how many rabbits for this?

[ohiogoatgirl]

hello! i've just joined but i've already read just about all of the colony section and natural feeding section i think. ^^ :bunnyhop: too cute!
i don't have any yet, just drawing alot and planning, dreaming. what do you think? in case the pic didnt work i have a 10 by 10 ft building. 4 by 3 area for a buck, 4 by 3 area for a buck, 6 by 10 area for does and kits. i was guessing like three does at most. since there would be 3 different aged litters in there. i was thinking the best idea as far as breeding goes for this set up and my time that breeding in a sort of staggering would be good. like breed the first doe, breed the second doe maybe two weeks later, breed the third doe maybe two weeks after the second doe. that way i don't get all the kits at once. stagger the waiting, keep me supplied with cute little bunnies to entertain me, stagger how many i have to sell or butcher at once.
thanks so much!

 

[Secuono]

Looks neat! If the does look the same, you will have to mark them somehow so you can tell them apart for the staggered breeding.

 

[MaggieJ]

How are you getting from one pen to another? No doors are marked except the one to the storage area.

You don't really need two bucks for a small rabbitry, unless rabbits are very hard to come by in your area and the second buck pen might be more useful as extra grow-out space. I'd say you have just enough doe-and-kit space for two does with perhaps a promising young doe that you are growing out as a possible replacement.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

oops this drawing is an indoor colony set up. the separation parts would be rabbit wire. just short enough for me to be able to lift a leg over to get in/out. so like 25 or 30 inches tall. i was thinking this would lessen chances of a rabbit escape. less seams, less places possible to get out.
reading more about problems people have had with their setups and was thinking along the same lines as you maggiej. rabbits arent super hard to come by but i was thinking it would be much easier to just have the two bucks on hand in case later i wanted another buck and not be able to find one i like. of course that also depends on if i can find two bucks to begin with.

 

[MaggieJ]

Rabbits will laugh at 25 or 30 inches as a barrier. What we have is a "stepover" panel to prevent escapes while we are going in and out with higher gates that swing shut over them. Most days we can feed and water without actually going in.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

what changes would you suggest?

 

[akane]

If they really want to rabbits will clear 4' without even touching the top of the barrier. I had an annoying doe that was not only going over our barrier but aiming for gaps that looked smaller than her body mass between the top of the 4' wire barrier and the beginning of the steel bars of the frame for the horse stalls I'm using. On the other hand I've had a buck in a 26" high 2x3' pen for the past 3 weeks without him escaping or anyone joining him. It all depends how motivated they are. His pen is also only temporary until we do some cage remodeling. He was having issues holding weight in the colony with does and nearly grown offspring pushing him out of the water and feed so we made him his own pen until we are done. Long term if you want to make sure there are no incidences you will need taller pens with swinging gates or doors to get in and out.

6x10 is a little crowded for 3 does steadily producing kits. You could have about 70 rabbits in there at a time if your does breed really well. Granted 1 set would only be half sized rabbits and one set would mostly be in the nestbox but that's still a lot of rabbits for 60sq ft. I've found when you get too many young rabbits together the adults start getting crowded out of the feed troughs and suffer weight issues leading to the litters getting smaller or being completely abandoned from lack of milk. I wouldn't go over 2 does producing litters unless you are butchering early or can move out the oldest group to another pen.

It is beneficial to breed does close to each other. If something happens you can then foster at least some of the kits if not the entire litter to another doe. We breed one pet quality mini rex doe simply because she's an awesome mother and right now she's weaning 3 different ages of kits because 2 of our meat rabbit does made bad nests and abandoned their first time litter a week before and a week after she had her kits. Another mini rex doe just raised 7 as her first litter because I gave her the rest of the creme d'argent foster kits. I was rather impressed.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

thanks for those tips akane. btw my friend asked why a fox was writing about rabbits... i guess "akane" is a japanese word for "fox"... ?<br /><br />__________ Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:38 pm __________<br /><br />what about these two drawings of possibles for a 10 by 15 ft building?
these are also drawn with the 30 inch tall rabbit wire "walls" separating.

 

[Hayley411]

I like the last option. Gives more room for the does and it's not really cost effective to feed an extra buck you really don't need.... The rabbits have to earn their keep around here if they are not producing or simply not being used they go away. Either as brood stock or freezer camp.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Have you considered hanging a hutch for the buck? It would free up even more floorspace. Maybe hang a couple extra cages in case you need to separate certain rabbits for whatever reason.

 

[akane]

You have to scale the cages down if you hang them or put them on a stand since 3' is rather hard to reach in to. We just rebuilt our buck cages with a 2' high pvc frame under 2, 2'x4' cages and 2, 30"x42" (size of the dog crate panels I got free from damaged crates). I do have one champagne doe that for reasons unknown likes to sit under the buck cages even if they pee all over her. I'm debating pans or trays for all the cages and then turning the underneath section in to nesting areas. We just built a 2' cube nesting box and it seems to be working out well. We could slide 2 of those under there.