I know as you read this title, you were thinking I was going a bit crazy posting about a dance company on my rabbitry blog. I promise, it will tie into this post soon. As I was speaking with a friend of mine earlier today, who has nearly the same values as a responsible breeder as I do, a situation came up in our conversation. She mentioned how frustrated it makes her feel and how frequently it takes place as she is speaking with new breeders. This situation, ladies and gentlemen, is absolutely one of the most frustrating things I have come across today as a breeder, myself.
Allow me to tell you a story...
Once upon a time, there was a woman named Lori. She came across an interesting world which she discovered was the result by a somewhat large association called the American Rabbit Breeders Association. She immediately fell in love with the idea of raising bunnies from her home and eventually filling the show tables with winners. She decided on an exquisite breed that fit her personality. She purchased five animals from a breeder in her area; three does, two bucks. She immediately stamped "
foundation" on the five new animals. I mean, they were from a reputable breeder, right? They must have perfect genetics and each will produce winners which means they'd make the perfect foundation.
She began breeding immediately, due to her anticipation and excitement of having baby bunnies frolicking in her small shed beside the garden. A month later, she had many tiny babies wiggling around the nest box in their mother's pulled fur. Each of the moms kindled without a problem and pulled an abundance of fur for their babies. A rare occurrence in the rabbit world, Lori had heard. The babies grew up being loved each and every day. All twelve of them had unique personalities and Lori loved each and every one! As time went on however, she began to notice things about the babies who were now weaned and living in two cages, split up with bucks in the first cage and does in the second cage. She had been teaching these babies to pose and noticed that while three of these babies were excellent, natural posers and displayed traits that their parents' breeder had pointed out as desirable, many of them did not. Quickly, she made the tough decision to sell the nine babies that were not displaying desirable traits as pets. It was a few days after Christmas so the sales had picked up and Lori was able to sell all nine babies within two weeks!
She was left with three nice looking little juniors. She had one buck and two does. The buck was out of her herd buck, Tank, and her brood doe, Abby. The two does were out of Tank and her older brood doe, Pippet. The breeder whom she had previously purchased her foundation from had instructed her to grow all three babies out for a while and make sure they were what she wanted. Lori grew them all out and decided that she loved all three still even as they had filled out into young, six month old seniors. She concluded that she had raised a show buck, show doe, and a nice brood doe. She named the buck, FDR, the show doe, Italy, and the brood doe, Lucy. (This next part might be difficult to follow)
She decided to breed Italy and Lucy to the herd buck who she hadn't used yet, Brutis. They each kindled and raised what appeared to be beautiful young juniors! She also bred FDR to all 3 of her original does. Pippet, the mother of the two homebred does that Lori was now breeding, produced decent babies but nothing like what Lori had seen in her first litter. She decided to sell the entire litter after weaning. Abby produced a little show doe that appeared much like Tank, the grand sire. The third doe that FDR was bred to who hadn't produced anything worth keeping in her first litter, yet again produced a litter of culls. This doe was part of Lori's foundation though. Surely the breeder wouldn't have sold her a doe that wouldn't work well with her bucks...
Lori decided to try the doe with her last buck, Brutis, and see if she could produce something nice with this cross. Unfortunately, the same outcome became of this cross. The third doe hadn't produced well with any of Lori's bucks. However, to Lori, this doe was still valuable because the doe had been sold to her as foundation and she hoped that eventually she would produce something worth keeping with the doe using her three bucks or possibly she would eventually acquire a new buck that would cross well with this doe. She Lori kept the third doe and continued breeding her to her three bucks with no success.
After Italy and Lucy had raised their first litters, Lori found that they each had produced a litter of four with 2 pets, 1 brood, and 1 show bunny. She sold the pets and kept Italy's brood doe and Lucy's show doe. The remaining brood and show doe were sold to new breeders.
