06/17/2026
This is the part people don't always see.
The feeding, the cleaning, the record keeping, the mud, the p**p, the overflowing wheelbarrow, the water bowls that somehow need scrubbed again, the feed bags stacked in the corner, the cage that looked spotless yesterday but somehow looks like a tornado hit it today.
I don't have a fancy setup. It gets dirty sometimes. It looks disheveled sometimes. It's not always perfectly organized. Social media has created this idea that every breeder, homesteader, and farmer should have a picture perfect Pinterest setup at all times. Spotless barns. Perfectly organized feed rooms. Matching bins. Fresh bedding. Not a single stray piece of hay on the ground.
The reality is that animals don't care about aesthetics, and my wallet is constantly poor as it is. They care about having fresh food, Clean water. Safe housing, enrichment, etc...
That's what matters.
I think another reason many breeders don't show this side is because we're afraid of how it will be be perceived. The messy days don't get likes. The overflowing wheelbarrow doesn't get likes. The half empty feed bags, the stack of carriers in the corner, and the rabbitry that looks actively lived in don't get likes.
The perfectly staged photos do. The beautiful setups do. The photos that make people dream about having a rabbitry like yours do. Don't get me wrong, I love those photos too. I take them myself when I can, but breeding isn't a photoshoot. Breeding is work. Tiring, back aching exhausting work. Many breeders become afraid to show the real day to day because they know the second they do, someone will zoom in on a single corner of a photo, find a piece of fur blown there and out of place, a bucket out of place, a feed scoop sitting on a table, and suddenly they've decided they know everything about how that entire rabbitry is being run. So we hide it. We post the clean corners. The pretty photos.
The perfectly posed rabbits.
Meanwhile the reality is that most of us are carrying feed in the rain, scrubbing water bowls in the heat, and wondering where all this mess keeps coming from. I've met people with beautiful setups. I've met people with simple, humble setups. Both were amazing and worked for those individuals. An older barn doesn't make someone a bad breeder. A mismatched setup doesn't make someone a bad breeder. A feed room that looks lived in doesn't make someone a bad breeder.
What matters is the care being provided inside those spaces.
I think new breeders especially need to hear that. Because if all they ever see online are polished photos and magazine worthy rabbitries, they start believing they're failing when their own setup doesn't look perfect.
You're not failing!
You're not failing because you don't feel good enough, you've got this, be confident in that.
The goal was never perfection.
The goal has always been healthy, well cared for animals. My setup isn't perfect, it never will be. As my program grows, things change. Things get upgraded. New systems get put into place. Old systems get replaced. Some ideas work, some ideas flop spectacularly. At the end of the day, my rabbits don't care whether my feed room belongs in a magazine.
They care that breakfast showed up on time, and that's a standard I'll continue to support.
