Imported Angoras

December 2010 - Imported Angoras

Happy New Year! 2011 is the Year of The Rabbit! We hope to properly celebrate it with lots of new rabbits.

We ended 2010 by importing three new rabbits. They came in a dog kennel via cargo airlines and it was a bit of work to get the paperwork organized, but they made it fine. They arrived two days before Christmas, so it was in the midst of all the Christmas shipping, too.

They are English angoras, of course. We now have two new bucks and a new doe. They all have excellent bloodlines, great wool and good conformation.

Morpheus

The first buck is Morpheus. He's black and adores being groomed. His wool spins up lovely with a great crimp and feel. We are hoping for some lovely litters with him as the sire. He carries a recessive for brown as well as some interesting possibilities for pointed whites or chinchillas. The first litter will be between him and Dolce, the new ruby eyed white doe.

Dolce

Dolce carries a recessive for brown as well as possibly some pointed whites and a recessive for dilution and extension. We are hoping for some lovely kits between these two. With the possible recessives for various things between these two, it is hard to imagine what colors we can hope for.

City Slicker

The second buck is "blue" and his name is City Slicker. In the picture, he hasn't been groomed after his trip in the shipping kennel, but it does show his nice blue color. You can determine the color of an English angora by looking at the color of their nose. The wool will usually fade to a lighter color so a "black" rabbit generally looks gray.

We have planned a litter between Morpheus and Dolce for January 26th although they may still be too unsettled from their journey to produce a litter. There will hopefully be a litter between City Slicker and Muffin, a ruby eyed doe, due sometime in mid-February as well as a litter between Charcoal, a black doe, and Morpheus. That litter should also be due sometime around mid-February.

Historical foot note, here - there were six bunnies in the shipping kennel. Three does on the top level and three bucks on the lower level. A friend and I had split the shipping costs by each getting three rabbits so only three of the original six were bunnies for Hillside Farm. After a few months, however, my friend decided to sell me the other three so eventually all six of the angoras became Hillside Farm bunnies. But at the time of the original posting in late 2010, only Morpheus, City Slicker and Dolce were our offical Hillside Farm bunnies.