01/15/2025
A little rant with some education. Doesn’t matter what breed, but ESPECIALLY with harlequins, if you’re looking for ones to add to your herd, you need to be open to quality broodstock.
Most people aren’t going to let go of the rabbits that are going to win the very top awards. They’re especially not going to let them go for the price you probably want to get them at. They worked very hard to produce those rabbits. Those kind of rabbits are the ones that stay in our own herds.
And harlequins? Are incredibly difficult to get all the marking parts, especially to get all the parts PLUS clean markings. Everyone always wants the perfectly marked ones from me. Sorry, I don’t let go of those. I don’t know of anyone who does. Assuming we can even GET perfectly marked ones (that’s already a HUGE ask), they stay in our herds.
We will let go of some very nice ones. Proven broodstock. Nice littermates to those near perfect ones. Clean markings and enough of the marking parts to work with. Those are the ones you want. We won’t let those to for a pittance, though. My prices are honestly quite a bit lower than most people who are placing similarly to me at national shows. Even so, I’m not letting them go for half what they cost me to get to the age they are. I’m not letting you have my 1-in-300 best marked ones. I’ll offer you some very nice broodstock or some show stock you’ll be able to do well enough with. Some nice two-part fronts, a three-part front missing feet alternations, something like that.
But if you turn that down? I’m not going to have anything for you. And most likely, neither is anyone else. So while you chase that one that looks perfect, I’ll be using my “ugly worthless” breeding stock that keep producing grand champions and ARBA Convention top 5 placing rabbits. Because every single one of my very best, most winning rabbits in this breed has had at least one (if not both) parents be missing marking parts. Most have been from ones with disqualifications or missing more than one marking parts. Every single one of my Convention top 5 rabbits have been from one or both parents missing face split (which is a disqualification), and the other parent if they had the face split was missing either alternating ears or missing a chest/front leg split marking. Breeding this breed is an art. It’s understanding your lines. It’s getting a feel for what kind of pairings work. So, if I’m offering you a specific rabbit or a pair, it’s because I truly believe or even know (because they’ve produced before) that said rabbit(s) are going to produce well.
I was offering a gorgeous showable brood doe, nice two part front, proven producer, clean markings. Full sibling to a buck with oh I forget how many legs (including one BOB over 72 entered) AND to a 3 part front buck. She even has a leg toward grand champion. Wasn’t even originally going to offer her, but I thought I’d be nice and offer such a rabbit.
Because I do that. I offer ones that I really should probably keep. Either because I need the room or, usually, just because I like helping people. It’s how I had a youth breeder win best of breed same weekend as national speciality with one they got from me. It’s how another youth breeder got my 3rd place convention buck. It’s how another breeder landed a nice best of breed with one I let go of. It’s why I let go of my 3rd place at convention jr doe this year. I ENJOY getting people started off right with this breed. It’s not an easy breed, and it’s not a breed for everyone, but it’s my HEART BREED. I don’t NEED to offer any to anyone. They’re a commercial breed, and I’m happy to utilize them for that purpose if they don’t have new barns to hop to. I offer them ONLY when I feel they’re good enough to help other people. Because I love knowing I helped someone else to their success.
And now? After all the people in the breed I know and trust, and who do incredibly well at national level shows, are saying, “That’s a really nice doe,” yeah. I know she is. I offered her anyway. And now she’s not leaving after all. 😝 You can stay right here, Ice. I’ll find another one to move out for cage space.
This isn’t about kind people who just don’t know better. This is about people who refuse the massive education I offer, people who are rude and condescending when I offer rabbits I SHOULD keep but offer to try to help them out, people I explain exactly why I’m offering what I’m offering and that this breed is very much a “breed your own perfect markings and good luck because we all struggle with that” kind of breed. This is people asking me for a rabbit that takes 5+ years to produce and then want it for an insultingly low amount. Rabbits I wasn’t even going to let go of, but decided to be nice and try to help someone out, only to be told they’re not good enough or ugly. I’ve literally had this happen with another rabbit I later let go of, and said rabbit placed 3rd at National Convention. I let her to after not wanting to because I like to help people. But I was told she was “not worth what I was asking” because she wasn’t perfect. Hmm, convention judge didn’t seem to think she was, and she went for less than most people in the breed were letting much lower placing rabbits go for. Quite a few rabbits I offered against my best judgement (only to be rudely turned down and called “ugly and worthless”) stayed in my barn and produced some of my very best or eventually went to someone else and produced top winning rabbits. I am quite literally offering some of my best producers, and people are being very rude about it because they’re not “perfect”. Perfect doesn’t exist in this breed. Close to perfect is a rabbit you get maybe once every 5 years. And inevitably it always comes from the ugliest broodie in your barn. 😅
This is education about why you need to be open to nice broodstock and not to burn your bridges by being rude about what’s offered. Harlequin community is small. Word gets around fast. It’s often the exact same people going from breeder to breeder demanding the perfect markings that we can barely get ourselves. Inevitably they finally get one that’s close enough to what they want, but it’s from a less than scrupulous breeder who just offered them a pretty rabbit they KNOW won’t produce well because it was a one-off while all its relatives are very brindled or have major problems. Or, because they refused education on how this breed actually works, they finally find a truly nice one and now have nothing good to breed it to because they still demand perfection. They get something not compatible, then end up with total junk markings, and they either blame it on the person who they got their rabbits from or get out of the breed entirely. It harms the breed as a whole when this happens. This is NOT an easy breed. It’s not a breed that wins best in show easily or often. We can count the number of best in show wins from this breed on one hand MAYBE two hands, and that’s including youth and open. It’s a breed you get into because you love it, not because you need to produce perfection generation after generation. Most of my top winning rabbits are quite obviously not perfect. None of my rabbits are perfect. The owners of convention best of breed rabbits will gladly point to where their rabbits aren’t perfect, and they still won convention best of breed.
Breeder and exhibitor of quality purebred Harlequin, Silver Marten, and Californian rabbits. ARBA members.
