Rabbit Genetics

I acquired Sadie and her daughter Susie many years ago as an attempt to start breeding meat rabbits.  I got them from a lady going out of raising California Giants for show.  It was an enlightening visit to her rabbitry where I had my choice of over 50 almost identical rabbits of various ages. Only 2 really stood out Susie and her sister Freakie.  Susie because of her totally un-Californian color and Freakie because of her long flowing hair and non-descript color.  If you click on the above photo you can see that Sadie has a small tuft of hair between her ears and Susie has larger tuft of hair that extends down her neck and onto her forehead. She also has hair on her cheeks and under her chin. These longer tufts of hair are wispy and finer than the rest of the fur covering their bodies.  I wish that I had a photo of Freakie, but they were lost in a computer crash. She had this long wispy hair all over her body and her coloration was about every shade of brown and grey mixed together.  When I asked the woman about these rabbits she was totally dumbfounded about how they came about.  She had been breeding her pedigreed rabbits for many years and showed me her album of                                                                                                                                        pictorial pedigrees on all of her rabbits going back over 30 generations.  Sadie was a registered doe raised by her and had been used to breed many litters of solid Californian marked rabbits.  But her last litter had these two unusual bunnies in it.  For some reason that she couldn't even describe she kept them instead of destroying them.  I guess it was the shock factor as she had never had non-typical Cali. bunnies before.
As I had no intention of showing them, it didn't matter to me. And since I have always had a flair for the unusual, I took them both.  And their mother,father and one of their brothers. I had planned on getting some more Californians but these would be the base of my new breeding stock.  But first I needed to get rid of all of my large Mini Rex or small Rex rabbits I had been raising for manure production for my garden.
Well the best laid plans of mice and men...........
After some health issues and grandchildren being born and garden increases and chicken coop expansions etc. etc. etc.  Suffice it to say the meat rabbit plans got lost in the shuffle.  I was raising bunnies for pets for the local pet shop and online sales.  People wanted smaller rabbits so I bought some Mini-Dutch's to breed.
During all of this One of my Rex does had a litter born on Valentines Day and there were a set of twin black bunnies with identical white markings and feet, that I kept.  Twin 2 had a litter close to the birth of my grandson Owen, I frequently shortened his name to 0-1 in my writings and named an odd colored buck bunny that we intended to keep 0-2.

Somehow in the need for space, after 0-2 grew into adulthood he was placed in the same pen that Susie was in and the only thing keeping them separate was a chicken-wire divider.  I knew better, but had other concerns at the time and since he was so much smaller I doubted that even if he got to Susie that he could do anything.  Well again I was proved wrong.  Susie had a nice large litter and one little black bunny started growing fuzz.

Fuzzy Butt was born.

And what a beautiful oddity he was.

Then I got interested in an online meat rabbit group and posted these photos on my new farm page and got many comments as to breed and availability of this rabbit.  Since it was a genetic abnormality, I had no idea if I could duplicate this result.  He was the only one out of eight litter mates to show any hair abnormality.

I soon forgot about Fuzzy Butt and returned plans for crossing Susie to a larger breed.  I had previously purchased an American Chinchilla buck and a Flemish Giant doe and was having problems with her conceiving. So I bred Susie to the Am. Chin. buck Cassity to see if he was the problem.

Susie again had 8 bunnies.  This time she threw 2 abnormal kits.  One white doe with all over long fuzzy hair.

And one light brown buck with a mane.  As these were planned to be born in time for Easter bunnies, I had all of them spoken for before they were even born.  But I had planned on keeping one female for breeding purposes.  When the time came for them to go to their new homes one person backed out and it left me with the only buck of the litter too.

And I had plans for him.
The founder of Backyard Meat Rabbits, had showed interest in Fuzzy Butt and the photos I had posted of the litter.  So I contacted him and let him know that the little maned guy was available.  He came and got him and named him "Mufasa".  As I said in a previous post, he is now a "house pet" and his owner suggested I breed Fuzzy Butt to his mother Susie to see if I would get more that carried the lion look gene.

I did but was a little reluctant to do so too quickly.  Susie just turned 6 years old and I didn't want to over stress her, so I waited 2 months before I allowed her to breed.  She only had 2 bunnies.

One looked silvery white and the other a dark brown that was almost black.
Sadly three weeks later during a massive heat wave I lost Susie along with Cassity and a pure breed Flemish Giant buck and a Registered Dutch doe.  It was a devastating day, they had made it through the worst heat of the day only to succumb by early evening.
The bunnies however did excellent, we moved them indoors and pampered them for a few days.  Making sure they were eating and drinking on their own before we put them back outside.

As they grew the silvery one began showing signs of the recessive gene we were looking for,

I called her Fuzz Ball in honor of her father.

The other one became Susie II for her mother. Plans are to breed them to Mufasa

 and see if we can bred a larger Lionhead type rabbit line.

