Winners in the hutch

HOFFMAN — In many regards, Eli McArdle is like many 16-year-olds; he plays sports, participates in 4-H, serves as vice president of his FFA chapter and enjoys hanging out with friends. Yet, what he enjoys most of all is breeding, raising and showing rabbits alongside his younger brothers, Owen and Hudson.

“We got (rabbits) in the fall of 2020, and I just loved them,” Eli said.

The McArdles got their first breeding trio — one buck and two does — that year and have never looked back. The family currently houses 17 — a mix of Polish, silver fox and mini rex rabbits — in their garage while they rebuild the herd’s shed.

The family did not stumble into rabbit raising and breeding by accident. The boys’ father, David, owns McArdle’s Market Garden near Hoffman, where the family grows fruit, trees, flowers, berries and vegetables. The family has raised other animals, such as chickens, over the years, with the boys active in local FFA and 4-H chapters.

“It kind of started as raising them for somebody else,” Eli said. “One of our friends wanted to have meat rabbits and didn’t want to raise them, so we did.”

That experience inspired the family to stop by a friend of David’s, who owned several New Zealand rabbits. Yet, Eli was not very impressed — until he locked eyes on a black rabbit with streaks of white- and gray-tipped fur, which gave it a salt-and-pepper appearance.

“I saw his breeder buck, and I was like, ‘What’s that one?’ and he went, ‘Oh, that’s a silver fox,’ and from that moment on, I was hooked,” Eli said.

Eli began with Polish rabbits but later gravitated to his first interest: silver fox rabbits. His brothers have shown mini rexes and Holland lops as well.

“The mini rexes are a little too mean for me compared to the silver fox, which are the most docile for the large breed,” he said.

However, the beginning was far from easy. By that spring, the family had a successful operation consisting of two bucks, several breeding does and four litters. Two litters were in rabbit tractors — mobile, bottomless outdoor enclosures — and one was in separate cages away from the mother. The last was still in the nest box.

Most of the rabbits stayed in the family’s old greenhouse, which remained cool as long as the doors were open. Unfortunately, one day, the door was left closed, resulting in the deaths of all but two breeding does.

“I lost Violet, Lily (and) Daisy that day, and then Tough died the following day because of heatstroke,” Eli said. “The fourth made it out, and she lived for another two, three years.”

Afterward, the McArdles introduced New Zealand rabbits with white fur and red eyes to the herd.

“Their eyes glow too much for me; I couldn’t do it anymore,” Eli said.

Then, in 2021, the family brought in silver fox rabbits, including a buck named Thorin, which would later become Eli’s favorite. The rabbits came from a family friend in Georgia, who entered Thorin into that year’s National Silver Fox Show for Eli. Thorin won best of breed in the country.

The next year, Eli and Thorin made their way to the national show, which was held in Stillwater. While there, they won best of breed in the youth class. The following year, the McArdles showed at the Minnesota State Rabbit Breeders Association Convention.

“That was the year we took off; … I got best of breed and best opposite breed in open class,” Eli said. “I have such a love for my does and Thorin, when I had him.”

Thorin died in 2025, but Eli and his brothers have continued exhibiting at various shows over the years, traveling to nearby states like North Dakota and even making it to the Minnesota State Fair. The family also breeds and raises litters, either keeping the kits or selling them.

According to Eli, they breed a doe three days in a row to ensure pregnancy, with the gestation period lasting around a month. Once the kits are born, they stay with their mother until they are about 6 weeks old. Two weeks later, the doe is bred back again.

“There’s some breeders that breed them every four weeks — your success rate and survival rate drops dramatically,” Eli said. “But the more you breed them, the better their fur gets, which is surprising.”

The McArdles then begin to weigh and evaluate the kits after weaning. If one sticks out right away, Eli said he takes a washable marker and colors the inside of their ears to differentiate them. Some will be chosen to become show or breeding animals, with the rest being sold.

“All of them are showable, and then the breeders, certain ones, get to stay as pets,” Eli said. “All my silver foxes get to stay, unless they’re really not doing well and killing their kits; then, they’ll go.”

Twice a day, the McArdles check on the rabbits, filling up water and feed. The rabbits get fed a mixture of black oil sunflower seeds, oats, flax, alfalfa pellets and Calf-Manna, a performance supplement, either in the morning or night — whenever it is due.

To prepare the rabbits for shows and fairs, the McArdles get them used to loud noises by leaving the tractor on, playing the radio and running fans. In past years, Eli has spent several months training his rabbits; however, this year, he did not work with any of them.

“It’s just how they want to be,” he said. “When we pose them, we’re not trying to change how they look or anything — that is how they naturally want to sit.”

Despite the long hours and the occasional heartbreak, Eli said he cannot imagine life without rabbits.

“They’re so much fun,” he said. “I just love working with them every day.”