paul2641 wrote:
From looking back at the rest of your posts, I'm guessing your on about your new flemish giants you acquired?
Have you had any litters from them yet or are these your first, And how many flemish giants have you got at the moment?
Are you still working with the lionheads? Any updates on them?
We want MOAR pictures please lol!
Oh and I remember just before I left you were doing all those threads about genetics can you start doing stuff like that again?
Oh Paul.....lets see if I can catch you up on things.
I have five flemish giants for my breeding program. I have the first four that I acquired from Jack Langley - Sophia, Athena, Hermes and Mercury. Then - in late August we met Dave & Karen (Wabbitdad12 & wabbitmom12) in San Antonio and picked up Nyx from them - she's our black girl. That is the size of my flemish giant herd - although I do still have Zeus as our bedroom bunny - but he's a neutered flemish giant mix (and my big spoiled brat baby).
I have not had any litters from them yet - this is our first set of litters and I'm being just horrid about it. I called Alicia last week crying about the fact that once again I'd gotten into breeding and "how could I have done this??" when I know breeding can be risky to the doe. So yeah - I'm back to being a paranoid nervous wreck...
I will be hopefully adding two or three more flemish in February when I have them shipped down from New England - and then another two in the early summer if the breeding I am waiting for "takes" when they're bred next year. (I saw two totally awesome rabbits at a show in Storrs, CT when I was there and I fell in love with them. Fortunately, Juan, the breeder is going to breed them together and I'm hoping for a doe and buck out of them if they turn out as good as I think they will).
You can see the rabbits here -
http://iberiaflemishgiants.tripod.com/id12.html - he will be breeding Gloria and San German and I am thinking that may be a pairing that will be seen on many future pedigrees of prize-winning flemish as they are both very awesome flemish giants. When I looked at them - they were what I wanted my rabbits to be.
I am not still "working" with the lionheads as far as breeding goes because they are getting older and most of my does are too old to breed for first time, etc. In addition - while I went home to Maine this fall for a visit for a month - we had a virus spread through the rabbitry and we lost many many rabbits - 8 in one day - 6 in another day. Gone are my favorites....Harriet, Harry, Saphira, Isenstar, Meathead and so many many more that I adored. We even lost Tio - that was one of the hardest losses I had during that time as I got him the same day we got Tiny - now all of my "originals" are gone. Fortunately - when I saw Cathy (Blue Giants) at the show in Storrs, Ct. and shared with her about the losses we'd had in those last four days - her first words were, "You have a virus going on" and she told me what to do. We still lost another rabbit after that - but she helped us stop the virus and now I know what to do. (I later heard that other breeders in Texas had a problem this fall too).
As far as more pictures - I'm sure I'll do more once we have the babies this week....I do try to update somewhat regularly. Anyone in particular you'd like pictures of?
As far as the genetics thread - I know so little compared to other breeders. Basically - I wanted a "genetics for dummies" type of thing to make things simple so people like me could understand it.
Since y'all seem to care about and follow my flemmies - I will probably come here in the next few weeks with the brochure I'm developing about our flemish giants and breeding program and get y'alls' help with the pictures to use and stuff. Also - I'll probably ask for help in developing my website for the rabbitry.
Well - I best get off here and get the flemmies fed. I'm still a nervous wreck and will be so until I know all the babies are born and safe in their nestboxes...
:shock::shock::shock::shock::shock:
