Proud Breeders/Exhibitors of the 2005 Houston Livestock Show Grand Champion Market pen!! 

March Hares Rabbitry is owned by Russ, Tonya, Kathrine and Emma Upton in Spring, Texas, just north of Houston.  We breed and show Californians primarily for Market Pen competitions, but also for the show table.   We are members of ARBA, TRBA, NMRRC and CRSC.  Our rabbitry name reflects the purchase of our first Californian rabbits, two bucks and two does, in March 2002.  Shortly thereafter, we added Castor Mini Rex, then Broken Castor.  In July of 2005, we added Chinchilla Mini Rex and subsequently Broken Chinchilla  .In 2008 Emma decided to sell all of her Mini Rex and learn a new breed.  We are very excited to be learning about Mini Lops!  A fun breed that is providing new and exciting challenges to our rabbit project.  

We acquired the Californians for a 4-H project of Kate's.  Her 4-H chapter had a very active rabbit group and we had considered getting some rabbits prior to her joining so we took the plunge.  At the first show she actually entered (CTRC at Giddings in May 2002), her two junior does took first and second out of 44 in that group, and the first place doe went on to win Best of Breed out of 154.  Of course, that experience increased Kate's excitement about and interest in the bunnies.  Giving credit where it is due, our Californians all come from the line of Tracy Richards via Whitney Vine and Jamie Duke.  These are primarily from the Crawford and Hauerland lines.  Meat pens  from this line have been very successful the last few years in our area.

At that first Giddings show, we decided to take the plunge into Mini-Rex.  Emma needed some bunnies more her size to work with and we decided on Mini Rex because we loved the feel of their fur.  At Giddings, we looked for some of the Chinchilla variety, but only a few were present and no one was selling them.  We found three of the Castor variety that seemed OK and bought them.  Since then, she has added to the Mini-Rexes by buying some bunnies from Tracy Richards' line, which goes back to Ye Wee and Kare Kedi.  We also have the Scotcha's and Lazy J line, and have really enjoyed watching the quality improve and do well. We continue to learn about type, fur and the other qualities that make up good examples of this breed.

The best part about raising and showing the rabbits is this is a hobby we can enjoy as a family.  In addition we enjoy working with the area youth, giving rabbit clinics, and all the wonderful people we meet at the shows. We are a fairly small rabbitry, and do not always have any animals for sale.  Please see our For Sale page for any stock we have available at this time.

For the latest information about what is going on around here, read the News....

Please see our Middle Age Spread page regarding our new interest -- Dexter cattle!

This page was last updated on 01/31/10.