DISCLAIMER: what I am about to write may sound like I am upset or disappointed with the deal I made. I'm not.
I hope the guy I bought my rabbits from is not a member of BYH. I haven't seen anyone else from SC on here, so maybe I'm safe. If not, I'm about to pi$$ somebody off. Well, if the truth hurts, maybe you should change the truth.
Got to his farm. Nice respectful largish, well maintained acreage with several pretty respectable outbuildings. And he invited me to drive behind the house to the rabbitry. Aghast!
Now I am of the mindset of "if its not broke, don't fix it" and I suppose his cages kept his rabbits inside. But what a mishmash of ancient, dilapidated, amaturish looking collection of cages. I made better looking hutches, alone and without help, when I was 9 years old. He had maybe 50 or 60 hutches.
I suppose if I had the experience of many of you (or I already had rabbits) I would have thanked him for his time and trudged back home at this point. But I suffered from the newby affliction of "I got empty cages, and I don't have experience and I want a rabbit NOW!
I went for advertised NZ red does, 6mo, solid and broken, registered. $25. I only wanted one, preferrably solid. He told me, via phonecall, he only had two left, both broken.
I asked, since 6 mos is prime breeding age and I don't have a buck, how much would he charge me to have her serviced. No charge, but no promises. Fair enough.(later he told me no luck on the breeding).
He showed me the does, both to my unexperienced eye, well put together, blocky, rounded, alert, with big backends. Meat rabbits. I still hold to this assessment, but will admit my ignorance on this, and an experienced eye might tell me I have culls.
Anyhow, back to housing. We made conversation, a quite congenial young man, while I looked around, assaying the environment and asking all pertinent questions I knew to ask. He was relaxed, ready with answers, and seemed honest and sincere. Yes, his rabbits were full time caged, no "ground time". Had been doing this since a teenager (late 20s/early 30s now). Only diseases he had ever had and had to treat for was ear mites. No coccidosis ever. Shared that he did no showing, and very little in the pet market, but dealt with mostly one or two "processors" and one had recently passed. Only time he had major losses was a couple years ago when we had two weeks of temps above 100f (I remember that year). Said he lost a lot. His information was straightforward.
The cages. Small. Only about 24" wide. Would have pushed to be 16" tall. Barely enough room for these meat rabbits to turn around. Wire bottoms, many were 1X1 wire. No resting pads. No sign of hay or hay racks (" we just throw it on top of the cages"). But again, none visible. This was noontime.
Each cage did have a tag attached with pertinent info; breed, sex, age, some codes I didn't decipher.
Now I have been accused of being somewhat callous about animals and their place in the scheme of things. And, giving credit where credit is due, I think this guy was honest and aboveboard, but even more callous than I. Meat is meat. You raise it. You eat it. You don't pamper it.
Anyhow, to the deal. I know this is long and likely boring.
We had not agreed on a deal. And I had casually mentioned that I was also trying to find a Californian, cause I wanted to compare growout, etc. So, he said his buyer who had passed away was a Cali buyer, cause he needed white pelts in addition to meat. He (my seller) was not fond of Cali, just liked the color of his reds, and had gotten rid of most of his Cali stock. He had one pair left and IF I bought the red doe at $25, he would sell me the pair of Calis @ $10 each. $10 for a 10 lb stewing rabbit isn't bad, even if all you do is cook it. And these were 18 month registered breeding stock. I stuck my hand out and reached in my pocket.
Now, I only brought one transport cage, which the does could go in. He found a cardboard box for the buck. Scruffed only, not even back feet support. Buck in the box. While I taped the box and placed it in the truck, he loaded the does into the carrier, so I didn't see him interact with them. That's important, and I'll tell you why, tomorrow. Your eyes are probably tired by now, anyhow.
OMG. I just looked back and this is LONG. I should have broken it down, but I don't see how.
