Just wanted to write a quick post about our week this week.
I’ve been out of town in Orlando, and I returned 2/12. I leave again 2/19 for Pensacola and hopefully will return promptly. During this time that I have been home, I haven’t accomplished a WHOLE lot, but we did have some exciting things happen.
First off, we had three litters of rabbits born. One purebred Silver Fox (Rain x Powder), with 3 blues & 3 lilacs (YAY!); and two SF x NZ (Charming x Sookie & Charming x Queenie). Unfortunately, Sookie only birthed one GIGANTIC, white kit, which I found dead in the nest on 2/16 AM. Queenie had four, two blues and two broken blues. Faith was bred but didn’t kindle, I’m going to rebreed she and Sookie this weekend. This is Powder’s first successful litter, and she is going GREAT! And of course the old pro Queenie is doing well too, all 10 surviving kits between the 2 litters look lovely. Hoping to keep one from each litter (a lilac for sure), but we will see.
Then, on Thursday (2/15), we added a new family member to the farm. I finally was able to pick up our newest dog, an 11 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female, who we have named Willa. She is going to be our next bird dog, and hopefully will be able to hunt side by side with Brantley and Timber. WPGs are hypoallergenic and do not shed, though they do have a wiry coat that requires grooming. If all goes well, we will have her hunt tested in at least AKC & NAVHDA and if she passes her tests plus health certifications, we plan to breed her down the road.
All 11 chicks are still alive, and all named. The cream legbars are Edith, Mary, & Sybil (Downton Abbey), lavender orpingtons are Mavis, Slick, and Fiona, and OEs/marans are Bertha, Mimzy, Izma, Becky, and Esther. 🙂
Sorry that you had a fetal giant. Such a birth can cause a lot of trauma for the doe. I have not had one, but I do know that sometimes the doe has too much trauma and dies even a couple of days later. I hope Sookie is recovering and her next kindle goes well with lots of sweet, meaty babies.
And you know I am envious over the lilacs, right? But if all goes well, I will have a breeding that should produce lilacs before the summer. I have been waiting (rather impatiently) for my SF juniors to get to breeding size/age and they are almost there…one more month for some!
Congratulations on the new puppy!