Right now I only have two broken does, Butterfly and Clementine, and my herd is quickly being taken over by solids. At the moment I have two agouti senior bucks (Wicket and Typhoon), and one chestnut agouti buck growing up (Glenn), who will certainly stay here for a while. I'm thinking Glenn will take Wicket's place in my herd, I love Wicket to death, but he sprays, and I can't show him because of it. He's also really small and wouldn't place well in a large senior buck class. I will be breeding him throughout the summer to all my does.
Glenn is also Typhoon's baby, so if I wanted to replace Typhoon, Glenn would be the perfect buck to do it with. I know I will be selling Ty at some point this summer, which I'm really sad about, but as soon as I get a litter out of him and Maybeline I wouldn't be breeding him again for a long time - since all my next litters will be with Wicket and eventually, Glenn.
But, if I sold both my bucks and kept Glenn (of course I wouldn't sell them both until I know Glenn breeds and produces nice babies), I would only have one buck, a chestnut, that might not have traits that work with everyone. So this is another reason why I really want a nice broken buck. I don't really care specifically what color this buck is, although I would like a non-chestnut broken, I definitely wouldn't turn down a nice broken chestnut! Yes, I do have a thing for chestnuts ;)
Some of you might be asking...why don't I just buy a broken buck? Why wait months for the perfect broken buck when I could buy one next week? Good question(s).
I don't want to buy any more rabbits from other breeders, unless it's a really, really nice rabbit with a price tag I can afford, and if it's from a friend. But I don't think I'll go out and search for a new buck, unless I can't produce one myself by the end of the year. I don't have anything against other breeders. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE all the breeders I've met at the shows I go to, especially the ones that are my personal friends or my mentors. This year I am really striving to develop my own line of beautiful Holland Lops that can be competitive on the show tables in a different, exciting color than you'd usually see.
Along the same train of thought, I don't plan on buying any more does for a while - at least this year. Next year is it's own can of worms. I've had bad luck buying does from people I didn't know personally. Examples: Hazelnut ate her babies (she was a junior so original breeder had no idea what she would be like as a mom), and Maybeline had a high price tag but hasn't produced live kits for me yet, and she has a bad attitude. I've had some great luck with does from close friends of mine as well, but I want to stick with my own line for now and work on perfecting it.
I'm dedicated. I hope to be in this breed for the long haul. And I can't wait to see a pedigree with my line as the only line on it.
I rambled a lot in this post. If you stayed around until the end, I applaud you. It was just some of my thoughts; some random ramblings like the title suggests.