"Say Goodnight Gracie"

We got Grace as a pre-owned cat from a girl who was going to college and could no longer care for her.  She had gotten her as a used cat about 4 years earlier.  We had Grace in our lives for 17 years.  That makes her at least 21 years old that we know of and probably a year or three older. Grace was neutered before we got her  but we were told she raised many litters of kittens.  Gracie was my cat from the time she arrived here and today was the last day of her life.  She died sleeping in the warm sunshine with all of the dignity she deserved.
For the past 2 years, age had finally caught up to poor old Gracie-Girl.  She slept more and did less. No longer were there her shared gifts of  partially eaten meals of birds and mice underfoot on the back doorstep.  The birds could finally eat at the bird feeder in peace.  Last winter she started having seizures, she stopped climbing into my lap to be petted and sleeping in my bed,  and late in the spring she started loosing bladder control when she had them.  Grace seemed embarrassed by her seizures. 

Grace then started staying outside except for meal time.  It got to be a chore to find her and get her to come in during the night or in the rain.  Many late nights were spent calling and looking for her.  Her hearing and eyesight were going.  She even started using the pet door to sneak outside at night.  She had lost weight and was getting rather scruffy because she could no longer clean herself thoroughly.

Last night she again went outside even though the temperature was near freezing.  This morning I saw her laying in the sunshine near the asparagus patch not far from the pine tree the chickens roost in.  As the goaty girls neared she woke up and hissed at Fern when she got too close, although she did accept a goaty kiss from both goat girls.

A couple of hours later I again went out to check on her and she was dead.
So in the words used by George Burns to close his TV show:
"Say Goodnight Gracie...."

New Additions

Like everyone else, we have been busy here. With all of the egg incubating, yard work, gardening, household chores, animal care and building a goat pen we decided that we still had too much free time.

So we purchased a pair of double breasted  bronze turkeys to raise as meat.  Of course we called them Thanksgiving and Christmas.

And while we were at it we just had to get this pair of Silkies.

And I just couldn't pass up this baby Flemish Giant doe, she will help increase the size of my meat rabbits.

Hey..... let's raise some quail too.

These 3 are Black Spanish turkeys.  After hatching the eggs for a friend, he kindly gave these to me. 
We hope that we can raise some of this heritage breed and sell the extra chicks.

Are Guineas possible to tame?  Since our Guineas only hatched 6 eggs and only 2 have survived, we bought 3 day old chicks and they are WILD.  I was hoping to be able to tame them by hand raising them, but so far it doesn't seem possible.  The turkey chicks practicly run to my hand and are content to be held and petted, these are just the opposite.

For some reason it looks like Fern is chewing grandson Owen's fingers.

Our dog Bear has finally been accepted by Peaches but Fern just tolerates him.

Again with the fingers, What does Fern find so facinating about Owen's dirty little hands?

Actually she is looking to be petted and nuzzling his hand off of the steering bar.  Owen is her favorite human playmate and they share the sandbox.

Well the animals are calling....guess I will post again when I have a minute to spare....Winter maybe???



A Guinea Kind of Father's Day

Those of you that have these crazy critters will know of what I speak.

I purchased these 2 males and one female last year and have had them penned up all winter and finally this spring let them loose hoping that they would return to the coop at night.  Well it worked out better than I expected.  The female even sat on a clutch of about 20 eggs which hatched out 4 chicks and she excepted 2 more from the incubator.  So now I have one very protective hen with a group of unruly keets. Both males try their best to help teach the young, but they cannot seem to get them to understand how to get back into the coop. 

They get a good start at it but then the keets just go crazy,  jumping off the ramp or running underneath it.  If the parents go inside, the little buggers squeeze through the chicken wire and escape the confines of the pen.  This really drives the adults nuts. (The chickens gather to watch the festivities and get a chance to see the babies close up.) They will attack anything that gets close to the fence, which makes herding the babies back in a dangerous venture for them and me.  I have felt mom's wrath 3 times already for being a good samaritan and bare the scratches and bite marks to prove it on my hands, face and head.

The males get vocal and make feint charges but stop short of attacking, (we have gotten pretty close over the last month) and look at her like she's crazy after her attacks.  They even squawk at her as if to warn her not to bite the hand that feeds her, and can't she see I am only helping.

After the reunion all is right with the world....until next time or when it is time to get them in for the night!

My daughter Angie was sick, but Eric brought Aden & Ethan over.

They also brought over Eric's prototype of his recumbent bike for two.  He made the rear pedals adjustable so Aden could ride too.

Aden wanted to show off her steering abilities so her and dad switched places.  Eric was a little uncomfortable in back but managed to pedal them around.

Ethan wanted to show off his first missing tooth.  He pulled it out all by himself.

We let the goat girls out  to browse in the orchard...

Fern noticed the kindling bin and dedided to climb it to try to reach some leaves.

Peaches had to join the fun. 

Finally the day was ending and it was time to bed the animals down and go in for a much deserved rest.....

But WAIT..........

what was that????????????

For ME ???  

