Anyone Else at 10 or fewer holes? Ideas? Success at Showing?

I rent and can have my rabbits at my house (or at my urban farms but I prefer to keep them close). I have ten holes and am breeding Dwarf Hotots for show. When I was a youth ARBA member I think I had about 100+ holes so this is a BIG change in strategy for me.

Question: Anyone else breeding for high quality show rabbits in ten holes or less? I might go up to 15 but that is the absolute max.

Question #2: What strategies other than heavy culling do you attribute to your success? I have a high quality trio to start with and am thinking smart line breeding may help. Any ideas, stories, or suggestions?

Culling heavily will be easy because there is a huge 4-H market in the area as well as a pet market, I live in the city. Planning on keeping one of each litter, maybe three total. What long term strategies do small rabbitry folks swear by?

Thanks!

I have 11 holes total and raise Rex - two bucks and 5 does in my herd. I don't show but my goal is to produce high quality animals.

I started with some quality animals (from OAF & MSD) and think I've improved them over the last three years.

I cull relentlessly ... and am highly selective in which animals I pair together. The animals have to compliment each other.

I'd do things much the same way if I had a hundred holes .... I think the only difference being that with such limited space you have to make decisions on who to keep early on rather than being able to grow out a few others that may mature later.


Keep the best .... eat the rest.

I now have only 7 Doe and two Bucks.
In the early days I kept way too many Rabbits! But I had help:
Both my Daughter and Wife had their own breeds of Rabbits they worked with.
I have always only had Satin's. They are still my only and favorite breed.
I would suggest that you retain the very best Two Does and One Buck
from each breeding. The Rabbit is made in the nestbox, so don't overthink and toss
the baby out with the bathwater. Rabbits go through a gangly period, the teen years you might say.
Give them a chance and if they looked Great as weanlings they often come back as they mature.
I don't breed for Show any more but I continue to breed toward the standard.
Best of luck with your breeding program! We all need a little luck as you never know
when that extra, EXTRA Special Rabbit will make an appearance!
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

I agree. Quality Is not dictated by quantity, same rules apply. When I had 3, it was the same as having 25, And the same as having a hundred. The biggest difference, Is having room to hang on to things longer, which is sometimes a downfall.Breed the best, call dressed always. Don't keep anything that is not as good as or better than the parents.

I have a limit of 10 cages ( probably gonna have to get more if I want to have room to complete my idea though)
At the moment I have 3 bucks, 9 does and 10 youngesters. I've finally ( it seems like at least ) got enough parts together to start get some good rabbits. I also have a couple rabbits I want to line breed back to two of my favorite Hollands, so we'll see how it goes.

My biggest problem (and has always been it) is not enough room to grow out babies to see who's good. I've sold kits in the past that I REALLY wish I hadn't.
So my biggest recommendation is HAVE ROOM TO KEEP KITS! I think that is the make-or-break of small rabbitries. Because if you keep selling the kits, you'll never know what you get I learned that the hard way.

I actually kept a doe this past summer that was not a looker as a young bun, but not at 5-6 months old, she's really nice and places well at shows. Goes to show that you never know what you'll get. This girl was especially special because her sire was my favorite Holland and he died this past summer as well.

And PLAN. I'm finally getting this as well (guess I have a hard head ) Go through your rabbits. List each one's faults and their good qualities. Then make a list of best to worst. Plan which rabbits would best complement each other I'm doing this and think it's really going to help my rabbit quality come up.

CanadianWinter":1wswl5fj said:

My biggest problem (and has always been it) is not enough room to grow out babies to see who's good. I've sold kits in the past that I REALLY wish I hadn't.
So my biggest recommendation is HAVE ROOM TO KEEP KITS! I think that is the make-or-break of small rabbitries. Because if you keep selling the kits, you'll never know what you get I learned that the hard way.

Click to expand...

Since my goals are meat & hides I grow them to a good size to begin with , generally about 16 weeks. Rex just take a little longer since they put so many resources into their fur.
To accommodate my needs in growing out rather long term , I built a large two hole grow out pen which allows me to separate by sex and grow to ~16 weeks without much trouble. There have been a few times I've stuffed 3-4 litters in that pen without any issues (so long as they are close in age).

For the most part I get to see them at near adult size ... I know by then if there are any keepers.

I like the two grow out cage idea. I'm breeding both does at the same time each time in case I have to foster so they'd be the same size and I can sort them by sex. A tattoo pen dot in the ear of one litter will help me keep track for pedigrees I think...

I think I'll be able to cull pretty early (8 weeks) because the breed produces a lot of mismarks and charlies, sports, etc. You can see the stray black spots on the white skin from day one and they are pretty much all noticeable by day 10, especially those tricky tail spots.

Anyone line breeding? I think I saw that mentioned. I want to be able to do a bit of that and then move my foundation stock out once I get three or four generations deep. (I'm on #1 now for one litter, #3 for the other.) That way I get to breed back once or twice to related lines and then outcross. I really want to get my own line started and I have excellent foundation stock, and have a couple of breeders with unrelated herds who are sending a buck each my way early next year.


Thanks for the ideas! Keep 'em coming!

Anna

I'm line breeding the harlequins.
When I decide to bring in new blood, it will still be related blood. I was advised to keep the lines genetically close.
I really trust the breeder who got me started. Her rabbitry is much larger than mine, and she had placed well in state and national level shows. Plus, she super nice.

Which leads me towards the next bit of advice for small rabbitrys:
If you can, find another breeder you can work towards the same goals with!!!!

I am breeding towards show standard with the goal of maintaining all the good traits my buns started with.
The girl who sold me my starter stock has given me lots of advice and still helps me pick the best kits from my litters.
In other words, I can follow her leadership (since she's definitely more experienced in breeding towards show standards) and I can improve my lines from her larger herd as needed.

This makes working with a small rabbitry MUCH easier, AND it can be helpful for the larger rabbitry, since who knows, maybe my(our) lines will produce something she can use someday too.

I also like having two large growout pens.

My boy growout pen is too small, I've got 4 3lb bunnies in a 24x36; there are tufts of fur in the dropping pan. I have nowhere else to put them and no extra cages. They're 10 weeks. Suggestions???

EnglishSpot":1pmnh7fm said:

My boy growout pen is too small, I've got 4 3lb bunnies in a 24x36; there are tufts of fur in the dropping pan. I have nowhere else to put them and no extra cages. They're 10 weeks. Suggestions???

Click to expand...

Sounds like you are between a rock & a hard place. You either new to add more or a larger pen or somehow reduce the numbers .... sales or culling ?

Check craigslist for cheap solutions to the housing problem ?

I'm thinking I'm going to cull my one NZR jr buck, and that would open up a 24x24. I could stick one or two in there.

I've posted the ads for these babies this past week, but no buyers yet. The girls are still in with their mom and they're okay so far.