Bunny'th The Porch
Pronounced ::bun-neeth::
Bunny'th The Porch a small youth run rabbitry located in Penn Valley, California, an hour and a half east of Sacramento. We breed and show Havanas in black and chocolate, and Netherland Dwarfs in self, shaded, and himi.
I first started rabits in 1994 when I turned 6 years old. I joined 4-H and persuaded my mother to start a rabbit group. The group went to a local rabbit breeders "bunny day" and bought a few Mini Rex.
My rabbitry grew from there, but always remained small. At the maximum I had 7 rabbits at one time. I showed my show string (5 of these seven rabbits) and at one time won BOB at my county fair with my home-bred castor buck, Gregor and BOSB with his mother the same day.
When I turned 10 years old I still had my original Mini Rex, Freckles, but I had lost interest by then. The strain of homework had become too much, and homework comes first, so the rabbits went.
Soon after I got out of rabbits, I got out of 4-H.
3 years went by, and I helped my mom raise a few chickens for eggs, and my sister and I would exhibit a few of the chicks at the county fair. Well, it was really boring to show all by ourselves and not associate with any kids, so we decided to join a group. We didn't go the usual 4-H route, but joined a newly founded Grange Youth.
After one year of showing poultry with the Grange Youth, I decided to join all the other girls of the Grange in raising show rabbits. I spent months researching all the different breeds, yearning after all the rare and un-recognized breeds, like Lion Heads, Dwarf Hotots, Havanas, Mini Satins and the like.
When it came down to the wire, I decided to choose between Havanas and Dwarf Hotots. On October 25, 2001 I planned to visit a rabbitry that had both of these breeds, and another rabbitry that bred only Havanas. The plan to visit rabbitry with Havanas and Dwarf Hotots fell through, so we were only able to visit the Havanas. Boy, am I glad we did!! Not that I don't like the Dwarf Hotots, but I am now so in love Havanas, nothing will pry them from me! From that rabbitry I bought a black buck, named HH's Molokai, from Vikki Tuma, the top chocolate Havana breeder in 2000.
I then proceeded a few months later buy a doe from one of the best breeders on the west coast, if not the nation, the Kivi's. The doe I bought from them is SKR Glitz, half sister to the BOSB buck at the 2001 Havana Nationals.
These two foundation animals have produce several excellent rabbits for me. They include Peirce's/Kelc's BTP Havasu (2 legs, BIS & RIS winning daughter), Peirce's/Kelc's BTP Bucephalus (Grand Champion, RIS winner), Kelc's BTP Sensashenal (2nd palce black junior doe at the 2003 ARBA Convention Youth). This foundation line continues to produce excellent offspring, and their grandchilderen continue to amaze me with their quality. The Havanas are my pride and joy, and an excellent breed to start my rabbitry.
The Netherlands
At my second show with Molokai, before I had gotten Glitz, my mother and my sister bought a himi Netherland Dwarf buck named BB's Fullten. He was a nice little animal, but the current owner had lost the pedigree, so we would have to send in his registration number to ARBA to get it. Then finding me to help them, we located a nice little junior black doe, named Clear Creek's Flika, out of a siamese sable father to breed him to. We were started in the Netherland Dwarf business!
We have grown and changed a great deal since those early days. We have added REWs and dilutes to our Netherland program, and are looking to add shaded martins within the next 3-4 months. I have scaled back on our himis, but still do enjoy thowing them in the mix every once in a while. We have kept our oringinal two Netherlands, BB's Fullten, the himi buck, and Clear Creek's Flika, the black doe. We are phasing out of the blacks too, they just don't hold my interest as much as the shadeds, shaded martins, and the REWs do (well, when you have a barn full of black Havanas, you'd want some color too!!).
This year I attended the 80th Annual American Rabbit Breeders Association National Convention in Wichita Kansas with the Havanas and a few of the Dwarfs. It was very interesting to see how we were able to compete nationally with our stock. All the Havanas I took were all home bred animals, a goal of mine for many years now. Kelc's BTP Heineken was the 1st place black sr. buck out of 17 with 16 breeders from around the country. Kelc's BTP Sensashenal was the 2nd place black junior doe, 2nd only to the BOB winner!! A chocolate junior doe of my own breeding was the 3rd place chocolate junior doe, and Kelc's BTP Knock on Wood was the 4th place chocolate junior buck. I am very proud of all of my animals, and was happy to see that my breeding and culling selections are producing the desired results for national competition.
We are now looking forward to attending the 2004 ANDRC Dwarf Nationals here in California. Then I hope to take a trip part way across the country again to attend the 2004 HRBA Havana National Show in Colorado. The Havana Nationals are not set in stone, but I really do hope I will be able to make it out there this year!
Thanks for listening to me ramble on, I hope you enjoy the rest of the site, the rabbits, and please visit a few of the links listed on my page! They are all carfully hand chosen for either the quality of their rabbits, the information on rabbits in general that they list, or just their graphic webpage eye appeal.
I wish you all the best-
Kelc |
