HEY! It's a BLOG!...
Due to the unruley amount of junk posts to my tag-board, I decided to change over to a Bravenet Blog where I can more easily manage the content posted. It is fully featured with interactive area's and a new Tag Board too :-) Feel free to leave a comment or Tag me!

What's happening in our breeding program...

As always, I'm continuously working on improving my Lynx line which is still my main variety. Since cleaning out the "e" Non-Extension gene that is responsible for producing Fawns, I've accomplished my first Grand Champion homebred Lynx!!! The doe pictured above has been, by far, the absolute BEST Lynx I have produced to date. She currently has 10+ legs and counting! In addition to her, I've been able to grand out two other homebred Lynx - a doe and a buck!

In my Lynx, I am still focused on breeding goals such as perfecting Type, Ring Definition, Intermediate Ring Rufus, and evenness of coat just to name a few area's of interest. I'm eager to see how my new crop of youngsters mature and am looking forward to attending my first Mini Rex breed Nationals this year with them as well! :-)

Although I'm limiting the number of REW's I keep in my herd, they are still continuously improving and for the most part, their type isn't 1/2 bad either! After attending my first convention this year (in Grand Rapids, MI), I was extremely excited to able to place 4th Jr. Buck out of 49 and 3rd Jr. Doe out of 68 with my Whites!!! I'm also pleased that they are all genetically compatible with my Lynx (and free of Non-Extension), so I utilize them in my Lynx lines to aide in improving type and overall fur quality as well.

The other variety I'm slowly working on is BEW's... In May of 2006, I started out with a Vienna Carrier buck from Berlena's Place and had one of my Lynx does bred to one of her BEW bucks for another litter of VC's. Berlena was very generous to have loaned me a Vienna carrier doe to help start me out as well. After just over a year and a few litters later, I had my first 2 BEW's in the Nestbox! One of those BEW does took 3rd place Sr. Doe out of 12 at ARBA Convention in Grand Rapids, MI... just behind Berlena's Sr. Doe (1st place & BOV) and the Gesswein's Sr. Doe (2nd place). She is now retired to production and I look forward to the future! Thank you so much Berlena - You Rock! Click on her banner below to see her Nationwide Winning BEW's!

                                 

I have indefinitely discontinued my project of Brokens... I was working towards breeding spotted patterned Broken Lynx... however with my recent herd reduction, I have had to put off this project until we are able to move to a larger property. I may have to import a "Dalmatian" Dwarf Rex from overseas in order to get the correct markings I'm trying for. For an idea of the type of pattern I want to accomplish, visit these links:
http://lapinrex.free.fr/tachete1.html
http://lapinrex.free.fr/galerie1.html#tachete

Unfortunately, also am no longer working on Chocolates and Lilacs and have sold the last of my brood stock in those varieties. With a limited 24 holes, I had to make the decision to discontinue 2 varieties in order to make room for the BEW's as well as for Lynx & REW Jr's. I'm saddened to get out of these varieties as I've seen a great deal of improvement in them here.