No Abbey,  these are going to the farmers market for sale.  36 of the 40 eggs from my hens hatched in the incubator.  I made an improvised brooder and added a heat lamp.  But the peeping noise on the porch was driving the cats and dogs crazy, everyone wanted to see the cute chicks.  My geriatric cat even left the back steps to sleep next to them.   Even though I didn't condone her actions then, I hope that she had pleasant dreams from her younger, bird nest raiding days. 

Say goodnight Gracie....

What a Load of Crap

It's after Dark...When the 2 old cripples get to work.

We don't have to wear garlic or load up silver bullets...

The smell of what we are shoveling keeps all intelligent creatures at bay.

You won't find a "Twilight" creature within miles of here!

'cause we're cleaning rabbit cages and whats under them, out tonight!

As I said all INTELLIGENT creatures stayed away....These girls were taking FULL advantage of their first day out of the coop in weeks and made more work for us, trying to herd them up and get them inside for the night.

And here is the nights haul, I spread it on our garden spot the next day, taking full advantage of our January thaw to get things done.

Now I suppose we could have done this earlier in the day but we were blessed with a visit from our nephew Chuck's daughter.  Now I suppose I could have done what Danni does and put our visitor to work.  Especially since we had her out in the Pallet Palace earlier in the day....

But all I forced her to do was hold our most FEROCIOUS Rabbit, the dreaded Mini Dutch, DUTCHIE.

And of course we made her put up with the TERRIBLE TWOSOME.....

"Pet Me" BEAR and "Kissy Face" Harley

Until she finally passed out from over exertion......

Sunday we had more company....

Ethan and Aden, our two favorite munchkins.
Of course we let their mom and dad stay too.

Then Monday it was back to this guy....

My son,"Eric the Terrible's" Mini-Me .....Owen

Catch-Up to Ketchup

These are my Easter bunnies now. Mom of course is squished into the corner, and Houdini is the name of the all black bunny in the back to the far left. He has been getting out of the cage nightly for the past week, and we can't figure out how, hence the name Houdini, after the well known escape artist. Every morning we have to hunt him down, catch him, and return him to the cage.

And now for a little more catch up. A big THANK YOU to all of you well wishers and those that sent prayers to myself and family during my Dad's illness and death.
I have been remiss for not mentioning this earlier, please forgive my slowness.
After all of the turmoil of the funeral, I have been keeping very busy. Trying to help my stepmother and catching up on yard work, trying to plant a garden and cleaning up downed trees for next winters firewood, making the chicks a pen in the coop and caring for all of the animals here on our 5 acre Funny Farm. During this process I have managed to break the cartilage in 3 of my short ribs (and no I didn't fall) and slice my finger good by accidentally running it along the very sharp blade of my machete. (Stupid rookie thing to do, I have been using it for almost 40 years and this is the second time I have cut myself with it. The first time I was sharpening it with a file and got a little carried away and slit my thumb open).

So me and Wifey have been slaving away until almost dark every night, staying tired and exhausted with little R&R. Time to go FISHING !!!

Anyway, here are some photos from life on the farm.




Our now 16 day old chicks, notice the size difference of the Vantress Cross meat birds!!!
(they are the white ones)



My daughter Angie calls them "Meat Blobs", a very descriptive term I must say. But they are doing what they are supposed too....eat and grow. So far we have lost 1 to natural causes and 2 to hiding under the gallon waterer. They must have run underneath it as I was replacing it in their pen and I didn't notice it. A very unhappy Wifey discovered them the next morning. Ooopsy!!




This photo with the Isa Brown in front of them and the smaller Americanas behind gives you a better sense if the size difference. The Meat Blobs are laying down, the rest are standing up.

Here is my first batch of live bunnies, all 8 have survived and are weaned and living outside now.

I caught the left one in a dead run to get away from the scary camera. But when I bring a bunch of grass for them, they mob me to get to it. They are eating very little pelletized food now that they get all of the fresh grass and weeds twice daily.

The white rabbit of this group has a black nose, ears and tail.

and the red eyes...

Can you see me bending into their pen snapping a photo in the reflection?

This guy is my favorite and always comes to greet me, not shy at all.....

Even the shutter noise doesn't deter his curiosity.

And here is Wifey's favorite.

The other grey one in back.

And this is my friendly Americana who always comes to see me whenever I am outside.

And the Grey Leghorn my wife thinks is a rooster because it is the only one who's comb stands erect.

It's rather HOT here today even with a strong wind, and the flock is taking refuge under their favorite pine tree. I see you eyeballing me Mr. Rooster!

Bear and Harley are taking turns watching the bunnies in their pen outside.

Harley wants a double shift I guess.

One of the last tulips to keep its petals in all of the wind we have been having lately.

Some fresh Chives for baked potatoes.

And FRESH picked asparagus....

peeled and steamed the way Wifey likes them.

And OUR favorite fungus...Morel Mushrooms cooked in butter....YUM !!!

Who cares what the meat was with all of these delicacies!!!

Oh, and I lied about the Ketchup...who needs it anyway.