Thoughts on abnormal genes.
The goal of breeding is to improve the animal - breed to the standard for solid type. Health, temperament, fur, and flesh condition are also traits to be selected. Culling to eliminate undesirable traits and defects is part of the process.
A lot of high-ranking breeders insist the Max Factor (MF) gene is vital for nationally competitive dwarfs. Perhaps so, since that is what wins these days. But is it a better rabbit? Why are we perpetuating such a defective gene?
MF advocates argue that by that definition, the dwarf gene is defective in producing peanuts. Yes, that's true, but it can be avoided to some extent. A false dwarf doe (lacking the dwarf gene) bred to a true dwarf buck (the show bunny) can produce show quality offspring and there will be no peanuts. Other dwarf breeds also deal with peanuts, and it's just a fact of life with a dwarf breed. However, those other breeds do not accept another defective gene as desirable.
MF is harder to avoid if you are breeding to the current fashion. MF carriers
are bred to each other to get that desired type, but at the same time producing
more kits that must be destroyed. Many a MF breeder has lamented the high number of MF kits in a litter. One of the advantages of an animal that has litters is being able to choose the best from the litter. If there is only one viable kit (or none), there are no options. You have to rely on the parents to give their all in that one kit. Since these "high quality" rabbits probably cost a very dear penny, that's asking a lot.
Back to the question - is it a better rabbit? One of the main things that makes a species successful is its ability to reproduce. Natural selection culls defects very quickly. Man steps in, breeds a mutation that wouldn't survive in nature, and creates a new breed. That's all well and good, but sometimes fashion creates very unsuccessful animals. Is a dog breed successful if it can only reproduce with man's intervention (C-section)?
Peanuts rarely survive past 3 days. We don't have to destroy them, nature does it for us. MF kits can survive with the terrible deformities if not culled at birth. Some breeders allow them just to see how long they'll survive, or worse, because they have a soft heart, but the poor things are usually blind with constant eye infections, can't get around well enough to keep themselves clean, and they can't breed. While there can be an entire litter of peanuts, it's usually just one or two, leaving some healthy siblings. Breeding MF, the odds are much less favorable.
I could include hippos in this, but no one knows just what, if anything, they contribute to the breed. They might be a side affect of MF or the dwarf gene, and are becoming more common. No one seems to be going out of their way to eliminate the gene.
I admire the European (especially the UK) view on animal husbandry. Certain types of breeding are frowned upon and even illegal because of the defects it produces. They don't appreciate the MF gene, and it's ironic that it came from there. Maybe it was culled to export sales?
While MF is mostly a Netherland thing, other dwarf breeds may be victims, too. If Netherlands were used in development, or to improve type, the risk of introducing the MF gene is there.
I should mention that I haven't seen MF in quite a while. I didn't go out of my way to eliminate it, nor do I seek it specifically. It just went away. I think mostly due to MF-carrier does that never produced any keepers. That's pretty much the last time I saw it. I'm sure it will pop up again as I bring in new rabbits. I just don't think about it either way when choosing new stock.
Sadly, Americans are slaves to fashion with less regard for the integrity of gene pools. If ARBA was to look more closely at how our Netherland Dwarfs are being bred, would they consider educating judges on how to recognize this defective gene? I doubt it. Is it more important to breed a winning rabbit or a better rabbit? Why can't we have both in the same package?
tnt
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Summer litters
The heat is still brutal. There's now only 6 working does in the shed and only 3 have litters. The other 3 are due next week. They seem to be handling it ok. They lay against the front of the cage to catch the fan breeze. I'm just running one oscillating fan. The does are all in adjoining holes so it hits them all. This is definitely a breed that can take the heat better. I can't imagine trying keep a larger breed safe in this heat.
Got a few new litters this week. Nothing exciting in the broken department. 2 litters (3 kits) are by Rhapsody's Burt and I'm looking forward to how they turn out. Did they get his big fat head? I want that!
One of his kits isn't identified for color yet. Dreamer's 1st time (good girl!). Anything could come out of this buck. I talked about Burt's colorful heritage in a previous blog. It started out pink and had an orange cast that made me think tort. By afternoon, faint spots had appeared so it is broken. Maybe dilute, but I don't know. Blue usually has color at birth. I haven't seen opal in the box yet so don't know what that looks like. Non-extension broken (sable pt, tort) is often colorless at birth, especially with 10% pattern. I'll have to wait for fur to make a better guess.
I have a bit of a dilemma. I should really back off breeding for the rest of the summer. Predictions say this heat is here to stay. That's not a big problem for the well-proven does. They can take the summer off after their current litters, and some of them will go up for sale after this anyways. It's the younger ones that I need to prove or keep producing. And then there's the Smith's black on loan. I need litters from him before I have to return him, and he's a new option for does I thought I was done with. These two bucks are the MVPs in the barn right now. I guess I'll use them on whichever does are open for them. I better get to that this morning. It was a bit cooler and less humid last night.
In guinea news:
Have I got guineas! All the 18 eggs in the incubator hatched. One died the 2nd day. I think it was the one that had difficulty coming out of the egg. I helped open the shell, but maybe it was just weak to begin with. With the 7 older NC pieds and the 3 week old singleton, that's 25 keets! I think I'll sell some. I only need maybe 10 or 12 to maintain a working population.
The 4 I left with the hen also hatched. They left the nest yesterday morning and that was so cute. Both parents showed them around the garden. I knew I should have cut the grass before they hatched. They're so tiny they can barely see over it and I have to look for movement in the grass to see where they are. The parents seem very protective of them, whistling and chuckling to keep them in line. Unfortunately, it's not likely that they'll survive. I see the parents in the garden this morning but it's too overgrown to see if the keets are there.
tnt
Got a few new litters this week. Nothing exciting in the broken department. 2 litters (3 kits) are by Rhapsody's Burt and I'm looking forward to how they turn out. Did they get his big fat head? I want that!
One of his kits isn't identified for color yet. Dreamer's 1st time (good girl!). Anything could come out of this buck. I talked about Burt's colorful heritage in a previous blog. It started out pink and had an orange cast that made me think tort. By afternoon, faint spots had appeared so it is broken. Maybe dilute, but I don't know. Blue usually has color at birth. I haven't seen opal in the box yet so don't know what that looks like. Non-extension broken (sable pt, tort) is often colorless at birth, especially with 10% pattern. I'll have to wait for fur to make a better guess.
I have a bit of a dilemma. I should really back off breeding for the rest of the summer. Predictions say this heat is here to stay. That's not a big problem for the well-proven does. They can take the summer off after their current litters, and some of them will go up for sale after this anyways. It's the younger ones that I need to prove or keep producing. And then there's the Smith's black on loan. I need litters from him before I have to return him, and he's a new option for does I thought I was done with. These two bucks are the MVPs in the barn right now. I guess I'll use them on whichever does are open for them. I better get to that this morning. It was a bit cooler and less humid last night.
In guinea news:
Have I got guineas! All the 18 eggs in the incubator hatched. One died the 2nd day. I think it was the one that had difficulty coming out of the egg. I helped open the shell, but maybe it was just weak to begin with. With the 7 older NC pieds and the 3 week old singleton, that's 25 keets! I think I'll sell some. I only need maybe 10 or 12 to maintain a working population.
The 4 I left with the hen also hatched. They left the nest yesterday morning and that was so cute. Both parents showed them around the garden. I knew I should have cut the grass before they hatched. They're so tiny they can barely see over it and I have to look for movement in the grass to see where they are. The parents seem very protective of them, whistling and chuckling to keep them in line. Unfortunately, it's not likely that they'll survive. I see the parents in the garden this morning but it's too overgrown to see if the keets are there.
tnt
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sum Sum Summertime
Whew, it are hot! I broke down and shut up the house and turned on the AC. I really hate to do that, but I was miserable. I'd much rather have fresh air and the sounds of outside inside. Oh yeah, and there's the electric bill. I like my minimal summer electric bill.
Spent some time in the Summer House this morning. It was time to turn out the guinea keets that have been living in a cage out there. First I had to muck it out. Haven't done that since I moved rabbits out in March. It needed doing and didn't want to worry about keets slipping out the gate while I was hauling manure out. It wasn't too bad in there as far as working in the heat. There was a bit of a breeze coming through.
My poor working does in the shed. There were just 11, and only 2 have litters at their side. I realized they don't have to stay in there all the time. I can give them a break from the heat by putting them in the Summer House until their due date. So I moved the 2 does with 5 week old litters out, and 2 open does. One kindled a DOA litter last night, and the other was a miss (again from Sterling). The rest are due today, later this week, and next week. I'll move them out if they fail. This also helps with the heat in the shed, I'm sure. Less body heat.
It will also be easier when I'm breeding them. Instead of hauling them out to their buck and then back to their hole in the shed, I can just leave them out there. Oh yeah, and less cleaning for me in the shed.
One of the does due today has pulled a pile of fur so I'm expecting them anytime. The other is still messing with her hay nest.
We had our Rendevous at the Smith's Saturday. That's always a nice time. Gary loaned me a real nice black buck for my broken does. I begged. He kinda owed me, although I didn't mention that. I loaned him brokens to get him started in the variety 2 years ago. This buck isn't out of my line but in a way it is. Some of my original brokens came from my good friend in MI, and this black is out of a broken chestnut Gary bought from him at convention. He might not have had a shot at the buck if not for me being a friend of the breeder. I'll be using him as much as possible before I hook up with Smiths again to return him.
In guinea news:
Oh cool! I just now looked in the incubator (it's here in the living room) and one of the guinea eggs pipped. I knew it should be any time now.
When I turned the older keets out into the Summer House, they immediately had a dust bath orgy. That was fun to watch. The cage they were in has a wire bottom so they can't do that in there. I just put the cage on the ground so they can pick at the feed that drops in the dirt, but they can't wallow. They also began finding the bugs crawing on the ground and in the manure. Should go through less feed now.
I'm getting serious about the poultry pen. I ordered something to serve as a coop. I looked all over online and pre-fab chicken coop kits are expensive! I found lots of ideas online and in Backyard Poultry magazine, but I'm not really motivated to build one from scratch.
One guy used dog houses. Hmmm, there's an idea. So I looked into that. Still pretty spendy and they weren't big enough. Would need more than one. A forum friend turned us onto a Petsmart coupon that was only good for a few days. So I went to Petsmart.com and found the perfect thing. It's a simple wood flat-roof style with a hinged top. Price was right (and saved $15 with the coupon) and maybe even less than I could have built from scratch. It will go together very easily and just require a little customizing for birds. The dimensions (biggest model) given are almost as big as my kitchen island! That's pretty darn good sized. I think this will work.
Now to make up my mind where the pen will go. My original plan was to pen in the back corner of the fence. A lot of work that will be. It's hard to dig post holes in this rocky ground. Then I thought I could put it on the east side of the rabbit shed. The fence is about 12' from the shed. I could connect shed and fence and would just need to finish the ends.
My other option is to use the rest of the carport where the rabbits are. That would be super easy. I can just run wire around the carport's poles. The hardest part would be building the gate. They'd have a roof over their heads, and be more protected from predators. Whipper keeps bad guys out of the yard, but beside the shed, he couldn't help much, and I'd have to put some kind of netting over the entire thing. The only problem with this option is that I do store things there. Like the lawn tractor, garden wagons, and wheelbarrow. Lately I've been lazy and just park the tractor beside the porch. It's handy to electricity if I need to jump it or pump the tires. I guess I could just get a cover tarp for it. Should anyways if I'm just leaving it there. Yeah, I'm really leaning towards this option.
