Updates!

Our new group on Ravelry, Blossom Acres Farm and Rabbitry, is very successful.  It was put up a little while ago and has almost 20 members!  If you are interested in joining and hearing the latest feed please view our last post with info on joining.  Below is a banner of our group! 

I did want to mention - our phone is currently broken so if anyone has any inquiries please send us an email finnishfiberfarm@gmail.com.  We apologize for this inconvenience but we are in the process of fixing it! 

I recently received my grand champion legs for Blossom Acres' White Out.  She now has 3 GC Legs!  I will be clipping her down soon and breeding her.  Hopefully she will make many more grand champions! 

We are expecting new Lionhead kits and will be breeding our French Angoras shortly.  We are still trying to get our Satins bred but so far are unsuccessful. 

We will have some Lionheads for sale soon, as well as a few remaining New Zealands.  If you are interested, please visit our website and send us an email. 

We currently have 1 skein of handspun alpaca yarn for sale.  It is single ply, worsted weight, in the colors of green with a touch of blue and yellow.  Approximate weight:  2 ounces.  $15.  Below is a picture. 

http://www.blossomacresrabbitry.webs.com/

Join Our Group!

We are now on Ravelry!  Ravelry is a site for fiber enthusiasts, knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, angora rabbit lovers, the list goes on.  We have just put on a group called - Blossom Acres Farm and Rabbitry.  

Joining is easy and free!  If you are not a member of Ravelry and are interested in joining, please search ravelry.  Once you click their link that comes up in a search, you will be directed to a sign-in page.  On this page is a button called - join now.  Simply click the button and follow the instructions.  You will be asked for a username and password, as well as a few optional questions such as pets/kids, years knitting, etc.  

Once you join, go on groups and type in Blossom Acres Farm and (use and symbol) Rabbitry.  Click the link of my page and click join group.  Now you are in the group and are free to chat and read posts.  

I hope to see new members coming in!  We always enjoy talking about our rabbits and fiber arts!  

New Zealand Herd Reduction & Rabbitry Updates

I have been very busy lately in terms of school.  I am now in college so sometimes I cannot get to my website right away, but I still update very frequently.  I am still planning on actively breeding all my rabbits and offering show stock for sale regularly. 

We attended the GLR&C Shows A & B in Charlotte on the 25th of August.  We did very well at this show, taking multiple Best of Breed and Best Opposite Sex in the breeds we exhibited.  I will give a thorough report on what we had won very soon.  I can tell you that Blossom Acres' White Out received Best of Breed French Angora and now has 2 GC Legs in addition to her first leg as a junior! 

Right now I am reducing my herd of New Zealand Whites.  I am trying to bring in new blood and also work more with fully pedigreed stock.  I am also considering getting a breeding pair of New Zealand Reds so I will need the cage space anyway.  The following rabbits are for sale:

Blossom Acres' North Pole - Jr. partially pedigree white buck.  Showable.  $20 with pedigree -SOLD

Junior Breeding Pair - Blossom Acres' Bobby and Blossom Acres' Tundra Queen.  Fully pedigreed buck and partially pedigreed doe.  $40 for the pair - SOLD

Blue Ribbon's Baby Boy - Sr. Proven White Buck, born April 2011.  Sired several litters for me.  Good breeder.  $50 with pedigree and production records - SOLD*

Tracey - Sr. Proven White Brood Doe, born November 2010.  Excellent mother of several litters.  $30 with production records - no pedigree*

*Please note:  I will offer these two as a breeding pair for $75. 

I am considering selling out of my Satins.  I love the breed, but I am having a hard time getting my does bred. I also feel like I need to do some downsizing because of school.  I am not setting this descision in stone, but I want everyone to know who is reading my blog that this is a possibility, so keep checking. 

We recently got into Netherland Dwarfs - well, more accurately my sister did.  She has oranges, a broken orange, and a chocolate otter, so she should have a very nice selection of babies for sale. 

