Buckeye Rabbits
Buckeye Rabbits raises show quality American Breed Rabbits, TAMUK Composites and Czech Frostys
Born and raised in New York City, I was fascinated by nature and sought to learn all I could about the natural world. Now, I’m living my childhood dream, homesteading on 1.7 acres in North Alabama.
My homesteading journey was sparked by my marathon and triathlon ambitions (as a locally competitive runner) that led me to the paleo diet and the evils of the food industry back in 2009. Falling down the “rabbit hole” enabled me to find the Survival Podcast among other prepper platforms and I quickly realized I needed to pivot my life to be able to raise healthy clean food for my growing family.
Soon after finding my property nestled in the hollow behind Monte Sano State Park, I enrolled in Geoff Lawton’s online PDC in 2013. Completing my Permaculture Design Certification helped me design my property over the last 11 years. A very important aspect of that plan was incorporating meat rabbits.
Following the advice of one of the early podcasters Broad Rivers Pastures, that dealt with raising heritage animals, I finally settled on raising the American Breed rabbit which is a heritage breed that was a favored meat rabbit in the early 1900’s. It has good meat to bone ratio, a friendly temperament and fast growth. My interests were to maintain and improve the genetics of this rare breed rabbit which is on the Nature Conservancy’s list of endangered rabbits. Eventually this led to my involvement in showing the rabbits to learn how to select for the best traits. My herd has now won multiple awards at many ARBA competitions. Last year my rabbit won Best of Breed at the 2023 National ARBA (American Rabbit Breeders Association) Convention. In addition, I was awarded the Rabbit of the Year, and Herdsman of the Year in my national Breed club, BARNSC.
I also raise the TAMUK Composite rabbits that were developed at Texas A&M specifically for heat tolerance and solid meat production. For most breeds, the hot Alabama summer, causes heat sterility and the risk of losing stock to the heat stress of pregnancy and kindling. Breeding has to cease. However, these TAMUKS will breed all through the summer so production does not have to halt seasonally.
I have not only provided healthy meat rabbit breeding stock for many years, but also have worked to help people succeed in their own homesteading journey with rabbits. I have opened up Buckeye Rabbitry for dispatch demos, homestead tours that focused on rabbit feed systems, rabbit care and how to cook and prepare rabbit meat.
I also helped start a rabbit club last year called, The Southern United Rabbit Fanatics (SURF). It’s goals are to promote to the public the value and versatility of rabbits for fur, food, fertility, fiber, fun and friends. The Club events and Facebook group educates locally and online how to ethically raise rabbits and utilize their benefits for show, meat, companionship and exhibition.
Lastly, I’ve indulged myself after raising rabbits for specifically meat. A trio of Czech Frostys are now my joy to play with! Just being accepted into ARBA in 2022, I will have fun, learning about a totally new body type and standard. Keeping life fresh!
PS: this is just the start of my website! I will soon be posting a lot more information on my rabbits.