Three Little Ladies Rabbitry Blog

Sometimes opportunity comes to us rather unannounced. In fact, what others may look at and say, “wow, what a great opportunity!” We might look at and wonder if we should pull the trigger on this one.

I’ve seen a few breeders redently sell out their herds. Some of them have realky nice herds, and are willing to part with the herd for (although a lot of money) a rather good deal. Many breeders wouod jump at the opportunity.

Other breeders might look at that a little more catiuosly. Consider adding a herd of ten. What would that do to the lines you are personnaly trying to establish? Would that dilute your lines? Or would the additional be a short term set back, but possibly a long term benefit?

What about the age of the rabbits? OK, so you’re getting some dog gone good lines. But how long would they be able to contribute to your herd. Would a couple of litters be enough to get back your investment?

Then theres the constantly begging question, do I have cage space. Honestly, when is this not a question. We have pretty much sold out of all available rabbits and we are now taking deposits on future rabbits. Yet, all the cages are still full, with many litters on the way. As you can tell we are always making decisions based on cage space. So that is nothing new.

Sometimes, though after analyzing all these questions, we realize the purchase just might be worth the risk. It may create some short term discomfort. But since when does something of value come without some risk? Finally would you have rather failed trying, or looked back and wish yiou would have?

I’d rather take the risk in some of those difficult situations.

Rob
Three Little Ladies Rabbitry

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Each spring St Clair County hosts its annual event called Spring Achievement. The annual event held at Port Huron’s Central Middle School is one of the highlight events for 4H. Participants enter projects in cooking, photography, flower gardening, and crafts among several other project areas. Think of it as the county fair without the animals.

This is also the event at which the 4H Royal Court is crowned. The Royal Court represents 4H throughout the year at radio and television interviews, and events such as the Yale Lighted Christmas Parade. Three finalists are chosen for interviews held during Spring Achievement. It was quite an honor that each of our girls was chosen as finalist, Ashleigh for Queen, Jessica for Duchess, and Taylor for Princess.

The three princess nominees were up first for their announcement. Of course, Taylor recently selected as MSYRBA Princess was very excited about this opportunity. We had missed the MSYRBA ceremony because of some vehicles issues. Taylor’s friend Jena was selected as princess. Taylor was very excited for her friend.

Next up was the crowning of the duchess. Jessica was very nervous. Last year’s queen Angelina Taylor held the crown over a couple of girls heads, and then finally placed it on Jessica. Jessica was shocked! Ashleigh who was backstage awaiting the crowning of the queen was thrilled that her sister had been honored in this way.

Finally, it came to the crowning of the queen. Would it actually be possible for two kids from the same family to get crowned? Thats thought seemed to ring through our heads as Angelina again moved from girl to girl. She stopped and held the crown above Ashleigh’s head, and then in a moment that seemed almost unreal the crown was placed on her head.

Its almost like every little girls dream is to be crowned some day. Whether it be in a beauty pageant or in a competition such as this one for the 4H royal court. We are so fortunate and feel so honored that all three of our girls have received this honor. Congratulations to Taylor, MSRBA Princess, Jessica 4H royal court duchess, and Ashleigh, 4H royal court queen!

Rob Usakowski
Three Little  Ladies Rabbitry

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When we first started out raising rabbits, there was never much deliberation from us about the cost or the possibility of actually making money. In fact, our main concern was giving our children a project that would assist us in teaching them character and responsibility.

However, I quickly learned how expensive this project could be in the beginning. First, there was the purchase of cages. In fact as we looked at our barn over the past few weeks, I’d actually like a different setup. That would involve more cages. But cages are expensive, so that may be put on hold for a while.

Of course having little space it was necessary to build a barn. I saved a lot of money by buying blue prints, and building the barn myself, including fabricating my own trusses. Although the barn is complete, I still would like to consider electricity in the barn rather than 50′ extension cords! An automatic watering system would also be nice.

This year we have made no large equipment purchases, so I thought it  would now be a good time to take a look at how we have done overall. We have basically broke even on the business.

The website pays for itself. I have GoogleAds on the site, and the money I make from that actually pays the cost of the website hosting. There actually is a little income involved in that but not much.

The highest cost is feed, but is is in close competition with travel expenses for shows. In fact if I were to remove the expense of the shows, and even remove the sales of rabbits at the shows, we would have made money this year.

Obviously, we can’t remove the feed cost. The rabbits have to eat! The question is, could we remove the show expenses? I’ve actually pondered this question to a large extent. Over the past few months we have traveled to more shows than at any time in our brief history.

What needs to be looked at is supply and demand. Supply for us is an issue right now, We have nearly nothing to sell. We have babies in the boxes, so hopefully that will change soon. The other problem is demand for our product. Right now that demand is good. But what happens if you don’t show your rabbits?

If we don’t show, how could we prove the value of your rabbits? Why do breeders want certain lines of rabbits? I can tell you its not because they have the best website. Its because their rabbits do well at the show table. Which has brought me to this conclusion, attending shows may be costing your rabbitry plenty of profits, but you would have those profits if you weren’t attending shows. Its really a catch 22. So we’ll keep selling our rabbits, we’ll keep attending shows, and although we aren’t losing money, hopefully we’ll start making money by doing some other small things to make that happen.

I have several ideas that could help make TLL a little more profitable. I’ll share those in the future.

Rob
Three Little Ladies Rabbitry

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