Decisions, Decisions

My husband and I had a loooooonnnng talk yesterday about our rabbitry. As you already know, we are looking at a probable move, possibly as soon as the end of the year. One of our main goals is to ultimately have a larger homestead with more diversity and be able to provide for ourselves in as many ways as we can.

The rabbits are an essential part of our future plans for a bunch of reasons:

1. I love them. They make me laugh and sometimes they make me cry, but I really enjoy raising rabbits.
2. I've raised them for six years now and I think we've discovered and/or worked out a lot of kinks.
3. They produce white meat that is easily digestible, low in fat, and high in protein.
4. Their pelts are beautiful and useful for crafts and homestead projects.
5. They don't take up a lot of space.
6. They don't have an odor like pigs or cattle.
7. They are quiet.
8. They can adapt to a wide range of conditions and weather without ill effects.
9. My dogs love rabbit and do well on a raw diet.
10. My flowers and vegetables thrive on bunny gold.

There are a lot more things I could say, but in a lot of ways, I think rabbits are the quintessential homestead animal. 

As you know, the hubby and I have been going back and forth about my breed. He really, truly believes that Harlequins are just not a good choice for a working homestead. He told me last night that he thought even now that their meat qualities and pelts are significantly inferior to the NZ culls we brought home at the last Conyers show. I showed him how our type has improved and used Jack as an example as compared to our original herdsire and he just shook his head and pointed to one of the remaining NZ culls that we are behind on processing. Now I am really kicking myself for falling behind on culls!

To be fair, the NZ that is sitting here is amazing compared to my attempts over the last generations to improve on type. He makes Jack look long in the shoulder, low on the topline, pinched, chopped/undercut, and narrow in the loin. And I LOVE Jack compared to many of my others. The NZ looks like the Hulk compared to Jack, who looks like Spiderman in comparison. I can't really argue with my hubby when Jack and the NZ cull are side-by-side:

So I went last night and looked at pictures of Harlequins around the country. If I am being honest with myself, even the top show winner Harlequins had poor commercial type in my opinion. They just can't hold a candle to a good quality NZ or Cali. Breeders have had to selectively breed for markings at the exclusion of a lot of other factors for a very long time in order to have a chance on the show table.

I decided to make a Pros & Cons list here today as a way to sort through everything.

Harlequin Pros:
1. Temperaments. All of mine are sweet, friendly, and clownish. They beg for attention, lick my fingers, and headbutt my hands for rubs.
2. Litters are super exciting because I never know what I'm going to get.
3. I think all the crazy colors and markings would make for especially neat pelt projects.
4. They aren't heavy on bone, too big, or too small.
5. They are a French heritage breed and a rare breed- I've always wanted to support heritage over common/commercial types to ensure they are still around for future generations.
6. I have some animals that are generations of my name on their pedigree. I feel like I've made some progress, but if I start over, I'd throw it all away. 

Harlequin Cons:
1. Their type and resulting meat qualities are lacking. A Harlie dressed carcass looks less muscled when compared to a NZ one.
2. Their coats aren't as nice as other commercial breeds. They are molting right now, but even in top coat they aren't as dense, plush, or shiny overall.
3. I think they are more susceptible to health problems then some other breeds. I don't ever remember seeing a sick rabbit when I raised English Angoras and English Lops, but I've seen a lot of health problems in Harlies over the years- GI stasis, snuffles, glaucoma, etc.
4. SO annoying to get a nice kit that is an improvement only to find a white toe or foot.
5. Difficult to find any quality Japanese to add to the herd and my group is going to be completely inbred at some point.
6. I was completely screwed over by one of the Harlie show breeders in the SE (lied + sold me inferior/sick stock + risked my friend's herd + never even helped with the mess she created) and I still feel pissy about it to this day. It is a little thing, but getting into showing regionally would be a constant irritant.
7. Not much of a sales market for the breed. It is great to be able to eat everything that doesn't work out, but I do miss the days with Lops when they would pay for their own feed and cages, too.

This is really long, but here is my NZ list (my husband's choice):

NZ Pros:
1. Excellent meat qualities
2. Optimal litter sizes
3. Quality pelts
4. Exceptional type
5. Easy to acquire
6. Don't have to go far to find a sanctioned show with competition
7. There is always a market for NZ- for commercial, homestead, or show/breeding. I have a friend that used to raise them in Atlanta and his kits sold for $40+ each and sold out just about every litter. He was complaining that he didn't have enough meat in the freezer, lol. 

NZ Cons:
1. Questionable temperaments. My husband thinks it would make all the difference in the world if I raised them vs buying them already as teenagers, but I'm not convinced.
2. Nothing super special with the color- the local reds are junk, so we'd probably have black and broken black with the occasional white if they popped up.
3. Would be starting over completely and that makes me super sad.
4. Would no longer be supporting a heritage breed. NZ are the main commercial rabbit breed in the US.
5. I dunno. I just wanted to add a number 5 here because it looked less unbalanced.

I realize this is the longest post in the history of posting, but the decision time is upon us if we are going to make any changes before we have to deal with trying to move and get settled somewhere else. My inclination is to buy a few really nice NZ and see how they do. I also told my husband that I am not opposed to breeding NZ x Harlie if we could get all of the good traits from the NZ and keep the good traits of the Harlies, but it may go the other way where we get bad and more bad, plus color and pattern gets screwed up. It would be years until we knew how it would go for sure, so quite a gamble. Such difficult decisions ahead! Don't be like me- start off with something that makes sense for you and your family and then you don't have to go through this, lol.