Creme Delivers, some Originals leave, and a Newcomer!

My favorite doe, JDV's Creme Brulee a broken Lilac Cream Tort gave me 6 beautiful bouncing bunnies sired by one of my favorite bucks, Celtic Hare's Whiskey O' (Self Chocolate) late on the rainy evening of 9/28/2010.
All of my girls seem to wait for rain or bad weather to deliver :-)

We have the following:
3 Blacks
2 Broken Reds
1 Lilac Tort

She sort of read the genetic prediction this time which said I should only get Lilac Tort, Choc. Tort, Chocolate and Lilac with a 50% chance of broken... The last time I bred her to Whiskey for her first litter she had 3 kits, 1 Red, 1 Broken Red, and a Black! Following in her mothers footsteps, she continues to throw Red.
I was really hoping for a Lilac Tort buck to go with my Lilac Tort doe, AVA's Persephone. I sexed the little bugger yesterday and he is indeed a buck! We will wait to see what kind of body he has to make the decision on whether he is a keeper or not. Creme is an excellent Mom, all babies are clean, fat and active!

The Blacks and Broken Reds will most likely be for sale. In typical Creme fashion, the Brokens MAY have too much color as they are blaket pattern Brokens. If so they will be available at Wooler only prices and will go without pedigrees and marked as Woolers in their ears.
They will be ready for new homes by the first week of December for Woolers, and by Christmas for show quailty babies which I do not sell until 12 weeks to insure proper conformation.
If you are interested you can contact me privately at LadyLeonard84@aol.com


On another note, yesterday three rabbits very close to my heart left my barn for a new home in CT.
Two of them are from my original set bought from Tina of Nutty Buckeye. NB's Courage (Tort. Buck), and NB's Mystic Raines (Steel Doe) as well as JDV Nutmeg's Tobi (Copper Doe of Megan's) have gone to live on an Alpaca farm with a wonderful woman named Shari who plans to use their wool to blend with her lovely Alpaca fiber, Shari also owns JDV's Cassanova a REW buck out of my now retired guy Platt's Peter.
Both girls left bred so hopefully Shari has some gorgeous kits in the nestbox in a month or so!
Congrats Shari on adding this beautiful trio to your farm!


This coming weekend I will be welcoming Spang's Massimo into my herd as a up and coming show bunny and breeding buck. I am very excited to bring some Spang size into my herd and I have waited quite awhile to get a buck from her. I specifically wanted a son of Spang's Giacomo, a stunning Tort. buck and I got that in Massimo, along with his gorgeous Sable Pearl color! I am told he is a big boy already with nice bone and will be a great show rabbit. Thank you Amy for letting me add this boy to my herd!


I'm just warming up on my breedings. I currently have 4 girls bred and due next month:
MG's Calypso (Fawn sired by Spang's Dijon) X NB's Leo (Grand Champion Fawn) Due- 10/12/2010
NB's Sunflower (Red) X JDV's Montgomery (Red) Due- 10/23/2010
NB's Artanna (REW) X NB's King of Spades (Black) Due- 10/24/2010
JDV's Fancy Pants (Black Tort.) X NB's Courage (Tort.) Due- 10/28/2010

I'll be back to add pictures in a little bit ;-)

It's been SO long!

I nearly forgot about my rabbitry blog. I haven't blogged since Jan. of this year, so nearly 9 months ago!
So much has happened in that time. Things went sour at our farm with the landlords who wanted to sell and the place was literally falling apart around us. We knew it was time to fly the coop, but it was a matter of to where and when?
We knew we needed cheaper rent, and I knew my bunz weren't going anywhere! So it was quite a challenge to find somewhere that was fine with 3 kids, 2 cats, 2 dogs, and the rabbits AND was in the price point.
I befriended a woman who lives in VT who is also a French Angora rabbit breeder and she and her family urged us to move to VT. So the search began. Right when I started looking I saw this house I liked alot, I found the ad on Craigslist and there is literally a YouTube video tour of the house that you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/poultneyrental#p/a/u/0/rdfp7K5kn5A

Cute right? After having to clean and care for a 2500 sq. ft. house in RI, I needed something smaller for my own sanity... This totally fit the bill. And the pellet stove is just icing on my cake!


What you aren't seeing in that vid is that there is a 16' X 24' workshop right in the backyard with remote ceiling fan, huge front doors that open for ventilation, side windows, electricity, HEAT (no more frozen water bottles for ME! YEAH!), and it's all insulated.






