About our rabbitry...
Story...
(Written by breeder/editor Jenna Luikart)
“I grew up on a farm in Mason County, West Virginia. My mom rescued horses, breeds dairy goats, show poultry (ducks, turkies, chickens, ect), among a few other things. But she could never keep a rabbit. She takes amazing care of all her animals, but for some reason, she couldn’t keep a rabbit alive to save her life.
Personally, I’ve raised poultry myself for 18 years (my entire life of 18 years I should say, LOL). But just recently, I started into rabbits after my mom rescued a breeding pair of chestnut New Zealands after supposedly picking up just a Silkie rooster (turns out he was a cross bred, but that’s beyond the point). The lady was going to just let these two rabbits loose to get ate by something because she didn’t want them anymore. Of course, i’m like, “They’ll die anyways, so what do we have to lose?”
So I care for these two rabbits, and then 3 weeks later and on the day we have to check in animals for our local fair, the doe gives birth to 6 kits! I’m losing my mind because I wasn’t even sure how the adults themselves had survived that long, and now the doe had a litter I had no idea she’d even have (also at this point, I thought the other one was the doe; all I knew was that one was a buck and the other was a doe and nobody even told me which one was which!). I didn’t know how to care for them, but I learned as fast as I could, and the experience of watching the doe raise her kits into adults was eye opening. This was our very first litter at Blue Sky Action Rabbitry, which became our official name a month later.
Not a week after our naming, we took in two Lionhead cross does (one we adopted out, and the other stayed). So for the Lionhead cross doe, I got our first Lionhead/New Zealand buck, who was Angus. And it was about back-to-back afterwards; two of the rabbits from our original litter were mis-sexed, so then they had a litter we kept two of, and then came the pair of feed store rescues, and then somebody gave us this Flemish Giant buck, several more litters were born, and then we totally bought up a herd liquidation, and suddenly, we became a rabbitry with several breeds of good looking stock!
It’s wild to recollect how we used to be able to just stare at a rabbit and it would drop dead, but now here I am, breeding on the same farm, only with more knowledge of the species and a better set-up; which is always a work in progress, and I don’t think it will ever truly be done!”
Follow our blog on our website to find more stories of our origins and words from our breeder!
Out on a secluded West Virginia farm in the middle of a thousand acres of woods is our small scale farm, officially named Cika Lee Hollow Poultry Farm. But what started with chickens quickly grew into...well, pigeons, doves, and an overabundance of rabbits, so we came up with a separate name for the rabbit farm, not to mention it being named after my favorite song, Blue Sky Action Rabbitry. The first rabbits were some New Zealand crosses, and then the doe gave birth to 5 kits, and 2 more does were dumped on us. This is our first year in, and after a recent herd liquidation stock purchase, have decided to open up an official rabbitry. Our page and rabbitry alike are still in the early stages, so bear with us! We are currently building better hutches, but for now the rabbits laze around in open air cages with wire bottoms, most of them with one rabbit to a cage to prevent fighting. They have optional Pepsi-crate beds to lie in if they feel like it. The kit hutches are solid bottomed, and the does and kits live in there until they are old enough to explore outside of the nest box. Bucks and does are separate until breeding, and does are bred no more than twice a year; spring kits are sold, and fall kits are butchered for meat (Usually! We try!)
Like every animal on the farm intended for personal consumption, the fryers are treated with respect, and eat 100% organic feed until they are processed. They are treated like living beings, not as commodities. Their hides are not wasted, but turned into leather. They are humanely killed while eating and distracted, never knowing what hit them when they go. And we are proud to go by these ways of treatment, because as Christians, we believe God created all of these wonderful animals for us to care for and feed our families with. We share the meat and hides with others, sold alongside farm fresh, antibiotic free eggs from our poultry farm.
We strive to only sell our rabbits to good homes, be it for meat, pet, or show purposes. Contrary to the belief, most rabbitries do care about the destinations of their offspring, and didn't breed and care for the animals just to be dumped off in the woods or an animal shelter!
“I grew up on a farm in Mason County, West Virginia. My mom rescued horses, breeds dairy goats, show poultry (ducks, turkies, chickens, ect), among a few other things. But she could never keep a rabbit. She takes amazing care of all her animals, but for some reason, she couldn’t keep a rabbit alive to save her life.
Personally, I’ve raised poultry myself for 18 years (my entire life of 18 years I should say, LOL). But just recently, I started into rabbits after my mom rescued a breeding pair of chestnut New Zealands after supposedly picking up just a Silkie rooster (turns out he was a cross bred, but that’s beyond the point). The lady was going to just let these two rabbits loose to get ate by something because she didn’t want them anymore. Of course, i’m like, “They’ll die anyways, so what do we have to lose?”
