Lots of Rabbit Manure
Before you get too excited, I am not trying to sell you rabbit manure. The mear thought gives images of little black pebbles and a whole bunch of smell. Having to shovel this by-product is not loads of fun either. So what is this post all about then? I am so glad you asked because I am pleased to explain that.
As a child, my grandpa raised rabbits and I guess that I kinda grew fond of the varmints myself. I and a couple of my sisters bought some rabbits at a local livestock auction when we were young teenagers. We learned how to feed, and shelter these animals and then came the breeding. After all the fun stuff, we were reminded to clean up those little black pellets. This went on until high school and then we had more pressing things, so the rabbits went to auction.
As an adult, married with one child, I read an article titled “Monies with Bunnies.” It was about a man who was raising rabbits for commercial use. Not laboratory use but for meat and fur. I meet with this man and I fell in love with his rabbits. My wife and I raised rabbits, with varying degree of success in the early 80’s, and we always had the stinky job of shoveling, you guessed it, rabbit manure.
Many years passed since then and we came back to Pa. and I wanted to rekindle my old rabbit business. I had a barn, I relocated the buyers and put all the necessary players into place. We outgrew our original barn and rented an unused chicken house, with plenty of room for growth. Now, when you clean up for 20 or so rabbits, it really is not too bad. When you have to shovel manure for 700+ rabbits, that is a job! We got to where we had to hire some local talent to help with this dirty chore.
We enjoyed the rabbits. Watching them eat and interact with each other, was very entertaining. We would put and empty soda bottle in the cage with youngsters and watch them play. We had names for each that we could associate with them, but only for the breeding stock. My wife loved taking pictures and poseing them, especially the small ones. My daughter would show them at fairs and semi-local rabbit shows. It was a lot of work and fun.
Once the fun stopped there was nothing left but hard work. What changed? Did the rabbits change? What happened? We went from 700+ rabbits to 400+ in no time, and the number kept dropping. We no longer were showing rabbits or taking pictures, or even just watching them. All that we were concerned with was the amount of work involved, what a fun sucker that is.
I just recently paid off a loan that I had taken out so that we could expand from a 50+ herd to a projected 1,000+ herd. Once that loan was paid off, I had a sense of relief and then an overwhelming sense of sadness. I knew right away what caused us to fail. I read in a very old book, “…count it all joy...” If we could have kept the fun, we would have succeeded.
With WA, it is no different. Figure out your fun! Focus on your fun, then shoveling some rabbit manure won’t be so bad and you will succeed. So you all around.
Bruce
Recent Comments
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That was a journey Bruce, and you draw a good parallel to online marketing, the fun part is what keeps you going. At the end of the day for many, it is the desire to do something different as well. Thank you for your insight a good reminder for me.
Great post, Bruce. I helped my dad raise rabbits when I was a teenager. I don't remember cleaning up the droppings so much, but I do remember killing, gutting, and skinning them. Let's just say that was not my favorite job.
Cleaning them was not as bad for me because it was cleaner environment. Shoveling crap just stinks!. Thanks for the comment, Richard. Keep it fun.
Bruce
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Great post! Rabbits are very all-around-useful animals.