Patt-tee always enjoys the chuckle stories I tell him, so we will share today's chuckle story with you. Driving on one of Maine's scenic roads today, I passed a handwritten sign that read, "Chicks for Sale". I looked up above it to read the street sign..... Hatch Road!
BBF's Patriot - a few summers ago.
Don't want to jinx him by mentioning it but BBF's Patriot has made it past his 9th birthday, it was last Sunday. He was the older bunny I'd blogged about on 3/22 and 3/23's blog (you can go back and read about him) that had suffered a life threatening stroke. He is now bouncing around like nothing ever happened. Hard to believe that he was unable to lift his head, never mind get to his feet. We didn't celebrate on the grass reading a book as it had been quite wet for most of the week. But we will soon!
Patt-tee always enjoys the chuckle stories I tell him, so we will share today's chuckle story with you. Driving on one of Maine's scenic roads today, I passed a handwritten sign that read, "Chicks for Sale". I looked up above it to read the street sign..... Hatch Road!
0 Comments
A handy thing to use at convention is a metal shower ring. Punch a hole through your business cards and place them on the shower ring. Clip it on a For Sale coop. Try to place it away from the rabbit's reach as they love to chew on the dangling cards. Some folks also print out miniature pedigrees, plastic coat and attach them. The Evan's Pedigree program allows you to print out these mini pedigrees. Most sellers write the birthdate, sale price and sometimes bloodlines on their For Sale signs, all info is good.
It is very helpful to have your own hanging grooming table to go over a bunny with a potential buyer. There are grooming tables at the end of aisles personally owned by exhibitors, though everyone uses them. If the show tables are not in use, you can use those. Just remember when using the latter two choices, you are exposing your rabbits to everything and anything previous user's rabbits may have. If you can at least bring a small carpet to place over a grooming table for your rabbit's use, every little bit helps. A carrier cart is a must have for convention. It is a long way from the unloading area to cooping.
BBF's Chester - RIS 4/27 & BIS 5/19
Three weeks after winning Best of Breed at the EMRBA's 4/27 Newport Show and Reserve in Show.... BBF's Chester has again won Best of Breed, now at the Maine State RBA show held at the New England Livestock Expo on May 19th. He one upped himself by winning Best In Show! Chester is one of those bucks that insist on hanging out their cage door while you are trying to get the feed dish in and out. With this big mug of his, it is hard to get by his head. He is one happy guy who is the official greeter at Blackberry Farm. Shopping at convention for supplies is a lot of fun. Before you purchase anything, go around the entire showroom of equipment dealers to price compare. Many items are the same so the only advantage one dealer will have over another is price. Some dealers give discounts if you buy multiples, like a dozen or more of one thing will get you a price break.
Other items vary on design and quality like cages and carriers. Some carriers have better handles, hooks, dividers, depth of pans or cage tags. Consider all these things when comparing prices. With the curious, amorous Holland Lop bucks, I prefer carriers that have individual top openings. A single cover opening on a four hole carrier quickly turns into a "whack-a-mole" game as you try to keep them from getting to each other. So I like each hole to have its own cover/door. Another preference is solid dividers. If you can get deep pans, it is easier to layer shavings/puppy pads in them. When choosing coop cups, get something comfortably wide enough to accomodate the senior bucks fat faces. If buying medications, check the expiration date. No sense in buying a med you seldom use just to have on hand and have it expire 3 mos. after convention. Visit the craft booths for unique raffle table items, Christmas gifts, yankee swaps or treat yourself. Think outside the award box and pick up rabbit decorative items not found around home or in catalogs to use at our next show or awards banquet. Having gone to all but two American Rabbit Breeders Association Conventions since 1986, I've seen many changes through the years.
