First and foremost we want to acknowledge our great God and Savior. Without Him, none of this would be possible (Rom. 11:36; Col. 3:16-17). He is the reason we exist and we live for Him in everything we do. We are Christians who believe the Bible in Truth. To find out more about what we believe, please check out a true church. It is very important!
Who We Are
Hoppin' Herd of Hares is a small rabbitry located in beautiful northeastern Oklahoma that focuses on raising, breeding and showing quality Mini Lops in "colors." We moved to Oklahoma in July of 2008, prior to that we lived in California. We work with chocolate, lilac, red, pointed white, shaded and of course have some regular varieties also. Color is not worth many points in Mini Lops, but we choose to help bring out the beautiful chocolate and lilac varieties onto the show tables. With the type on the chocolate and lilac varieties being quite nice, we have decided to work with them and improve it to where they are able to compete with the steels and chestnut agoutis that are always seen on the show tables.
We used to work with tri, red and orange Mini Lops, but in October 2005 we decided to sell out of the tris, reds and oranges to focus on our chocolate and lilac program. For the couple years after selling out of the tris, we only worked on the chocolates and lilacs and their type has improved dramatically over the years. We just recently added reds back into our barn.
As of December 2006, we decided to add another variety and some other colors into our barn. We have added in pointed whites and the shaded varieties (sables, smoke pearls, etc). The pointed whites have come a long ways since then.
We have tried several different breeds since we first started raising rabbits which have included Holland Lops, New Zealand Whites and Reds, Standard Rex, Dutch, Californians and Mini Rex. We have had the Mini Lops from the very beginning and they are the best breed. Lord willing, we will continue to breed, raise and show this wonderful breed.
Mini Lops are a very easy breed. They have no birth problems, have medium to large litters, come in a variety of colors, are very friendly, very adorable, have huge heads and a compact body - just a lovable little bunny. Whenever we walk in the barn all the bunnies are running back and forth in their cages, staring at us and appear to be waiting for somebody to come and say hi to them :). We handle our babies from day 1, so they get lots of attention and are very used to being handled and played with.
The lines we work with are, Vail's, Hoppin's (ours!), Velotta's, Alpine's, Kitsemble's and a few others (such as Siebers, Katz, Minich's, Howman's, Desurra's, etc). The main lines our stock comes from are the northwest lines of Vail's, Velotta's and a few others. We are very pleased with the stock we get from this line and most of our stock has descended from there. Most of our line originated from the northwest & west coast mini lop breeders and I am very glad to bring this line into Oklahoma!
Our Mini Lop Breeding Programs
Chocolates - We started our chocolate line off with a buck from Linda Akers and a doe from Joni Leak. Both of these rabbits were from the Love A Little (Karen Kuk) chocolate line. A few months later we got a trio (broken lilac buck & 2 broken chocolate does) from Karin Vail of Vail's Lops in WA. We have since added more, from various places and breeders since then.
I decided to work with the line from Karin Vail (I like her line!) and have pretty much done away with the Love A Little chocolates I originally got from Linda and Joni. I have found that breeders such as Vails' Lops, J&T Rabbitry and a few other WA/Canada breeders have very nice type in their chocolates. Therefore, I have decided to stem my line from those nice color lines. It has worked quite well and we now have chocolates winning on the show tables, taking Best of Breeds, and Best In Show! Our chocolates have great color, great broken patterns, great heads and crowns and great type. The type on the chocolates is there and improving constantly and I plan to improve it more, Lord willing. We are very pleased with how our chocolate type is and what they continue to throw.
I have realized that I am one of the few breeders that have chocolates with nice type and color, therefore we have decided to have our barn consist mostly of chocolates.
Lilacs & Dilutes - Our first lilac was part of the trio we got from Karin Vail in WA. That buck, Vail's Morado, helped get our lilacs going and off the ground. I kept some offspring from him that helped with the lilacs also. The buck that really helped get our lilacs and dilutes going was a registered grand champion broken opal buck from Nicole Velotta, Velotta's Raymond! Raymond was a very nice buck and he produced a lot of very nice dilutes. We have been able to get some very nice lilacs out of his offspring. The other buck that helped with the lilacs was a broken gold tip'd lilac steel buck named JT's Amaretto. He was a very nice buck who gave a lot to the chocolate and lilac line! After we got Amaretto, we had lilacs and dilutes galore!
Pointed Whites & Shadeds - In December 2006 we started working with pointed whites and the shaded colors that go along with them. This is a beautiful variety and while they need some work on their type, Lord willing we will be able to improve it quickly and help bring this color to the show tables. This is a very rare, hardly seen variety. I got my first pointed white doe, Alpine's Valorous, from Jody Rosnik of Alpine Rabbitry in Colorado. Jody is an ARBA judge.
I've brought in several very nice rabbits to this program and it has tremendously helped the lines. The two that have made the biggest impact on the pointed whites were a registered grand champion blue buck from WA - Kasomor's Mr. Deckles. The other rabbit is a beautiful sable doe with 2 legs from WI - Kitsemble's Sarabeth.
We also have some sables and red eyed whites to use in our pointed white program.
I have found that this variety is much harder to work with than the chocolates. I have to be extremely picky on what colors I breed into the pointeds, so as not to get odd colors that aren't showable. It is also harder because most breeders don't have any shadeds, so finding stock from good lines and unrelated lines can be tricky.
We no longer work with the pointed whites and shadeds, but their type made MUCH progress over the 6 years that we worked with them.
Regular Varieties - We do incorporate the regular varieties into our Mini Lops as well, since color is not worth many points in the ML's. However, we mainly work with the colors and "regular varieties" help us bring the nice type into the colors. Through incorporating these "regular varieities," which have nice type, the type on our colors has greatly improved.
