Well with our first true baby boom I have come to one conclusion. I am far too critical. I sit and nit pick every little detail of every rabbit. We have very high standards. We have read the posts from top breeders that explain, if you want to succeed with a small rabbitry you have to cull hard. So with that in mind we have culled for the traits we absolutely will not have in our rabbitry. So far we have yet to ever encounter any issues with teeth. (Now I have certainly jinxed us). We have culled for splits and will not do repeat breedings because we do not want this in our line and will never rebreed if we have this issue. Not saying everyone needs to do this, but this is the standards we have set. We have recently discovered we have fuzzy in our line. We will not repeat breed, nor use the fuzzy line in our breedings. I have read where top breeders are doing so successfully and that is great for them, however, we have set that standard for our rabbitry to not do so. We have spent the last 2 years studying and working with what we have to improve and I am hoping to do a great blog on it soon. Our line breeding was done specifically so that we can lock in some traits that we like, and know as much as possible about our line before moving on. All of our does have only produced 1-2 litters before moving on on being retired. Why? Because our goal was to produce something better than the dam. Not to breed the dam a million times as a pet factory. Our rabbits are not pez dispensers and I resent the rabbitries that are. They make me feel vile and hostile. Nothing disgusts me more than the breeders posting their adorable little babies for sale as show or breeding stock. I mentally curse them every single time I read their posts and envision flicking them in the forehead. Yes babies are cute. Yes babies are fun. Yes babies are rewarding for all the hard work. But enough already. There is a difference when you see breeders working to improve and possibly have to sell a few pets here and there to accomadate a mounding feed bill. But when you can clearly see people aren't keeping any from their litters it's a sure sign they have no intentions of bettering anything more than their wallet.
So now my rant of the week is over. As critical as I am of other peoples rabbits, I am twice as critical of ours. I have gotten rid of several potential herd bucks on a whim because I didn't like them that day. The cute guys still get happy lives on a farm so I don't feel bad about it, but at times, I wonder.. am I too critical? On a whim of being critical I listed two does as pets. Within a couple of days I canceled the listing. Now almost 2 weeks have passed and they are looking really really nice. Just in 2 weeks. Huge difference. Two weeks ago I was ready to throw in the towel on our Hollands until the Fall. I felt like our juniors were terrible and our line breeding was a huge waste of time. I felt defeated. Yesterday I pulled everyone out and looked again. Now I feel defeated in a different way. They are all looking so incredible that I don't know where I will put them all. Now it's more like, come on, can't one of you turn really ugly. But no, we have some nice thick limbs, nice wide shoulders, nice big round eyes, very full hq, shorter bodies than we have had in the past. It seems things are finally coming together! I'm not super excited that we have dilute locked in our lines but I am happy with so many other traits.
So in the midst of being in love with all our juniors today, I have also fallen in love with our one Fuzzy tort that we still have. I brush her almost every day and she is so sweet. Not like I need another pet... but I am afraid she is here to stay. Perhaps if a special home comes along later on down the road she can go stay there but for now she is staying.
I will be working on updating our website photos in the near future. It was on this weeks agenda, but burrrr. Not happening in this wind. I think if you are going to take the time to do a website you should also take the time to keep it current. The bucks I have on my site have changed so much since last year. Buddah has matured beautifully. Does are the hardest for me to keep current because when they are on a litter I hate pictures of them, then I never get around to it again. So that will be our new chore this spring.
So now my rant of the week is over. As critical as I am of other peoples rabbits, I am twice as critical of ours. I have gotten rid of several potential herd bucks on a whim because I didn't like them that day. The cute guys still get happy lives on a farm so I don't feel bad about it, but at times, I wonder.. am I too critical? On a whim of being critical I listed two does as pets. Within a couple of days I canceled the listing. Now almost 2 weeks have passed and they are looking really really nice. Just in 2 weeks. Huge difference. Two weeks ago I was ready to throw in the towel on our Hollands until the Fall. I felt like our juniors were terrible and our line breeding was a huge waste of time. I felt defeated. Yesterday I pulled everyone out and looked again. Now I feel defeated in a different way. They are all looking so incredible that I don't know where I will put them all. Now it's more like, come on, can't one of you turn really ugly. But no, we have some nice thick limbs, nice wide shoulders, nice big round eyes, very full hq, shorter bodies than we have had in the past. It seems things are finally coming together! I'm not super excited that we have dilute locked in our lines but I am happy with so many other traits.
So in the midst of being in love with all our juniors today, I have also fallen in love with our one Fuzzy tort that we still have. I brush her almost every day and she is so sweet. Not like I need another pet... but I am afraid she is here to stay. Perhaps if a special home comes along later on down the road she can go stay there but for now she is staying.
I will be working on updating our website photos in the near future. It was on this weeks agenda, but burrrr. Not happening in this wind. I think if you are going to take the time to do a website you should also take the time to keep it current. The bucks I have on my site have changed so much since last year. Buddah has matured beautifully. Does are the hardest for me to keep current because when they are on a litter I hate pictures of them, then I never get around to it again. So that will be our new chore this spring.
This Doe has reaffirmed what I thought about Fudge. Last year she produced a kit that I felt was the best we had produced. Sadly while on vacation she didn't fare so well. We don't breed often so waited a long time for her next litter and only had a singleton. Luckily she turned out gorgeous. Fudge is now our favorite doe.
Our cute Little Buddah. He is such a sturdy buck. He keeps growing but his weight stays at a constant 4 lbs. I love him!
Meet AceHops Glam. My favorite part about her? Her fuzzy little feet!
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