A new litter of 9 in a well-built nest when we got up this morning. The doe had given us 3 litters last year, but we were unsure whether she was actually bred this time. Put her in with our young buck February 19 and recorded it on my rabbits calendar as Berwick to Beau ? because there was only one mounting or attempted mounting, no visible lifting, no fall-off. But when we tried her again with the young buck and then with our older buck the next day there was no contact at all. She was definitely not going to cooperate. So when we saw her piling up hay in a corner under her bucket a week ago, we decided to put a nest box in early because the weather had turned so cold after a nice warm-up. She immediately made a tunnel and pulled a small amount of fur. We kept a close watch because of the cold (highs below freezing and lows in the low teens) This morning we found a lot more fur covering 9 kits.
I read so many posts about needing to see a fall-off and about wanting several mountings which we seldom get. But we've always gotten kits every time we've bred. Is this unusual? Are our rabbits under-sexed but productive? In this respect the young buck is very like his father, our older buck. We bred our 2 junior does both on March 8 because the first one was another uncertain breeding attempt and we thought if the one due today didn't kindle and the next one didn't we'd have a long gap. Now it looks like we may have a lot of little rabbits in another month.
I read so many posts about needing to see a fall-off and about wanting several mountings which we seldom get. But we've always gotten kits every time we've bred. Is this unusual? Are our rabbits under-sexed but productive? In this respect the young buck is very like his father, our older buck. We bred our 2 junior does both on March 8 because the first one was another uncertain breeding attempt and we thought if the one due today didn't kindle and the next one didn't we'd have a long gap. Now it looks like we may have a lot of little rabbits in another month.
