Carolina on My Mind

Pack up those Christmas ornaments and clear away the New Year’s confetti.  Its time to start thinking about the 2012 AFLRC National Show.  This year it will be in Greensboro, NC and it promises to be awesome!

2012 AFLRC National Show

CAROLINA ON MY MIND

Saturday, March 10, 2012

 Where:  Greensboro Coliseum Complex, 1921 W. Lee St, Greensboro, NC 27403

 

Judges:  OPEN Randy Shumaker, CA,  Jay Hreiz, NC,  YOUTH Jamie Green, GA

 

Host Hotel:  Drury Inn   Rate is $84, cut-off date for rate is Feb 9, 1-800-0720, or                      www.druryhotels.com, group #2115017, check-in after 3pm.  Other hotels in area:   Best Western, Hampton Inn, Ramada, Red Roof Inn, Sheraton

 

Airports:   Greensboro, NC,  Raleigh, NC (1 hr), Charlotte, NC (2 hr)

 

Banquet:   Darryl's Wood-Fired Grill, $25/person, see separate banquet menu.  Reservations with checks to be mailed to Lory-Ann Rubinstein.

Entries:     AFL National Show:  $7.00 per rabbit,  $3.00 per rabbit wool

North Carolina RBA : catalog posted at www.NCRBA.com

Saturday, March 10, Show B   Sunday, March 11, Show C and D .  Entry deadline March 6, email to Judy Bustle, showentry@msn.com

                               

  Check-in time:  Friday, March 9, 2012,  6-9pm,  Saturday, March 10, 6-7am. 

Judging begins promptly at 8:30am Saturday, March 10, 2012

 

Show Superintendants:

Helen Moore, h3lenm@bellsouth.net 704 583 8498

Ginger Mendat,  mendat13@yahoo.com 704 299 6405

Show Secretary:  Jennifer Green, jennfuzzylop@yahoo.com  803 424 4455

 

 

All Entries for National Show must be postmarked by February 27, 2012

Mail to:  Jennifer Green, AFL National Entry

1828 Four Mile Creek Rd, Ball Ground, GA 30107  

Make checks payable to Virginia Mendat/SFF

You may also use your 2010-11 sweepstakes gift certificates for entry fees

 

See catalog on AFLRC website

A good week..a very good week

In our hobby, we can go weeks and months (OK, let’s be totally honest--years) without a big win.  But every time we get a little discouraged, we see the face of a 4-week old kit, or we talk to a friend who is excited about their Fuzzies, and we are ready to go again.  Still nothing can jazz up our enthusiasm for American Fuzzy Lops like doing well at a show.

Last weekend, things went well, very well for me.  I won Best of Breed in the two shows with a solid sable point buck.  I thought he was looking very good, but took him to the Best in Show table with no expectations.

Judge Randy S examines the AFL during Best in Show A judging.

Betty and her English Angora doe, selected Best in show by Judge Kevin S, and me with my buck.  My buck was Reserve Best in Show for both shows that day!

Yesterday, I headed to another show, the last show before the ARBA Convention in Indianapolis.  I packed up a different group of Fuzzies this time, to make sure all the rabbits had time to rest before traveling to Convention later this week.  It was so tempting to take the sable point buck again, but I decided it was more important for him to be ready to compete in Indianapolis.  Besides, I thought I had a couple of other bucks that were looking nice.

My broken buck won Best of Breed in both shows. But I really didn’t expect more.  There were a lot of very nice rabbits at the show yesterday.

Show A, my broken senior buck is selected Best in Show by Judge Josh H!  Betty’s English Angora is RBIS.  Note that we have both won again one week later but with different rabbits!

Show B, my broken buck takes BIS again.  Juan and his Mini Lop are selected RBIS by Judge Melissa.

I guess I like this hobby after all!

Let the pictures tell the story

Mason, MI: It was an AWESOME show, says Tabatha.

Show A Open BOB- Tabatha Corbin-Meeks
                    BOS -Margaret Wronski
Show B open BOB -Theresa Frank
                    BOS ~ Tabatha Corbin-Meeks
Show C Open BOB ~ Tabatha Corbin-Meeks
                    BOS ~ Dawn Guth
Show D Open BOB Tabatha Corbin-Meeks
                     BOS ~ Tabatha Corbin-Meeks
Also we hear that Jamie Fry did great in youth and took RBIS in show B!

Fun in the Sun

Spring and summer can be a great time to step back and enjoy the rabbits in a more relaxed way.  One tradition is the “picnic” or backyard show.  District 2 hosts one of the best where American Fuzzy Lops, Jersey Woolys and Angoras all gather for a great triple show.

Wade checks the Fuzzies while Carol is finally caught on camera.

Chris had a great time relaxing, talking and judging.

Johnny judges French Angoras with Gabrielle taking comments

Youth exhibitors turned out in great numbers and had gorgeous Fuzzies!

Results:

Show A, Youth, Johnny Haussener

1. BOB, VC  Hayley Cowles
2. BOSB SKT   Hayley Cowles

Show B, Youth CHRIS Zemny

1. BOB FFS    Madison Todd
2. BOSB MXML1 Ruby Juballa

Show C WADE BURKHALTER

• BOB SKT Hayley Cowles
• BOSB FFS   Madison Todd

Show A, Open Johnny Haussener

1. BOB FOB Mary Henderson/Guy Reynolds
2. BOSB LSU2 Carol & Kendall Green

Show B Open Chris Zemny

1. BOB CHR Carol & Kendall Green
2. BOSB LP1 Christina Gillett

Show C open Wade Burkhalter

1. BOB KNO CAROL & KENDALL GREEN
2. BOSB FOB HENDERSON/REYNOLDS

Fuzzies go to school

Rabbits, children and science.....mix those three things together and you have a successful Science Day prsentation for kindergarten classes.

