Beech Tree News Network

The 4H Rabbiteers of Butler County showed a total of 21 rabbits at the Stonebelt RBA in Columbus, IN show last weekend.  There were 1,066 registered entries from 172 exhibitors. 

The Stonebelt Club did a great job putting on this show.  They support their local 4-H Rabbit Club by allowing them to fundraise with breakfast, lunch and snacks sales all day long.  The bean soup was tasty - thanks Bartholomew County 4H Rabbit Club!

Olivia Dunn won Best in Breed with Scarlet, a Californian Junior Doe.

Kara McFadyen won Best Opposite Sex with Buddy Jr., a Californian Senior Buck.

Anne Marie Littrell, Gabe McFayden and Kiersten Foit made their Rabbit Show debut with Copper (Californian), Toothless (Holland Lop), Mochachino and Harlow (Mini Lops).  Everyone learned a lot.

With this being an open class competition, Club leader, Angela Smith was also able to enter her rabbits.  She took Best of Variety and Best of Opposite Sex with her New Zealand Senior Buck named Rocky. Her Californian Junior Doe won Best in Breed and got to go to the Best in Show table.  That was exciting!  She also placed in many other categories.

Congratulations to all!

Preparing for the Show…

In the days before the show we spent time getting our rabbit ready.  We all brought our bunnies to Monday meetings and groomed them, including trimming and cleaning their nails.  Some of our rabbits needed tattoos in their ear so we did that, too.  Ouch!  We practice handling our rabbits regularly in order to get them used to sitting on a table.  This helps for judging.  During our meetings we regularly learn about the breed standards through hands-on activities and games that club leader, Angela Smith selects.

At the Show...

On show day we got up at 2 AM to leave at 3 AM.  Why so early?  We needed to arrive in time to fill out forms and pay our entry fees at the registration table. After the paperwork was done, we situated our rabbits with food and water.  We gave them a final brushing and comforted them.  They were in a new and stressful situation.  We carried our rabbits to the judging tables and volunteers wrote the judge’s comments.  The judges spoke to us about what they look for in each breed as they judged.  That was helpful!  Most were informative and quite personable, even asking us questions.

The 4-H Rabbiteers Rabbit Club is open to any youth ages 9 – 19 years with a shared love for rabbits.  Our meetings are at the Extension Office.  All you need is a rabbit to get started and we can help with that.  Call the Extension Office at 270-526-3767 to find out when our next meeting is and join us.

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For more information contact the Butler County Extension Office at 112 E GL Smith Street, Morgantown or call 526-3767.

Educational programs of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service serve all people regardless of race, color, age, sex, disability, or national origin.