We have alot of new and upcoming babies in our various breeds! 

I will update everyone on show winnings soon, as well as some new baby and breeding stock pics!   For a listing of winnings please visit our website's homepage:  http://www.blossomacresrabbitry.webs.com/

Showing Just Around the Corner!

We are very excited to announce that we will be showing again!  We will be attending the Great Lakes Rabbit and Cavy Show on August 25th, located in Charlotte at the Eaton County Fairgrounds.  We will be bring New Zealands, French Angoras, and Lionheads to show and will also have New Zealand juniors and prejuniors for sale. 

If anyone is interested in reserving some of my New Zealand White babies please let me know.  I will hold them for you and they can be picked up at the show. 

Looking forward to showing!  See you there! 

Fair Results

I promised everyone the results of our fair week so here it is:

We received many awards and top placings in 4-H and open class. We received blue ribbons in 4-H in our rabbits, vegetables, herbs, photography, art, cats, handspun yarn, flowers, and sheep fleeces. In terms of Best in Show awards, we received them in our herb display, crop displays, summer squash, vegetable market basket, group journalism, and decorated trash barrel. Open class also went very well. We got 1^st places in our vegetables, flowers, crop sheaves, art, photography, and handspun yarn. In addition, we also got sweepstakes in photography (2 pictures of Lionheads and 1 of an orchid bloom) and also one of our handspun yarns (100% angora single ply). We are very pleased with our winnings and are looking forward to next years fair!

Now, the fair’s rabbit show in more detail…

Some of the rabbits that we brought had their very first showing, so it was very exciting to see how they would do. Blossom Acres’ Popeye, an intermediate New Zealand White, received a blue ribbon. He was one of the last rabbits on the New Zealand table. The judge decided to give it to a senior. She had great comments for Popeye but she said that she was going to give it to the larger rabbit. Popeye had just turned an intermediate and he is a very substantial size so I am hoping that he will be a big boy as a senior. Popeye also received a blue ribbon on his fur and was in the top 4 for the normal fur competition.

Blossom Acres’ Cute as a Button, a baby chocolate Lionhead buck was used as our showmanship bunny. He was a ham so he made a great show rabbit! I showed him in senior division showmanship and received 3^rd place. My sister Barb showed him as well and received 4^th place intermediate showmanship. Julia, the cloverbud in our family, showed this little guy as well and did a wonderful job!

We also showed Blossom Acres’ Royal Blue, a blue Lionhead buck in breed class. He took Best of Breed. This was Royal Blue’s first showing. Since this class was added later in the year, we were not able to specifically breed for the show, but were very excited to receive Best of Breed with Royal Blue, even though he is not in his prime for showing. He did very well and had fantastic comments from the judge.

Last but not least we showed Sunrise’s Newt, an orange Netherland Dwarf. We don’t breed Netherlands - he just hangs around. Anyway, he got great comments and got a blue ribbon. He aced the fur class by receive grand champion normal fur as well as a blue ribbon in a very large class.

We also showed in the rabbit poster class.  The winning poster received a trophy.  My poster about French Angora Rabbits won this class. 

We also participated in the skillathon, where all 3 of us were in the top 3.  My sister Barb won the class and received a very nice medal.

We showed under Firestone Farmers 4-H Club, our 4-H club. We have a very involved club - we do just about everything. Our club is involved in sheep, goats, rabbits, cats, fiber arts, crafts, horses (not a main focus), horticulture (vegetables and herbs), floriculture (flowers and flower arranging), crops, and more. We are always happy to get new members involved in our club! Here is a picture of our club’s booth:

We’ll be going to an ARBA show soon! We are looking forward to showing again as our last show was in March of this year. We will most likely be bringing Lionheads, French Angoras, and New Zealand Whites to show; however, it will all depend on how everyone is looking by the show. We also plan on bringing some nice purebred pedigreed New Zealand White pre-juniors and possibly some other breeds.

