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These rabbits always attract attention because they are so different in build to the average rabbit, and because of their attractive bright chestnut colour. I find that they are docile and friendly pets, indeed they are kept as house rabbits by some. Some say that they are nervous, and can show fury, but I’m glad to say our strain exhibits none of these traits. The biggest thing you need to accept with Belgian Hares is their size, and here in the UK 9lbs weight is desired for an adult. The size of the cages they need are approx. 4 ft cages for youngsters, 5 ft for adults and 6ft cages for breeding. Hares were one of the most popular breeds at the turn of the last century but now they are almost one of the rarer breeds. Their demise could be due to the fact that they were also good meat rabbits but there aren’t so many people who eat rabbit now in these days of plentiful choice. Perhaps their size is their downfall in attracting young people to the breed as building a 6 ft cage or two needed for a fast growing family of eight or more young is not a two minute job, in these days when we’ve never enough time. If you are attracted to keeping this breed you will find all stages of their lives very rewarding. They first emerge from the nest as ordinary rabbits, but by 6 weeks old there is no mistaking the arch of their back. Then the size, colour, and straight long limbs begin to show. The changing of the baby coat and the true shape begin to get you excited, wondering if this could be a winner. By 10 weeks old you have the pride of seeing your Hare posing and showing all it’s best qualities and you know you’ve got something for the show table. It follows from here that you can also help others to love these graceful rabbits and supply quality stock to them. We have supplied several people with stock both for pets and to found new studs.

EARS must have substance and be nicely rounded at the top. When posing the ears should run at the same angle as the head, not straight up. The recommended length of the ears is 5 inches, if they are too short the animal looks too rabbity. The colour should be carried well inside the edges, and the ears should be set off by deep black lacing at the top.

FRONT - There should be very little chest between the shoulder blades, leading to a pair of gun barrel straight front legs. The longer the chest and front legs, the higher the arch will be.

FEET are to be solid in colour free from ticking, pale bars or blotches. The back feet from hock to toe end should be fine and long and measure around 6 inches.

SHAPE – This typifies the breed, briefly described as “distinctly arched” not choppy or square. The arch should not be humped like a camel, conversely, nor should the barrel of the body be too long and flat. The rump should be well rounded, with extra good width for a breeding doe. The hind legs when viewed from the back should be well aligned. It should be possible to get the hand between the hind legs, from the back, without touching the floor. The American way of posing facilitates this.

They should have a graceful “racey” appearance and have been called the poor man’s race horse. The Hare should be fine and not heavily boned.

The length of the Hare should be in proportion, as going for too much length, can result in problems with the spine.

TAIL should be straight and in line with the spine and have no kinks. It has a cream or white under colour.

COLOUR should be a solid Chestnut Red, evenly distributed, particularly on haunches and around the jaw. It should be topped by a rich black wavy ticking evenly over the body, which is not too heavy. The colour next to the skin should be a dark slate blue.

Belly colour should be the same red colour as we have said “ a solid Chestnut Red” Many exhibits are paler, but this is the ideal. The colour is lighter in the groin.

CONDITION – The flesh should be firm and free from any looseness or ungainliness. The Hare should have a healthy appearance.

COAT should be short and flyback when groomed the wrong way with good quality stiffish texture.

Extracts from an Article dated July 7th 1966 by the British Belgian Hare Club Secretary Capt. C. Earnshaw

Once again it has been suggested that it is very difficult to train a Hare to pose. In some cases it isn’t very easy. Hares are like humans, they vary, and again like humans, they are easier to teach when the lessons begin in their early period of development. We have all seen the dreadful type of exhibit (in more than one breed) that springs and bites like a Bull Terrier whenever the judge’s hand goes to take it up for examination. I always think that such exhibits are the equivalent of our present day problem children, those poor mixed up kids whose trouble always seems to stem from an awful home background. I well remember a discussion at a club show, following a judge being bitten by a disgruntled matronly doe, when a member standing by said I’d soon *** cure her. Asked for details of his method he suggested a pad on the end of a stick dipped in mustard. I thought at the time that a good mustard sandwich might alter his views. However these are the exceptions and the key word is patience. As soon as the young leave the doe, at about 10 weeks, handle them gently and frequently. Take them out of the hutch before feeding. You will find progress accelerates after the first few days. Dabbing them on the nose with mustard will not get you the type of Hare which will win Best in Show.

