Reno here we come!

A junior broken buck heading to Reno

The West Coast Classic in Reno will be our first rabbit show beyond our San Joaquin Valley home. We are excited, even though we only have two litters old enough to show. We sold off all the adults from 2015, except those we added to our breeding barn. Unfortunately, I didn't look ahead and keep back a few older rabbits to show in the senior categories. Oh well, live and learn. I am sure we will have fun showing our juniors.

We started off only breeding New Zealand reds, but after listening to judges make comments about reds being "long" or "low in the shoulders," we decided to try and use the white genetics from brokens to help improve our rabbits' shoulders. We purchased a very nice broken buck from Manuel Hidalgo. He was willing to sell it under the condition I realized its pattern included too much red. But since our goal for purchasing a broken was for improving reds' shoulders, I think the purchase will prove a wise decision. "Luke" has a very large red blanket and very nice shoulders and hindquarters. Both his  red and broken babies are improvements for our Mission Hill Rabbitry.

For the West Coast Classic, we will only bring six juniors since we only have two traveling show cages with three holes each. We currently have two litters that will be between three and four months old  at the beginning of April. One litter is from the heavily blanketed "Luke" and other litter is from Luke's father, who Manuel also kindly agreed to sell. We have named Luke's father "LoverBoy" and he has been a busy buck. His babies have his beautiful color and short, compact body. Needless to say we have been  busy breeding these two excellent bucks to our red does and, although not our original goal, we are excited about starting a new broken line.

With the addition of a broken line and increased interest in Mission Hill Farm reds, we have decided to increase from three to nine does. Three does for our "Mark" line, three does for our original "Max" line, and three for our LoverBoy broken line. This will mean more cage pans to clean, but I am having fun with the rabbits. I have even thought about cutting back with the mammoth donkeys and Katahdin sheep. I am not exactly sure why, but I really enjoy the rabbits. Something about those beautiful and comical creatures helps bring my blood pressure down. The brokens are even pretty and remind me of when we used to breed Mini Lops back in our college days.

We just hope snow doesn't close Interstate 80 on Friday, April 8.