We had plans this past weekend to get caught up with things in the rabbitry, but something came up that required us to put it off again. It had been like that for about three weeks, so Independence Day was the day we finally were able to get things done.
I discussed my plans in Thinking Out Summer Culls about which of my breeding stock would be culled.
- I offered Lancelot to a meat breeder who not only thought he was pretty, but loved his temperament.
- I tried to offer Comet, because he was so sweet and smaller, but we had only one person who responded and then she did not pursue it. I knew it would be long shot for him.
- Misty Blue was too old to offer as a brood doe. Her pelt is huge and the meat will be ground, because it is likely to be tougher.
- Black Ivy...I just could not in good conscious ever try to offer her to anyone. She just had too poor of a body type with her hips being as they were. Her kits were naturally weaned since we were delayed for the past weeks, so she was processed as well. Although she was healthy at the time, she had an enlarged gall bladder and colon, suggesting that she had a sluggish colon and possibly would have had health issues at some point.
We also evaluated the two kindles over eight weeks old.
- Kindle XCY-3 was over 13 weeks old. My original pick of the kindle was XCY2 who was the larger of the two does, but she had injured her dewclaw so she would be disqualified for showing. While I could still have used her as a brood doe, XCY1 was matching her in weight, has a nice coat, and was actually showing better type in comparison the last few weeks. XCY1 would have been difficult to sell with the dewclaw, so we decided she would be culled. The buck of that kindle, XCY2, has potential and we are going to keep him to see how he develops.
- Kindle LMB-3, all does, was just over 8 weeks old and we usually do not cull, except to sell, at this age because the pelts are very fragile. However, we were hoping for some tender meat to grill for our dinner. They were all long in the shoulder, like their mother, but one stood out to be a bit better, especially on the back side and in height. I decided to keep LMB2, who is blue, of course, to see how she develops, but I am leaning towards offering her to a meat breeder.
So, I would have an unrelated pair in XCY1 and LMB2 with Kindle CBI-7 at just over 6 weeks old coming up from which to choose as well. It is kind of strange that I have Canyon, whom I bought from one breeder, and her daughter and son being kept, as well as her great grandbunnies through Black Ivy, who was Canyon's grandbunny and bought from someone else. This is a first for us!
After processing the six rabbits, my husband joined me in cleaning and hosing down the cages and spreading lime to keep the odors down. I rearranged the rabbits and split CBI-7 into two cages by gender. I have every one of our cages filled with at least one rabbit and two with grow-outs. Every cage except for the kindling suite, that is. I am hoping my husband made a note of how much we could use at least two more cages....and another kindling suite would be nice also.
It was early afternoon by the time we got all that done and after showers and a quick lunch, we started in on the rest. He worked on cutting up the meat and preparing for dinner. When the sink was free, I rinsed the pelts. I took the ones, which I had been pickling for more than long enough, out to be rinsed and washed. Then I laid them out to dry. I treated the weeds and grass growing in the cracks of the driveway to kill them with the old pickle and made a new batch to start the process with the new pelts. We try to waste as little as possible.
By the time we had dinner, which was later than we had hoped it would be, we were pretty tired. We did not get to grounding the tougher rabbit meat, which we still need to do today.
As we hoped, the grilled rabbit meat was very tender!
Now I need to update my blog and my records!