It's my plan that the chickens be allowed to range in the fenced yard most of the time. It will be fun to have more pretty birds in the garden. Guineas aren't all that pretty, ya know. And Cogburn really really needs some hens. He's rather annoying and needs something else to occupy him.
In other news:
Finally got to see the neighbors. There are 3 of them! 2 horses and a donkey. I thought at first it was a mule, but then got a better look at it.
Like the new look of the blog? I didn't care for any of the ones that were originally offered when I started it, so I just tweaked a plain template. When I logged in to post today, a pop up offered some new ones. This one's soft colors match my logo and hummingbirds are special to me.
Keep cool.
tnt
Spent some time in the Summer House this morning. It was time to turn out the guinea keets that have been living in a cage out there. First I had to muck it out. Haven't done that since I moved rabbits out in March. It needed doing and didn't want to worry about keets slipping out the gate while I was hauling manure out. It wasn't too bad in there as far as working in the heat. There was a bit of a breeze coming through.
My poor working does in the shed. There were just 11, and only 2 have litters at their side. I realized they don't have to stay in there all the time. I can give them a break from the heat by putting them in the Summer House until their due date. So I moved the 2 does with 5 week old litters out, and 2 open does. One kindled a DOA litter last night, and the other was a miss (again from Sterling). The rest are due today, later this week, and next week. I'll move them out if they fail. This also helps with the heat in the shed, I'm sure. Less body heat.
It will also be easier when I'm breeding them. Instead of hauling them out to their buck and then back to their hole in the shed, I can just leave them out there. Oh yeah, and less cleaning for me in the shed.
One of the does due today has pulled a pile of fur so I'm expecting them anytime. The other is still messing with her hay nest.
We had our Rendevous at the Smith's Saturday. That's always a nice time. Gary loaned me a real nice black buck for my broken does. I begged. He kinda owed me, although I didn't mention that. I loaned him brokens to get him started in the variety 2 years ago. This buck isn't out of my line but in a way it is. Some of my original brokens came from my good friend in MI, and this black is out of a broken chestnut Gary bought from him at convention. He might not have had a shot at the buck if not for me being a friend of the breeder. I'll be using him as much as possible before I hook up with Smiths again to return him.
In guinea news:
Oh cool! I just now looked in the incubator (it's here in the living room) and one of the guinea eggs pipped. I knew it should be any time now.
When I turned the older keets out into the Summer House, they immediately had a dust bath orgy. That was fun to watch. The cage they were in has a wire bottom so they can't do that in there. I just put the cage on the ground so they can pick at the feed that drops in the dirt, but they can't wallow. They also began finding the bugs crawing on the ground and in the manure. Should go through less feed now.
I'm getting serious about the poultry pen. I ordered something to serve as a coop. I looked all over online and pre-fab chicken coop kits are expensive! I found lots of ideas online and in Backyard Poultry magazine, but I'm not really motivated to build one from scratch.
One guy used dog houses. Hmmm, there's an idea. So I looked into that. Still pretty spendy and they weren't big enough. Would need more than one. A forum friend turned us onto a Petsmart coupon that was only good for a few days. So I went to Petsmart.com and found the perfect thing. It's a simple wood flat-roof style with a hinged top. Price was right (and saved $15 with the coupon) and maybe even less than I could have built from scratch. It will go together very easily and just require a little customizing for birds. The dimensions (biggest model) given are almost as big as my kitchen island! That's pretty darn good sized. I think this will work.
Now to make up my mind where the pen will go. My original plan was to pen in the back corner of the fence. A lot of work that will be. It's hard to dig post holes in this rocky ground. Then I thought I could put it on the east side of the rabbit shed. The fence is about 12' from the shed. I could connect shed and fence and would just need to finish the ends.
