How do yall organize the rabbitry

[golden rabbitry]

So I plan out my entire year for litters and breeding and everything. I think I'm making it to complicated by planing a year ahead and marking everything down for each rabbit but is this just how we do it? How do you all sort which rabbits to breed to who when and not go crazy?

 

[Zass]

Completely honestly?

When a doe gives me that "I wanna breed" look, I just pop her in with whatever buck I had previously picked out for her. Usually the "plan" is just in my thoughts, I can't remember the last time I had a breeding plan on paper. If she accepts the buck, I write it on my calendar.
If she doesn't lift for him, she still gets a nestbox in 28 days cause I've seen seemingly unsuccessful breedings produce kits.

Consider what I'm breeding, and why though.
Harlis are bred for a marking pattern that can be notoriously random, with much less focus on type.
Producing meat for my family is actually my primary focus.
I don't need to produce kits intensively, as I have more than enough working does to keep my freezer full.
(It doesn't take very many.)
I still have a small rabbitry, and good memory for what rabbits I have, who they are out of, and related to.

A casual breeding rate based around what the rabbit is telling me is fine, I just keep an eye on them to prevent them from getting fat. (3-4 times a year is good.)
Random experimental breedings are a good for me, and it's no harm to try a doe with any suitable buck in the rabbitry just to "see what she throws." If she doesn't get bred to a buck I'd like to see kits with this time, she will next time.

And lastly, I live too far out from any shows to make a point of breeding for them, as I can't generally predict if I'll be able to attend that far in advance.

I save the old calendars to have a record of who was bred to whom and when.

If I lived where I could be sure to be able to attend shows, I think I would have a schedule to make sure I had juniors I could bring.

I think, if I had more rabbits, I'd want to keep track of their ages more carefully too.

 

[hotzcatz]

How can you plan out an entire year when you don't know what will show up in the litters? Don't they get factored into the plan?

Before breeding, I'll check over the database and see who's inbred to whom and check color genetics depending on what color I need in the herd for yarn production. (They're angoras and make fiber for Hula Bunny yarn) Then I go out and check the bunnies to see if they're healthy and make notes on wool, conformation, etc.

I'll have a list of which bucks should be with the doe and I'll start at the top of the list and just keep doing down the list if the doe doesn't like the first one.

As the litters get older, I'll pick the ones I want and sell the rest then start over. There's been a lot of demand for rabbits this year, so even though there's three possible liters in mid-September, I may breed one or two more for the first of October.

I also have a chart noting how inbred each doe is to each buck. That way I can take it with me out to the bunnies and when looking at them decide if two of them would be a good pairing and then check the paper to see if they'd be inbred. I'm working with some pretty limited genetics and not much opportunity to get more.

 

[golden rabbitry]

I have a small amount of rabbits so it's easy to plan, I only keep one or two babies so I plan for good times to sell, avoid heat, ect. So my calendar is planned to match up with Easter & Christmas. No litters over summer so plan everything to be weened and sold off by june. It's probably way overplanned but I am the person who will pay for a bombproof system. It's really helpful so I don't have to plan during semesters and can just follow what past me said to do.

 

[hotzcatz]

Generally, if I watch the calendar at all, I make sure there aren't any available at Christmas and Easter, especially at Easter. Folk who stick a young bunny in a basket of sugar and then hand them both to a young kid are just gonna end up with a dead rabbit and a screaming child bouncing off the ceiling. If I was gonna sell any at Easter, I'd also give them a recipe for hasenpfeffer. Not sure if they'd want another rabbit after a sugar infused child/rabbit mashup so it may not improve sales of rabbits over the long term. Maybe things are different in your area, though.

If I have young bunnies available around Easter, I'll let them know that the bunnies will be old enough to go to new homes the Tuesday after Easter, if they still want the bunny at that time, then they actually want the bunny and not a prop for basket. The kid would probably prefer a chocolate Easter bunny anyway.

 

[golden rabbitry]

Ya it's very different here, alot of down to earth people and no crazy kids parents would want to buy from me. I've been selling for a few years and only once had an issue with a kid and the parents didn't end up buying from me. I make sure that not just anyone can buy a rabbit so it's impossible to impulse buy a rabbit. Ironically the majority of people who buy on holidays had a bunny as a kid and miss it so they get another in their adult years, it's really sweet and they normally tell stories about their old rabbit.

 

[Zass]

Generally, if I watch the calendar at all, I make sure there aren't any available at Christmas and Easter, especially at Easter.

I was going to say the same!

Though random people don't usually bother me asking about rabbits before christmas like they do before easter.
(I very very rarely advertise at any point of the year.)

I suppose whether it's an issue or not just depends on the culture of your area.
This area seems to have a strong culture of rabbits being used as disposable toys for kids, and way too many people who will let them go outside when they get bored. :evil:

 

[golden rabbitry]

I've only had one rescue who was found on the streets after easter, so it does happen.... Yet Planning around these dates has never given me a problem with customer quality

 

[hotzcatz]

Sounds like it's all good, then!

Have you done things differently this year? I've got more litters than usual and they're bigger litters and yet there's still not enough bunnies for the folks asking for them.

 

[golden rabbitry]

I have actually, I sold my breeding doe back in december since she miscarried 50% of the pregnancies and I was searching for a good fit for 6 months. I found a perfect blue tort and snatched her up. She was pregnant when I got her and didn't know so had back to back litters. The timing was actually working out and I was able to get back on the plan for litters to time everything. I always make a plan a year ahead and work backwards so I can make changes and still get the same results as planned

 

[Preitler]

Well, my 2020 plan was to breed both my active breeding does once in spring, and be done by now.