Shipping rabbits - Air travel with rabbits has changed greatly. The cost has gone from $50. per kennel one way to $275. Most everyone puts their carriers into dog kennels now, which is safer. Less airlines accept rabbits as excess baggage. Some folks ship air freight instead. Feeding & Watering - Host clubs or local specialty clubs would feed and water your entries unless you posted an "Owner will Feed & Water" tags on your coops. Specialty clubs always swept their own aisles and even cleaned coops for a couple of years. Booth Contests - The specialty breed booths were very competitive, trying to win one of the three top cash awards given by ARBA. Booths were decorated with the convention host's "theme". Two great HLRSC booths set up while I was HLRSC president were very entertaining. In Tulsa, we had a western theme booth front with an extra sitting booth that was a one room schoolhouse. Inside was a large stuffed bunny schoolmarm with pointer aimed at the chalkboard (message board) and classroom chairs. In Louisville, the entire backdrop curtain was a handpainted Churchill Downs spectator packed grandstand and racetrack with racing silked bunnies coming down the homestretch. The raffle trio rabbits were housed off to the side in three cages fitted within a starting gate with numbers that corresponded to their posted pedigrees. Lately the booths serve to sell supplies, memberships and trio tickets with little decoration. Booth personnel are constantly picking up empty drink containers and other trash left behind by not so dedicated foot resters. Specialty Club meetings - Everyone attended their club's meetings without giving the early a.m. rise "n" shine a second thought. All were interested in what what going on within their club. Multiple candidates ran for office and muliple clubs submitted bids to host the National Shows. Now some zones don't bring forth a single candidate for director. I'm not sure if all these things have lack of time or lack of interest as the largest contributing factor? Specialty Banquets - Everyone went to their specialty banquet. Meal costs have risen greatly and some say they can't afford to attend. Seeing that we have one of the most expensive breeds around, I find it a bit difficult to believe that. Most can sell two pet quality bunnies at home to cover a ticket. For one thing, the ticket cost isn't just for the meal, you are paying for the event. It is the one time of year you can sit down with fellow HL friends that you see perhaps once a year, share a meal and not have the distractions of a show going on. The banquet auction is always entertaining. Seeing friends be rewarded for their hard work is a bonus too. ARBA Banquets - Everyone should go to at least one of these. Years ago, people really dressed up, men in suits and ladies in full length dresses. Communicating at Convention - When selling a rabbit you'd leave a business card or note with your hotel # on its' cage. If someone was interested, they'd have to call you that evening or leave a note with their hotel # or a day/set time they'd be by the cage to meet you. There was no way to contact someone other than when they got back to their hotel room phone at night. Later came the couple of years when folks used the handheld walkie-talkies to communicate with their travelmates. The showroom is a big place. Now everyone has cellphones with cameras. They can take a photo or video of a for sale rabbit and send it to a potential buyer back home. Research & Development Booth - The R & D raffle used to be HUGE. It was an honor to be asked to donate a pair of rabbits. Big ticket items were displayed. Marylouise Cowan spearheaded this great effort along with several extremely well chosen and dedicated workers. We'd drool over the pairs donated by top breeders and the chance to win them for a mere $2.00. Big Raffle Items - The following year's host club used to offer big ticket raffle items like a round trip airfare or a week's hotel stay, a big cash prize, TV's, computers, etc. Improvements - There is more Youth contest participation now. More interest in Certificates of Development for more new colors and breeds. More educational seminars. Risers are offered for the wool breeds. Check-out done at the breed booths. If you get a chance to go to an ARBA Convention, GO GO GO! There is nothing like it, a bit of bunny Christmas morning seeing all the rabbits, all the possible rabbit supplies, crafts and equipment you'd ever dream of seeing. And like they say, "for a week, you don't have to explain why you raise rabbits to anyone, we all GET IT".
BBF's Chester - Reserve in Show! Judge Havlicek
Update on the EMRBA Newport Show held Sat. April 27th. It was nice to be back in the larger facility, plenty of room to look at rabbits and chat. Folks seemed to like the Sue Rupp limited edition framed prints, signed by the artist for Best of Breeds, Best in Show and Reserve in Show awards. Something different than a plain trophy, real bunny artwork for the home. We missed seeing our Canadian friends, not sure where they were? BBF's Oriana, the only doe I had to take with the dozen boys won a Best Opp Solid. She is going to be a "big" girl, so will be moving to a senior doe cage and will be bred in June. The HUGE bright spot of the day was BBF's Chester winning not only Best of Breed but also RESERVE IN SHOW!!! I have been amiss on my Blog duties, forgive me. We went on vacation for a week, which of course requires a week of prep work for us and the bunnies. Then of course, a dreaded cold caught on the end of vacation which slowed me down along with all the catch-up stuff required upon returning. Sorry if you've been waiting for new blog posts, they will be showing up here and there.
A convention tip for carry cages is to use puppy pads instead of shavings. It makes them much easier to clean out. If the pan is deep enough put down a thin layer of shavings, then a puppy pad (with a few shavings on top if preferred). After cooping your rabbits, discard the soiled puppy pad. If the host club offers a storage room be sure to clearly magic mark your name on the pans. If your vehicle has room, store your carriers there, they'll be much easier to access come check-out day and won't go missing. Don't put the carriers under the coops as this is hazardous, most host clubs won't allow it. A carrier has been known to bring down an entire row of rabbit cages when it dislodged a base unit holding the cages up.
