New Additions to the French Angora Herd

As I had previously mentioned I had to downsize my herd in the fall/spring semester era due to my inability to keep up with the upkeep.  Although it seemed like a necessary move at the time, I have since regretted it somewhat as I had to move on some very nice lines and genetics.  As all the readers of my blog know, I recently bred two of my beautiful does from my own line to an outcross buck and both have litters on the ground, with the hopes of building up my herd again and working on my line. 

Lily of the Valley's litter of REWs has shown an incredible amount of promise for me.  Words cannot describe how amazing these kits are in the body and wool!  I have been very happy with how they have been filling out and am definitely going to do this breeding again.  I am currently debating what I should keep out of this litter.  There are 2 bucks and 1 doe that seem to have what I am looking for for my breeding program.  I am planning on putting both boys on the show table and seeing how they place and the judges comments.  Unfortunately the doe got one of her eyes injured from her mom at birth so she is blind in that eye, so she will not be able to compete with her brothers.  I ideally would like a buck and a doe from this litter for my breeding program and for show but am unsure if I want to keep Galaxy "Helen" (the doe) for my breeding program as I want to try to only retain registerable stock.  I will see how she fills out and make my decision later on. 

Freezing Rain's litter is turning out to be amazing as well.  There are a total of 6 babies currently in this litter:  3 Ruby Eyed White does, 1 Ruby Eyed White buck, 1 sable buck, and 1 smoke pearl buck.  I am pretty sure I am going to retain 1 of the REW does and 1 of the shaded bucks for my shaded breeding program.  These babies will also hit the show tables so I can get a feel of how my line is progressing. 

Because I am going to specialize in reds, shadeds, and REWs and keep my herd relatively small, I am going to try to limit my breeding stock and yet outcross enough so that I can establish a nice line for each of my color specializations.  Lily of the Valley's current REW litter will work for all 3 of my color specializations, making it an ideal option to retain from.  Freezing Rain's litter will work exclusively for my shaded and REW programs. 

I recently acquired some new breeding stock for my herd.  The first rabbit is Chester - straight from my red line.  I was very happy to be able to obtain him from the breeder I sold him to as I did not retain anything from that cross and had lost that line.  Chester is an amazing chestnut.  He has a super commercial body and a very nice, long, well colored, dense rufusy coat.  I can't wait to incorporate him again into my herd.  Unfortunately he will not be hitting the show circuit as he had gotten into a buck fight as a baby and now has a little tear in his ear; this certainly will not affect his ability to produce for me in the barn!

The other addition is a baby broken black buck.  He has nice depth and width to his body and appears to have promising density to his coat.  His sire is out of my line as well.  It will obviously be a while before I can use him in my line but in the meantime I plan on showing him and watching how he develops.  He will be used in both my shaded and red breeding program.

Please check out our website to see our current French Angora herd.  I will also be offering French Angora kits on a limited basis so please continue checking out the "Angoras for Sale" page!