So much for plans, new buck is an escape artist, didn't manage to finish the new hutch to replace the old one that starts to fall apart, so both girls had their 3rd litters 6 weeks ago, wading knee deep in baby bunnies I'll have to feed for much longer than I planned...

Almost impossible to sell rabbits here, but at least I have a customer who takes all excess kits at 8 weeks, no real money in that but at least I get rid of them.

 

[golden rabbitry]

So how does it go with pairing? I only have 4 that I breed so colors are limited. I take it it's rather fun to play around with colors and see what you get. How does all that get planned? Do you try and work out the possibilities beforehand or just jump in?

 

[hotzcatz]

I absolutely breed for certain colors. The herd here produces fiber for Hula Bunny yarn which has three 'standard' colors, so I need to keep a certain number of bunnies providing fiber for all three colors of yarn. There's no dye in the yarn, the color of the bunny is what colors the yarn.

At the moment, there's five to seven breedable does here. Some are too old, some I don't want to breed, but there's five that I do want bred. There's one six month old doe who could also be bred. At the moment, four of the five are bred and there's two that have litters who will possibly be bred in another few weeks. Depends on what shows up in the litters later this week. Two litters due on Friday, one on Sunday, the last of the four bred does was just bred today, so her litter isn't due until October.

Here's the upcoming litters and my guess at the possible colors, if you want to try to guess them, pop right in!

1. Ceasar (black tort) x Daisy (REW) = black and choc torts, REWs
aa Bb Cc D_ ee & aa _b cc __ _e

2. Ceasar (black tort) x Camellia (REW) = half REWs and ???
aa Bb Cc D_ ee & __ __ cc __ __

3. Ceasar (black tort) x Rose (black) = blacks, black torts, REWs
aa Bb Cc D_ ee & aa B_ Cc Dd Ee

4. DaffyDill (black tort) x Lotus (black) = Blacks, black torts, choc & choc tort possible
aa Bb Cc D_ ee x aa Bb C_ Dd Ee

I may also breed Phineas Phogge (lilac buck) to Vivian (black tort doe) = half REWs and ????
aa bb Cc dd E_ & aa B_ Cc D_ ee

 

[golden rabbitry]

how does it go for people organizing for shows? how do you ensure everything goes as plsnned?

 

[hotzcatz]

I dunno as if it's possible to actually ensure everything goes as planned when prepping for a show! There's planning and then there's what actually happens. About all you can do is imagine everything that can happen and have something already planned out for if that event occurs.

Are there any actual upcoming shows, what with this being a Time of Covid?

 

[golden rabbitry]

up here yes. Covid hit cali back in November and everyone was sent home with a "really bad flu" so no one actually got sick. We shut down sorta and shows are back on

 

[hotzcatz]

I absolutely breed for certain colors. The herd here produces fiber for Hula Bunny yarn which has three 'standard' colors, so I need to keep a certain number of bunnies providing fiber for all three colors of yarn. There's no dye in the yarn, the color of the bunny is what colors the yarn.

At the moment, there's five to seven breedable does here. Some are too old, some I don't want to breed, but there's five that I do want bred. There's one six month old doe who could also be bred. At the moment, four of the five are bred and there's two that have litters who will possibly be bred in another few weeks. Depends on what shows up in the litters later this week. Two litters due on Friday, one on Sunday, the last of the four bred does was just bred today, so her litter isn't due until October.

Here's the upcoming litters and my guess at the possible colors, if you want to try to guess them, pop right in!

1. Ceasar (black tort) x Daisy (REW) = black and choc torts, REWs
aa Bb Cc D_ ee & aa _b cc __ _e

2. Ceasar (black tort) x Camellia (REW) = half REWs and ???
aa Bb Cc D_ ee & __ __ cc __ __

3. Ceasar (black tort) x Rose (black) = blacks, black torts, REWs
aa Bb Cc D_ ee & aa B_ Cc Dd Ee

4. DaffyDill (black tort) x Lotus (black) = Blacks, black torts, choc & choc tort possible
aa Bb Cc D_ ee x aa Bb C_ Dd Ee

I may also breed Phineas Phogge (lilac buck) to Vivian (black tort doe) = half REWs and ????
aa bb Cc dd E_ & aa B_ Cc D_ ee

I'm kinda answering my own post, but now it's later and we can see how well 'planning' works out when there's bunnies involved.

Litter #1 - Daisy had seven babies, five REW (albino), one black and one tortoiseshell. I'll have to look, that may be a black tort?
Litter #2 - no show. I'd not seen the breeding, but expected they'd managed to mate when I wasn't looking, but I guess not.
Litter #3 - Rose had a litter of 11, although lost one REW at about one day old. Five blacks, three REW and three torts. Some nice depth of color on the torts, I'll probably keep two of them - not that I need more torts.
Litter #4 - not due until this Friday.

Still haven't bred any other does yet. Vivian didn't want to have anything to do with Hadrian and he wasn't particularly interested in her, either. Which is kinda typical for this time of year, the bunnies just don't seem to be 'in the mood' all the time during this part of the year.

So, even with all the planning, things still work out differently.

 

[ladysown]

I never plan that far ahead, I literally go every two weeks.

I do my best to plan who goes with whom, but sometimes my does have other ideas in mind.
For instance.. my PLAN was to put a young tricolour in with my tricolour buck. I wanted that big head and brilliant colours. She would have NOTHING to do with him. But my sable point buck... she was making all kissing face with him through the wire, and so... we had odd coloured kits as the result. GAH. What do you do eh?

Sometimes getting a young doe breeding is more important than colour schemes.

 

[golden rabbitry]

So how do you get rid of rabbits that aren't what you want to breed into your rabbitry? For instance rabbits that aren't good for meat and/or have emotional attachments but are too old to rehome