Last week I went shopping for some new Belgian hare breeding does. I couldn’t find any private sellers who had mature does available, so I went to the ‘konijnenmarkt’ in Mol, which is a small town on the Belgian/Dutch border. The market is over 100 years old and sells all sorts of small livestock; rabbits, chickens, ducks, turkeys, guinnea fowl, pigeons, songbirds and fish. Thanks to various rabbit and poultry health scares during the past two years, the market was often not allowed to take place. This has led to the size shrinking a lot, but I hope that this year it’ll grow again. I especially hope that the small, private sellers will return to the market. You never know what they’ll have available, and they often have the best quality animals with them.
I found what I came for, two Belgian hare does! I know the people who sell these, and I’ve had good breeding stock from the same source before. These are 5 months old and after the vaccinations have been taken care of, I’ll breed them with my black and my tan colored males.
Then I got something I wasn’t intent on getting; 4 runner ducks. I’ve been looking for them in these colors for a while now. The white and fawn colored ducks are supposed to be the best layers, so I hope I’ll get some better egg production out of these.
The Lowland Homestead 