Blog 16 Zzzzzzz has he fallen asleep?

Apologies TS bloggers this has probably been the longest gap in between blogs that i have done but i have a really, really good excuse....i get side tracked very easily :) plus there's been lots of other things going on which have meant there has not been the time available to sit down (even though i'm off work lol).
Considering the gap between blogs...there has not been a lot going on in the shed as our mating programme slows down this time of year especially with the larger rabbits. Our last 3 mating's unfortunately did not do to well, our little orange mantle doe Sally missed; we had mated her up as she is a maiden doe she is also part

of our argente program but because the buck we have for her is not ready yet we mated her up to our orange buck Seville (who will also be helping with the same program)

 Sweet pea our cinnamon doe had 5 kits 3 of those were peanuts so we lost them then we lost the other 2 over the next 2 days :( Sally our chocolate otter doe had 3 babies and we lost them as she scattered them each day :( so not good.
Bess our other chocolate otter doe is due in a week and is running around with straw in her mouth so fingers crossed especially as its her 1st litter.

 A couple of weeks back we had a doorstop visitor for a rabbit, a gentleman called Rob and his daughter Emma originally came to look at mini lops and Emma ended up falling in love with one of our Perlfee bucks as well lol she has called him Lenny and judging by the pictures we have received on our Facebook page is now definitely part of their family (as can be seen here...watching Friends on TV  with Emma lol)

We also had a surprise visitor visit the shed earlier this week....'Rosey' was a harlie coloured doe that Holly got from us last year, and came to get her nails done :) here she is learning to do meerkat impressions

(which she is supposed to very good at doing so Holly and mum inform us lol). In the shed we do have 3 youngsters who are now 4 weeks old, the first we were very excited about as it was a colour we have not had in the shed for nearly 7 years and is a blue self this was a dark beige to a black self mating and what makes it even more important as its related to a fantastic blue self buck we originally had called Mariner...its not been sexed yet but if it is a buck it will take the same name :)

(even if our helper Ellie keeps coming up with strange names for it lol)

The next litter is from a chocolate tort called Tess (related to India) this is her first litter and she has produced two scrummy little cinnamons who seem to be developing really well :) not sure which one Kim

is keeping as the other has been promised to Emma (Lennys owner) if she decides she still wants another.

My other surprise is i have another rare breed in the shed (another one! lol) yes another one....we now have a Wheaten Lynx :) here we have a lovely little doe which we acquired and although she is here to help with a program that we are working on, I know its a colour i have always liked  so there might be more of the breed turning up lol. I am hoping she will be ready for the London so who knows :)


The last bit of news concerns the show scene, Bank holiday weekend has me winging my way up to Walsall for a big 4* show I must admit i was so looking forward to going to this as its been around 9 years since we had both been here last. I didn't think i would actually be going as Kim had a prior engagement but luckily our young helper Ellie came to my rescue so i could go to the show :) i had rabbits entered in for two stock shows National Miniature Lop Rabbit Club and National Siberian as well the main show....10 rabbits were originally entered but as the days went by rabbits dropt out due to moult so much so that we had no Mini lops going to the show on the day....just my Glavcots and Siberians :(
On a positive note i was able to bring two guinea pigs up for our friend Laurel Benson (helped us with our Lilac Siberians and Argente doe) and i also brought up 2 Glavcots for our friend Simon Vizard who has decided to have a go at Glavcots himself :)

The show was brilliant especially seeing so many friends past and present

We did ok as we got the CC in the AOV RV Fur beating 2 Hotots which is always good lol as it promotes the Glavcots (grin) but the surprise for us was in the Siberian stock show as we got best lilac

 then we got the best Brown also Best of breed in main show then to top it all we got Best in show in the stock show all so totally unexpected but as you can imagine we were immensely happy.

The Browns were all our own lines which made it more rewarding and the lilacs were a credit to Trevor Rawlings (RIP) who we acquired the original stock from :) This has given us the nudge we needed now as our next big show for all of us in the Rabbit Fancy is the 2 day London Championships show in October so Glavcots, Siberians, Wheaten and Mini lops are hopefully being assessed and entered this week...(love the social side of this) but obviously i will be posting another blog b4 then so can let you guys know whats happening so l8rs until blog 17 :)