Position the hind legs in such a manner that the animal is sitting squarely on the hind legs in a natural position

Palm up, place the left hand under the chest and lift gently. Stroke the rabbit with the other hand. Once the rabbit has accepted you doing this take it to the next stage. Gently take hold of the ears with your right hand and lift the head. Gently raise the animal until it is on the tips of its toes and then encourage the Hare to support itself high on its front legs.

Once the Hare will bear its weight on its front legs the next step is to get the Hare to hold the pose. With encouragement and gentle handling the Hare will respond

As far back as 1880 the Belgian was a show variety; in fact the most popular show variety. Show reports prove that the breed topped the bill at all the important fixtures.

Ernest Wilkins bought his first Hare in 1880 and was a friend of the man who started the breed in England, Mr Lumb.

In this book he says he thinks Hares were at their best in the 1920’s. In the middle of the decade they reached their highest level of excellence, so high in fact that the competition was extremely fierce and excellent Hares were often cardless (not placed). There were some beautiful coloured Hares – some you could warm your hands with. Hind feet were very rich and ran well up the hock, while forelegs were decidedly longer, finer and cleaner (without ticking) than even the best of today.

Here, to my mind, is one of the most important features of the Hares make up. If I made any suggestion to add to or alter the Standard I would like to add that the forelegs be “well set on”, by which I mean that they should be so placed in the rabbits anatomy that they naturally lift the forepart of the body and give that alert appearance we desire. If so placed the Hare is always naturally poised, is never squatty and moves with grace and freedom. Legs should be as long as possible and perfectly straight.

Faults of forelegs are weak joints, which cause knock knees or sprawly feet, or, contrariwise, bow legs and bony joints. These faults are usually hereditary. In some cases problems can be caused by jump boards used at too early an age. They should never be used until bones are mature, say, not under 4 months.

The two most important characteristics in your breeding stock must be shape and style, then colour.

I place these first as they are the foundation on which you must build. It matters not how good your colour is if you have not got the correct shape and Hare like body that distinguish a high class Belgian Hare from every other variety of rabbit.

Breeding stock should be of good size, but not abnormal. The happy medium is the safest course. The doe should be of good firm flesh and fairly roomy hindquarters. Does that are intended for breeding should not be shown too much, or too long. There is nothing which destroys the breeding capabilities of a brood doe so much as the retarding of her desire to breed. Fatty degeneration of the ovaries cause an impaired capacity to breed. In the male show condition would have no ill effect, in fact I want nothing better in a Stud buck than perfect show condition.

I am emphatic in my advice to use the best bucks available. I would much sooner breed from moderate (though well bred) does and a high class buck than from the best prize winning does and a moderate buck.

Belgian Hare does should be bred from at about 8 months old; that is if they are well grown and in good condition and sound in coat. Bucks may be used at the same age but as these are more erratic in their development than does it is best to be guided by their condition rather than age.

When a doe is mated it is advisable that she is placed in the hutch in which she will kindle. Disaster is often the result of placing a doe in a strange hutch a few days before kindling. If you use a nest box pack it nicely with soft hay about a fortnight before kindling. I am a firm believer in not messing about with does either before or after kindling. If your doe is worth her salt as a mother she will do her part without your interference. This does not mean that when necessary prompt attention can’t be used perhaps to save a litter or youngster. In such cases take the doe from the hutch and put her in a comfortable box with tempting greens whilst you warm babies and make a safe nest. After you are sure they are warm return the doe. It is a good plan when handling youngsters to rub your hands in some of the does dung, so that no foreign smell may be given to the young. Animals, I believe, and rabbits in particular, recognise their fellows and their young more by smell than by site.

In the majority of cases where the kindling takes a normal and natural course and you see the young are nicely nested, and alive, don’t worry. Keep the doe quiet for a week and at the end of that week remove her from the hutch just to check that there are no dead ones which need removing.

After kindling, feed the doe liberally with green food to help produce milk. Use your best endeavours to feed the doe, so she has plenty of milk and keeps her young contented and in the nest with full tummies. The young will normally leave the nest around three weeks old, and if you keep a nice bit of hay in the hutch around this time they will be sure to nibble it.

Keep the young on the doe as long as practicable; ten to twelve weeks. It is possible to wean at six weeks but it pays to give them a little extra time on the doe. Sometimes if the doe is spiteful to the young and they do not appear to be doing well it is better that they are weaned.

The development of the litter of well bred, good quality Hares is interesting, as they are continually developing along varying lines. At four months a good general idea of their respective and prospective quality is more or less possible. As a general rule it is the ones who develop slowly, the big gawky ones, that, all other things being equal, make the best adults. The youngster that is clean moulted, very pretty and like a miniature adult at four months is rarely a “laster”. The “laster” is rarely at its best until seven , eight or even ten months old.

When youngsters are four months old the ones who are show prospects should be kept in a separate hutch and given a little extra attention. Hares that are for show should be handled daily. They should be taken out of their hutch and placed on a table or such and groomed with a brush or hand and the forepart should be raised with the left hand placed under, just behind the forelegs. Coax your rabbit to stand in a Hare like position and stretch its limbs. This handling does pay, because it helps overcome fright and shyness on the judging table and induces the exhibit to show itself to its best advantage. Some Hares come to hand very readily and naturally, whilst others require a lot of patience. You cannot make a good Hare out of a bad one by any amount of grooming, but you can enormously improve a good one.

An example of “In-breeding and the way in which the “blood” of a particular specimen may be infused into a stud without too drastic matings of relations, I will give one that has always interested me.

This pedigree illustrates how the “blood” of Champion of England was infused into every male and female of the line. Of the eight original does that went to found the family, Wild Eyes was by Champion of England, so that Monarch was bred out of his own mother, and the fact that he was alive and well at eight years old proves that in his case the very close breeding did not hurt his stamina. Rosey Red was by Golden Realm by Comatlast out of a doe by the sire of the Champion of England, while Harecourt Supreme was by Alvaston Lady (little brother & sister), so that there was a considerable consanguinity even in the original units.

If you have Hares of only moderate quality don’t in-breed . Only if you have real tip top material can you use this method of keeping the family characteristics together.

On the other hand, I have known some very successful breeders who have always trusted to selection alone. One I have in mind particularly, said he didn’t care how they were bred as long as they were good to the eye. He had a lot of luck and bred some really good ones. Another I knew made a practice of always using the best buck that came out year by year. He never troubled how they were bred, and somehow or other he didn’t do so very bad either.

So you can take your choice. The fact is that the Hare is a really well established breed, quite one of the oldest and they have been kept much together in blood, therefore the characters in Hares are more permanently stamped than in some varieties.

Recently someone new to Hare breeding posted a question. My babies are now 5 weeks old how do I make a selection?

We all need to trim the litter if we can for space, but it can lead to mistakes and we have to bear the consequences.

Here is an example of what a difference a week makes in the same rabbit. At nine weeks this doe looks "choppy" and at ten weeks she looks a whole lot better.

By 1994 I had kept Hares for 27 years but had never really been happy with the wording and layout of the Standard. Having spent much of my working life in the formulation of schedules/data etc, I took it upon myself to have a go at a re-draft, which included burning much “midnight oil”

This re-draft was submitted (tongue in cheek) in 1995. It was accepted, (just) at the AGM and first appeared in the 1996 Year Book.

The project was to cut out ambiguity, delete unnecessary words and repetition and put everything into a logical sequence.

The number of points allocated to each Section was not altered. The points for colour were under 4 Headings, Colour, Feet, Ears and Ticking, in the old Standard. It is now under one heading with subdivisions. It was thought by some that the points for Colour had been increased, but not so – merely gathered together.

The only controversial alteration I did make was to change the wording “rich deep red of a tan or chestnut shade (not fawny)” to “rich deep chestnut red.”

Luckily I kept my original side notes. Space does not permit their inclusion here, but should anyone be interested I can provide a copy.

Incidentally, I sometimes wonder just how many judges, if asked “off the cuff” which section carries most points, Type or Colour, would come up with the correct answer. Of course a Hare must have shape and style but I personally am very focused on good colour and will not breed with anything with pale haunches. Very fine bone I value highly- as my pal Winston Laud says “I breed thoroughbreds not Shire horses.”

Over the 40 years I have been involved with Hares I have read show reports with judges comments such as “fails undercolour/fails belly colour/light in groin, which leads me to wonder just how many read the Standard. A rich belly colour will come with overall deep body colour, but undercolour, is not part of the Standard.

Keeping our breed alive, I believe, means getting Hares into the show pens against other breeds, especially where the public are admitted. Preaching is only of use if it is to the converted.

