Grow out ??

[stone soup farm]

Curious what everyone does. I know it will vary but I am interested to see and get ideas.

When do you wean?

What size cage and number of rabbits per cage?

What age or weight do you process at?

I myself wean at 5 or 6 weeks. I either put 3-4 in cages at are 24x24 or 24x30. I have a 36 x 24 cage with 8 that are 6 weeks, I have one leaving soon so it will be down to 7 in this cage. I am rearranging cages so I can split the numbers to smaller group later this week. I am finding it difficult to do the bunny math of number of cages and rotation of breeding when it comes to room for grow outs. :shock:

I process between 10 and 12 weeks but have been thinking of trying 8 weeks no matter what size <-previous post suggested via grumpy. 2 other friends that breed locally wait until 16 weeks.

 

[Dood]

When do you wean? 4 weeks

What size cage and number of rabbits per cage? 10x10 colony room

What age or weight do you process at? 5+ pounds, bigger ones first , usually before 10 weeks. Regardless of weight they are all done by 14 weeks or if one is a trouble maker in the colony that one is culled ASAP.

 

[stone soup farm]

I have an 8 x 12 room that we have pondered turning into a colony area. Dood, in your opinion what are the pros and cons of a colony?

 

[TMTex]

When do you wean? Whenever they appear to be eating well on their own. 4-5 weeks so far.

What size cage and number of rabbits per cage? 28" x 42" covered hutch for does, 1 per hutch except when with a litter. An extra 18" x 28" room is added on to the end of the doe's hutch for a nesting room. It's opened at mating + 26 days and is closed when they soil it excessively.

28" x 37" covered hutch for bucks, 1 per hutch.

30" x 30" cage for growouts, 5 - 10 per cage, depending on size.

Quarantine cages are smaller at 18" x 24", 1 rabbit per cage. Currently using quarantine cages for growouts, 1 per cage.

What age or weight do you process at? 8 to 12 weeks.

 

[ramblingrabbit]

I only have two does, and I built a large free-standing grow out hutch from scrap wood with wire bottom. It can be divided in two down the middle by installing a removable wire partition I made for that purpose.

When do you wean?
My first litters I weaned around 6 or 6 1/2 weeks. Now I learned they don't need that long and it's hard on the does, so I wean at 4 weeks, maybe 5.

What size cage and number of rabbits per cage?
The grow-out hutch mentioned above, when divided, makes two 4' by 3 1/2' cages, but when only one litter at a time is in it, I can remove the barrier and give them twice the space. My litters always seem to be eight bunnies, and I put the whole litter in one cage together.
I assumed you were asking mostly about grow out cage space, but my does each get a 3' by 3 1/2' hutch, and the buck's hutch is something like 2 by 3 1/2 (they were all "custom built" from mostly used materials).

What age or weight do you process at?
They are mostly NZW with some Champagne, and they eat a forage-based diet, so they reach 4 pounds in about 3 months. I slaughter soon after that mark. It is always tempting to try to wait a little longer, but gathering that much forage generally becomes a burden by then.

 

[stone soup farm]

Thanks for all the answers. I am always interested in all aspects of what people do, so including the does and bucks is good too.

 

[Dood]

I have an 8 x 12 room that we have pondered turning into a colony area. Dood, in your opinion what are the pros and cons of a colony?

Pros - I like that they get to roam, play and socialize and I let the adults loose in the room as well for exercise.

Cons- I had an outbreak of coccidia a month ago, i had to medicate 3 litters and disinfecting the room was a PITA. Anti social kits and bullying can happen but that's true for grow-out cages as well.

 

[PSFAngoras]

Age Weaned: Usually leave kits in with mamma for 6 weeks. Seems like my mothers don't let them nurse after 4 weeks, but I leave them in there anyway.(My moms are really attached to the kits, they get depressed for a few days after they leave)

Grow out cages: 24x30. I will usually keep 2 in each, though I will be building a 2'x4' rabbit tractor for the lawn. I will put a whole litter in there at a time. If I have an open breeder cage (30x36) I will usually put up to 4 in there at a time.

Process at: Originally, Since I can sell pure bred pedigreed kits off my new meat buns (rex), I will probably put the better of them up for sale at 8 weeks and process out whoever hasn't sold at 12. Any of my 'less than quality' rabbits (angoras or rex) get processed at 8 weeks still.

