I need a new buck...

[3mina]

My herd buck is not well and my back up has given me exactly one litter so I'm needing to find a new buck. I have one castor buck from August who's eager but he's a) too small b) castor c) closely related to all my does. The last bothers me the least actually but combined with the first two....
My bucks, with one exception are castor and throw mostly castor, and they're on the small side. I'm wanting more and size in my herd.
So I'm in the market for a new buck.
My does are chin and blue otter. My question is what colour buck for these colour does? I only have room for one buck so which colour do I want? I'm not really worried about having unshowable colours, they just make it easier to decide who goes to freezer camp. I don't want brokens.

 

[Dood]

If size is your priority then any colour from a line of bucks that produce the biggest rabbits.

Try and find a Rex breeder who grows for meat and not just show, pet or fur and get a buck off them.

 

[3mina]

Everyone around here does mulituse.

Ok, so the colours I'm looking at the closest, blue, black (carrying either dilute or otter, I can one or the other).
Going on size only, I have a broken chocolate chin available. He's 11 pounds and, other than his colour, he's gorgeous. I don't *really* want brokens and chocolate chin is an unrecognized colour.

Decisions, decisions......

 

[Dood]

Unless your does carry chocolate you won't get any chocolate colored kits fron the choco chin buck. You will not get any otter kits but he will complement your chin does and only half the kits will be broken.he maybe a beef cake but make sure it runs in his family and he's not an anomaly.

The self bucks will continue your otter coloring but crossed with your chin's will give agouti/castor and no brokens.

 

[3mina]

One of my does littermates was a chocolate chin.
I'm not worried about him being an anomaly, the breeder has a very good reputation.
I'd be able to keep breeding this spring with this guy, with the selfs I'd have to wait til they grew up, they were born in November so they'd be barely old enough by March.

 

[Dood]

Then you may get chocolate chin's

 

[3mina]

Chocolate chins taste just fine

 

[skysthelimit]

If you don't want unshowable colors with the chin, then you don't want to breed that chin to anything else but chin and REW.

 

[caroline]

You could breed the chin to black and get if the chin carries self. You could also get chin if the black carries "c"

__________ Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:01 pm __________

I'm wanting more and size in my herd.
So I'm in the market for a new buck.

If I lived in Alberta, CA i would definitely be looking at this person's rabbits.I have corresponded with her and she sure has some beautiful Rex and a GREAT website. Very educational.
http://www.minkhollow.ca/MHF/doku.php?i ... x_standard

 

[3mina]

That's where I'm looking, the broken chocolate chin buck is the guy I was looking at. She also has a couple of litters on the ground, black, black otter. The blacks carry either otter or dilute
I spoke with her at the last show of the year last year, which is why I'm looking at her rabbits. She impresses me greatly.

 

[skysthelimit]

Blacks can't carry otter. Otter carries black, black and chin can produce martin, with is unshowable, but a lovely color. If you have a black that carries dilute, you will have more unshowable dilute chins.

I avoid mixing blacks with chins because the resulting blacks can carry chin, and spread that chin gene in my herd where I don't want it, messing up other colors. At least if the REW inherits the chin, it will be chin.

 

[3mina]

I reread the litter postings, one was black and black otter carrying chocolate the other was black and black otter carrying dilute. I'm not hugely worried about unshowable colours, they go straight to the freezer and I'm wanting to try my hand at tanning my own hides for a twined blanket.
I don't think I have any self carriers, in all the litters I've had so far I've had exactly ONE black kit and I had to cull it and the doe that litter came from.

 

[skysthelimit]

I reread the litter postings, one was black and black otter carrying chocolate the other was black and black otter carrying dilute. I'm not hugely worried about unshowable colours, they go straight to the freezer and I'm wanting to try my hand at tanning my own hides for a twined blanket.
I don't think I have any self carriers, in all the litters I've had so far I've had exactly ONE black kit and I had to cull it and the doe that litter came from.

Ok, just checking.
I had a broken castor doe with a chin x castor cross, and while they are both agouti, chin gene strips rufus away, so it does not have the correct modifiers for a castor program, so I had a broken castor doe throwing bad castors. Castors and Chins are one of those things I try really hard not to break the rules with, so if I sell my kits to others, I haven't caused them later problems.

 

[3mina]

Good to know, I'm thinking I'm going to stay with the chins but phase out the castors since they tend to be a lot smaller than the chins. With the otters, in a perfect world I'd need an otter buck correct?

 

[skysthelimit]

Interesting. My chins are the smallest of all of the Rex here.

Otters are fine with anything, except chin, unless you want martins. It's really hard to mess up an otter, unless there are not enough rufus mods and the tan is not a good rich color. I am breeding my otters to castors, blacks, blues, himi.

 

[3mina]

It figures the colours I like are mutually exclusive :roll:
I've decided I'm going to get two bucks, the broken chocolate chin and a black otter that carries dilute. The chocolate chin will jump start my size issue and the otter because I want more blue otters down the road. My plan all along has been to put the unshowable colours in the freezer, it makes deciding who to show much easier :lol:
So, now I just need to make a day trip down to Calgary in the very near future.

__________ Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:32 pm __________

I have a new junior buck coming! Yay! He's coming from Vancouver Island and he's exactly what I need, black otter carrying blue. Now I just need a senior to cover the bases till he grows up <br /><br />__________ Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:36 pm __________<br /><br />After much waiting, I'm going to pick up my new buck on Sunday. Ironically, I won't be picking up the chocolate chin buck, the breeder had a chocolate otter buck returned so I went for him instead. She messaged me the other day about whether I was still interested in the chin buck and mentioned the otter. I took a look at him on her sale page, he's got a good body type and he's gorgeous so i snapped him up. The chin buck is sold to someone else up my way so if things work out I might bring him up for the new owner, no point in both of us spending that amount of gas.

 

[MaggieJ]

Super! Hope he does great things for your line.

Ahem... we will, of course, require pictures once he has settled in.

 

[3mina]

I was planning on it with both boys.

 

[skysthelimit]

Nice Chocolate and blue(lilac too) otters are very lovely.

 

[3mina]

I'm hoping for some variety in my nestboxes now. Castor and chin are starting to get boring even if they are for meat.