Robert Bakewell is given credit for some of the earliest work in animal breeding and improvement. He often used line breeding and inbreeding in an effort to set desired traits in the livestock that he bred but did not inbreed for the sake of inbreeding. What he really did was breed more on a best to best system without regard to the relationships of the individuals he was breeding. It just happened that when he went back he discovered the breeders relationships to each other. I think we can all learn a lot from this. I think people tend to pick a breeding system like line breeding or out crossing and try to make it work and not be flexible enough to look at the individuals that are being used. After all it is the individual rabbits that will make the system work or not work. Many people are afraid to inbreed because they have been told they will get all sorts of freaks out of it. Actual inbreeding will only bring out what is already in the gene pool and not introduce anything new. It only seems you are getting these new genes pop up because they are recessive traits that have been hidden in a line and when mated to another individual that carries the same traits they will show up. The reason that they show up is because there is a greater chance of related rabbits carrying the same recessive traits. Actually inbreeding is the quickest way to test breeding stock and remove unwanted recessive genes from your stock and not just keep them hidden for further generations. Lab rats have been inbred using brother/sister matings for over 25 generations in an attempt to breed superior specimens for lab use. You have to remember that when doing this only perhaps one rat out of twelve was used in breeding future generations.

If you are happy with what you have and want to keep the quality you have then inbreeding is probably the best way to set desirable traits. Inbreeding or line breeding will, more often than not, give you the most consistent results. In order to maintain this you should always be breeding best to best or be breeding the strengths of one to build on the weaknesses of another. If you need to add big improvements or need to add something to your stock that you do not already have then out crossing might be your best bet. You should not outcross for the sake of it but only to add something you need. If your two best rabbits happen to be out of the same buck there is no reason not to breed them together to set these desirable traits into your stud. If you find they have an undesirable trait it is best to look for an outside your current bloodline, and find a mate that is strong where yours is weak. This type of compensation breeding can be very beneficial to your stud. I think what we need to keep in mind is that we need to be aware of the different types of breeding systems and realise that we will need to use different breeding systems based on out current needs and more importantly that it is the individuals that make these different systems work or not work. I hope this gives breeders something to think about when breeding their Belgian Hares.

A BIT OF HARE HISTORY

THE HARE RABBIT - There has been lately introduced to French tables an animal called the "Hare-rabbit," partaking of the nature, characteristics, and qualifications of both the hare and the rabbit. It is highly spoken of, both as regards flesh and flavour, and is said to be the only hybrid which is able to perpetuate its race. We hope some enterprising individual will soon secure for English tables, what would seem to be a really valuable addition to our other game and poultry dishes; although it will be rather difficult to exactly assign its proper position, as within or without the meaning of "game" as by law established. Only a few specimens have been seen in England at present, but there is no reason to doubt that our rabbit fanciers will prove equal to the occasion, and cope successfully with our neighbours across the Channel in introducing a new animal serviceable in the kitchen.

SHOWING RABBITS IN SWEDEN –

possible classification, translated by Andreaz Eklund

Class A – “Adult” The rabbits should be at least 6 months old. It´s the most common, here.

Class B – “Youngster” They should be at least 4 months old. And up to 7 months, the Giants can be showed until they are 8 months.

Class C – “Single rabbits” They compete against each another. It´s not as common.

Class D – “Doe with babies” A doe with her babies, they should be from 35-56 days old. The doe must be in good condition, and her babies should be fine and as same, as possible. It´s a common class, in the spring and summer, but mostly the dwarf rabbits. Its not very often you can see a Hare doe, with 7 babies (has to be 7 for hares, or else you lose points).

Class E – “family group” A doe or a buck, with at least 5 off spring, in same breed and colour. They can also compete in class A or B. Its quite common.

Class F – “Collection” 4 rabbits in the same breed, and colour. Does and bucks.

Class G – “elite” 4 rabbits of different breeds, or same (if you want ). I personally think this is a fun class.. But it´s not so common.

Class H – “single, breeds, groups” – Almost the same as class C, not common…

Class I – “single/competition judging” – In this class, no scoring is used. They take up to 5 rabbits at the same time, and the judge talks to the public, why this rabbit is good, and why another isn’t. etc etc.. Can be different breed classes. So the best Rabbit in every breed finally gets placed. Have never seen this class...

Class K – “products” – Work from rabbits, for example. Angora products, dried skins, etc. etc. In the past you could show food from rabbits, so I guess it was important how it tasted in the judges mouth..

Class M - “youngster in a group” – They should be 6 – 12 weeks old, and there has got to be 3-6 rabbits, from the same litter, and also the same colour, and as similar as possible.. Its a common class in the spring & summer