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.
Find out if FFA is offered in your school!
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Dwarf Hotot Nationals was absolutely awesome!.....the MADHC put on an amazing show that ran so smooth!...I’m glad that we could be a part of helping it to be a show to remember. So many fun things were planned with a total of three open shows and three youth shows. There were a total of 81 animals shown with exhibitors from 10 different states. There were a total number of 190 Dwarf Hotots shown in all of the shows - National Show and Specialties. Friday evening was “Hospitality Night” where exhibitors could check in and enjoy some light refreshments. Saturday consisted of three shows in open and youth along with the Youth Contests, where the youth exhibited their photos, creative writings, artwork, educational posters and etc. They all did a wonderful job. To finish the day off was a fantastic banquet enjoyed by all with great food, company, and awards!
Kenzie had a great weekend of celebrating her BBFF’s birthday, her rabbits did awesome in all three shows, she won Over All Junior Exhibit and Grand Champion with her Color Photo (which I am so happy about because it was totally all her idea and work-the setting, the rabbit and the click of the camera, of course other than Wal-Mart printing it for us :) I think her most exciting moment was when she received the award for best display-do I need to say more? Simply fabulous weekend of showing and fellowship. On another note, things have come full circle for Rileigh, K46. She earned her first leg as a junior and getting BOB under Robert Frizzell against 56 others at this same location last fall and she just received her 4th leg here in the Youth Specialty by getting BOB under Travis Finkle. We were holding off on breeding her (even though she was ready) until after Nationals. So now that Nationals are over, she will be taking a break from showing with hopes of getting babies as nice as her! It was truly an awesome time at NCRBA Convention. This was our second year attending but will probably be one of our most “looking forward to” shows.
Kenzie came home with a BOB-53K, and a BOS-K46 from Saturday’s show. K46 also took first place in the Sr. Doe class on Sunday which made her a well-deserved GC. We also came home with a replacement buck for Cody-K17, who we lost the night before leaving for PaSRBA. He’s going to make a great replacement for him. Now are plans are to concentrate on spring breedings and get ready for Nationals. Our most anticipated show of the year, PASRBA has become the largest rabbit show in the United States being second to the ARBA Convention, having heard that there were 8,000 rabbits shown on Saturday and probably about the same on Sunday.
This was our third year attending PASRBA, with our first year being 2010 after we started attending shows in the fall of 2009 and picking up our first trio. We only had three rabbits to show. Kenzie had only shown on Saturday that year and Kenzie’s Star had taken BOB in both shows that day. As for PASRBA 2011, it was an awesome year for Kenzie. She walked away with two BOBs and three BOS (one show she had BOB & BOS). While preparing for our trip this year, Thursday evening, we had a set-back and major disappointment. Our favorite buck, Cody-K17, who had 5 legs, was in prime condition, and ready to show, had died without any warnings or signs of any problems. He had eaten all of his pellets that day and drank his water. We were so disappointed and had a hard time finishing our packing but the show had to go on without him. After talking to one of our favorite judges at PASRBA, he suggested maybe a heart attack and really that’s the only thing that makes sense. It was a wonderful weekend with friends and all in all Kenzie did fairly well with her rabbits. Saturday’s best were some seconds & thirds with K47 & K46 doing the best and things seemed to turn around on Sunday with K47 getting a BOS and K46 coming in behind her. K50 took first in her Jr. class. Winter breeding or summer breeding...which is more challenging....
Our bucks and our does have been cooperative with breeding in these cooler temps. What we do is keep the lights on for about 15 hours a day. We feed quality pellets, a conditioning mix of rolled oats & black sunflower seeds- every other day, and hay- every day to keep our does in good condition for breeding and kindling. We’ve had mild temps so far but as they start dropping it will be more difficult on the babies, (adult rabbits can handle cold weather well). So the next challenge is to keep the babies warm. We provide heat for our rabbits during really cold days with particular emphasis on new babies. On the other hand, summer breeding is just as challenging because as the summer heat approaches and the temps hit record highs, the bucks go sterile and you end up with a lot of does that didn’t get bred. The high temps also can be a little hard on does with litters and maybe more so with some than others. Every breeding is different. Not every breeding will be successful no matter what the season is but spring seems to be the ideal breeding time. So getting a litter in the winter (or summer) months is a bonus with a lot of keeping fingers crossed, watching nest boxes, and waiting on spring. The Richmond show was a great day of showing and fellowship. We got to share birthday cake and Christmas treats with our MADHC Club members. We had several rabbits to place with K17 and K46 doing the best, finishing with some seconds and thirds. The specialty show had a great turnout with 32 dwarf hotots. There were 36 in the open shows. Judging was consistent for all three shows.
What a show it was at Baltimore & Howard, November 19, 2011....55 Dwarf Hotots shown and definitely some of the best and when Judge Robert Frizzell picked Kenzie's Jr. doe (K46) as Best of Breed, we were very happy and honored. The top four rabbits were outstanding Dwarf Hotots. We cannot be more pleased with our Jr doe, she's perfection on the table.
We had the 2nd place Jr doe in the class of 15 as well but we didn’t realize it until Robert Frizzell called the 2nd place Jr. Doe. We knew K46 was still in there but we forgot about K47, that took 2nd in the class. Our Sr. Buck K17 took 4th in the class of 15. That’s the most Dwarf Hotots that we’ve seen in one show What a great day of showing and being with our rabbit friends. I’ve been raising Dwarf Hotots for three years now so when my junior doe, Kenzie’s Abbey took BIS at the Shenandoah County Fair I was very excited. This was my first time showing at my county fair, where I entered three homebred dwarf hotots, a senior doe, a junior buck, and a my junior doe Abbey. I had fun showing off my rabbits to my friends who came to the fair. The show was August 28, 2011 and Robert Frizzell was the judge. He really liked my junior doe.
Abbey is the result of line breeding from her sire and grandsire, a Veronika Rodriquez buck and her dam, Kenzie‘s Rosalie, whose dam was a Joyce Holton doe from our first trio. I’m looking forward to keep putting Abbey on the show table and for her to be my next grand champion. I enjoy raising dwarf hotots even though it can be challenging at times. I can see with each breeding that our stock gets better and better. With each breeding I enjoy being involved in the whole process from the time they are born, to when they start coming out of the nest box and watching them grow from juniors to seniors. I can’t wait to get more litters like Abbey. we have 30 rabbits counting lila's babys and regular girl's babys.Not a lot has been going on in the bunny barn latley. ;D I hope to see some dwarf hotots at this years PaSRBA.
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AuthorI'm Kenzie, founder of Kenzie's Dwarf Hotots. I enjoy showing my rabbits and this blog will follow my rabbitry. I am also big in FFA, currently being my chapter's secretary and the Massanutten Federation Vice President. Archives
March 2016
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