If you have watched the movie "The Hunt for Red October," you know that one submarine was stealthily following another in its "baffles," a sonar blind area behind the pursued submarine. There was a time when Russian submarines would do a series of sharp turning maneuvers to check this blind spot and be ready to fire on a pursuing submarine. This was dubbed "Crazy Ivan." (By the way, the technology of today makes that unnecessary for submarines.) Right now you may be wondering what a Crazy Ivan has to do with breeding rabbits. Nothing really, but when I am planning my breedings to specifically check for recessives a rabbit may be carrying, I somehow associate it with being a Crazy Ivan breeding. Recessives seem to just follow in the course of some lines often hidden by the dominant genes, so some of my blacks have a genetic blind area and I go off course with my breeding to check it.  I have rabbits in all-black lines with no recessives, at least none that ...

There are so many things to learn about the rabbit show world and the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) when starting out. One of those things to which I did not pay much attention at first was registrations and that was because I did not understand them as having any purpose beyond being an ARBA requirement for a rabbit to earn its Grand Champion certificate along with its three qualifying legs. There are quite a few breeders that only register their rabbits when they also can be "granded," as some of us would say. I used to be one of them. However, there are several reasons why I have decided that registrations are important for every senior rabbit in my rabbitry. How one gets a rabbit registered is to bring the rabbit to an ARBA-licensed registrar, which every ARBA-sanctioned rabbit show is required to have present with the exception of fairs. A good registrar thoroughly inspects the rabbit, even more closely than many judges. The registrar is not going to judge ...

I always wish to honor my Lord, Who blesses me with my rabbits, and I want Him to continue to bless me with rabbits. With that in mind, there is one rule that I have tried to keep in my rabbit dealings and that is to treat my sellers and buyers as I would like to be treated as a seller or buyer. I try to be sure to honor them. As with everyone starting out, all the rabbits I first acquired came from other breeders. Some people do not show rabbits that they bought from another breeder but I did because I hoped that my buyers would show rabbits bought from me, assuming that one day I would have some worth selling. In my first year showing, I only had my purchased rabbits to show and some earned Grand Champion certificates! Whenever I posted about their wins or anything else about a rabbit I owned but was bred by another, I made sure that the full name of the rabbit was used at least once in the post or article to give credit to the breeder and I often thanked the seller by name also....

Yesterday was a day for which I had long awaited and it was such a win that I smiled all the way home. Did my rabbit win Best in Show? No. Reserve in Show? No. Best of Breed? No. Best Opposite Sex of Breed? Yes, in one of the two shows, she won BOSB under a judge I look forward to showing under because I highly respect his picks. However, I was quite happy before that win. I had a kindle develop bloat a year ago in the spring. While treating them, I was praying and I heard God tell me, "I saved one for you." The next day, I noticed I had a doe that did not seem as ill as her siblings that I was later unable to save. Yet, I was concerned about the doe because she was not eating well and it could stunt her growth. But, standing on God's promise to me, I named her Shaya, Hebrew for "worthy," because I believe God found her worthy of being saved, so I expected that there was something special about her. As she developed, I saw that she looked exactly like her mother...

Most of the country experienced a rabbit-killing heat wave last week and in my area, there was no breeze at all. Temperature predictions for this week were as high to higher, but this week most of the southeast will have lower humidity, also lowering the heat index. The result would be the rabbits could feel a bit cooler at 85 degrees this week than last week.  We have seen several posts about breeders throughout the country losing rabbits and kits to heat or seeing some oddities showing up in their nest boxes that are usually not common but should be expected in these conditions: fever coats. ( You can read an article about my past experience with fever coats by clicking here. ) I have been fortunate that in the 12 years we have had rabbits we have not lost one to heat. However, in the beginning, we may have just been fortunate due to several contributing factors that we were unaware of at the time. Typically, that does not just happen and requires planning and adapting as necessa...

Tale of Tails Tirza Reserve in Show! Once upon a time, there was a kindle of three does and the rabbit keeper could not keep all three, so she contacted a breeder east of her and another west of her to promise them one doe each, keeping one for herself. She had a very hard choice to make because all three were very similar in their beauty, but each doe would have her own tale to be told... The Tale of Josea Josea was one of my most loving of rabbits. I like to give my rabbits names with meaning, some to honor God and some as a blessing. Josea means "God will increase" and I hoped it would be a blessing of increase for the rabbitry that would be Josea's new home with the breeder to the west.   I entered Josea in the May show in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Because of a conflict with a family event, I was not able to attend, but my friend still planned to go so I delivered Josea to her new home a few days before the show. Josea then won Best of Breed in the first two shows for h...

I wanted to share something I feel is very special about my rabbitry. It is not how it is constructed or how many of my rabbits are Grand Champions. Like most others, my rabbitry has suffered unexpected losses; it gets messy in between cleanings; and there have been disappointing breeding outcomes—although I still learned something important from them. There are days when I feel it is too cold, too wet, and too hot or that I feel too tired, achy, or truly in pain to want to go out to feed, water, clean, carry 40 to 50 pounds bags of feed, move hay bales, carry water in gallon jugs, or painstakingly measure out supplements. I have nursed rabbits that would have surely died had I not intervened and was cautiously thankful as I watched some improve, and I have cried with the few dying in my lap as I realized they were too far gone to be saved. Being a rabbit keeper is a life of love, tragedy, births, deaths, enjoyment, sorrow, and lots of soil-enriching bunny berries (poop)—and in my case...