New magpie harlequin stock!!! Chocolate and lilac.

[Zass]

I was being a good Zass, and trying not to grab up every color I could to add to my herd.
You all know I am obsessed with color.

So naturally, I'm offered a chance at a chocolate magpie doeling and a lilac magpie buckling from Harlequin Hatchery!!! Chosen specifically to help with my herd's body markings, since the genes to produce very good face splits are already present here. I wanted to make sure I had all the traits I needed...since I'm line breeding heavily. With these two, I should have all 4 colors of magpie here by next fall.


How could I REFUSE those adorable little faces??? I feel very lucky to have found that rabbitry only 5 hours away. Not an easy day trip, but do-able when new stock is necessary.

Their color difference is hard to spot in the pic, so I tried photographing eyes to see if I could catch the subtle difference between chocolate and lilac kit eyes. I can kinda see it in the pics... Sunlight would probably work better.

 

[HansenHomestead]

Oh my dear!!!

Absolutely stunning buns, and quite honestly... You've now forced me to eventually add another color to my herd. I am drooling over here, they're beautiful. Then I went, and Googled Magpie rabbits, and I cried a little inside. :lol: I would love to make a Magpie Flemish. O.O How would I do this Jedi Zass?

 

[Zass]

I would love to make a Magpie Flemish. O.O How would I do this Jedi Zass?

Wow, that would be a stunning rabbit. :shock:
There are a few ways you could accomplish it. I guess, depending on what you have available. The rabbits wouldn't need to be purebred, since harlequin and magpie are not colors recognized in the flemish giant breed anyway, and FG blood would be bad to get mixed into purebred Harlequin lines.

You could call yours "Giant magpies" or whatever you wanted.

The magpie color is just chinchilla harlequin, so all you need is:
agouti A_
chinchilla cchd_
extension japanese ej_

A giant chinchilla, chin colored flemish giant, or FG cross could be mixed with a magpie harlequin (or magpie colored mutt) to get harlequinized chins. Bred back to mag you get magpies, but they would have a low percentage of giant blood.


If you could find a frosty flemish (they sometimes pop up in color crossed lines) you could breed to a big magpie mutt (if you can find one, my CL occasionally has magpie colored NZ crosses from someone's local mutt line) or magpie harlequin, or any breed where the color crops up.
The kits could be line bred back to the frosty for increasing size while retaining the A_ cchd_ eje genotype which will give you visual magpies.

 

[HansenHomestead]

Zass you have just overloaded my brain. It is 12:23 at night right now, and I think my brain just gave up on me, haha. although I do really want to learn genetics, and how to achieve certain colors. I have tried many different sites, and forms on how to learn, and it's like calculous <---- Can't believe I spelled that correctly in the first try haha to me.

I do have my Blue FG, and we were thinking about getting a Black FG doe to breed him with, BUT maybe I could poke around for a Magpie doe. Most of our rabbits are meat mutts except our Cals, and the FG, and most of them are line bred, or came from a breeder who line bred.

 

[AprilW]

Beautiful! I was really happy with the Harlies I got from the Harlequin Hatchery. We recently had our first chocolates and lilacs born.

 

[skysthelimit]

Beautiful. Harlie in every color is striking.

 

[FourRingCircus]

So beautiful! But you already know I'm a fan

 

[ladysown]

i used to get LARGE almost flemish sized black japanese rabbits. It wasn't that hard to create. I don't image that doing it magpie would be a whole lot more difficult.

 

[Zass]

Thanks everyone I think they are lovely too. Not perfect, but most harlequins are not perfect. It goes with the territory, and to be honest, the challenge is part of what drew me to the breed.

Their temper won me over completely. Sweet and active, they seem to be a bit more intelligent and curious than my other buns.
Not quite as adoring as a velveteen, but as close as I've seen any other breed come!

I have a senor harlequin doe living with Mucky right now, since they get along fantastically. I reach in and both does wedge their heads under my hand for petting.:roll:
They have a guinea pig companion in there too, who has been doing his best to romance the harli doe. He purrs at her, and she cleans his ears. Bunch of weirdos.

Beautiful! I was really happy with the Harlies I got from the Harlequin Hatchery. We recently had our first chocolates and lilacs born.

All of my stock is from HH, with the exception of one buck that was bought by HH, and then re-sold to me.
I love everything about this line, so I'm kind of scared to introduce a whole lot of different genetics.
Sarah has been fantastic to work with.
Aside from providing all of my foundation stock, she also gives boatloads of advice on breeding and evaluating harlis, helps me select what to introduce to what I already have, and helps me pick out which kits to keep from my litters.
All that AND she doesn't even ask much for the buns. The most I've paid is $45, and the least, $10.

I haven't even looked elsewhere :lol:
She advised I keep harlequin lines "genetically close," so, I figure I can just buy a kit or two from her larger herd as needed to improve mine.

 

[LPH_NY]

Those are some gorgeous little bunnies! I really like the magpie coloring. I don't like broken very much, but I love the straight lines produced on the harli/magpies.

I think the pale (but not pink!) eye color against the white fur on the face is extra pretty.

 

[Zass]

Those are some gorgeous little bunnies! I really like the magpie coloring. I don't like broken very much, but I love the straight lines produced on the harli/magpies.

I think the pale (but not pink!) eye color against the white fur on the face is extra pretty.

Thanks! In person I find japs to be the more appealing of the two varieties. I think, it's similar to how reds are more stunning in real life.
For photography, the mags have more visual impact.


It was only for these harlis that I let go of my mutt project. I knew working with these guys would take up the whole rabbitry, and I'll probably have to expand some more this year..

 

[LPH_NY]

Do you have any japs in your program, or just magpies?

 

[Zass]

Do you have any japs in your program, or just magpies?

I started with a jap/magpie pairing, but only for the purpose of merging the two lines to make for better magpies.
I was asked to not to sell any jap-magpie kits with their pedigrees due to how crossing the lines can harm the jap color.

Most magpies just don't carry the modifiers for a lot of rufous, or the recessive at wideband necessary to hide a lot of the agouti marks. Wideband isn't required for show (agouti marks are permitted,) but I feel having it makes for better color overall.

A really good jap should look like a red with black markings. A poor jap looks more like a fawn with black. (Like mine)

So, all my jap kits have been sub-par in the color area, but I have had a few with excellent face and ear alterations. The pic is some of my poor colored japs.
They all carry the chinchilla(cchd) necessary to produce magpies, and the plan had always been to phase out japs entirely once the magpies get really underway. Someday, when I have a larger rabbitry, I'd like to work with japs too.