Promising juniors

I love spring. This year is especially exciting because we have a lot of kits in the nestbox right now and several promising juniors.

Tulip, a Creme d'Argent, gave us a litter of six in the middle of the winter, four of which are shaping up nicely for the spring shows. I really wasn't sure how these youngsters would look, because this is the first breeding to combine the two bloodlines we're working with. (We sent an intermediate buck from Ferryman lines to Convention last fall, but since "Firestorm" was going to another breeder out-of-state, I wanted to have at least one litter from him before he left.)

Tulip has nice hindquarters and she's a great mom, but she's rather long in the shoulders - a common fault in Cremes. Firestorm was surprisingly strong in the shoulders, but peaks too early in the topline, making his hindquarters slope off. The goal was by breeding these two, their strengths would counteract the other rabbit's weaknesses. The two does both carry some of the weaknesses of their parents, but both have improvements that make them worth keeping, at least until they're a little more mature. I'm really excited about one of the junior bucks too - he's big, which is something I really need. In addition, he has nice strong shoulders, which is something else I'm looking for in our barn. It will be interesting to see how they mature!