See here:



Alex jumped into the shot LOL

As if that weren't enough the rent was well within our budget.

We almost didn't get the house. I came up to look at two houses, this one and one other and by the time I got up here, both were rented! I kept looking but to no avail and a few weeks later I saw this house re-posted on CL! I jumped on it and came out to see it and within a week I had the lease signed and keys in my hand! The other renter had backed out!

The downside of this house is that I am right on a main road and it's a small city lot. No more acres of land, no more peace and quite at all times in the middle of the woods :-( It has certainly been an adjustment. I'm still adjusting to hearing cars and trucks right outside my door at all hours. And so are the bunz, who are used to a very serene and peaceful environment with no sudden noises. For the first two weeks the bunz were hunkered in their cage corners looking all scared, I felt horrible.


The upside (and can be downside since I gets to be a pain after awhile) is that because my rabbitry is right in my backyard often with the huge front doors open, anyone walking past that glances into my backyard can see my rabbits and I often have people wander over while I'm doing chores to chat about the rabbits and ask about bunnies for sale and babies, etc.

That's kinda un-nerving for a hermit like me. The first three times it happened I inwardly jumped out of my skin. I'm not a very talkative person with strangers and here I am being forced to talk with all sorts of people who are curious about the new "Bunny lady" in town.
I have been very patient and nice to people though.
Even when a guy and his teen walked over while I had a buck and doe trying to mate, talk about awkward! lol
And it had to be my shy buck, Leo (a fawn) who was like "OMG STRANGERS!" and clammed up while the doe was like "Ummm, Hellllo, I'm ready here!". I apologized that I couldn't allow them to enter the barn because #1) I generally never ever let strangers in my barn for biosecurity reasons, you never know what someone could be carrying on their shoes even if they don't have rabbits of their own! and #2), the bunz were trying to make little bunz and I can't even be in the barn when Leo is getting his groove on, let alone other people!
They must have thought I was crazy, but they still took a buisness card and said they would check back in a couple of weeks to see what I had for babies, which leads me to why I am blogging today!


31 days ago Creme Brulee (Broken Lilac Tort doe) was bred to Whiskey O' (Self Chocolate buck) and Sunflower (Self Red doe) was bred to Monty (Self Red buck) for my first two Vermont born litters!
The girls are due today and Creme has an awesome nest built and Sun is just lounging around her cage.
Both are off feed and I highly suspect that Creme will deliver tonight as she is having contractions and panting away.
Back in RI at the farm, it was so quiet that my girls often kindled in broad daylight, I suspect that here with all of the daily hubbub they will hold off until the still of night to have those kits.


The litters will both be named in themes centered around two popular VT things, Maples, and Cheese.
Which just happen to be two things Keith and I love, we have tapped our own trees and made our own syrup, and Keith loves cheese....

Creme's litter will be the cheese litter, with names like Cabot and Crowley on the list (VT cheesemakers).

Sun's litter will be the Maple litter, with names like Sugar Shack and Amber (a syrup grade level).


I also (FINALLY) have Calypso bred to Leo and I'm DYING to see the Fawns they produce, she is due October 12 and has never had a litter less than 9 kits.


I will update when the new babies have arrived! I cannot wait for a kit fix, I haven't had babies in my barn since March!

My Computer is Out!

All Hail the Blackberry!!!

For those of you wondering, I have not fallen off the planet. My computer has a wicked virus and I am now reduced to using library computers to update my website and blog.
I can read emails on my crack, errr blackberry though!

For sale bunnies please check my website at:
www.joiedeviverabbitry.webs.com

or email me at:
LadyLeonard84@aol.com

Thanks for the understanding!

Whooo Hooooo Babies, Babies, Babies!!!

TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY!!! AND I REALLY AM!!!

New Sr. girl MG's Calypso, out of Spang's Dijon was bred to Platt's Peter and was due to kindle on Thanksgiving day. She looked promising, but held out on me and decided to kindle her first litter yesterday at 12:05pm on Black Friday, 11/27/09. She beautifully and gracefully blessed me with a small rainbow of 9 Gorgeous kits!
She kindled right in front of me in the barn while I was doing chores. I came in, she was laying down vegging out, she hadn't even started pulling wool yet! She got up, hopped into her nestbox, pulled some wool, popped out those kits, covered them with more wool and was done and out in 15 minutes flat eating lunch and guzzling her water!
I was amazed and felt very honored to be allowed to witness the birth of these kits, this was a special breeding for me. I have wanted to combine Spang and Platt for awhile now and that is exactly what I did with this breeding. I had been calling it on my dry board in my barn, Calypso's Dream Litter. And boy, did Calypso outdo herself! I have 4 brokens, 3 that will be either blacks or Agoutis. 1 that I believe is a tort. 1 chestnut/copper agouti. 1 fawns. and 2 whites.
If I have a white buck he will be retained as a mate for Artanna!!
I may even keep both whites because there are simply no other whites being shown locally but my one white doe.
One of the brokens with really nice even markings is staying and is already named Black Friday, the other two broken black/agouti are lacking even nose markings, one has none, the other has one beauty mark on the side of the nose (I'm calling this one Monroe) so they are not suited for the show table.

