i know, I know, it has been very quiet in blog land lately. I managed to get a part time job at a horse barn feeding and leading horses around. I did this to make sure that my rabbits, ducks, gamebirds, and turkeys have food. I also hope to get electric fencing and rent a pasture to bring my goats home (I got two of them in trade for some rabbits, a bred female and a juvenile male). Long story short, they would be ok in suburbia, but duck food isn’t the greatest for them, and I can’t guarentee them staying out of it.

But, after starting this job, the stall mucker quit, so I wound up being much closer to full time than anticipated. I also am not used to mucking out 26 horse stalls… tough on the body.

Anyways, I processed quite a bit of rabbit kits, and managed to get a great dress out rate between 56-62%. EXCEPT for Darkes kits, which were between 43-47%. This is not acceptable AT ALL. I mean, I love my American Chinchilla rabbits, but after 14 weeks, having kits that aren’t 5 lbs yet, with just awful dress yields, I had to reevaluate keeping this doe. Her kits had no leg meat, and super skinny frames. ALL OF THEM. And I know it wasn’t the buck, as he is the father of all of my other kits.

She has produced only 10 kits since March… (my best producer is at 30 in that same time period). I am very patient during the summer on that, but with kits of such a poor quality, I had to make some tough choices. I am not going to sell an inferior quality rabbit, as it can give an already critically endangered rabbit a bad reputation. She was a great mother. But all of my does are awesome. Iended up culling her. She was a great rabbit, and I will miss her. (She only dressed out at 52%, which is passable).  Her carcass has fairly meaty legs, even though her back was a bit thin. But her quality didn’t pass on. She was over 8 lbs. Abit small for breed standard. I currently have three remaining does and a buck. I am currently focusing on my American Blue rabbit breeding lines.

S