December Holiday Post

20 Dec 2010 1 Comment

by mossypossum in Uncategorized

Okay, so I can’t help that I just am lazy when it comes to posting…. or that I’ve just been terribly busy??  Well, now the semester is over for us and we have off until around January 20th.  This weekend is Christmas, including a weekend trip to see family in Colorado, a few days later is New Year’s, and then on January 6th, we’re leaving for a big family vacation in Florida.  We plan on being home by about January 18 or 19th (hopefully!).  Giving special thanks to my parents for putting their lives on hold to come and take care of our rabbits (and cats, Ty and Booger).  Leaving for 2 weeks is exciting, but I always worry about the bunnies and their care and safety, now thankfully we have someone here to watch them, along side the dobe, Ty.

This chunk of time I won’t actually be here though has made us plan breedings a bit differently this winter.   We had to take 2 weeks off of breeding this month, so my mom doesn’t have to worry about nest boxes while we’re gone.  We get to start breeding again today!!! YAY!!  William has been doing breedings the past couple weeks to ensure the kids have hollands born all next month long for HL nationals.

As for so far in our winter litters, Gabby is of course having much better luck than we are, to no one’s surprise   It seems like her does are settling well and taking care of their litters in the cold weather.  Our mini rex does have been less cooperative, so hoping they take some lessons from the HLs, and get it in gear!

Gabby just weaned several very promising litters, and just put in boxes for many more yesterday.  There are a lot of torts, broken torts, broken blue torts, a one blue tort running around out there now.

The kids were able to get a group of rabbits from Rachel Roehe in AZ this winter which we are all really excited about.  So far two of the does are bred (for sure) and possibly another doe.  We are looking forward to seeing what they produce with the kids’ bucks.  Also here, is a tort senior buck Roehe’s Clyde, who is top weight, but a gorgeous massive buck with great bone.  We have some breedings planned for him the next round.

For mini rex, we have a lot of REWs and blacks out there we just weaned.  Some look really great, and have some promising fur coming in.  Hoping we get a little better numbers this next round.

I wanted to touch on a couple things this post that have come up, sometimes again and again.

First, we love for people to buy rabbits from us and show them and win!  We are like everyone else and keep our very best, but somtimes there comes a time when we have too many REW bucks, or too many broken holland bucks, and we just need to let a really good one go.   But our hopes is that the buyers use the rabbits they buy from us for the most impact on their herd, which in my mind means breed them!!!  Our hope is that we can impact someone’s herd, moreso than impact someone’s list of wins.

Which brings me to…..

My second point!  I think a lot of people get the wrong idea about how the kids have built a successful herd.  So I want to set a few things straight.  They do not have tons of money, so they do not spend a lot of money.  They are 7 (almost 8) and 14, they do not have several hundred dollars to spend on rabbits.  The most we’ve spent on the current herd is 150 for a rabbit, actually 2 rabbits, and neither of those as of yet have made a large impact on our herd.  The hollands that have made the biggest impact were less expensive.  We paid less than $100 for their major herd buck, Snowball, who has been the single biggest impact on their herds, mixing well with every bloodline we throw him on.  When we bought him, his ears stood up straight and he had no crown at almost 6 months old!  He was a brood buck!  Another couple does that have been major impacts on the kids’ herd are Bastet’s Stacy and Bastet’s Princessa, who are both brood does.  Princessa is over 5 lbs.  Both of these does were very reasonably priced and purchased from our friend Dawn Guth (thank you Dawn!).  Both have outproduced themselves and made a major impact, especially for does.  They are the moms of No Name, Juno, Meatball and Tori, as well as other grand champion offspring that we have sold.  Stacy has went on to another home to produce now, and we hope she makes just as large an impact on their herd.

Most rabbits we purchase are brood stock.  We feel the best buy is a proven brood doe or brood buck, and we keep to that philosophy.  We have bought many $50 or less does that have produced winners in our herd.  We will not spend outrageous money on junior stock.  We prefer not to buy show stock, of course wanting to win with our own.  Another example is Gabby bought Skye for $50, because she was an older brood doe.  She could not get pregnant, though we knew that was an option, and we don’t have regret about paying a high price.  Gabby just bought a $20 doe at state convention that was registered, with 2 legs, and came originally from Becky Brim.  The doe is beautiful and has a litter right now by No Name.

If you ask me why the herd is successful, spending money and buying rabbits are last on the list of reasons.  The kids have been breeding since 2005!  They have been breeding for 5 years!  They have linebred, they have picked up stock that worked well (some that didn’t), but the main thing they have done is BREED!!!! 

Okay, off my soapbox   My main advice especially if you are starting out, don’t buy to win… That’s it, take it for what it’s worth!

Everyone have a happy holidays!  Enjoy time with your family and friends (and hopefully your bunnies!).  While I’m off I will try and post again before class starts back up!

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