Lori bred Italy and Lucy to their half brother, FDR. Again, each doe produced wonderfully. Lori was now faced with a new problem. As a new breeder, she had 12 cages and no space to add more for the next 4 months. She currently had 11 rabbits, each taking up a hole, and 12 babies with their moms. This left her with 1 empty hole and 12 babies soon to be weaned and in need of cage space. It was obvious that she had the make some tough cuts. She consulted the expertise of the breeder whom had gotten her started and asked who she would cull from the herd (sell) to allow her some cage space and to keep her moving forward and improving. The breeder replied with the following:
"Lori,
Congratulations on producing so many beautiful animals! You've come a long way since we last spoke! If that were my herd, I would sell Tank, Abby, Pippet, and the third doe. I'd wait until Italy and Lucy's daughters are producing and then I may sell Italy and Lucy as well if their daughters produce successfully. The reason that I feel you should sell these particular animals is that Tank is a brood buck. He is pinched in the HQ, a bit longer in the shoulder, and his ears are a bit long. He produced 3 beautiful offspring for you, including a buck who should have replaced him a while ago, and all 3 are producing better! He wasn't quite a foundation animal, he was a brood animal but I'm glad he was able to produce so well for you being that he was a brood buck! Abby should be sold because she produced your new homebred buck and a show doe that you kept. They're both better than her so why would you hold onto her? Pippet should be sold because while she did produce Italy and Lucy who are now producing beautiful litters which should be reason alone, to have sold her a while ago, she has stopped producing well which could be due to age. Some does cease to produce quality babies as they become older. The third doe needs to be sold as well. While I'm happy that you tried her with all three bucks, I'm a little disappointed that you kept her and continued breeding her to the bucks after she continually produced pets with each breeding. I would have sold her months ago. There is no sense in keeping an animal that can't produce anything better than itself and keep you moving forward in your program. I'd consider selling Italy and Lucy soon as well because if they produced daughters better than themselves who are in turn, producing better than themselves, why keep Lucy and Italy if you're ahead of their quality by 1-2 generations? Keeping animals who have produced and are now inferior to your latest homebreds only fills your cage space, holds back improvement, and holds you at a standstill. Sell them, and now the average in your barn is your best. Breed your best together and you'll hopefully produce ever better. This is how this hobby works!!
I hope to hear from you soon. Good luck!
~The Experienced Breeder"
Lori was appalled at the thought of selling 4/5 of her previously thought of as "foundation" animals. Why would someone sell their first few animals? What happened to line breeding? She couldn't sell the 4 animals that had produced so well for her! Didn't she owe it to those animals to keep them in her loving home until the day they died for their contribution to her success in getting started? Lori loved her first animals whom she had grown attached to over the time she had kept them. They each unconsciously became her pets.
OKAY! Back to reality. Yes, that was a long, complicated story. Now, let's look at this from a "Lanae Perspective". (Btw, for all my new readers, my name is Lanae. Nice to meet you too. ;-)...) Can I just say that this is probably one of the most common and frustrating things I encounter after a while of mentoring someone? I honestly just want to clasp their face in my hands and calmly....ever so calmly.... state that every rabbit purchased or born in their barn is meant to be sold quite soon down the road no matter how gorgeous the animal is. Your best animal will soon become your worst. There is no escaping that. Of course, unless you have no idea what to look for in your preferred breed. Then odds are, even your "foundation" animals are pets to be put quite frankly.
You MUST sell each animal after it produces something better than itself. Especially if that new, produced animal is the same sex as it's parent. If a doe produces a new, beautiful junior doe, the mother is sold. Occasionally I'll keep a doe to produce one more daughter if I really like her genetics or I won't be able to purchase anything new for a while. I do however, love to keep does on occasion after they produce a super nice baby of one sex, and hopefully produce a similarly nice baby of hers of the opposite sex. Then I am usually fully ready to sell the doe. However, the sad truth is that most lines either produce nice bucks and mediocre does or they produce nice does and mediocre bucks. It's very rare to be able to produce a nice buck and a similarly nice doe from the exact same lines. That is why I've only been able to successfully do this 2-3 times in my years of raising rabbits.
I believe that you must continually sell your animals to improve. Your first few animals will eventually become pets compared to what you are producing a few years down the road. I recommend that you attempt line breeding if you feel that the original animal is nearly perfect according to the standard, as line breeding will produce something similar to that animal. However, it doesn't always work so I won't guarantee it. Also, I do not allow myself to use emotions to hold onto an animal. You do not owe it to your animals to hold onto them for 5-10 years in your breeding environment. You owe it to them to place them in a loving home and move on in your program while they live out the rest of their lives as a spoiled pet. Don't think for a second that you con hold onto all of the animals that you produce and take a liking to for even 6 months, let alone 10 or so years! You'll become over-run within the first round of breeding. This is where the importance of constant improvement and culling comes into play.
Now, how did this title have anything to do with this? Experienced breeders seem to have a different mentality than the new breeders. It's like the Abby Lee Dance Company (off of Dance Moms) where "Everyone is Replaceable!" Lol! In most barns, if an animal of any species can't/won't earn it's keep, then it's removed from the barn! Simple as that.
Anyways, thanks for reading this long, frank, and somewhat harsh post!
