ALTAMONT — Richard Nestlen sat comfortably alongside a row of rabbit cages with a rabbit, upside-down, in his lap.

He was calmly, methodically clipping the rabbit’s nails.

“Don’t you clip your nails?” asked Nestlen. “If we didn’t clip them, they’d grow too long since they live in a cage and can’t dig or hop for miles a day.”

Nestlen, who is 75, got involved with rabbits when his children, now grown, were in 4-H. He grew up in Greene County and lives in Feura Bush now.

“This fair has been part of my life since I was a teen,” he said on Tuesday morning, opening day of this year’s fair. The Altamont Fair serves Albany, Schenectady, and Greene counties.

Nestlen has stayed with it all these years because, he said, “I like animals.” In particular, he likes rabbits. 

“They’re fun to raise; they’re fun to exhibit,” he said.

He mostly raises small breeds and sells them for pets.

“Some people don’t like the noise and challenge of dogs,” said Nestlen. “Rabbits are relatively happy in a cage and, when you want to take them out, they enjoy being played with,” he said as he stroked the rabbit named Dutchy, now with short nails, in his lap.

At 10 a.m., Heather Burns, who supervises both rabbits and poultry at the fair, hurried to her post at the end of the judging table, dressed in pure white. She stood next to the judge, Ryan Fedele.

Fedele easily, almost nonchalantly, reached for rabbit after rabbit, from a row of cubby holes on the table before him. He judged them in sets, for different breeds.

He would stroke each rabbit’s fur, turn it from side to side, lift its ears and keep a fluid running commentary on each of its fine points and drawbacks. As he spoke, Burns recorded his assessments.

Asked how he became a judge, Fedele told The Enterprise, “I got into it when I bought my girlfriend a rabbit in college. It was the only pet she could have in the dorm except for fish.”

He and his girlfriend thought it was “hilarious” that the rabbit had a pedigree. He got some free books from the American Rabbit Breeders Association and started reading.

“Back then, before the internet, that’s how you learned,” he said.

Fedele, who works as a high school guidance counselor, was hooked. He spent three years becoming an ARBA registrar, passing both a written and oral exam, and being endorsed by two of three judges he worked with.

“Once you’ve been at it for two years and registered 25 rabbits, you can take your judge’s exam,” he said. That, too, is both oral and written, and then a candidate has to be approved by eight out of 10 judges.

For years, Fedele traveled all over the country, 40 to 45 weekends a year, judging rabbit shows.

He explained that what he looks for in each breed in different. The Mini Rex, for example, is a fur breed. “Fifty percent is on color and fur,” he said of judging priorities. “Their fur is a genetic mutation … plush and velvety.” Rabbit fur, he said, was used in the early 1900s as a replacement for beaver coats.

Fedele said that raising rabbits can let kids who live in cities or suburbs have a chance to tend to animals.

“You can do quite a bit with six cages on a back porch,” said Fedele. “It’s not like chickens or sheep or horses. You don’t need a lot of space to raise rabbits.”

On Tuesday morning, Fedele’s table was orbited by a shifting group of onlookers, both adults and children, who were having their rabbits judged.

Two of the satellites were 11-year-old Jordan Jones and his 4-year-old sister, Bella, of Knox.

“We have JB Bunnies,” said Jordan, explaining his father’s name, Joe, like his, begins with “J” and his mother’s name, Beth, like Bella’s, begins with “B.”

Consequently, all of their rabbits have names beginning with either J or B, he said. Jordan, himself, has five Mini Rex rabbits named Boom, Bang, Jinks, Jelly Bean, and Treasure. (It was unclear how Treasure, starting with a “T,” got into the mix.)

Mr. Jones said the family arrives at the rabbits' names through collaboration.

Jordan said it was a big responsibility to care for rabbits. “But you kind of have fun with it, too,” he said.

The rabbits get fed and watered first thing in the morning. “This time of year, you do a lot of brushing,” Mr. Jones said since rabbits molt in August.

This is Jordan’s second year showing his rabbits. He said he had a trophy shelf at home he’d like to fill.

His favorite rabbit is Jelly Bean. “That’s our nicest rabbit. Jelly Bean just comes up and out of the cage,” he said. “But today she is nervous; she’s nipping. I won with her last year — best in show.”

But on Tuesday, it was Bella who was showing Jelly Bean. “That’s because Bella is just starting,” said her big brother. “It’s her first show.”

As a teenager, Mr. Jones had been to a rabbit show and was intrigued. “I thought it was different,” he said. He’s a cook by trade.

“We started with two pet bunnies,” said Beth Jones. “Now we have almost 30 Mini Rexes.”

Just two of the Joneses’ rabbits live in their house as pets; the rest live in their barn.

Seven-year-old Rubie Cook and her 12-year-old brother, Ronald, were also orbiting the judge’s table. They are from Cobleskill where they raise Rexes and Polish rabbits as well as Dwarf Hotot rabbits.

The pair were wearing matching T-shirts; each said R&R Rabbits on the back. Rubie was wearing earrings, each cut in the shape of a rabbit.

“You start out with babies,” said Ronald of the breeding process. “You go through the whole litter. What you like, you keep … You separate them from their mother at eight weeks. After that, you feed and water them, and there you go.”

“And you take them to shows,” added Rubie. “We travel a lot. We go to at least 10 ARBA shows.” Their favorite fair, Ronald said, is their hometown fair, in Cobleskill in Schoharie County.

The Cooks started with a single rabbit. “I had a rabbit, Potato — he was mean … It’s kind of like dogs; if they come from an abusive situation, it makes them mean,” said Ronald. “Then we got a male and a female.”

Each of the Cook siblings cares for 15 rabbits, with help from their parents. Rubie specializes in Polish rabbits — which originated in Belgium in the 1600s — and Ronald in Rexes, which originated in France in the early 1900s.

Unlike the Joneses, they don’t name their rabbits. “We go by their ear numbers; they’re tattooed,” said Rubie.

By not naming the rabbits, the kids explained, it is easier to part with them when they are sold.