I want to apologize to anyone who may have tried reaching out to me over the last few months.. Between remodeling the entire rabbitry, overtime at work, a brain like a sieve and life in general taking over, I’ve disassociated myself into the background and feel guilty over my failure to respond. I feel a good chunk may be the winter blues as I am feeling a little better as the days get longer and warmer. We’re gaining over 2 minutes of light a day right now! 4 more days til we “spring forward” on daylight savings time and 15 days til the first day of Spring.
On a brighter note, the rabbitry remodel has come a long way since we started it in late summer, after the county fair. We’ve gone from outside only with tarp-style canopies to a combination of indoor/outdoor with the “barn” (aka detached garage) and metal carports over the outdoor rabbitry area. This has helped immensely with both space for additional growout pens along with a better storage situation than before. Once we’re finished, I’ll get some pics to show our before and after.
Our fall and winter breedings haven’t exactly gone to plan so there’s still hope for successful litters before we get towards the fair season later this summer. More than once the coldest nights were when the first timers decided to kindle and failed to get them covered quick enough.
My Rex program suffered an almost catastrophic setback last summer in finding out that several carry the recessive genes for genetic juvenile cataracts (aka Mooneye). This was the first time it had visibly shown up in this breed for me. I did have prior experience with it in mini rex several years ago (ironically in chocolate based rabbits then too) but since those were purchased rabbits, I culled the line immediately. In this case, I have over 8 years of breedings into this specific litter’s pedigree and ended up with 3 out of 5 being 100% blind prior to 6 months of age. Now all rabbits from that line that are not physically showing cataracts are being test bred to be marked either carrier or clear. This is a somewhat daunting and very much a time-consuming task as each rabbit to be tested has to have offspring grown out to a minimum of 6-7 months old to see if they keep their vision or not. In most circumstances this line will not be offered for sale, with few exceptions, until I can verify that it has been bred out of this line.
I do have a few Rex that are not related to my mooneye mess, so not all is completely lost! The current litter is freshly weaned so it will still be a couple weeks before they’d be able to go. I believe they were all blue otter bucks this round lol! I also have a couple maiden does due this week, so hopefully there will be more unrelated ones soon.
Last summer I was also given an amazing opportunity on acquiring some new mini rex genetics, albeit most is not intended for my tri program but the blacks, blues and otters are definitely seeing improvements already!
As several know, after many years together, Corey finally decided to join me in the bunny madness.. And he decided to go big in the process by choosing French Lops! 12+lbs is the norm for these big guys! Some start out friendlier than others but they definitely can be like dogs on wanting attention and pets! Lol!
On the feathered side of things, after the incubators have sat empty for almost 5 months of my downward spiral, I have resumed hatching coturnix quail for the 2025 season. Due to the number of current adults I have, I don’t expect to have more than maybe 30-50 chicks available per hatch.
So, to anyone who has taken the time to read through my long rambling post.. thank you. It’s taken just over a month for me to get thru this as I get sidetracked so easily lol!!
Again, I do greatly apologize if I haven’t gotten back in touch if you had tried contacting me… Being late diagnosed ADHD (amongst other things), I’m still trying to find methods and meds that help me. Please be patient and remind me gently because I am very, very bad with the out-of-sight, out-of-mind problem.