It's a laughable subject to me, of course; after 5 years of rescuing human aggressive roosters--huge ones, too-it's only fitting I wind up with a mean doe or two.
Well, Audra isn't really mean; she growls at you and that's the end of that. And she hardly even growls; it's more of a gruff grunt. She and Gale were from a good Jewish friend of ours that raises Alpine, Mini Alpine, and Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats up in Mineral Wells, West Virginia. Her and her family gave Audie and Gale to me along with all their treats, remaining feed, and water bottles, so I gladly obliged and hopefully await a litter out of the two New Zealands. Nova the Californian, however, will pin her ears back and charge at you. Grab her food bowl, she charges you to knock it out of your hand. She digs at you as you try to change her water bottle. She's not very fun for most people, being a 12 pound doe that growls and claws at you. I personally like her, though, and I like to think she likes me, even just a little. Nova was one of the Californian pair I bought from the 2018 fair last year. Atlas the buck is a little pushy, but he's pretty cool. And Nova was actually fine in the first two weeks after I brought her home. I bred her to Atlas and her mood changed. I thought she was pregnant and her crankiness just came from her pregnancy. Nope. Her crankiness came from her. In fact, I can't even get her bred! I personally think she absorbs the babies and puts them in her dewlap. I wouldn't be surprised! The funniest thing is that everybody who has raised both Calis and NZ have warned me NZ are the mean ones. Nope; my NZ just growls! It's my Cali that mauls! I have a healthy respect for all my rabbits, Nova included. Though she can be a royal pain sometimes and she's already chewed through every inch of the hutch she's in (to the point that she chewed a hole in the back wall and her boyfriend actually escaped through it one morning like she evicted him!), I really do like her. Like with the roosters, it's fun having an odd ball and being able to say you have a mean rabbit to the visitors. Its also really fun to see them avoid the mean animal like the plague when it comes around the corner.
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I recently noticed most of the pictures I had of all the rabbits were pretty out of date. Most as in all. I also noticed it was time to do nails. On all 24 rabbits. We live in WV, and of course it's cold and muddy and unfavorable to be outside right now, making tasks a struggle and the sunless, rain filled sky making photos dreary and just impossible to take. So bringing in a couple does for a session with Orion, I noticed their nails were in need of a trim and they had a couple tiny knots of wool in their manes. So i decide to trim them while they're inside. I then go ahead, set up a backdrop of towels, and take a couple of pictures. Walla; the nightly photo shoot and trim was born at BSAR. We've been busy with farm calls the last few days, so I've mainly been doing everything after dark (which is at 5 PM now. *wistful sigh*). Last night, I did up Sirius (above picture) and took a picture of him to brand and a few more for the archives. He ended up spending the night chilling inside and hanging out in my lap on the recliner like he was Orion. I also did up his father, Angus, and his half siblings Crow and Nova (below). So i decided this supermodel/manny-peddy thing would be a good idea after all. A quick nail trim turned into a great picture taking opportunity and a nice time to bond with the rabbits without freezing my hiney off out in the rain and mud. I just dread bringing in cranky Nova the Californian doe for a trim, man. She's going to be real fun! Maybe she'll have to spend the night in, too, in my bed, even. It might help her attitude out LOL. She might maul anybody that tries to tickle me in my sleep, too! This is only our second winter in operation, I know. I didn't think raising rabbits would be easy, but I also didn't expect it to be this hard.
