Culling

I have been told I cull too hard. I dont think you CAN cull too hard. The whole purpose of breeding at all is to improve your animals. If you arent improving then something needs to be done to change that. Find out where you are weak and find an animal who can introduce that into your herd to help it. I recently had a buck who was a very successful show animal but I bred him with several different does and never got anything that I was happy with. He just never threw his great qualities. One of my very favorite bucks isnt such an awesome rabbit to look at but throws much better than himself and does it consistently. That makes him very valuable to me. I start culling at weaning age with the back feet, if they are not straight in line with the body and have good width between them, they are gone from my barn. I dont mind nondwarf does sometimes if they are balanced well. I think it is the brood does that keep the barn going. I have a thing about ears, so I cull hard on long, folded narrow ears. I dont care what kind of head they are on, they are out of here. I admit I am wrestling with length of shoulder right now. That has been the hardest thing to fix so far.  And I need more mass. I went thru a stage where I kept all show does and let all my big bruiser does go. Big mistake. I lost my mass and big bone. Big setback, but I am working to bring that back.
I have the utmost respect for breeders who have worked hard on their breeds and taken them to the national levels of competition. I hope to be there one day. And as always remember these are the ramblings of a crazy old rabbit lady. JMHO......

new to blogging

This is my first time to blog so bear with me. I think I'm supposed to write about something of interest here. Well brace up I may tackle topics that should be left alone.
Just remember what goes on here is only my opinion and from my own experiences. I am open to suggestion and comments. I have been breeding bunnies for almost 25 years and have learned most things the hard way. I have however also been fortunate to have several breeders share knowledge with me that has probably saved me a lot of hard knocks.
Recently Mike and Tiffany Harris of Southern Violets Rabbitry and I decided to combine our herds and ideas together to work toward better bunnies. You will see a lot in this blog about our progress or regress as the case may be. Be forewarned it may not always be pretty. LOL