Right now we have 2 purebred pedigreed New Zealand White's for sale.  They are 10 weeks old.  $25 each with partial pedigree. 

More rabbits for sale soon!  Please keep checking our website and blog! 
http://www.blossomacresrabbitry.webs.com/

Fair Time

Right now the fair is going on.  Its official opening day is tomorrow, July 30th.  We have been very busy showing at this time so we haven't had the time to post sale rabbits, update the website, etc.  We will post alot of new sale rabbits August 5th or around then! 

So far all has been going well.  We have received some top awards in various project areas. We will be showing 4 rabbits on Wednesday:  Newt, an orange Netherland Dwarf; Royal Blue, ablue Lionhead buck; Cute as a Button, an adorable chocolate Lionhead buck, and Popeye, a New Zealand White.  Feel free to stop by and check out our stock!  We are showing under Firestone Farmers, our 4-H club. 

We will update everyone on our winnings... that is, when fair is over! 

Missy's Litter

Missy, my red/orange French Angora, currently has 1 litter of 6 (7 born) in the nestbox. This litter is currently 3 weeks old. Below is a picture of her litter.

This litter is one of the most unique litters I have ever had. What makes it different is that, in the litter of 6, every baby is a different color. I have never really had this before. Usually I will get a bunch of different colors in a litter, but with repeats. Or, in the case of the New Zealands, I will get a whole litter of whites. But this litter has definitely topped them off.

Since I got so many different colors, I will briefly describe each color in this litter and include a picture of what it looks like at 3 weeks of age.

Here is a black kit. A black kit is born looking blackish colored. If you flip it over, it’s stomach will be a dark gray- black color. This baby is a very nice, rich colored black. It is probably going to have pretty dark, non-faded wool color.

This is a blue kit. The blues can look very similar to the blacks at birth. Sometimes you have to compare a black next to a blue to tell the difference. The blues look like a very dark, rich smokey blue color.

  

This kit is a sable.  I actually originally thought this baby was a blue steel due to it's ticked appearance (this is why the photo says blue steel instead of sable).  This kit was born looking blue and later developed a silver ticking on it.  It's belly is a light brownish color and the ticking seems to be leaving.  This little doe will soon turn into a rich brownish color as it develops.   

This cutie is a chestnut. Chestnuts are born looking dark grayish-black, but if you flip them over you will find that they have pink bellies, underside of legs, underside of tail, and underside the chin. Chestnuts are an agouti. They are tan and slate banded with black tipping. This girl has a lot more rufus (reddish coloring) than you are average chestnut because it is out of a red parent.

This kit is an opal. An opal is the dilute form of a chestnut. Opals are blue and tan banded with blue guard hairs. They are born looking bluish colored with a pink stomach, underside of legs and tail, and underside of chin.

The last kit is a smoke pearl agouti. This is not a recognized color in the angoras, so it is unshowable. It is grayish colored and has the same darker shading on its face, but it an agouti, so it has a white stomach, underside of tail, chin, and legs. This kit was born looking gray, but its stomach also looked pink. This hinted to me that it was in fact an agouti.

So far this litter is maturing well. The largest babies in the litter are the black, chestnut, opal, and blue steel; however, the other kits are very nicely sized. This is probably going to be Missy’s last litter. She is getting older so I want to retire her. This doe has been an amazing foundation animal for me and has provided me with many beautiful litters.  Missy as my very first breeding doe.  She is going to stay here as a companion animal and fiber producer.   

This whole litter is spoken for. I have quite a few interested people waiting for their babies out of her, and I am half debating if I should keep another baby out of her.  The chestnut is sooo nice…  but, I do have a chestnut that is a full sibling to this litter. Do I really need another chestnut? She is very beautiful but you can’t keep everything.

Lots more litters of the various breeds coming frequently! We are being showered with many beautiful litters.  I will be breeding my French Angoras again this August, so look for some more quality babies available later in the year!  

http://www.blossomacresrabbitry.webs.com/