From our blog page:
What an exciting day! National FFA Organization came to the area to interview a few high school students about their SAE projects. They spent a little over two hours with Kenzie interviewing her and gathering video footage about her SAE project: Rabbits-the care, showing, and breeding of rabbits. The video will be used as a teaching tool for Ag. students and teachers regarding SAE projects. FFA is an awesome Leadership organization/club offered in many schools starting in middle school. There's a misconception with the name "FFA" people relate it to farms/farmers but it is truly much more than that. FFA Motto: "Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve." You don't need a farm and a tractor to be part of FFA. FFA has truly impacted Kenzie's life with so many opportunities~leadership skills, public speaking, community service and so much more.
What an exciting day! National FFA Organization came to the area to interview a few high school students about their SAE projects. They spent a little over two hours with Kenzie interviewing her and gathering video footage about her SAE project: Rabbits-the care, showing, and breeding of rabbits. The video will be used as a teaching tool for Ag. students and teachers regarding SAE projects. FFA is an awesome Leadership organization/club offered in many schools starting in middle school. There's a misconception with the name "FFA" people relate it to farms/farmers but it is truly much more than that. FFA Motto: "Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve." You don't need a farm and a tractor to be part of FFA. FFA has truly impacted Kenzie's life with so many opportunities~leadership skills, public speaking, community service and so much more.
My First ARBA Convention
By: Makenzie Kline Saturday October 19th, 2013 was the start of my very first ARBA convention. We arrived at the PA Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, PA Saturday morning around 10:00 a.m. After getting my rabbits unloaded and cooped, I got to meet up with friends. I was amazed by the number of rabbits that were there and seeing rabbit breeds that I’ve rarely seen before. There was so much to see and do in the Complex that kept me busy during my time at Convention. On Sunday morning I spent most of my time getting my rabbits ready for the show. I was so excited to show my rabbits at Convention for the very first time. There were a lot of nice dwarf hotots in the youth hall. When Judge, Jennifer Milburn, announced that my Jr. Buck won BOB, I was overwhelmed with excitement. My parents and I celebrated with pizza and a trip to Hershey, PA. I didn’t want Convention to end, but I enjoyed my time in Harrisburg, spending time with friends, and making new friends. Thank you Kristina Kolb for getting my rabbit to the Best In Show table while I was still in Hershey. Being able to go to an ARBA Convention was a great experience and a wonderful opportunity. I hope I get to do it again. |
Breeding
Even after five years of breeding dwarf hotots, we still get excited over new litters. There is a lot of thought, planning, patience and trial & error that goes into every breeding. Pick up a Standards of Perfection and do your homework on the breed standard, as that will be the goal to set for your rabbitry~breeding to the standards of perfection, Start with a pure bred and pedigreed trio. Chances are no one is going to sell you their best rabbits, so purchase the best quality rabbits that you can afford, with the most being spent on the buck because he will be your foundation. The goal that you set for your rabbitry doesn’t happen overnight. If one rabbit is lacking in one quality the other should be a rabbit that has that quality to balance the trait. Once you start noticing an improvement moved on to another trait that you would like to see improved. And eventually you will see overall improvement. In our experience, even if the doe is not exactly show quality, but because of the quality of the pedigree, will still produce nice quality offspring. We always use the best buck that we have. Familiarize yourself with the genetics of the breed. For our breeding program we choose not to use sports, Dutch marked, etc. but will use a rabbit with a small black spot. We will not use a rabbit with a blue spot in the eye or “bad” teeth. We have successfully used linebreeding~father/daughter, mother/son, cousins; but do not do inbreeding~brother/sister, but we're not against it either. Use two healthy rabbits. It’s important to keep a healthy rabbitry. Dwarf Hotot does are usually ready to breed at the age of five or six months old and the bucks being around six months old. In our experience, waiting too long to breed a doe makes it more difficult to get litters from her. Rabbits do not have a cycle of hormones like humans. A doe has a mating cycle, which she is receptive to mating about 14 of every 16 days. The release of eggs in female rabbits is triggered by breeding. A doe is most receptive when the vent area is red in color and when not receptive will have a whitish pink color. When breeding, always take the doe to the buck’s cage. The doe tends to be more territorial of her cage. Once you’ve put the doe in the cage, monitor the breeding to make sure that it is successful. The buck may try to mount the doe on the wrong end or the doe may even try to mount the buck (we have found this to be a good sign). They will even chase each other around the cage. If the doe is ready she will lift her rear end. If the buck is successful in breeding the doe he will fall to his side. This may take a few tries~until she is ready. Every buck is different. We have some that are aggressive breeders, and if the doe is willing, it doesn’t take long, but we also have some “lazy” bucks that take a little longer. Once the buck falls to his side take the doe back to her cage and repeat the breeding several hours later because ovulation is triggered by the breeding. If the breeding was successful you should have a new litter in approximately 30 days. We put our nest boxes in around the 27th or 28th day. You may even see signs that the doe is getting ready to start building her nest by gathering hay. |
An update from one of our bunny buyers:
"Hi Suzanne and Kenzie,
Just a quick update on Louie (neé Bucky) - after using Sit-A-Pet services whenever we were out of town, guess who was asked to be "Pet of the Month" for their website?"
http://sitapet.com/pom.php
Just a quick update on Louie (neé Bucky) - after using Sit-A-Pet services whenever we were out of town, guess who was asked to be "Pet of the Month" for their website?"
http://sitapet.com/pom.php