 

[Nyctra]

When do you wean?
By the time their baby fluff sheds out, there's usually grow out space available, although I've kept some with their mammas until butcher day before. Mine don't seem to want to EVER be weaned - I've caught 9 to 12 week olds nursing. lol

What size cage and number of rabbits per cage?
Kindle cages: 30x36 & 30x30 (goofed on the 2nd cage...)
Single cages: 30x24
Grow out cages: As long as they can spread out without touching one another, it seems roomy enough to me.
7'x40" (not actually sure, just guessing on this one!)
4'x30" (actually 2 cages, with a hole cut in the divider)
36x30"

What age or weight do you process at?
4-8lb, 10-15 weeks, or whoever starts fights.

 

[skysthelimit]

Curious what everyone does. I know it will vary but I am interested to see and get ideas.

When do you wean?

What size cage and number of rabbits per cage?

What age or weight do you process at?

The larger the litter, the earlier I wean. Usually 5-6 weeks for large breeds.

Most of my cages are 30 x 30, so the big litters I get need to moved out. I sort show and meat, and place the meat ones in the grow out cage/pen. I try not to have more than 4 in the cage together after weaning.

I try to process as close to 5lbs as possible, but no later than between 12-16 weeks. I want the pelt, and before 14 weeks, it's really no good.

Woolers wait till after 6 mos, because I want that coat harvested.

 

[stone soup farm]

So if I have a 36 x 24 x 18 height cage would 6 or 7 rabbit too many for getting them to 5 lb (10- 12 weeks). Or is it better to have 3-4 in a 24 x 24 cage? I recently expanded form 10 cages to 18 cages and I am trying to figure where the all should go and then where to put the future grow outs. I have a lull as I sold a whole litter of 8 so I now don't need to wait as long for as many. But my 2 does just bred last week so I have time to consider. :hmm:

I am happy to have the problem of my rabbits doing well and having too many. The bunny math is whole different thing so it takes time to figure. I will probably never have enough cage space,as I am always wanting to get more or thinking about which ones would be good to hold over. :hooked:

 

[paradox]

We wean them when they seem to be eating well on their own and being more annoying to mom.

We just recently started using a 10x10 colony set up for grown outs. It is just a chain link dog kennel that we have put a chicken wire roof on and chicken wire around the bottom 3 feet. It was where we kept this years crop of chickens until they got old enough to free range with the big girls. Now it houses baby rabbits. We play a lot of musical animal housing at our house.

Honestly we used to butcher when they looked big enough or seemed to have quit growing. With them all together in a colony now we will have to keep better track so as not to have accidental breedings. Or maybe put in a divider. Still playing that by ear.

 

[OwnedByTheBuns]

Curious what everyone does. I know it will vary but I am interested to see and get ideas.

When do you wean? 2 months

What size cage and number of rabbits per cage? Giant Stall for 7 rabbits

What age or weight do you process at? Um... well I sell at 2 months or older

I myself wean at 5 or 6 weeks. I either put 3-4 in cages at are 24x24 or 24x30. I have a 36 x 24 cage with 8 that are 6 weeks, I have one leaving soon so it will be down to 7 in this cage. I am rearranging cages so I can split the numbers to smaller group later this week. I am finding it difficult to do the bunny math of number of cages and rotation of breeding when it comes to room for grow outs. :shock:

I process between 10 and 12 weeks but have been thinking of trying 8 weeks no matter what size <-previous post suggested via grumpy. 2 other friends that breed locally wait until 16 weeks.

LOL... well I raise pets.

 

[ramblingrabbit]

I am finding it difficult to do the bunny math of number of cages and rotation of breeding when it comes to room for grow outs. :shock:

By the way, just a thought...

If you haven't already, you might want to try drawing out a timeline chart of breeding schedules. I figure I'm pretty good with abstract concepts, but I still finally broke down and did that and it all became so much clearer. I used a different column for each doe, organized by one-month increments (or weeks), and used different colored pencils to visually represent pregnancies, nursing times, grow out periods, etc. Then I could see visually (no bunny math required!) where growing-out litters overlapped and so forth.

 

[stone soup farm]

Oh yeah I did and it did help. I have drawn out 5 different options including cage rotation and varying the number of does breed at one time and different lengths between breeding. The problem I run into is that sometimes I have people who want to buy whole litters and other times I have a few people picking up a couple here and there. I now try breed 2- 3 does at the same time and then keep half those for meat and see if the other half sell. With all my cages and such I think I have it to breeding 2 - 3 does every 3-4 weeks. Luckily most of my litters are 8 pretty reliably so that makes it easier.