I took six different rabbits with me--two Fuzzies, one Jersey wooly, two young Netherland Dwarfs and a Thrianta. All were picked because I thought they would be tolerant of poking and prodding! I talked to the kids about the many uses for rabbits, what they eat, and how the babies tend to look like their parents. When I asked what rabbits eat, the answer was always "Carrots!". The kids were great though at sitting in their chairs and holding up their hands to ask questions. It helped that the teacher warned me that their attention span was "8 mins"!

Rabbits and the "teacher" were tired when the day was done!

Do you have any Sable Points available?

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I get more requests for sable points than any other variety of Fuzzies.  That’s not a scientific survey of course, because most people know that I don’t raise too many of the rarer colors anyway. But torts and sable points are very compatible when it comes to breeding and since most of us have torts, then most of us could also raise sable points. 

As discussed in the last post, there are five main color genes (ignore the broken and vienna genes for now).  By the way, there is a very good article in the current issue of Domestic Rabbit, May/June 2011, on rabbit color genetics also, which is a great reference too. We are going to focus on one gene for this discussion though, because it is where the torts and sable points different, the “C” or pigmentation (also called color) gene.

In some ways, the pigmentation gene is the hardest because instead of a nice simple two versions, with one dominant over the other, the “C” series has five different forms or alleles.  “C” is the dominant form which means that one copy of this allele will affect the color of the rabbit. The other four alleles of the pigment gene are : “c(chd)”, called chinchillation dark which results in chinchilla or silver marten varieties; “c(chl)”, chinchillation light, required for sable points, Siamese sable, and smoke pearl varieties; “c(h)”, Himalayan (or Californian) allele, giving pointed white, and “c”, for albino or ruby-eyed white variety.  Since each rabbit has two copies of the pigmentation gene, the dominance of each matters:  C > c(chd) > c (chl) > c(h) > c. 

The sable point rabbit pictured at the top of this post has very nice clean sable point color. Note the darker shading on his muzzle and ears.  The legs and feet are also darker sepia brown. The color over the body isn’t white, but is a very light almost “pearl” color (sable points are called “pearl” in the angora breeds).

 

Solid sable point AFL with clean color

Solid sable point with darker sable point color. 

There are variations in the sable point color that occur as seen above.  It is believed that two copies of the c(chl) gene will result in the darker version while one copy of the gene paired with a “c” allele will give the cleaner color.  This could be tested by breeding each of these rabbits to a ruby eyed white rabbit, if REWs as well as sable points are in the litters, then the sable point parent carried one copy of the c allele.

One complication with broken sable points is that the light body color can make it difficult to see the pattern on an adult.  The color is readily seen on a broken sable point kit. At birth the colored skin is as visible as in any other broken, and as the wool grows it is still easy to see.

But as the wool grows, the color seems to become diluted over the length of the hair shaft and be more difficult to see.  Sometimes these rabbits are disqualified for having too little color, but most judges realize the need to look closely (even in the sunlight if possible) at the body, as well as the head.  A rabbit with normal or heavy broken markings on the head is likely to be well colored on the body as well.

The buck above shows the typical pattern of color on the head seen in broken Fuzzies with a prominent butterfly and colored ears.  Additional pattern of color is also apparent on the face of the rabbit.  The body also has several large areas of slightly darker colored wool, although the length of the wool makes it harder to see the color.

A broken sable point with less density in the wool has more prominent color patches.  Some sable points are also darker in color than others; this is probably because the rabbit carries two copies of the sable point gene rather than only one copy. 

Enjoy your sable points.  They are a beautiful variety of AFL.

Oh Mr Mendel, where are you?

When the talk turns to alleles and genes and Punnett squares, some folks’ eyes glaze over while others get very very excited. If you are one of those who start thinking about what you are having for dinner when the ABCDEs roll into the conversation, just stick with me and give it a shot.  This won’t be a full lesson, just a tidbit.  If you want to produce colors (varieties) that can be shown, then you need to know some basics about rabbit color genetics. 

There are five genes that determine most of the varieties of colors shown in Fuzzies (Note I said “most”, not “all”).  Each of these genes has at least two alleles (or versions) that will determine some feature of the rabbits color. 

First is the “A” or agouti series.  This gene determines whether a rabbit with exhibit agouti, tan or self pattern, thus there are three possible alleles of this gene.

The “B” series is next, and is sometimes called the basic series.  Its easiest to think that all rabbits are either black or brown.

The “C” series, or pigment series, controls the amount of pigment in the hair shaft and has six different alleles that produce rabbits that range from full colored to albinos (ruby eyed white).

The “D” series or color intensity gene controls the intensity of color resulting in either intense color, e.g. black, or dilute, e.g. blue.

The extension gene, “E” controls the extension of black to the fur tips.

There are two other genes that are important to us also.  First is the gene that produces either solid or brokens.  Any color can be broken. Then there is another gene, usually termed Vienna or Blue-eyed white that can conceal all colors and produce a BEW.

Photos are from rabbits that were class winners at AFLRC National shows and ARBA Conventions.