This is going to be TOUGH litter to make choices on... Keith asked me last night, "So how many are you keeping from this litter?" and I was like "Honestly, it is way too soon to tell and I have no idea!"

Two more breedings left for this season, Expresso (black) and Raine (blue steel) and then I'm done and I will be waiting on them for a little while longer. I have to work breeding them around when we go to PA for the show. I do not want to leave first time Mom's with young kits with a sitter for days on end while I'm gone... I may wait on them until it's over.

I have started needle felting, HOW FUN!!! I wanted something to do with all this extra Angora wool that I just didn't have time to spin and I wanted to mix it up, so Felting it is! I need to get some finer gauge felting needles for the Angora but I have done some sheep wool Needle Felting on a purse I made for my 4 year old for her birthday and it came out great!
I am HOPING to felt Christmas oranments for the family for this year... We'll see!

Here are some pics, ENJOY!

Kits Growing Up!

My first litter is growing up FAST!

Daphne's lucky 7 as they are called consist of:

2 Opal Bucks (1 SOLD, 1 Retained)

1 Opal Doe (SOLD)

1 Fawn Buck (For Sale $60)

1 Broken Cream Doe (Retained)

1 Broken Fawn Buck (SOLD)

1 Chestnut Agouti Doe (SOLD)

The little Chestnut Agouti doe was bought by my own daughter, Megan Rose, who is turning 8 in late Feb. She paid 25 cents for her ;-) She HAD to pay for her and wouldn't accept me just giving her. She truly wanted her to be HER rabbit and no one elses. She will be her Youth showing rabbit.

Her name is JDV Nutmeg's Tobi. Nutmeg because I sometimes call my daughter Nutmeg and because Tobi is looking a little Nutmegish these days. Here's a picture of Megan of Tobi taken two days ago at 11 days old the day her eyes opened:

And another picture of Megan with Tobi:

Here is a group shot from two days ago, 11/20:

And a close up of an Opal kit also from 11/20:

And the whole litter from today 11/22:

I have a another litter I am VERY excited about due on Thanksgiving day, Platt's Peter (Broken Chestnut Agouti) X MG's Calypso (Fawn) who is out of Spang's Dijon.

Calypso is a SWEET doe who will be a first time Mom, Thankfully I stay home on Thanksgiving day and the few days around it, so I will be be here to keep a close eye on her, she is ADORABLE and has been hopping around her cage for a week like this:

Well in case I don't blog again until then, I wish everyone a very Happy (and safe) Thanksgiving Day!!!

BOB, BOS, and First Legs!

Yesterday was the Waltham, MA show. It was a double, plus a pet show, and there were 600 rabbits there yesterday.
To think we didn't know about the show until two days after the Taunton, MA show on the 15th, THE DAY OF CUTOFF FOR ENTRY, is shocking now considering how well we (I) did yesterday!

Show A Open I entered Artanna my REW Jr. doe and Leo my Fawn Jr. buck.

Keith entered Rain, our Steel Jr. Doe.

We did the following:

Artanna was best white as she was the only white there LOL

Nancy Platt's GORGEOUS chocolate Sr. doe did BOB and my Leo took BOS, I practically LEVITATING I was so happy.

Rain did best colored Jr. Doe, which was nice!

Show A Youth my kids were the only ones there with FA. So naturally, they did BOB with Courage, Tort Jr. buck (Megan showed/groomed him) and BOS with Expresso, Black Jr. doe (Alex showed/groomed her).

Pet class, Woogie my little nearly 4 year old daughter did 4th place and got her very first ribbon, a green one. She kept saying "It's so beautiful!" Adorable! She has gone to the barn twice today alone (it's barely 11am) to see her ribbon hanging with the others.



Show B was my shining moment though.

Judge Jim Rowland picked my Leo for BOB against a darn good amount of Nancy's rabbits and another womans, and little Artanna did BOS.

I was so honored. Nancy Platt has been breeding and showing FA for A LONG TIME. She is well known and has truly beautiful animals.

My kids obviously did BOB and BOS again in Youth.

Courage got a second look for BIS for Show A, but the judge ultimately picked someone another breed, which I cannot remember.

Leo got a second and third look for BIS for show B and my heart almost stopped in my chest but the BIS was a Netherland Dwarf buck, and Best Reserve was a Mini Rex doe.

All in all, it was an amazing day. I got my first legs for Leo, and now he needs one more as a Sr. to be GC. He weighs Sr. weight but wasn't in what I thought was the proper coat to compete with the Sr.s so I put him in Jr. since he's not 6 months until Dec. 1. Man, I should have entered him as a Sr. with how well he did. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. I have no doubt I will finish him he is just a very nice rabbit indeed.








Here is a pic of my BOB rabbit NB's Leo:

It's funny, when you have something from the time it is small and you see it everyday, you can miss that it's grown up. I find that with my children, people will see them for the first time in a few months and say "My how you've grown!" and I don't see it! This is how I felt about Leo. To me, he was still the little Jr. I saw for the first time in August :

But to look at him yesterday at Waltham taking BOB, he looks VERY grown up in the head and all that. What a little man he's becoming!

He's shy though. Nancy's BOB show A Chocolate Doe kept whispering sweet nothings in his ear and was very forward about her desire for him, and he just kept slinking further back into his hole. LOL It was a good laugh. She was practically grooming him and crawling into his hole and he was like "Help Me!"

Here is a picture of the loot we brought home from the show yesterday. 10 Ribbons in all. Boy do they look good in my barn :-D

The yellow is not from Waltham, but from my first show in Fulton, NY and little Artanna earned that for 3rd place.
Every judge that puts their hands on her loves her, yesterday in show B the judge called another judge over from their show to feel Artanna's body and she told us that she hadn't felt such a nice French body in a looong time. That was jusge Stacy something, long last name she had flown up from Florida just to judge at yesterdays show. I will get her last name off my remark cards.

I talked to tons of people and gave out nearly 70 Buisness cards yesterday.
Nancy and I talked on and off throughout the day and she is such a nice woman with only words of encouragement and advice for everyone. She kept giving me big smiles and telling me congrats.

Looks like we are heading for the Lebanon, PA show now! Can't Wait!

We're OFF to see the judges, the wonderful judges of MA!

Tomorrow we go to show! I am bringing my 9 year old son, Alex and his black Jersey Wooly Jr. buck Morphious (also from Tina, Nutty Buckeye! lol).
I am bringing 8 rabbits, TO MY SECOND SHOW! My mother and husband think I'm crazy.
I can't see anything crazy for all the Angora wool stuffed in my ears.
My motto: GO BIG OR GO HOME!
I figure it's the last show of the 2009 season, and I want remarks on all of my Jr.s, a few of which will become Sr.s over the winter and will be bred, and I want body remarks on a Sr. buck I have who just blew on me but still has the 1.5" on him to go to show. I plan to use this buck (Platt's Peter, broken agouti) for a whole generation of breeding's this winter, so I want to make damn well sure he has a nice body on him before I do that.
So, going to show are Peter, Artanna, Rain, Expresso, Leo, Courage, Trinity, and Morphious. I am MAKING SURE I have no empty holes in my carriers to bring home more rabbits, though I could use another JW doe to breed with Morphious (Shhhh! Don't tell Keith).
And Keith is not coming. It will be just Me, my Mom, and Alex. He is showing his rabbit in the JW speciality.

I might just be jinxing myself but for some reason I have a good feeling about this show. Going over Artanna yesterday, she oozes type and she has a rocking body. Her guard hairs are right 1/2 above her underwool in clear sight and they are abundant. Her butt is to die for. She poses perfectly. She is destined to be a star, I can see it. I have known enough animals to know when they have they look about them. The BLOOM. For a Jr. she is young, but she is top of her game for a young Jr. right now. I literally cannot wait to see what she does as a Sr.
Both judges in Fulton told me she was one to watch and was a "keeper".
I could see the look on Ms. Helen Bose's (the judge) face when she had my doe in her hands, she saw it too! She winked at me when she gave her back!

Anyway, New Englanders, you better watch out! Joie De Vive is coming to show and we are going to win!
Okay maybe not, but the optimism never hurts right?

And my motto again, GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Well I'm going big baby. Let's see how we do!
Updates tomorrow. Hopefully pictures!