how this happened, but I kept asking myself why these things keep happening to us.  We just started this endeavor in April and already had 2 bunnies die from various reasons, and now this  Bunnies are so fragile, I had no idea.

Anyway we took Kaci inside along with the nest box.  She could move one back leg, but when she hopped she fell sideways.  I talked to my breeder and she said to keep her quiet.  We removed the nest box and gave her a cage to herself.  I was spoon feeding her and gave her some anti-inflammatory medicine, and the next day she was better.  I would hold her and let the babies nurse.  She was eating good, just off balance.  This doe is 3 years old, I don't know if she had a stroke, fracture or what.  I have been babying her along and as of today, she can hop, eat, but she still is a little wobbly.  Anyway we have been feeding the babies off of her 2x per day.  She is not in any pain that I can tell and she still takes interest in her babies.  At first I thought I would have to have her euthanized, but I thought I would give her a chance.  Anyway, below is a short video of the babies.  They were trying to hop at 3 days old.  I hope everyone makes it ok, but we are taking one day at a time.

Meet the Herd

Ok, we will use the term herd loosely.  Hi everyone, I started this blog to share mine and my daughter's new passion, Holland Lops.  My daughter asked me back in March if she could get a rabbit, and get into the 4H rabbit club.  I said yes, and as many of you know, one rabbit became more than one rabbit.  Starting out in rabbits has been shaky at best, I never realized rabbits were so fragile,   Since April we now have 3 rabbits, with plans to purchase or raise more.  The Holland Lop breed is known for its bull dog like appearance, and short lop ears, and the babies are beyond adorable.  Anyway, here is our herd.

Contraband, this little guy is a pistol.  He has an abundance of energy and would rather not be messed with.  We took him to his first show, and when the Judge got him out of the slot, he hit the ground running.  My daughter had been working with him, and he sets up pretty nice for her, but he just didn't like the Judge messing with him.  He has a really great body and is very short coupled, a nice round head, but his crown is tight and his ears are not as flat as I would like.  The ears appear too far back in the pics, but when he relaxes them normally they fall to where they are supposed to.

He looks like a crazed bunny in this pic, but actually he is pretty sweet, "most" of the time.  He only looks like he could eat your face.

This is Kaci, she is a 3 year old doe.  I got her because she has had babies before, and I didn't want our first litter to be one out of an unproven doe.  Besides I liked her head and crown, and she has been known to throw Blues, an added bonus.

Here is our newest addition, Carson.  This little guy has got the sweetest personality.  He is so calm and laid back.  He has a great body also, and I love his pretty face.  His ear are a little long, and he could have more width in his face, but other than that his confirmation is right on.

He likes to stand with his front feet in his water dish.

We did breed Kaci and in a couple more days, she should be far enough along that I can attempt to palpate her.  So many new experiences in such a short time.

Beth.