We entered into our first year doing fabulously. Does would take on their first breeding, they'd throw 3 does and two bucks every time, sales were fantastic! And now, we've more or less farted out into nothingness. I've bred these Lionhead/NZ cross does four times since September, and nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'm having issues breeding everybody now, even the does that took at first breeding this time last year. I even had a virgin two year old take and have twin bucks! But now, I don't think there's a doe in the herd I haven't bred less than 3 times since the end of fall last year. Spring sell kits and fall meat kits, I said. It'd be fun, I said. And now it's looking like not only no fall kits, but no spring kits, either. And you wonder why i'm losing hope? Don't get me wrong; I love these rabbits. I might give up breeding and might consider letting a couple buns go to pet or breeder homes, but there's a handful I'll keep indefinitely. But I really am considering hanging this up until I get a car, a job, and my own house to make everything easier on both the rabbits and I. I'd like to get a nice Amish-built barn to put my stock in, with a heater and an A/C unit. I'd like to do some ground hutches and runs, but I can't do that because my mom's dog will kill everything like she did Sandstorm, so that's totally out of the question. I'd like to build better hutches and runs, another thing I can't do right now because i'm living with my parents on my mom's farm, so i'm really limited even now. I can't really build much and I really can't build anything where I actually want to to make it easier for my animals and I because those places are already "taken" (okay, so there isn't any real plans for these places yet, as projects can take years to get done around here :-/ but yet they're still taken, so.) I'd like to make a really kicking chicken coop, or at least one that isn't outdated, leaky, and tacky as poop. I'd also like to make a coop for rescue birds to keep the roosters separate. I'd like to keep my dog indoors, and my rabbit in my room, and not have to answer to anybody (besides my boss and my farm of bosses, LOL), and to drive a nice little car I'll actually do the maintenance on and have a dang garage for! A decent job would be great so I can feed higher dollar feed to my animals, too. 18% feed for everybody! Wooo! And all of this will probably only happen if I hang it up for now and work with what I can. There's no point in watching out for a herd liquidation. Most of these animals have had 2 previous owners before me alone. I really think 3 owners is enough for anything, be it a car, animal, house, whatever. I'll sell what I currently have for sale and let nature do the rest. I'll keep everything until it passes. I was about done with the birds anyways; predators have me run ragged, waiting on a new coop for a year now has me aggravated and it seems like I'll be the one building it anyhow. Of course, if breeding picks back up and all gets better for me, I'll call off the shut down. Right now, I just don't know how much more I can take. I have these dreams of getting top notch stock, but I have doubts of anything selling, because if I can't even sell these happy, cute pet quality kits at $15, I'm not sure what tells me higher priced stock at $50+ will sell. I guess it's my area, because nobody else around here seem to be selling rabbits well, either. I guess it could be these big, corporate feed stores selling their cross bred rabbits at $12 and killing our profits, because another rabbitry with better stock than ours came to the last Ohio swap, parked right next to us, and didn't sell a thing, either. Maybe that will improve with a break, too. Maybe people don't take me seriously because I'm a teen girl trying to run a farm. Whatever it is, I wish it would wear off already! Either way, continue to follow us to stay informed about future decisions. Maybe even a short break will improve things. So I've finally decided to sell out of pet crosses and go purely into Lionheads, New Zealands, Californians, and New Zealand/Lionhead crosses because they have really nice meat potential in a relatively small frame. I decided against Flemish Giants after my big buck, Sandstorm, was killed by my mom's dog late summer of 2018 before I could even find him a mate. It looks like Californians will be my biggest breed for now until I feel like Flems again. Anyways, here I am, starting out 2019, patiently waiting on my only Lionhead buck to figure out what in the heck he's supposed to do with these does. He has so far, had no successful matings or fall offs and this is his fourth doe i've exposed him to! In fact, as I write this, i hear him stomping around his cage with his date. Still no success. Now I've decided to find me a better buck. Go figure now that i'm finally ready to breed these four REW Lionheads, my only REW buck dies of sudden illness and forces me to resort to my backup buck, Orion, Now, Orion is over a year old, and he's a very pretty silver marten (though not a recognized color in the LH world!) He's lovable and kind... that is, to his owner. The does he will get aggravated at and bite when things don't happen soon enough. Luckily, I was planning on a new buck anyways, as the only thing the REW buck I just lost had going for him was that he was, well, REW like my does. I was never really impressed with his conformation or mane, or even his attitude. It's still frustrating that I lost him to something I still don't know what it was and that he died before I could even breed him to anything! If Orion keeps it up, it looks like i'll be breeding these four to one of my LH/NZ cross bucks until I get my next PB Lionhead that does know how to breed! So stay tuned for the next update! (No, Orion will not be going anywhere; he's the house pet and I swear he thinks he's a human!) |
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