Tired and Frustrated?

Sometimes, we get tired. We get frustrated. We get down on our herds.

It's times like that when you need to make a decision. Do you sell out the breed completely? Do you sell out current stock and start over? Do you spend big bucks on a new herd buck or a couple excellent does to pull you back where you need to be? Do you cull a color project to concentrate on type? Or have you had enough and throw in the towel?

It's important to be decisive. If you let the frustrations build, you'll do something rash- like sell out completely and find that you miss showing all too much. Then you will have to spend all that money on your start up costs all over again. Or, if you let the frustrations build, you can lose your love of the rabbits. No one wants that!

I culled the agoutis in my Jersey Woolies and later the tans. Why? Because I wanted to work more on my selfs and shadeds. Those open holes mean I can keep more juniors to grow out, or bring in a new buck or doe that will give me the BAM! I need to bring everything together. However, I've recently let the agoutis and tan creep back in. It seems though, even in my mind, I keep thinking "If I can get a nice black out of this....". So while I have an excellent little agouti buck and a very nice pair that are throwing me otters, I'm always breeding them to self in hopes of getting self- so I can work my way back to just Self and Shaded.

I cull extremely hard. It's because I want to breed my own rabbits and keep my juniors, I don't want to feed rabbits I'm not using, I want to challenge myself to push hard forward and not be complacent. It's because empty holes make me happy, I like feeding less rabbits, I love knowing that when I need to split up some juniors, I'll have holes ready.

I think less rabbits is less stress. Letting go of the agouti and tans let me focus more tightly on two colors, rather than spreading myself thin over them all. Now that I've got less hollands and no breeding belgians, I can perhaps work a little with those other colors.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry