Rabbits for Sale

We currently have some beautiful rabbits for sale in various breeds.  Pictures and more information can be found on our website. 

French Angoras

Blossom Acres’ Black Pearl Calla – black doe, show quality.  $75 with pedigree - SOLD

Blossom Acres’ Tumbleweed – chestnut buck, show quality.  $75 with pedigree

Blossom Acres’ Catkin – broken chestnut buck, brood or pet quality.  $60 w/pedigree - SOLD

Blossom Acres’ Black Knight – broken black buck, pet/wooler quality.  $50 w/o pedigree - SOLD

Lionheads

Blossom Acres’ Solar Eclipse – Siamese sable buck.  $60

Blossom Acres’ Smudge – blue Vienna buck.  $25

Blossom Acres’ Pepperidge – blue doe.  $60

Blossom Acres’ Meteorite – black doe.  $25

English/French Hybrids

1 REW doe, $50

1 black self chin doe, $50
1 broken black self chin buck, $50 - SOLD

As a side note, I wanted to add that I will be posting a weekly series in January 2015 about getting started in rabbits.  I hope this series will be helpful to anyone considering getting a rabbit as a pet or a newbie breeder looking into getting into the rabbit business.  

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!  See you in 2015!   

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! 

Mouse's Litter One Month Old!

It is amazing how fast rabbits grow!  It has been a while since I posted some updated picture of Mouse's first litter, born September 25th.  They are now one month old!  It is looking like there are mostly bucks in the litter.  I am really happy with the way this litter has turned out, so it is going to make retaining for my program ever more difficult.  The kits are growing very nicely.  

Here are some pictures of individual shots of the French Angora babies.  They were very timid with the camera and are one of the few litters I have ever had that held relatively still for photography!   

The chestnut boys...

A blue baby...

The opal and black kit...

The opal...

Group shot!

I am taking in names for my waiting list for this litter, so if interested please email me and ask to be placed on the waiting list. 

Hope everyone in the mid-Michigan area is enjoying this warmer weather swing!  I know I am!

First Grand Champion Lionhead!

I am very happy to announce that Blossom Acres' Arcturus, my Ruby Eyed White Sr. Lionhead buck, is now a Grand Champion!  He has 5 GC legs and counting!

In previous years, Lionheads were not been able to be registered, earn GC legs, or become Grand Champions, until February of this year when they became an official ARBA recognized breed.  So although they could show and win BOB, no matter how large the class was or the number of exhibitors, they could not work towards their Grand Championships until breed recognition.  

Arcturus was born on the 7th of February, so while the rabbit show season was just picking up and Lionheads all over the country were hitting the show tables, Arcturus was busy growing with his brother and two sisters at home.  His parents are both from my own lines: Blossom Acres' Midnight Blizzard and Blossom Acres' Milky Way, and he has grandparents from my lines including Blossom Acres' Royal Blue who was the first buck that I ever retained from my own breeding. 

Arcturus always stands out on the show table with his massive mane and natural stance.  He never needs to be posed because he is always posing on his own.  The judges love him and I am very excited to start incorporating this buck in my Lionhead breeding program. 

 

GC Blossom Acres' Arcturus

Grand Champion Certificate 

Arcturus as a Baby

Baby French Angoras Again

It has certainly been a while since I last posted on this blog.  Summer was very busy for us and autumn has begun.  I am back in school and have been very busy with my studies. 

Last month I was privileged to obtain some beautiful French Angora rabbits from a friend.  She was a past customer of mine and asked me if I would be interested in the remaining of her small herd.  I happily acquired 2 bucks and 2 French Angora does from her.  One of the bucks is one I had bred and one of the does is a daughter of another buck I had sold her. 

I was able to breed Blossom Acres' Forget-Me-Not to Mouse, as well as Forget-Me-Not to a broken chestnut doe.  Mouse has in the past given me an extremely hard time and has never taken when I bred her.  I guess Forget-Me-Not did the trick because 31 days later she gave me this beautiful litter:

It looks like I have 1 black, 2 chestnut, and 3 blues.  I was very surprised as I did not know she carried the dilution gene!  This is her very first litter and so far she has been a good mom.  I can't wait to watch these kits mature as I think they will be competitive on the show table. 

I have another doe bred to Forget-Me-Not and she is due in a few days, so please check the website for updates!

While I went north to pick these guys up, I also acquired a few purebred Narragansett turkey poults.  If all goes as planned, I will be offering some purebred poults and breeding stock in the near future! 

Thank you all for your patience in my blog absence.  I will try to continue posting more frequently so please visiting our blog for updates! 

Have a great weekend!

Spring ... Finally!

It is beginning to feel a lot more like spring - although lately it has been the temperature of summer.  It is nice to have this change in weather after such a long winter. 

School is finally over for the semester.  Everything went very well but it was a hectic last few weeks.  Now that I am finished I am trying to get caught up in my work on the farm.  I have been very busy getting everything planted.  I am a little late on my cool season crops but I am not too worried considering our temperatures and late winter.  And I was not about to put the brassicas and peas in during or before finals week.

Our fruit trees are beginning to burst into bloom.  Our hens are back into egg-making gear so we have been getting a bounty of farm fresh, free range eggs every day.  Everything is typical of spring on the farm. 

We have several litters of Lionheads with some amazing show prospects appearing in the litters.  I don't have any baby French Angoras or New Zealands at this point as, like the garden, I was not about to add any barriers and additional work to my studies.  I do have plans on breeding very soon - perhaps even this weekend. 

Speaking of this weekend - Barb will be attending the Heart of MI RC and the Saginaw Valley R&C Breeders at the Saginaw County Fairgrounds in Chesaning.  I will be staying at home catching up since I don't have anything to put on the table, but Barb does have some of her little Lions to show.  Feel free to stop by and check out our rabbits!

Hope everyone has a good weekend and the mothers who read my blog have a wonderful Mother's Day!   

Lionhead Babies!

Spring is in the air with lots of Lionhead bunnies born and more on the way!  We currently have 22 Lionhead kits out of 7 moms.  We have 5 REWs, 1 Tort-Blue, 1 Tort-Black, 4 BEWs, 1 Broken Blue Silver Martin VC, 1 Broken Black VC, 8 Blacks (4 are VCs), and 1 Blue. 

Here are two of my little black does out of Peppercorn's litter.  They are cute as can be!

There are many very promising babies this spring and will be going up on the Lionheads for Sale page on our website soon. 

I have one little REW doe available right now.  I think she is a Teddy, but she may shed out.  She has really nice type and carries herself well and would be excellent bred to a buck that needs more mane.  She is 8 weeks old and $50.

We exhibited our Lionheads at the Great Lakes Rabbit & Cavy Show in Mason and took BOB Lionhead on show A with Lynette and BOS on show B.  Cornelius took BOV on both shows as well and the judges loved him.  Hopefully in a few years chocolate Lionheads can take BOB too.

Have a great week!

MSRBA Spring Convention and MAC Results

This weekend we attended the Michigan State Rabbit Breeders Convention held at the university’s pavilion in East Lansing.  This was the first show I have been able to attend and participate in in quite a while.  While I didn’t show any rabbits, I did bring two skeins of handspun yarn to show at the Michigan Angora Club’s Wool/Skein/Garment contest.  This is an opportunity I try to partake in every year as it gives me a chance to not only see how my handspuns compete but also to view other fellow angora owner’s workmanships. 

The contest was well represented with over 40 entries – the most they have ever had.  There was a nice array of colors and textures throughout the display.  

I entered two skeins of fine, single ply angora.  The first skein is from my smoke pearl French Angora.  This was drop spindle spun and weighs approximately one ounce.  It received Best in Show skein as well as a blue ribbon. 

The second skein is from a chocolate agouti rabbit and weighs approximately 1.25 ounces.  This skein was drop spindle spun as well.  I actually completed this one around August and exhibited it at the county fair where it received a blue ribbon and Best in Show.  At this contest it received reserve in show and placed second (to my smoke pearl skein).  I was very happy with the achievements and look forward to participating in the club’s contest next year. 

 

 

As for rabbits, we exhibited some Lionheads.  On Show A Blossom Acres’ Midnight Blizzard received Best of Breed and Best of Variety, taking a grand champion leg award with him.  Blossom Acres' Cornelius and Elizabeth's Edgar also received Best of Variety in their colors.   Show B Blossom Acres’ Avalanche took Best of Breed and Best of Variety, while Show C he received Best Opposite of Breed and Best Opposite of Variety.  He now has 2 GC Legs in his name.  In both Show B & C Blossom Acres' Cornelius received Best of Variety as well. 

I acquired two beautiful rabbits for my breeding programs.  The first is a lovely chestnut agouti doe with high rufus modifiers.  She just turned 6 months old and already weighs in at 8 pounds.  This young girl has some filling in to do yet but is nice in the body and wool now, so I have great expectations for her. 

 

I also was able to acquire a stunning New Zealand White buck for my lone doe.  He is built like a rock – so solid, and so typey.  He just turned an intermediate and weighs in at 9 pounds so I have no worries that he isn’t going to be on the bigger end, which is one of the goals I was trying to maintain in my herd. 

I plan on breeding my French Angoras – Galaxy (a REW) and Mouse (a chestnut agouti) this week.  If my New Zealand buck displays breeding interest he will be mating to my doe.  These babies should be available in June. 

Hope everyone else is faring well in this bitter weather!  Spring is around the corner so I have hopes for warmer weather.