Raising any livestock produces ups and downs. In rabbits, your ups are your good show wins, great litters and flowing sales. The downs could be disease/illness, bottoming your classes, loosing litters and no empty cages.
Last year, I was on an up. 2009 has really bottomed out for me, granite, I have had some good wins, awsome litters and wonderful support, but I have reached an all-time low with the rabbits. I considered selling out at one point, but I decided to just keep it down to 10. That's really hard to do when no 'good' sales are arising. I love 4-H'ers and people who want pets, but I hate seeing great show/breeding stock wind up as 'dead-ends'. I like to go back to breeder-friends and have the ablility to purchase back offspring if I need to.
I've had a lot of interest, especially locally. But the follow through kills me. People are busy this summer, as am I, and I have no time to wait around. I have no choice but to make another cull list after I get home from Corvallis. I'm at 40 (9 babies), with 10+ culls (awesome stock, I just cant move them out) I want to keep about 7 or 8 for San Diego out of 10 (from the original 50). If I can keep it at 20, with the 7 or 8 for San Diego, I'll be the happiest person in the world.
I'm leaving for county fair in the morning. I'll be away from my computer for an entire week *yikes!*, so if you need to get ahold of me, just call. Maybe a week of camping with my 4-H kids will boost my spirits :)
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The boys!
HT3 - Chestnut "Matthew"
HT4 - Bkn Sable Chinchilla "Money Maker", FOR SALE?
MDD2 - Bkn Chinchilla "Alvin" - FOR SALE?
MDD3 - Bkn Chinchilla "Simon", FOR SALE?
MDD4 - Bkn Chestnut
OT5 - Bkn Steel - FOR SALE
OT6 - Bkn Sable Chinchilla - HOLD
OT7 - Steel FOR SALEThe girls!
OT3 - Bkn Steel - FOR SALE
OT2 - Bkn Steel 
OT1 - Bkn Steel - FOR SALE
OT4 - Steel
MDD1 - Bkn Chestnut - FOR SALE?
HT1 - Chestnut
HT2 - Bkn Chestnut
EMT - Bkn Sable Chinchilla 
KB1 - Bkn Sable Chinchilla - FOR SALE?
MM1 - Chocolate Chestnut - FOR SALE?
MM2 - Chocolate Chestnut 
KK1 - Blue Eyed White
Cool Weather = Picture Happy
The weather dropped to about 80-85* these last couple of days, so we were finally able to get some pictures! Heres to the beginning of some long picture blogs!
Melinda - she has settled in fine here, and is bred to Velotta's ReCurring Vision!
Kristie - doing great, and is bred to LHHR's Dominic!
Melinda - she has settled in fine here, and is bred to Velotta's ReCurring Vision!
Kristie - doing great, and is bred to LHHR's Dominic!Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Summer 09'
I don't think I've ever had my barn at a stand-still for so long! Other than the 33 babies and juniors running around, there no sales are arising and no shows to look forward to. I have 5 does I "need" to get bred, I managed to get one of them bred this morning so that's one thing to cross off my list.
I'm not worried about selling babies and juniors, those are easy to get rid of. It's the 13 seniors I'll need to rid of before I go back to college. Some of those I "really don't want to part with", but need to in order to keep on moving on.
On the positive side, Cris and Chestnut are due next week. Cris was bred to Chocolate for a colored litter. Where neither one of them are strong in type, they are decent and since I dont play with color much that's all I can expect. I don't really know what colors are possible... chocolate, lilacs and blues in self and steels I'm assuming. Chestnut was bred to Theodore, a complementary breeding, hopefully she'll have a good litter this time :)
It just seems like I was unpacking, and now I have started packing again for the move back up to Corvallis. My rent starts on August 1st, which is when the Benton County Fair ends, so I'll already have been "home" for a week anyways. Jobs aren't flowing here in southern oregon, so it's more likely I could find something up there. Furthermore, I have a bunch of stuff to do up there. It's also a lot cooler in Corvallis than it is here in the valley... luckily the rabbits have been managing; I am scared for the next two months, I will be especially busy, but I will be keeping on top of the rabbits nonetheless.
I have updated the website; all pages. I reorganized the bucks and does pages, mostly everything is for sale.... Juniors page won't be updated for a few more weeks atleast.
That's all... I'll update when our two does kindle next week.
I'm not worried about selling babies and juniors, those are easy to get rid of. It's the 13 seniors I'll need to rid of before I go back to college. Some of those I "really don't want to part with", but need to in order to keep on moving on.
On the positive side, Cris and Chestnut are due next week. Cris was bred to Chocolate for a colored litter. Where neither one of them are strong in type, they are decent and since I dont play with color much that's all I can expect. I don't really know what colors are possible... chocolate, lilacs and blues in self and steels I'm assuming. Chestnut was bred to Theodore, a complementary breeding, hopefully she'll have a good litter this time :)
It just seems like I was unpacking, and now I have started packing again for the move back up to Corvallis. My rent starts on August 1st, which is when the Benton County Fair ends, so I'll already have been "home" for a week anyways. Jobs aren't flowing here in southern oregon, so it's more likely I could find something up there. Furthermore, I have a bunch of stuff to do up there. It's also a lot cooler in Corvallis than it is here in the valley... luckily the rabbits have been managing; I am scared for the next two months, I will be especially busy, but I will be keeping on top of the rabbits nonetheless.
I have updated the website; all pages. I reorganized the bucks and does pages, mostly everything is for sale.... Juniors page won't be updated for a few more weeks atleast.
That's all... I'll update when our two does kindle next week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)