ABOUT US
Now that I have retired from 36 years of teaching high school English, it is time to get caught up with my hobby of raising rabbits. The rabbitry in the garage had become oppressive. I had fallen behind in my battle with spiderwebs and the trays needed cleaning. I had even fallen behind with tattooing of ears and updating my pedigrees at the World Pedigree Project. My first instinct was to try and disperse the whole herd to another New Zealand red breeder, but, I had no inquiries, except for a few individuals looking for a buck or a breeding pair. I thought that I would rather focus my retirement on training my last three mammoth donkeys to ride and drive; however, something about giving up on my rabbits just didn’t seem right.
It may sound funny, but the path to revitalizing my interest in my raising and showing rabbits began with the cleaning of my rocking chair in the garage. Unused in a while, it too had been covered by those nasty spiderwebs. First the chair, then a stack of three cages at a time, then the walls, then the play run, and finally my rabbitry looked nice again. Perhaps the cleaning reminding me of how much work rabbit breeders put into their hobby. Those winning genetics take time and effort to develop. Now with everything clean, all rabbits tattooed, and pedigrees up-to-date, it is time to start filling those nest boxes for the 2021 show season. Three does have been bred and three more will be bred next month. Hopefully, the COVID vaccines will have eased the COVID crisis, and hopefully vaccines for RHD2 will be more readily available. My family misses traveling to rabbit shows and listening to what the judges have to say about our new crop of rabbits. Best of all, the rocking chair is back in use rocking those New Zealand reds. Hard to give up on something that has brought joy to my life since my dad gave me that first rabbit Pete when I was only seven-years-old. Evan Hackett Website: newzealandreds.com Email: newzealandreds@gmail.com Phone: (559) 359-8359 Members of: ARBA WCNZRBA AFNZRBA Website last updated December 9, 2020 |
(Rabbit practicing for upcoming soccer match!)
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