English Angora doe Parsley

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German Angora doe

LATEST NEWS:

Vivelly "Lord Chapstick" wins BEST IN SHOW at Annual North Shore Show, 20.8.11. He is only a baby and it was his first show. We are very proud of Lord Chappy!! 

Vivelly Ayok, 2011 Nationals-Best Angora overall-judged under ARBA judge Scott Wiebensohn/USA. Vivelly Minnie-Best Coloured Angora

Vivelly Ayok winning RESERVE BEST IN SHOW at North Shore Show, June 2011

Thank you for visiting our website and welcome!

Tina in front of the Ashford Spinning wheels (this picture is also on the Ashford website)

Emmy, our German Angora doe

About the beginnings...

Kia Ora! My name is Kerstin Watson and I immigrated from Germany to New Zealand about 10 years ago. My husband is a Kiwi and I have 2 lovely daughters, Vivian and Elly, hence the Stud name of Vivelly. I have always been interested in rabbits, but especially in the Angoras. My first rabbit was a white Netherland Dwarf buck, called "Muckelchen" and he even went with me on the bike, he just loved to sit in the little basket in front of me and would stick his nose into the air, he was my best friend (I was known in the neighbourhood as "the girl with the white rabbit") and when he died of very old age (12 years) it was the saddest day for me. I then have had more Nethies and some Klein Widder (German Mini Lops) and later on German Angoras. My first encounter with the German Angoras was at my aunts house who kept them for her spinning. We kids would let them out of the hutch and they would run into the thicket and by the time we managed to pull them out of there, they were just full of sticks and leaves and we were grounded again. :-) I just never could resist them, so I was grounded often at her place....

Parsley,BOB winner at the Nationals 2009

I still remember the first time I visited a Rabbit Show here in Auckland, it was the Nationals and I enjoyed seeing the variety of breeds. Up to that point I didnt know that there is a Rabbit Council in New Zealand. When I saw the English Angoras at that same show my fate was sealed and I decided to have them again.

Sissi having a laugh...

Coco Chanel, my chocolate doe

I found out that there are only very few breeders of Angoras and the bloodlines are very limited. I had my heart set on German Angoras which were not available in NZ, so I looked over the ditch and found Christina and David in Sydney, who were willing to sell us 3 lovely German Angoras: Bijou, Crpl. Carter and Belle.

After mountains of paperwork they finally arrived at the airport and I will never forget the feeling of pulling these huge wooly mammoths out of the crate! They were beautiful! The Trio settled in very well and their strong personalities amused us ever since. 

Then in 2010 we were delighted to be able to purchase German Angoras from the only commercial German Angora Rabbitry "The Shearing Shed" run by Heather Kearins. These animals descent straight from the first imports made in 1982 from Germany. "The Shearing Shed" was a closed rabbitry for 20 years, now for the first time it is open to private Breeders to purchase stock. We are now at a healthy number with our animals and have sufficient bloodlines to avoid inbreeding. We decided to keep the Australian line separate and keep the "Shearing Shed" Angoras original.

Minnie, my smoke doe

During my efforts scourcing German Angoras I was browsing the trade me site and  I stumbled over an English Angora for sale, and I couldnt resist. That was our first English Angora, Casper from Angelas Bunny Hilton Rabbitry. He had the most lovely nature and he was the smoochiest rabbit I ever had! He had the sweetest temper. He was meant just to be a pet (which he always was), but I fell in love with this breed head over heels and decided to add them to our stud to breed and show.

Casper my first English Angora

And that was the start of our English Angoras. We then got more Angoras from Mistywood Rabbitry, a lilac buck called "Teddy", a lilac doe, called "Bluebelle" and a BEW buck called "Frankie goes to Hoppywood". After a long wait we finally got a REW doe named "Lady Lipstick" from Normas Star Travel Rabbitry. 

Our last addition was Westhaven Ralfie, who travelled up from Patea. A lovely Sooty Fawn buck, a very curious and adventerous little chap. And last but not least Westhaven Icarus arrived, a lovely REW buck.

We have come quite a way since then with being already in our 4th generation of homebred Vivelly bunnies.

Teddy as a baby

We breed to strict Standards as set by the Rabbit Council of New Zealand. Wool density, texture, fibre length, full facial furnishings, easy care coat and a lovely steady temperament as well as a robust health and good fertility are our aims to ideally combine in future English Angoras.

My husband, John is very helpful and spent endless weekends in his garage designing and building the "perfect Angora hutch". We are now down on prototype Nr. 4 and it is the ultimate hutch, hygenic and easy to clean!

We have now an amazing compost production site and our neighbours trade newspaper for our compost. Rabbit compost is good stuff for the garden, especially for the Roses! :-) Our rabbitry grows and I am getting busier. As we are showing our rabbits, grooming takes up a lot of time too. I  purchased a professional pet dryer 4 years ago to blow their coats and I dont want to look back. It makes things a lot easier.It has been an exciting 5 years and I thank all the breeders that helped me along the way. I have met very nice people and am a member of the committee of the Rabbit Council New Zealand for the fourth year. It is exciting to learn more about shows, breeds, their standards and especially the colour genetics I find very challenging. Meeting all the experienced overseas judges is a bonus too, being able to tap into the knowledge and getting opinions about our stock here is very precious.

I am now also a member of the Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand and the German Angora is now added to their site as an endangered Breed. Please check out our links and you will find their website, which is an interesting read, especially reg. rare breeds and their history in New Zealand.

I am looking forward to this years shows and future litters to come. It sure is a wonderful hobby.

I hope you will enjoy browsing our website and if you like please leave a message in our  guestbook! :-)

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