This was a fun interaction, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
For those of you who don't already know, 
Whether it's haggling with a merchant at the farmer's market to encourage them to charge me more or making trades where I come out "behind" and the other person way ahead, I am often doing things a little different. Interestingly enough, it seems that my activity has now begun to be turned on me, but I'll share more about that soon enough.
This will be part one of a four part series where I share some real life interactions with people. The purpose of this post is not to brag about
AN OPPORTUNITY TO BLESS A YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR
Not all of the animals that we raise are ones that we will keep. Some we may sell, some we may give away, and others we may barter with. Recently, I received a text message from a young man. The kid is 13 years old and is getting into breeding rabbits as a business that he can do in his free time. Personally, I was blessed to hear it.
I think that is more young people were focused on at least creating some ways to potentially earn some sort of income, it would give them some great skills that can come in handy later in life. Whether it is just handling money, interacting professionally with others, making business plans, being responsible, or creative problem solving, life experiences like those can forever help shape and mold a young individual in ways that can set them up for a much brighter future than the unmotivated and uninspired.
The boy had four bucks and only two does, which is not the best ratio for breeding rabbits. He was hoping that someone would be willing to trade some does for some bucks. While a one doe for one buck ratio may seem appropriate, some would even argue that the does are more desirable and therefore worth more than males, since they are the ones that can produce more bunnies.
However, in typical
Since I knew that he liked a variety of color in his rabbits, I picked out four different does that would not be used in our breeding program. I took these photos late at night with a flashlight while we were trading, but they should still give you a good idea of the colors of the does that we traded with him.
Black & White Spotted
Smokey Gray
Black
White with Brown Tips
THE BUCKS
While our rabbits are mostly Rex with some Chinchilla mixed in, his were New Zealand. We were looking to diversify the genetics anyway, so this would work out well for us. Since we are also having some fun experimenting with the color combinations and patterns that we can end up with as a result of breeding different pairs, we were excited to see these bucks in person.
His "special" one was white with some interesting spots of black and brown. Personally, I had never seen a rabbit like it, but it sure did look beautiful and peculiar.
The other one was a rusty orange color, which was also cool. The deal went down, the swap was made, and we each were happy with the results. We now had some new bucks with some fantastic colors, and he had four new does for his business, all of which were different colors.
THE WATERING SYSTEM
The next order of business was a watering system that he had mentioned. He said he had two for sale if I was interested. Not knowing exactly what I was getting myself into, I told him that I'd have to look at it in person first. On our homestead we are unfortunately still filling individual bottles, which is not ideal. I have plans on setting up a larger watering system, but I have not gotten around to is yet.
The system that he had was basic, but efficient. Basically, a five gallon bucket is filled with water, which feeds a length of hose with drinking attachments hooked up to it. Each rabbit can then pull water from the same source and only one bucket needs to be filled rather than many smaller bottles.
Since he had two of these systems, I asked him how much he wanted for both. At first, he was hesitant to answer. I then rephrased my question, "If you received a really good price for them, how much would that be?" He replied that he would sell them both for $20. Naturally, I asked if he'd take $30 for both of them, and he once again accepted my generous offer.
I'll have to pick up some new parts and do some rebuilding and distance adjustment, but soon we should no longer be filling multiple bottles every day!
AN INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE
From a business point of view, I gave up twice as many rabbits as I needed to and $10 more than I would have had to pay. Potentially, I may have even been able to haggle with him and pay less. However, I chose to do the opposite. Why?
Odds are that this young man will never be in a business deal like this again. Honestly, they don't exactly happen all that frequently. However, at least he knows that they are possible. Perhaps he will not always be in a position to be on the receiving end of such a deal, but as he continues in life he may have opportunities where he can choose to bless others.
Besides the interesting example that I set, I also wanted to encourage and support this young entrepreneur. Now he has more funds and twice as much production potential that he could have received from me. These things can make a big difference as he continues to build his business. Hopefully, it'll help him.
As I said when I started, this is just an example of one way that I like to interact with others. Have any of you ever done similar things? Have you ever had someone be generous towards you in a business deal? Recently, I've had a few interesting interactions with others, and I'll be sharing those stories in the next three parts of this series.
As always, I'm and here's the proof:
proof-of-colorful-new-buck
Until next time…
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