Pack a mini-dustpan and broom to clean the coops. Bring some shavings with you if you have extra room. You can generally find bags of shavings to refresh the coops at the beginning of the week but they may become scarce latter. The coops sit on wooden "trays" on which the host clubs may put a small handful of shavings. This isn't nearly enough to keep a rabbit clean for a week. The animals need a good couple of inches of shavings so they don't become soiled from sitting. You may reserve insertable wire "risers" or bring your own as some wooled breeds do. You can find out the cage size from the host club. The rabbits will sometimes kick or dig the shavings out of their coop or the simple act of resting in the center will shove the shavings out the sides. To help combat this I put thin cardboard or heavy construction paper on either side of the coop. This requires some extra work bending and folding to get it thru the surrounding wire but I feel it is worth it. The purpose is 3-fold. It helps keep the shavings contained so you can at least shove it back into the coop. It keeps other rabbits from spraying yours and maybe provide a bit of prevention if a neighbor sneezes. Oh, and it helps lessen bunny squabbles when the bucks take a dislike to each other and try to start a fight. Cleaning coops while judging is going on is frowned upon by the breed clubs as it makes it harder for the runners to get around. It is ideal though for the owners because the rabbits are out of the coops making them easier to clean. Generally you have to drag a bag of clean shavings and an empty one for the soiled better from coop to coop. Take care not to spook the rabbits in the bottom coops when dragging these bags by them. It helps to have a small container to dump dirty water from dishes as you simply can't dump it on the floor. I prefer to buy a gallon jug or two of water to bring with me than use what comes out of local taps. Rabbits are displayed by class, so unfortunately, your animals will be spread out through the breed's area. While all your solid senior bucks will be cooped in one row, the solid junior does may be two aisles away. Generally the cooping is three tiers high, numbered vertically. So if you have 3 bucks, coop 100, 101 & 102, one may be on the bottom tier and the other two will be a top tier and second tier. I don't know of one ARBA member who doesn't prefer the sensible idea of cooping all an exhibitor's animals together in one place, per breed of course. But ARBA demands the host club set up as a display by class and not by what makes sense. Sigh.... The clear benefit is that an exhibitor could feed and clean all their animals in one stop, instead of hop-scotching over other exhibitors with all their supplies. Plus a potential buyer can see all your animals in one contained section, the ones for sale, the ones not and how they may all be related to each other. Getting a clearer picture of consistancy and quality to make better decisions is helpful. Use your exhibitor tag to write your coop numbers on the back so you can find your rabbits quicker. Some conventions use the exhibitor number instead of by exhibitor name alphabetically. Hole punch your business card, put on a shower ring and hang on your For Sale animal's cages. While on the subject, mark everything you bring with your name and cell phone number so nothing goes missing. Many exhibitors use cute-sy things to mark their coops to make their own rabbits easier to find. It might be a colorful ping-pong ball, tags, used CD's and signs. This does help, just be sure to remove your junk when departing so the host club doesn't have to do it when breaking down coops. If you end up with a scratch cage, keep your feed, water and other supplies in it. For feeding I use a round plastic tool tray that has three divided compartments in it. I put a baggie of grain in one, a baggie of oatmeal and baggie of striped sunflower seeds in the other two. I can easily carry this from aisle to aisle. The handiest thing to carry a water jug, feed and hay, cleaning supplies and grooming kit is one of those rolling wheeled crates. As the new month of May starts, I plan to share tips for attending the American Rabbit Breeders Convention. This year's will be held in October in PA, Yippee!!! Us Northeast folks seldom get to attend a driveable convention.
I've attended all but 2 ARBA Conventions since 1986. I doubt I'd have traveled to so many states I have if not for this "rabbit habit". I've been to Louisville, KY 3 times, Portland, OR twice, Columbus, OH 3 times, Tulsa, OK, Ft. Worth, TX, Tampa, FL San Diego and Pomona, CA, Tacoma, WA, Providence, RI, Madison, WI, Peoria, IL twice, Grand Rapids, MI, Indianapolis, IN twice to name most. While much of the time was spent in the showroom, some sightseeing has been squeezed in here and there. FEED and WATER It is helpful to either bring or buy bottled water and of course, bring your own brand of feed. Some conventions list grain donated by feed companies but it is possible they may run out or not bring the particular type you use. Generally metal cups are provided with the coops but are not always safely smooth edged, so plan to bring your own. If you use water bottles bring plastic cable ties to zip tie onto the cages. They are less likely than metal hooks to get knocked off and lost. Water bottles provide cleaner water than cage cups that get shavings kicked into them or germs from a next door neighbor bunny. It is also easier to tell how much your rabbit is drinking. However, use bottles only if your rabbit is already used to them, don't start new at covention. And still refill with fresh water daily. Write your name on all your watering cans, water containers, feed cups and bottles (include your cell phone # if you like). Measure out how much grain you will need for each day, place in a ziploc bag and write the day on it. That way you will only need to bring in one small bag daily instead of a big container to slep around the showroom aisles. Pack a few extras for rabbits you are selling and a couple of empties for the new rabbits you will undoubtedly buy. If you have finicky eaters, pack their treats. Papaya tablets, carrots, bread, parsley, oatmeal, striped sunflower seeds. Always, always bring hay if you can. There usually is an Oxbow or other hay vendor there but you will pay premium. If packing space is tight though, it is worth it to buy at the showroom. I would not bother packing a hayrack. Check back as more tips will be shared.. |
AuthorHoping to share the rabbitry happenings & thoughts. Also HINTS that I hope will help you and your rabbits.
|