My other option is to use the rest of the carport where the rabbits are. That would be super easy. I can just run wire around the carport's poles. The hardest part would be building the gate. They'd have a roof over their heads, and be more protected from predators. Whipper keeps bad guys out of the yard, but beside the shed, he couldn't help much, and I'd have to put some kind of netting over the entire thing. The only problem with this option is that I do store things there. Like the lawn tractor, garden wagons, and wheelbarrow. Lately I've been lazy and just park the tractor beside the porch. It's handy to electricity if I need to jump it or pump the tires. I guess I could just get a cover tarp for it. Should anyways if I'm just leaving it there. Yeah, I'm really leaning towards this option.
It's my plan that the chickens be allowed to range in the fenced yard most of the time. It will be fun to have more pretty birds in the garden. Guineas aren't all that pretty, ya know. And Cogburn really really needs some hens. He's rather annoying and needs something else to occupy him.
In other news:
Finally got to see the neighbors. There are 3 of them! 2 horses and a donkey. I thought at first it was a mule, but then got a better look at it.
Like the new look of the blog? I didn't care for any of the ones that were originally offered when I started it, so I just tweaked a plain template. When I logged in to post today, a pop up offered some new ones. This one's soft colors match my logo and hummingbirds are special to me.
Keep cool.
tnt
Saturday, June 5, 2010
June
Summer is in full swing. Been uncomfortably hot and humid lately. It threatens rain almost everyday as thunderstorms flare up. Some of them have been intense, lightening and thunder cracks way too close, but not a lot of rain out of them.
Current litters are about 4 wks old. Now they are cute! Rayven's look like 2 black does and a chocolate buck. Haven't sexed Anaba's yet. Emaline's kit (fostered to Rayven so she could be sold) is a doe, I think. None of the himis are showing much color and that's disappointing. But it's been very warm since they were born so not unusual. All of them are looking promising at this point.
How can I see that at 4 wks? Well, I know my lines for one thing. All these kits are the same size and all have small ears. The bigger longer-eared non-show bunnies begin developing about now and I don't see that anywhere. That's not to say some might go less than showable in the next couple weeks. My BUDs tend to have shorter ears than the typical BUDs, but they will be longer than I like, and they can begin to gain in weight/size. I've noticed the himis from the Raspberry Run line will change quite a bit soon. Now that I've learned how that line develops, I can make early cull decisions.
We have our Southeastern Dwarf Fanciers Rendevous this coming weekend. I always look forward to that. Other than that I don't have concrete plans for any shows in the near future. I've updated the sale page and pre-sales are pretty much what will get me to a show for a while. I only have 4 jrs to show, and 2 of those are now sr age but not mature enough to compete as srs. Not really worth the drive for just 2 or 3 rabbits.
In guinea news:
The 1 lone keet from the 1st clutch is still alone. The other 5 eggs didn't hatch. Poor baby. I wonder how it will integrate into the flock later. The gooseneck clamp lamp I had set up as the brooder heat crapped out the other day. The keet seemed cold at first, but by the next day it had adjusted. At 11 days it has enough feathers and it's been hot enough so I wasn't too worried. But I did have to find something to replace the lamp for when the 2nd clutch hatches (if it does). I must be off on my calculations as I had the 1st or 2nd week of June as estimated hatch date. When I candled the eggs the other day, they are only half full. Hatch is definitely not happening right away.
The hen is still sitting most of the time on her remaining eggs. I don't feed them much during the warm months. They don't need it, they find all they need free-ranging. I began tossing some bird seed out to them when I feed the rabbits. Just to remind them where they live. This seems to keep them on the property. Now they come running again when I head out there. If the keets she's sitting on survive, I want her to show them this.
Interesting thing about guineas. Ducks and sometime chickens will bond to a human if that's the first thing they see when they hatch. Not so with guineas. The keets are very wild and will panic and dash around if I even come near. The older keets outside are calmer now when I feed and water them, but if I put my hands near them, they run away. I'll have to put the chicken wire top on the brooder bin pretty soon. The loner will be able to jump high soon and I sure don't want it loose in the house! I'd never catch it!
I forgot to mention in the last blog. Lost one of the NC keets. Don't know what happened but it was one of the smallest ones.
In other news:
There's a horsey neighbor again. One was trailered in about a week ago, but I never saw it. The field is so over-grown that I could only see it if it came down near the gate and it didn't do that. Then the trailer was back about 4 days later, but apparently they brought a different horse and took the other one away. I've glimpsed this one when it came close to the back fence. Also over-grown back there so it's just a glimpse. My dogs sometimes alert me when it's in that area. All I know is that it's brown.
tnt
Current litters are about 4 wks old. Now they are cute! Rayven's look like 2 black does and a chocolate buck. Haven't sexed Anaba's yet. Emaline's kit (fostered to Rayven so she could be sold) is a doe, I think. None of the himis are showing much color and that's disappointing. But it's been very warm since they were born so not unusual. All of them are looking promising at this point.
How can I see that at 4 wks? Well, I know my lines for one thing. All these kits are the same size and all have small ears. The bigger longer-eared non-show bunnies begin developing about now and I don't see that anywhere. That's not to say some might go less than showable in the next couple weeks. My BUDs tend to have shorter ears than the typical BUDs, but they will be longer than I like, and they can begin to gain in weight/size. I've noticed the himis from the Raspberry Run line will change quite a bit soon. Now that I've learned how that line develops, I can make early cull decisions.
We have our Southeastern Dwarf Fanciers Rendevous this coming weekend. I always look forward to that. Other than that I don't have concrete plans for any shows in the near future. I've updated the sale page and pre-sales are pretty much what will get me to a show for a while. I only have 4 jrs to show, and 2 of those are now sr age but not mature enough to compete as srs. Not really worth the drive for just 2 or 3 rabbits.
In guinea news:
The 1 lone keet from the 1st clutch is still alone. The other 5 eggs didn't hatch. Poor baby. I wonder how it will integrate into the flock later. The gooseneck clamp lamp I had set up as the brooder heat crapped out the other day. The keet seemed cold at first, but by the next day it had adjusted. At 11 days it has enough feathers and it's been hot enough so I wasn't too worried. But I did have to find something to replace the lamp for when the 2nd clutch hatches (if it does). I must be off on my calculations as I had the 1st or 2nd week of June as estimated hatch date. When I candled the eggs the other day, they are only half full. Hatch is definitely not happening right away.
The hen is still sitting most of the time on her remaining eggs. I don't feed them much during the warm months. They don't need it, they find all they need free-ranging. I began tossing some bird seed out to them when I feed the rabbits. Just to remind them where they live. This seems to keep them on the property. Now they come running again when I head out there. If the keets she's sitting on survive, I want her to show them this.
Interesting thing about guineas. Ducks and sometime chickens will bond to a human if that's the first thing they see when they hatch. Not so with guineas. The keets are very wild and will panic and dash around if I even come near. The older keets outside are calmer now when I feed and water them, but if I put my hands near them, they run away. I'll have to put the chicken wire top on the brooder bin pretty soon. The loner will be able to jump high soon and I sure don't want it loose in the house! I'd never catch it!
I forgot to mention in the last blog. Lost one of the NC keets. Don't know what happened but it was one of the smallest ones.
In other news:
There's a horsey neighbor again. One was trailered in about a week ago, but I never saw it. The field is so over-grown that I could only see it if it came down near the gate and it didn't do that. Then the trailer was back about 4 days later, but apparently they brought a different horse and took the other one away. I've glimpsed this one when it came close to the back fence. Also over-grown back there so it's just a glimpse. My dogs sometimes alert me when it's in that area. All I know is that it's brown.
tnt
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