Regal Fur and Fiber Rabbitry

02/02/2025

Everything but the moo! As we strive to be sustainable in every aspect of our homestead, charts like these are extremely valuable in directing us on how to use more and be better!

Have you seen our newly revamped Everything But the Series of Animal By-Products resources? Released in our January KConnection Educator newsletter, was a series of new infographics, videos, activities, lessons and worksheets and poster files!
The entire series can be found on our website here: http://bit.ly/3Ro0uzc

Feel free to start planning for summer fairs. Our infographic files come in poster sizes 11x17, 12x24 and 24x36!

Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter today: https://bit.ly/3Md8hMD

02/02/2025

Looking to hop!

Info under each pic !
Pm for more info

02/01/2025

Looking to hop!

Unfortunately not the greatest photos of this gal, she was super fussy with me today!

Blue satin doe
12/4/24
Pedigree, no DQs
Liberty hill Tx

Pm for more info!

02/01/2025

Quail cage V2 🐣

Made lots of changes and improvements!
I’m super happy with the outcome of this one, this is the design I’m going to continue with for the rest of my cage sets!

They will be 5 tiers tall, right at 6’ tall.
20 holes per 5 tier. Complete with egg roll out, arm guards and more ❤️ I just haven’t installed all feeders and water system yet!

I’m considering making these available to the public as Custom Order and Local Pickup Only! Cheaper than leading brand quail breeder cages and more spacious for the birds! Limited availability

Pm me for details 🐣

02/01/2025

Great info on English lops and semi arched breeds!

02/01/2025

My quail and chickens are having a competition, Idk something like chickens trying to lay quail size eggs or quail trying to lay chicken size eggs 😑🤣

Top left, XL quail
Top right, XS chicken
Bottom, normal quail

01/31/2025

Definitely 💯

“You can’t love an animal you eat!”

Just because a critter is destined to fill a freezer (providing countless meals and co-products) doesn’t mean that animal shouldn’t be loved.
It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get the best care possible, the best feed possible, the best shelter possible…the best life possible.

You can name them.
You can pet them.
You can talk to them.
You can respect them.
You can love them.
You can eat them.

An outsider might just see them as animals, but the ones caring for them know they are friends until they are food.

01/31/2025

What traits are hard culls for me?

That depends a lot on growth and typical line maturity. So let’s do a brief dive into what I look for in my 4 week evals.

Let’s face it, everyone has different ways of doing things. What works for one might not work for the other- I’m a big advocate of “raise YOUR rabbits the way YOU want to”. Some people might think I’m insane for doing four week evals, I might be….

ANYWHOS, I believe that at 4 weeks old you will get a good snap shot of how they will mature. If they’re a crappy mess, they won’t mature much better. If they’re balance and set up real nice, chances are they will continue that trend.

Don’t bother looking too hard between 4-8 weeks, although it’s great to watch and see how your lines mature, but that’s their “uglies” and you might be tempted to scratch the whole litter. DONT! Put them back in their cage and come back in a couple weeks!

Back to 4 week evals. At this age I’m looking for DQs and major structural flaws. I might also look for color DQs/faults, but mostly structure.

Big undesirable traits that will be noticeable at this age are pinched hips, low/narrow shoulders, sloped HQ, narrow foot base, malocclusion, cloudy eyes, missing toes/tail, torn ears, color too dark/light/wrong, temperament etc

Things I DONT pay mind to at 4 weeks old evals are short/long ears, color depth, peak placement, loin/fullness, length of body, head size, bone size, weight (unless visibly runty), gender to name a few.

These two kits below are from the same satin litter. Although only three weeks old, these two will be possible culls.

The top one, can you see its heels are pointed towards each other? That’s slightly pinched. Sometimes when they’re young they have a tendency to tense up their hind legs, so this will be noted to watch as it develops!

The bottom one, can you see (in comparison to it littermate above) how close its feet are together. From toe to heel, they hardly sit just off each other. This is a VERY narrow foot base, almost extremely narrow. This guy will mature to have sore feet and mobility issues with how closely it’s legs set underneath. That’s not something we want and definitely not in our beeeding or show stock, so it is a hard cull for me!

I hope this give a little insight into what makes up my 4 week evals (in the case of the bottom bun a very obvious issue that was noticed sooner) and gives you some ideas of what to look for in your litters to improve your herd!

If you do things differently I would love to hear more, I’m always open to learning new things!

01/31/2025

Just set 100 coturnix quail eggs 🙈🙈🙈

01/30/2025

Well I unfortunately produced a litter of culls 😑

Temperament is everything to me, if I can’t manage a rabbit safely and calmly it doesn’t stick around.

These 4 week old satin kits and the craziest I’ve ever produced. I’m not sure why!

On top of that, the sire was a self hidden-double steel which I didn’t know until this litter.

I knew he was a blue that carried Rew, I bred him to this chinchilla for chinchilla hopefuls. Nope. I got steel, self chin (grey eyes), black and Rew 😫😫

I thought to myself well I could make the rews work for my chin project or the grey eyed steel work in my steel program. After getting them out for their 4 week evals, the ones that were NOT biting and I could get poses out of were absolutely awful in conformation 😤

So, they will be grown out to 10 weeks to feed my family!

