Time to Cull

With babies comes my least favorite time- culling time. I've been bouncing things around my head for several weeks already, but wanted to share how I'm looking at them.

First- I have a mini lop baby that is obviously going to be too small to ever really compete. Throw in the fact that he's still got ear control, and he's going to definitely be a pet! *Note to self- does the milk a rabbit produces affect babies? This one was fostered by a wooley mother, and is smaller than siblings, who have no ear control and were fed by a Mini Lop mother.*

Any DQs? Luckily, or perhaps unfortunately, all my rabbit babies are DQ free! No easy culls that way.

What do I need? I'm bad about keeping does over bucks, but I recently realized that in woolies, I NEED another buck! I've sold Dreamin' & Mover, I'll be selling one of my shaded bucks who are both juniors and full brothers- that only leaves me with Forest, a teeny baby REW buck that I traded Keep's Gorgeous for and a Shaded! Oops, when did that happen? I'm also going to need a doe to replace 2 older does. So no culling based just on sex either! Luckily, I mostly cull on quality, but have let really nice bucks and does go because I didn't need them!

Last use? Yep, I'm not just culling babies! I will probably be moving along a proven mini lop buck, just because I have cut down the mini herd and don't really need the three bucks I have right now, especially since most of everything is out of one of them! Does haven't really been sitting, so I'll have to check and see how many of their offspring I have. One of my jersey girls is leaving because her son is a Herd Buck and her daughter is now a proven brood doe. She outproduced herself!

Hmmm, lots to think about!

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry