Well, Rabbit Droppings!

]]As you frequent readers of this blog may have noticed, I forgot to post last Sunday. Well, rabbit droppings! (Quite literally) We've been working in the rabbitry since its delivery. The wiring was semi straightened out, air conditioner installed, the walls and ceiling went up, the floors went down, the cages were built and hung, the automatic watering system went around to all the cages, and the dropping system went in for all the cages. Whew! Talk about a job and a half.

Meanwhile, we took delivery of the five English Angora rabbits. A bit sooner than we were ready for them. We are running a poll on YouTube to name the three babies. Somewhere after the walls and ceiling were up, and before the floors went in, we got the new rabbits. Definitely before the waste disposal system went in. We laid a tarp under the cages for about a week until we managed to build the droppings system went in. This is where Mel having an able body roommate would have really been a plus. We also realized that we has miscalculated. We now have four bucks and only two does. The proper breeding ratio is one buck for every two does. We currently are not only cockeyed, but backwards. We'll need six more does to get the right ratio.

Mel has her heart set on a fawn colored rabbit so I've been searching for one nearby at a reasonable price. Even though I've had a hard time saying "no" to Mel when it comes to building this homestead, I keep an eye on the bottom line too. For us or this homestead, it has to balance out between needs and wants. I'm not a bottomless pit where money is concerned. I'm still in multiple use mode like I was with my old homestead. The rabbits we get have to pay their own way including purchase price as fast as possible. It's the way to reach self sufficiency. Setting all this up is expensive initially. After all, I just spent a couple hundred on the last five rabbits. It will be at least three months recouping their purchase price alone. Now I'm looking at purchasing more and they will be babies too, think four to six months before recoup of initial investment. I'm not really worried about the time frame because I have other adult rabbits to help offset some of the expense.

Well, I've been searching Hoobly, Craig's List, FaceBook, Raverly, and assorted other sites for Mel's heart desire, except now it has to be a doe, for over a month. This alone makes the pickings even slimmer. Being realistic, I set the travel distance to 200 miles. I could drive there and back again within a day. But still, I couldn't find a fawn colored doe for under $100. Now I'm not opposed to paying that much for a grand champion doe, but not for a baby English Angora with no strong blood line of such, and without a pedigree. My top price is $50, and then it bunny has to be something really special in other ways like both parents having at least a 4" staple (hair) length or longer.

Wednesday, I saw where two litters of rabbits was reduced in price from a $100 to $75 each. According to the pictures, there were three cream/fawn/tan colored kits (so hard to tell from thumbnails)  for sale. I decided to call. The people live about thirty minutes up the road from us. If the price and sex are right, I may be buying three or four of them for our rabbitry. Yes, it means building another triple hole rabbit cage or two. Yes, it's more rabbits than I allotted purchasing a year. But it will be that many less that we'll have to purchase in years to come. We can house fifteen rabbits with two grow out pens in our rabbitry. It will also mean reaching our overall goal of getting Mel away from her job quicker, which is a major plus. Anyhow, we'll drive over this weekend to take a look at them. If they kits show promise, we'll wheel and deal to bring them home.

I'll keep you posted.
Y'all have a blessed week.