Picture of the two steels from this litter that I can’t tell if they’re silver or gold tipped, but one has grey eyes (back) which leads me to believe she is chin based

NFS

01/29/2025

Siamese satin litter is getting SO big ❤️🌱

01/29/2025

**waitlist info**
If you’re interested in bunnies that I am posting or future litters then let me know!

I usually have in mind what im looking for in a litter for my own hold backs and if I don’t I will at least be able to let you know what’s ava*ilable as soon as I pick!

I do have a waitlist if you would like specific colors/quality/breed, and you will be notified as soon as they are identified.

I am first come first serve, if you don’t ask to reserve when I tell you about avai*lability or make final decisions on particular rabbits, they’re avai*lable to the next person in line!

I don’t typically take dep*osits on buns unless you are asking me to hold back to grow out to 12/16 weeks for show evaluation or if you reserve 4 or more buns that I normally wouldn’t be holding onto. Another exception is out of state shows, if I am meeting you at one of these I require full payment up front.

I will hold without deposit till they are 10wks, ready at 8wks, unless arranged beforehand that I will be growing them out to decide my own keepers from the select few. I ask that you make sure you plan timely arrangements to pickup before they are 10 wks.

If you change pickup dates/locations multiple times and fail to meet the 10 week requirement, they will become avai*lable to the next person in line.

I will make and keep up a photo album of buns 👀🏡! Please make sure to check there if interested, and check back often in case reservations fall through!

Rabbits moved at 8wks don’t have show guarantee, but will not be moved as show quality if they have DQs or obvious major flaws (wrong eye color, pinched hips, very bad shoulders or HQ, major deviations from the standard, color flaws/color DQ)

If you’re looking for a show rabbit, buns grown to 12/16 weeks I can better identify how competitive they will be.

When in doubt, Reach out and ask!

01/29/2025

Interesting post about different knives and their uses in butchering!

I get asked so very frequently for knife recommendations.

I've run the gamut on knives from being a generational taught deer hunter to self taught butcher to professional butcher/slaughterman and then back to farm butcher. I've seen aaaaalllllllll the knives, and I mean ALL of them. Most of them make me cringe now that I've got enough first hand experience under my belt. I can't tell you how many knives I've demoted to vegetable knives out of my collection and those I've taught's collections.

Truth is, it's best to start with a quality knife and keep it maintained than to start with a mediocre knife and try to make it something it isn't.

I have 5 knives TOTAL as a "professional" in my personal butchering collection. Each has a specific job. I'll drop some links for each knife if curiosity peaks your interest or you happen to be in the market for some quality knives.

I have a sticking knife for bleeding out livestock that doesn't ever see bone.
https://amzn.to/3Rdpvgm

I have a single boning knife that works from quail all the way up to beef. It's also the knife I use to make the few hide cuts on rabbits and my skinning lines in hides.
https://amzn.to/3Jk5bIs

I have a single skinning knife I use for sheep up to beef and everything in between like hogs, emus, etc.
https://amzn.to/3jdyGB3

I have an 8 inch breaker that never sees bone. It's used to just cut steaks/boneless chops and roasts.
https://amzn.to/3HnxRhg

I have a single 12 inch breaker that only sees beef. It cuts the sirloin tip from the primals and cuts boneless steaks and roasts.
https://amzn.to/3HFiOAP

The only tool I use to maintain an edge is a few good quality honing steels of various grits. You should not have to run the blade on a traditional sharpener unless your blade has met an unforgiving surface such as metal where it would disrupt the flow of the edge and leave a knick in the blade. The honing steels allow you to realign the edge of the blade on a microscopic level, whereas a sharpening stone puts an entirely new/different edge on the blade.
Smooth -
https://amzn.to/3WGsxuJ
Fine -
https://amzn.to/3XP1yPg

01/28/2025

Always a good day when 8 out of 10 rabbits palpate positive!

Picture of my Rew Satin grow out that I love more and more each time I pull her out 🖤

NFS

01/28/2025

More nethie babies in the making! 🐰

My new chocolate agouti doe from Julie at DandyLion finally lifted and got a couple fall offs!

She was bred to crime, my blue otter buck!

Also spicy noodle, my other silver marten doe palpated positive today!

A good start to my Netherland dwarfs, so far I’m in love with the breed!

NFS

01/28/2025

I’m gonna regret not keeping all these does 😱
I have a quite a few people on my waitlist, so likely these gals will be snatched up quick!

Satin does 4wks old

Second black doe still 👀🏡

01/27/2025

A couple Cornish hens were processed yesterday ❤️

First time using a plucker (my family has always skinned) and these nifty heat shrink bags!

Old rooster went straight to the stew pot and is currently being made into soup for dinner!

While we were at it, we took a couple 10wk old rabbits off the feed bill too!

It’s so nice to see the rewards of all our hard work paying off 💪🏻