Some of the collectibles I've put up are: a brand new Santa nightlight with his arm- ful of bunnies, Susan Wheeler's series of Christmas Rabbit Plates, Arthur Court Rabbit Salt & Pepper shakers, and soon to be listed Dedham pottery bunnies.
Christmas Shopping anyone? Instead of running to the stores to buy, I got online to sell by listing a bunch of bunny things on eBay under the seller name: Debvbbf. Check them out, some don't start til late tonight. Since my house kind of looks like a bunny gift shop (so says Gary), I've decided to "share the wealth". It used to be easy to find a lot of bunny motif items, not so much now.
Some of the collectibles I've put up are: a brand new Santa nightlight with his arm- ful of bunnies, Susan Wheeler's series of Christmas Rabbit Plates, Arthur Court Rabbit Salt & Pepper shakers, and soon to be listed Dedham pottery bunnies.
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Now is the time to stock up on a few of those little wooden crates that tangerines/sweeties are sold in. They make cozy temporary quarters for babies when cleaning their nestboxes. Just throw in some fine shavings, as surely the minute they feel they are in a different element, they will pee. So while you are doing nestbox housekeeping, they can comfortably wait in the orange crate. Better that they squirt there than in the freshly cleaned nestbox. Save out some clean, dry fur to re-line their regular nestbox. Even then they never seem to burrow right back in, they stumble around like little drunks trying to find their way home.
BBF's Hot Button - BOB - 11/10/2012 BBF's Hot Button won Best of Breed at the Newport 11/10/2012 Show. This makes his 7th Grand Champion leg under 7 different judges. It's nice to see he appeals to a wide range of judges, not one of those buns that does well only under one judge. We all know the Standard is up for interpretation by everyone; breeders and judges alike read it with a different set of eyes. So it is good to know when judges from different parts of the country appreciate your homegrown Holland Lop. Button is one of those small, balanced, compact little guys who goes out there against the "big boys". He poses himself well, not hyper-extending. Button, Button, whose got the Button? Thankfully, I Do!! Eastern Maine RBA's show yesterday was a BIG Success with a very large entry. This annual show used to be the biggest in Maine years ago. We'd have over 700 entries back in the days when there were only single shows, before all the double shows that are the norm now. As more and more show date conflicts in N.E. started happening with all being double shows, gas prices spiking, economy tanking, people were having to choose which shows to attend and often choosing those closer to home and not attending two weekends or days in a row. The large YMCA was no longer affordable ($400) with the decrease in entries, so we moved to another building. Then that one started hiking their fee (over $400) and with entries dwindling further, we moved the show to yet a smaller affordable building. At one recent Nov. show the entries dwindled to just over 100 rabbits per show. This past year the entries have picked up considerably and yesterday we had about 430 PER SHOW.
Yes, the show room was crowded but we made do with moving the awards and raffle table outdoors, asked exhibitors not to bring in grooming tables and chairs and to stack their carriers which all helped tremendously. We have spoken to the previous bigger facility and they have reduced their rental fee for us. So it is back to the larger building April 27, 2013. Our Maritimes neighbors have become great supporters of our shows and we thank them. Each year EMRBA gives a free raffle ticket to each exhibitor for a Thanksgiving basket. This year's winner, Anne F. is from Canada, only their Thanksgiving Day is the U.S.'s Columbus Day, so Thanksgiving has already gone by for her! But I am sure she will enjoy the food and Hannaford gift card that went with it just the same. The raffle table will get jazzed up next year now that all the previous raffle donations have been used up and hopefully will have a return of the ever popular bags of grain. There was a Brand New Digital Picture Frame raffled. What a great way to show off your rabbit photos. Everyone seemed to enjoy the awards which were rabbit lamps, single hole carriers, grooming tray, grooming show box, bunny plates and glass pictures. This year's show secretary Tena was a first timer getting hit with this large entry but handled it well with an assist from previous show secretary Rich. A few diehard members set up and broke down the show for which we are grateful. Hope to see everyone at the April show next year in a bigger building with our many good judges, great awards and fun show. David Szott Caught this YouTube video today & seeing the black vest struck a memory. My brother David passed away last year. He served in Vietnam. His passing was due in part to exposure to Agent Orange when volunteering for onshore duty off the aircraft carrier. I remember when he came home on leave always in civilian clothes, back then they couldn't proudly wear their uniforms. Glad everyone is more "educated" now that these men were and are indeed, all heroes too! Here is a photo of him with one of his prize possessions, his Harley... in a black vest.. like the man in the video. Thank you David, my dad and all other veterans. Here are a few tips to help with that stressful job of tattooing rabbits so that they can be shown as per ARBA rules. If not for an identifying tattoo, there would be no proof of ownership or being able to determine which is YOUR Tort Holland Lop senior buck amongst a class of 20 torts. They tend to all look alike once they are up on the show table running around doing their busy thing.
