Happy 2016!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and a happy New Year!  It is hard to believe that the year 2016 is already here; last year just seemed to have flown by.  I hope the 2016 season is even better than last year!

Things are swinging into full gear here at the rabbitry.  We have had quite a few litters of Lionheads born as well as mothers expecting so we should have a variety of show prospects for the year.  I also have begun breeding my French Angoras again so I am looking forward to having some fresh litters born on the farm. 

We will have an exciting announcement to make in a few days!  Please check out the blog soon to read about the addition we decided to pursue for the 2016 season.  Here are a few photos we captured from a photoshoot we did in preparation for the surprise.  Pictured are Blossom Acres' Midnight Mystique (broken black French Angora), Blossom Acres' Silhouette (black Lionhead), and one of our tort Lionhead babies.  

 

 I hope you all have a wonderful show season this year and get rewarded with some beautiful litters!  Please stay tuned for our announcement!

A Peek at my New French Angora Additions

Finals have finished for the semester which means more time to pursue my extracurricular activities (and spend at work).  I am hoping to begin some more of my spinning, clean up the rabbitry, finish some work in progress knitting and crochet projects, and spend more time with my rabbits.  

I was super happy with the quality of the offspring in my latest French Angora litters.  I am loving the bodies and wool quality on the babies.  They are looking very promising so I hope they will do well for me on the show table.  

I saved two boys in one litter and a doe in the other.  The blue buck is Campanula, out of my blue buck Blossom Acres’ Forget-Me-Not and Jellybean Farm’s Mouse, a chestnut.  His brother, Living Legacy, a chestnut, is also being kept for my breeding program.  Both boys have shown a lot of promise and have great wool and nice deep wide-set bodies so they should do well for me. 

Midnight Mystique is a beautiful broken black doe out of Forget-Me-Not and Spinning Hill’s Butterflyweed.  She is super nice and has a really dense coat.  I can’t wait to get these babies on the show table and watching them mature into young seniors.  

Right now I have some siblings of these for sale on my website, www.blossomacresrabbitry.webs.com.  I am also expecting a litter of French Angoras soon (completely unrelated) so please stop by the website for the latest feed.  We also have Lionheads for sale and more litters arriving frequently.  

Final Show of the Year

We kicked off the show season well once again!  Last Saturday we attended the Fall Michigan State Rabbit Breeders Association Fall Convention held in East Lansing.  It was a very well attended show which represented a large variety of breeds.  

We took some of our Lionheads and French Angoras for exhibition.  Both classes were very large!  I was excited to see that the French Angoras were a really big class this year.  There were many new faces as well as regulars so it was really nice catching up with everyone and talking about this wonderful breed.  Here is the rundown of the placings:

SHOW A:

French Angoras

·         Best Wool - Blossom Acres’ Forget Me Not – Blue Sr. Buck

Lionheads -

·         BOB - Blossom Acres’ Red Sky in Morning - Tort JR. Doe

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Red Sky in Morning - Tort JR. Doe

·         BOSV - Blossom Acres’ Polar Vortex - REW JR. Buck

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Ebony - Black SR. Doe

·         BOSV - Blossom Acres’ Mach III - Black SR. Buck

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Cornelius - Chocolate SR. Buck

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Delphinium - Blue SR. Doe

SHOW B: 

French Angoras

·         Best Wool - Blossom Acres’ Forget Me Not – Blue Sr. Buck

Lionheads -

·         BOSB - Blossom Acres’ Freshwater Fury - REW JR. Buck

·         BOSV - Blossom Acres’ Freshwater Fury - REW JR. Buck

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Red Sky in Morning - Tort JR. Doe

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Ebony - Black SR. Doe

·         BOSV - Blossom Acres’ Orion - Black SR. Buck

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Cornelius - Chocolate SR. Buck

·         BOV - Blossom Acres’ Delphinium - Blue SR. Doe

I also entered Forget-Me-Not and Butterflyweed in their breed class and both placed high up there in both shows.  I was really surprised with Butterflyweed especially as she had just come off a litter but she was in good body flesh and had a long enough coat so I decided to show her.  I am getting really excited about what next year’s show season will bring and am looking forward to putting some of my babies I have now on the show table soon.  

As a side note, we are breeding more French Angora and Lionhead does for availability for next year.  We also currently have a nice selection of Lionhead, French Angora, and English/French Hybrid angoras for sale on our website, so please check it out!  

Hope everyone has an enjoyable Thanksgiving! 

A Note to Broken Patterned French Angora Breeders

I have had many people ask me about broken patterned French Angoras.  This information goes for the English and Satin Angoras as well (not yet recognized colors). 

The broken variety is to be shown under “Colored” as oppose to “White”.  There is no special section retained for the brokens.  They are judged with the selfs, agoutis, steels, torts, wide bands…  If you have a broken and were unsure as to where to enter it, colored is the answer. 

It also says in the standard that the rabbit is disqualified if it has less than 10% body color and more than 50%.  Alot of people, including myself, were unsure as to what counted as the body color.  Alot of people had thought that it just counted the top of the body and chest.  Actually, it counts the whole body- head, ears, feet, tail, back, and stomach.  So look over your rabbit and make sure that you have at least 10% body color and not over 50%. 

 I will be breeding broken patterned French Angoras soon.  They are a very beautiful pattern and are a lot of fun to exhibit. 

 http://blossomacresrabbitry.webs.com/

Edited 1/6/14:  I have been raising and breeding the beautiful broken pattern since August 2014.  Here are a few pictures of broken French Angoras.