So I care for these two rabbits, and then 3 weeks later and on the day we have to check in animals for our local fair, the doe gives birth to 6 kits! I’m losing my mind because I wasn’t even sure how the adults themselves had survived that long, and now the doe had a litter I had no idea she’d even have (also at this point, I thought the other one was the doe; all I knew was that one was a buck and the other was a doe and nobody even told me which one was which!). I didn’t know how to care for them, but I learned as fast as I could, and the experience of watching the doe raise her kits into adults was eye opening. This was our very first litter at Blue Sky Action Rabbitry, which became our official name a month later.
Not a week after our naming, we took in two Lionhead cross does (one we adopted out, and the other stayed). So for the Lionhead cross doe, I got our first Lionhead/New Zealand buck, who was Angus. And it was about back-to-back afterwards; two of the rabbits from our original litter were mis-sexed, so then they had a litter we kept two of, and then came the pair of feed store rescues, and then somebody gave us this Flemish Giant buck, several more litters were born, and then we totally bought up a herd liquidation, and suddenly, we became a rabbitry with several breeds of good looking stock!
It’s wild to recollect how we used to be able to just stare at a rabbit and it would drop dead, but now here I am, breeding on the same farm, only with more knowledge of the species and a better set-up; which is always a work in progress, and I don’t think it will ever truly be done!”
Follow our blog on our website to find more stories of our origins and words from our breeder!
Out on a secluded West Virginia farm in the middle of a thousand acres of woods is our small scale farm, officially named Cika Lee Hollow Poultry Farm. But what started with chickens quickly grew into...well, pigeons, doves, and an overabundance of rabbits, so we came up with a separate name for the rabbit farm, not to mention it being named after my favorite song, Blue Sky Action Rabbitry. The first rabbits were some New Zealand crosses, and then the doe gave birth to 5 kits, and 2 more does were dumped on us. This is our first year in, and after a recent herd liquidation stock purchase, have decided to open up an official rabbitry. Our page and rabbitry alike are still in the early stages, so bear with us! We are currently building better hutches, but for now the rabbits laze around in open air cages with wire bottoms, most of them with one rabbit to a cage to prevent fighting. They have optional Pepsi-crate beds to lie in if they feel like it. The kit hutches are solid bottomed, and the does and kits live in there until they are old enough to explore outside of the nest box. Bucks and does are separate until breeding, and does are bred no more than twice a year; spring kits are sold, and fall kits are butchered for meat (Usually! We try!)
Like every animal on the farm intended for personal consumption, the fryers are treated with respect, and eat 100% organic feed until they are processed. They are treated like living beings, not as commodities. Their hides are not wasted, but turned into leather. They are humanely killed while eating and distracted, never knowing what hit them when they go. And we are proud to go by these ways of treatment, because as Christians, we believe God created all of these wonderful animals for us to care for and feed our families with. We share the meat and hides with others, sold alongside farm fresh, antibiotic free eggs from our poultry farm.
We strive to only sell our rabbits to good homes, be it for meat, pet, or show purposes. Contrary to the belief, most rabbitries do care about the destinations of their offspring, and didn't breed and care for the animals just to be dumped off in the woods or an animal shelter!
Click on text below to see corresponding pages!
Policies
Working with our rabbits
In Action: Rabbitry News & Updates
Breeder's Blog
Breeding Schedule 2019
Gallery
Breeding
Behind our rabbits' names
Tour of our rabbitry
Contact us
Sandstorm the Flemish Giant in his harness...
Working with our rabbits
In Action: Rabbitry News & Updates
Breeder's Blog
Breeding Schedule 2019
Gallery
Breeding
Behind our rabbits' names
Tour of our rabbitry
Contact us
Sandstorm the Flemish Giant in his harness...
Socializing our kits
At about 3 weeks of age, I bring in all my similarly aged kits in the house and play with them on my bed while doing online chores/homework (I am home schooled! :-D) They get carrots and toys to play with and chew on while they do whatever they want for the next hour! Other than this, they are regularly handled and sexed each week (until 7 weeks of age) for accuracy. Always remember, however the kits are handled, all rabbits rarely enjoy being picked up, and will kick furiously for a few moments until they feel secure.
Bloodlines and Pedigrees in our Rabbits
There are many farms in our rabbits, as none of them are registered or have been pedigreed by their previous owners. Where they came from, nobody knows; they don't carry their papers in their pockets, they say! These Lionheads have been the purest stock at our rabbitry so far. But we aspire to at least hand over every new owners at least a pedigree listing the heritage of their rabbit as far back as we can list or as far back as the paper lets us list. These pedigrees won't grant an automatic ARA registration, but they will at least help you--and us--keep your rabbit's heritage straight!
Personal Pet rabbits
There are a couple highly regarded rabbits in our herd that will retire and die here instead of being sold to another home to retire. The one, Orion, even lives in the house because he isn't heat tolerant whatsoever and he's still inside because he turned out to make a great house rabbit during his "extended recovery".