1) First make a list of what tattoo numbers you want to use for which rabbit. Everyone has a different system which may help remind them of who a particular rabbit's parents are. I use an initial assigned to the sire and use odd numbers for the bucks and even numbers for the does. Nowadays with pen style tattoos many breeders choose to write names or shortened versions of names to identify their rabbits. Years ago people would use the initials of their rabbitry name or their own surname. Just make sure you keep a list of what numbers have been previously used. I keep one tacked on the rabbitry bulletin board. 2) Get all your equipment together, tattoo pliers with numbers/letters or tattoo pen, ink or paste, ink brush, rubbing alcohol, colored piece of test paper, Q-Tips, vaseline, paper towels, carpet, paper towels and towel. 3) Tattoo when temperatures aren't too hot or wait until evening. 4) Keep activity minimal and calm. Have patience, handle gently but firmly, pat and reassure them. 5) Tattoo white or light colored animals first to lessen the chance of transferring ink from hands or towel. 6) Instead of using vaseline to seal in the tattoo ink, I use a tube of lip balm that has Vitamen E in it. The tube is easier to handle than dipping into a jar of vaseline. The Vitamen E will help seal over the tattoo. Make sure the lip balm stick is pliable and not the hard and waxy type. 7) A colored file card or colored piece of paper works best to preview the tattoo to make sure you have the numbers lined up properly and not upside down. Just punch the card before tattooing and take a look. 8) If you use tattoo letters/numbers, drop them in a small jar of alcohol to clean and not allow for ink to cake on them. You can scrub them with an old toothbrush. 9) Some people use a Q-Tip dipped in alcohol to clean the ear before tattooing or when applying the ink. We were lucky at Blackberry Farm that we remained untouched by Hurricane Sandy for the most part. We had plenty of downpours and strong winds but we've had worse from regular storms. We were prepared with water in containers for the animals and ourselves, wood for the woodstove, candles, batteries and gas. Course if we hadn't been prepared we likely would have lost power.
I hope everyone made it back from convention safely and didn't come home to a big mess from the storm. I heard of cancelled flights and folks having to take different routes home to get by snowstorms and flooding. I guess if I had to miss a convention, it was for the best as my flights home would have been cancelled. It is one thing when you only have to worry about yourself but flying with rabbits is so much more complicated. Just having a place to keep them after having to check out of the showroom could be a challenge. It does give you pause on what kind of evacuation plan you need for you and your animals if you are in areas where it is likely to happen. Let's Eastern Maine RBA puts on a November show each year. Every exhibitor is given a free ticket for the Thanksgiving Food Basket drawing. They also have a nice raffle table, great awards and writers raffle. It'll be girl power as we have 3 women judges for the double open and single youth shows. For anyone interested in attending, go to the www.emrba.org website for a show catalog. I'll have a few animals for sale and a couple of grooming trays & papaya tablets too. Several of my jrs does will have turned sr for this show and they have remained small but typey. Their littermate brothers will have to sit it out for a while as just-turned-sr bucks can't compete with those 3+ year old bucks. Hope to see other HL exhibitors at this last show of the season!
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AuthorHoping to share the rabbitry happenings & thoughts. Also HINTS that I hope will help you and your rabbits.
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