Multiple Breeds

You know- when I started, I heard "Oh, stick to one breed. You'll never be a nationally recognized breeder if you have a lot of different breeds, and you look more professional".

Since then, that advice has obviously gone out the window, as we have 3 serious breeds and 1 I'm playing with.

My advice is this- do what you have to do to have fun. In a highly competitive breed, where it's cutthroat competition and you have to wait for long maturing lines, it might be necessary to have a more relaxed breed that can compete earlier. For instance, I've won Best of Group with 2 month old jersey woolies. Ask me when the last time I saw that in hollands was.

If you want a pair or trio of every breed available, go for it! Now, yes, if you have 15 breeds, it's going to take you longer to get where you want with them. But isn't the hobby for fun anyway?

I know of several extremely successful breeders that have two breeds. I don't personally know any with three breeds, but hey, I don't know 90% of rabbit breeders :).

If you start with good stock and work hard with them, I see no reason why you can't do very well in all three breeds, or all four, etc.

It seems to become one of the super elite of the breeders you have to go to pretty much every show that exists (more than just sticking to one breed). This is a whole 'nother blog though.

So how do you measure success? The number of trophies, number of friends, how many people know of you, website hits...

Thanks to the Woolies, I've met friends I might otherwise never have known. Same with the Mini Lops and the Hollands.

I'll probably never have more than three true breeds at a time, simply because it's so hard to get them on the table. I've complained about it before- if they call Jersey Woolies, Mini Lops go up seconds afterwards, sometimes with Hollands still on the table!

If you can handle running 8 breeds to the table, I say go for it. Have fun! That's what it's all about at the end of the day :)

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry