Intro & Does this sound ok for a rabbitry plan?

[Comet007]

Hello! I am new to this forum - I've been reading it all day! and it's such a wealth of information!

Intro: DH and I are empty nesters, early to mid 40's (though DS 20 has boomeranged back to us for now!!). We bought a house last year with 3/4 an acre with 11 fruit trees and are planning to start our first ever organic vegetable garden this year, and are also planning to raise rabbits for meat and fertilizer. About 90% of our diet has been organic food for the past couple years, and the property we purchased has been gardened organically for at least 15 years! I started researching biointensive/biodynamic gardening methods a couple years ago just out of general interest, so I'm really excited that we are putting that effort to good use. Last Summer was figuring out how to process all of the fruit, this year will be the garden and rabbits.

We are thinking that all we need is one buck and two does - we are hoping to get 5 litters from each doe each year and not buying our usual 1/4 organic grass fed beef in the Fall (that's about 75 pounds butchered weight). It SEEMS like that should give us enough meat, since DH also brings home about 100 Dungeness crab each year and several salmon. I'm guessing the rabbits will also replace some of the free range organic chickens that we buy... I'm also hopeful to talk him into laying hens, though he is VERY resistant to raising chickens for meat since he doesn't want to pluck…

Climate: We live on a small Island in the Pacific Northwest, about 1 1/2 hours North of Seattle, gardening zone 8b if that tells you anything. The island we live on actually gets significantly less rain than our neighboring island or the mainland, and our weather is more moderate too, which is great for us. We are almost on the water and do get significant wind. We've never seen it get colder than about 25 degrees, and so far not over 80. Most of the year we are between 45-70.

Ok, so my first question… the cage set up! Our plan is that each doe will have a 48"x24" cage so when she has a litter they won't be too crowded - I think the babies stay with mama for 4-6 weeks?. So the two doe cages would equal 8 feet in length. The buck will have a 36"x24" cage. We will have a 4th cage for the babies when they are ready to leave mama alone - that one will be 60"x24", with a divider, so each litter will go on one side. So I guess it's like having 5 cages. The buck and weaned babies cages combined also equal 8 feet in length.

We will be keeping them outdoors - The orientation will be that they run North to South lengthwise, with the water to the West and our garage about 20 feet to the East. There are some large tree overhead, so they won't get much direct morning sun, but they would from about 10:30 or so on, but still some shade during the Summer from our large cedar trees, and more sun in the winter when the leaves are off.

DH is planning to build a frame for each of the two sets of cages. Each will have a permanent plywood side on the short ends (North & South), and we'll use corrugated roofing material that is sloped down to the West. The set-ups will be about 20 feet from our garage (East of the rabbitry), with a dirt floor - we are planning to incorporate a worm bed, which should be excellent for the garden and help keep flies down. The long sides facing the garage will be open year round, the West side (which faces the water) we were thinking we would leave open during the warmer months so the rabbits can enjoy the breeze and then hang plastic sheeting (thick like for a greenhouse) on the water side so the area would be closed in on three sides, but they would still get the sun through the plastic in the winter. We do get heavy winds from Oct-Apr intermittently, but they primarily come from the West, so the cages would be sheltered by the plywood and the heavy plastic.

Does this sound workable? Is anyone still reading this novel? If so, thank you!

I'm looking forward to learning more on this forum and sharing our progress!

 

[Zass]

I also locally source or raise most of my own food. I think you may find the rabbit is better suited for replacing the chicken in your diet than the beef though. I know that my family starts craving red meat rather intensely when given rabbit and poultry as their only meat for extended periods of time.

The only thing off hand that I'd suggest is to time the litters together and when you wean them, place the bucklings from both litters in one growout pen, and the doelings from both litters in another.

 

[Comet007]

I also provide most of my own food. I think you may find the rabbit is better suited for replacing the chicken in your diet than the beef though. I know that my family starts craving red meat rather intensely when given rabbit and poultry as their only meat for extended periods of time.

The only thing off hand that I'd suggest is to time the litters together and when you wean them, place the bucklings from both litters in one growout pen, and the doelings from both litters in another.

Those are two great points! We do a lot of freezer cooking sessions, where we'll make a big batch of one recipe, and we have pyrex dishes with lids in 1, 2, 3, 4, & 6 cup sizes, so we divide the recipe into the appropriate portion sized dish and stick them in the freezer. A good chunk of our beef we have them grind up into hamburger- retaining only the premium steaks and roasts. I was thinking we could grind up a lot of the rabbit meat and use it in place of the ground beef in many recipes. We buy our chickens whole and I rotisserie them and then pull the meat off for dishes that use chicken - I can get about 6 good dinners from a 4 1/2 pound bird. I was hoping that rabbits might also do well on the rotisserie, so I could also substitute some of the chickens with rabbit meat. I pay $16-17 for each organic free range bird so that should be a nice savings!

Every couple months we drive to a fantastic place that does all organic and free range/roaming beef, chicken and pork. They're open every Saturday, so we can go right to the ranch and buy our pork products when we run short - I think instead of buying 1/4 beef we could just buy some nice steaks from them and eat it maybe every 2-3 weeks or so.

Your second point is a great one, too! I actually forgot that in my post - I wasn't sure if I should divide them as you suggested or keep the sets together. We are hoping to bring them to the freezer at 8 weeks, 10 at most. I love the idea of trying to time the litters - that way DH would only have to process meat five times a year! We might have to buy another freezer! We already have a full size upright freezer, which gets cram packed by the end of Summer between the fruit that we freeze and all the crab! Plus getting that big pile of beef at the beginning of November makes it so I can hardly fit any freezer cooking dinners going… and I like to have 6 or 7 different ready-to-pop-in-the-oven dinner choices at all times! Sorry this is jumbled… the cooking, food preservation, gardening and rabbits are all so entwined in my brain!

 

[Zass]

I understand! My organic gardening never really took off until I had the rabbit fertilizer to feed the plants.

It is all jumbled. Plant tops feed rabbits, worms eat rabbit poo, laying hens eat worms, plants eat worm casting...humans eat eggs, rabbits, and plants! I pressure can and dehydrate a lot of fruits, veggies, and meat to save on freezer space.

 

[Dood]

Sounds like it will work.

I would caution that a cold and damp/wet rabbit is a dead rabbit so be sure the walls can keep the rain off them.

One of the reasons to have two litters at once is so you can foster kits over if you get one big and one small litter

since he doesn't want to pluck

you can skin a chicken instead. I'm not a fan of chicken skin anyway so this is how I usually process mine.

 

[Comet007]

Sounds like it will work.

I would caution that a cold and damp/wet rabbit is a dead rabbit so be sure the walls can keep the rain off them.

One of the reasons to have two litters at once is so you can foster kits over if you get one big and one small litter

since he doesn't want to pluck

you can skin a chicken instead. I'm not a fan of chicken skin anyway so this is how I usually process mine.

Do you think having the one side open would not work? Should we plan on some kind of cover, like maybe just clear plastic sheets (the kind you get in rolls, not the rigid like on the West side)?

I did NOT know that you could skin the chickens, I will use that on him! Thanks for the ammunition! :lol:

 

[Zass]

Skinning chickens is how I do it as well, but I'll be honest, I'd rather skin a rabbit than a chicken any day. The rabbits just seem to much...cleaner to work it.

 

[Comet007]

I understand! My organic gardening never really took off until I had the rabbit fertilizer to feed the plants.

It is all jumbled. Plant tops feed rabbits, worms eat rabbit poo, laying hens eat worms, plants eat worm casting...humans eat eggs, rabbits, and plants! I pressure can and dehydrate a lot of fruits, veggies, and meat to save on freezer space.

I hadn't thought of the chickens eating the worms! Duh…

We did get a pressure canner and 9 tray dehydrator last year, so we were able to keep a lot of the fruit out of the freezer. There were many times I wished for a second dehydrator last Summer! We do like to have some whole pitted cherries in the freezer for winter snacking, and SOME blueberries and raspberries for things that the canned fruit doesn't work as well. I make a killer raspberry bread that makes a healthy breakfast, plus big batches of raspberry or blueberry oatmeal pancakes that I can freeze for future breakfasts - we just pop them in the toaster. Plus several other recipes. Between that and all the dehydrated or canned fruit products it really cuts down on buying fruit out of season through our long, albeit mild, winters. Also with gardening being new for us this year I am guessing that at least some produce, like shelled peas, will end up in the freezer. Although maybe those could be dehydrated, I'll have to test it out.

 

[Ramjet]

Not much I'd add other than have at least 4 grow out cages (2 per doe) as you will want to separate does from bucks for each litter.

Have an extra cage or two for those moments of Rabbitosis Acquiritosis and other emergencies (quarantine).

Make sure their pens are well protected from direct sun as well as wind & rain.

 

[Comet007]

Not much I'd add other than have at least 4 grow out cages (2 per doe) as you will want to separate does from bucks for each litter.

Have an extra cage or two for those moments of Rabbitosis Acquiritosis and other emergencies (quarantine).

Make sure their pens are well protected from direct sun as well as wind & rain.

I'm getting confused… :? :?

If we're planning to have the rabbits into the freezer by 8-10 weeks, I had read that it was okay to keep the whole litter together in the grow out cages. I did wonder if I should separate the does from the bucks, but a previous poster thought it would be okay to mingle the bucklings from both does in one cage and the doelings from both does in another, but now you're saying they should be separated by sex AND parentage… I have to look at all the many articles that I've bookmarked, but I'm pretty sure that I read you can keep an entire litter together in one cage as long as they're moved out prior to 12 weeks…

Direct sunlight shouldn't be a problem, even with the clear plastic to the west. In the Summer there is plenty of shade in that spot when our big Cedar trees have their leaves and in the Winter the climate is pretty mild, and the sun won't be coming through the top so much any time. Is it bad for them to have the natural light when the temperatures are so moderate? It's pretty rare that we get much over 70 in the Summer here on the island. It seems like I did see an article that said to provide a box for shade if ever there was an unusually hot day, and of course we can put milk jugs with frozen water in there when needed. I'm thinking that we will want to mount a temperature gauge in each rabbit shelter so that we can modify the arrangement on the fly if we see any problems arise - regardless of what we end up building!

 

[Zass]

It really up to you how you do it. All kits will pretty much be OK with any combination before 12 weeks.

I originally timed my litters together and combined both genders into one large growout pen.

But I didn't like that some of the rabbits would have patches of missing fur from being mounted by the others. Separating the bucks from the does seemed to really help reduce early sexual behavior, and I get less damaged pelts. (they still do it a little)

 

[Comet007]

That's such a great picture!

We are so new to all this! Fortunately we know how to do all kinds of food preservation, but neither of us has ever done any vegetable gardening, nor rabbits, obviously! I think it will be a lot this year to put in eleven 3 1/2' x 7' raised beds AND to start with rabbits at roughly the same time! We are also planning to use row covers to garden all four seasons… That being said, we are really wanting to stick to the 5 cage plan for this year at least. I really like the idea of separating the does from the bucks and mixing the litter. I suppose we could try both ways with the first two sets of litters! Of course, that assumes that we can get them in sync right from the beginning, Having an extra cage for quarantine is a great idea, though. We have a dog crate that if we clean it well would work fine for that, with the added benefit that we could bring it inside. Though we'd have to put it up on the kitchen table to keep the pups away! :lol:

 

[Ramjet]

Not much I'd add other than have at least 4 grow out cages (2 per doe) as you will want to separate does from bucks for each litter.

Have an extra cage or two for those moments of Rabbitosis Acquiritosis and other emergencies (quarantine).

Make sure their pens are well protected from direct sun as well as wind & rain.

I'm getting confused… :? :?

If we're planning to have the rabbits into the freezer by 8-10 weeks, I had read that it was okay to keep the whole litter together in the grow out cages. I did wonder if I should separate the does from the bucks, but a previous poster thought it would be okay to mingle the bucklings from both does in one cage and the doelings from both does in another, but now you're saying they should be separated by sex AND parentage… I have to look at all the many articles that I've bookmarked, but I'm pretty sure that I read you can keep an entire litter together in one cage as long as they're moved out prior to 12 weeks…

!

You could probably get away with mixing two litters of young bucks / does but there could be issues , some not getting enough food or being picked on. Those risks are small with siblings of the same age & sex but when you introduce "strangers" there is bound to be some settling of a pecking order in an enclosed space.

You'll have two litters going in that 60x24 ... so 30x24 for each sex. But how many ?! You could end up with two very large litters and that space likely wouldn't be sufficient , or a disproportionate amount of either sex.

Remember you want to breed your does at the same time so you can foster the kits should one have a large litter she cant feed alone or something happen that one mother couldn't care for her litter / all of her litter.

I use 30x24 cages as grow outs but seldom put more than 3 in each cage. Any more than that and it gets crowded pretty quickly.

Its just much simpler to me to have 2 grow out pens minimum for each doe to avoid any issues. Often that isn't enough , think about what happens when both have 10-12 kits. That's 20-24 rabbits to house ....

I have only 2 does & a buck myself but with 11 holes , sometimes I feel like that isn't enough.

 

[Marinea]

Welcome to RT, Comet!

What you're planning to do sounds a lot like our little farm. Smallish piece of land, rabbits, organic gardening, canning/freezing/dehydrating, fruit trees, chickens.

I agree with separating the little ones by sex whenever possible. With two does and one buck, it should be pretty simple to breed both on a schedule that will lead to kits of roughly the same age. I guess the main sticking point is going to be the breed of rabbit and how large their litters are. The doe and buck cage sizes sound fine to me. I might suggest that you start with younger rabbits- give them a chance to get used to their new homes, and give you a chance to learn more before breeding time. That's what we did.

You want to keep the buns sheltered from high temperatures, lots of direct sun, drafts of colder wind, and rain/snow. When we were planning our rabbitry, I just kept a close eye on the area we wanted to use when weather events were happening. The cage sat empty in the spot we chose for a bit. When it rained, I would go look and see if it was getting wet inside. A hot, sunny day? Go check the cage for shade. Modifying the cage was easier without buns in it. It also gave me a chance to think about possible predators.

As to other parts of your farm plans, I have two comments. First, chickens can be skinned. I have had great luck with them, finding them easy and inexpensive to raise. We hatch and raise our own chicks, keeping some and selling the rest. We are also able to sell some eggs, or trade them out for other things. We raise ours so that they can free-range in our garden beds both before the plants are started and after they are past their prime.

Lastly, as to your plan for raised garden beds. I think you're going to love them. Our rocky soil means that we have no choice, but they sure do make tending to the beds easier as we get older. If you really want to make it easier, let me suggest you get a small tiller that can fit in the beds, and that you consider making the beds longer. Here's why: we have one bed that we have to till/turn by hand. It is not that easy, even after four years of amending the soil. With the tiller, we can till the other beds quite quickly. Our beds are all 16' or longer so that we can just till in one long run, rather than pulling the tiller out and moving it to another bed. It saves time and back strain. In a 16' bed, we can raise two or three different crops. Also, if your main garden area gets tons of full sun, consider putting a bed or two in an area that gets a bit of shade. We have had to add a bed away from others to help our squash and a few other plants that now thrive in a bit less sun.

Oh, one last thing. Not sure if you already do this, but look into seed saving off of heirloom plants. We only buy seeds now when we want to try a new variety or when we have a really bad growing season.

Just a few comments from someone who has had to learn the hard way. I would love to see some pics once you're up and running!

 

[Comet007]

You'll have two litters going in that 60x24 ... so 30x24 for each sex. But how many ?! You could end up with two very large litters and that space likely wouldn't be sufficient , or a disproportionate amount of either sex.

Remember you want to breed your does at the same time so you can foster the kits should one have a large litter she cant feed alone or something happen that one mother couldn't care for her litter / all of her litter.

I use 30x24 cages as grow outs but seldom put more than 3 in each cage. Any more than that and it gets crowded pretty quickly.

Its just much simpler to me to have 2 grow out pens minimum for each doe to avoid any issues. Often that isn't enough , think about what happens when both have 10-12 kits. That's 20-24 rabbits to house ....

Ok… I'm starting to think that we need a THIRD housing area of 8'x2' plus overhang space, with a second divided 60x24 for the second does offspring and another 36x24 for overflow or for if we want to keep a doe baby down the road for breeding, to replace an older doe who isn't a good mom or just gets older. We are planning on getting larger rabbits - there are many I like the looks of and am open to, but they all are around that 9-11 pound maturity size, so we definitely want to have room for them.
We have plenty of room. Time & money, however...

This is coming at a time when we also need to purchase our raised beds, irrigation and seeds! We wanted to get the rabbits right away just for fertilizer this first year of gardening and to start giving us meat by the end of October when we would normally be getting our beef for the year. We are planning to try to find our 2 does and 1 buck that are no more than 3 months old and not breeding them until they've been here for 3 months. This way they can get acclimated and we can get used to the rhythm of caring for them. This does mean that we really just need the 3 cages for the starting trio at first - we wouldn't need the other cages set up until about the time the does kindle, which would be a minimum of 4 months after we bring the trio home. We want to have the shelters all in place to minimize construction, but the cages will just fit down into the supports and will always be somewhat moveable.

Now I'm wondering if we shouldn't just put the cages/shelter in a "U" formation for the ease of feeding and watering them all at once. Time to bring DH back into this since he's the builder.

Thanks so much for all your feedback!

__________ Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:02 am __________

You want to keep the buns sheltered from high temperatures, lots of direct sun, drafts of colder wind, and rain/snow. When we were planning our rabbitry, I just kept a close eye on the area we wanted to use when weather events were happening. The cage sat empty in the spot we chose for a bit. When it rained, I would go look and see if it was getting wet inside. A hot, sunny day? Go check the cage for shade. Modifying the cage was easier without buns in it. It also gave me a chance to think about possible predators.

That sounds like a great idea - we want to have our cages in place in the shelter before bringing in our trio - and MAYBE get the raised beds in first as well, which would give us a bit more time to see how the area works during this colder season. Our weather, while moderate, has different challenges year round, so I think we will still need to constantly monitor the first full year. Plus we, like everyone, get the occasional colder winter or hotter summer, so I guess we'll have to watch all the time. The big thing for me is that we need to be ready and willing to make adjustments as we go. I have chronic pain brain, so I think I will make a checklist of things to watch for, and post it in the rabbitry so we are reminded until it becomes second nature!

As to other parts of your farm plans, I have two comments. First, chickens can be skinned. I have had great luck with them, finding them easy and inexpensive to raise. We hatch and raise our own chicks, keeping some and selling the rest. We are also able to sell some eggs, or trade them out for other things. We raise ours so that they can free-range in our garden beds both before the plants are started and after they are past their prime.

Lastly, as to your plan for raised garden beds. I think you're going to love them. Our rocky soil means that we have no choice, but they sure do make tending to the beds easier as we get older. If you really want to make it easier, let me suggest you get a small tiller that can fit in the beds, and that you consider making the beds longer. Here's why: we have one bed that we have to till/turn by hand. It is not that easy, even after four years of amending the soil. With the tiller, we can till the other beds quite quickly. Our beds are all 16' or longer so that we can just till in one long run, rather than pulling the tiller out and moving it to another bed. It saves time and back strain. In a 16' bed, we can raise two or three different crops. Also, if your main garden area gets tons of full sun, consider putting a bed or two in an area that gets a bit of shade. We have had to add a bed away from others to help our squash and a few other plants that now thrive in a bit less sun.

I think the chickens are on hold for this year, especially because I think for my layers I want to start with them in the Spring, at that's just too much for one year!! We can't free range well here, too many adjoining properties and no fence, but we are planning to have a chicken tractor that we can move around individual beds that we want them to help clean up!

Our garden area actually has stunningly beautiful rich black soil - it's been organically gardened for over 15 years, so it's a great texture! We are doing the raised beds because I have some mobility issues, as I have chronic pain from multiple sources. I just turned 43, but we're learning to adjust life to me so that I can still participate! We are going to put in double dug garden beds, so they won't ever be rototilled after this year. We will rototill the entire area, then dig out the bed areas to the recommended depth for the beds, then put the raised beds in and fill them back in.

All the bed frames will be from recycled plastic materials, so they are supposed to last indefinitely. They actually come in 3 1/2' x 7' beds, with a divider in the middle for stability. The company that makes them also sells row covers that are like little pup tents and they are 4' x 8' so they stake into the ground around the beds! The asparagus bed with it's companions (tomatoes, marigolds, alyssum, comfrey, dill and a few other herbs) will get the Western beds that are 8" high totaling 42' in length - they will only get covers in the spring to early summer and those will come off one third at a time to hopefully extend the harvest time of the asparagus and to help the tomatoes with a longer growing season.

The other five beds will all be 16" high and will all have covers that are used according to the season and what's growing in them! We do want to have winter crops, like carrots, lettuce, onions, potatoes, broccoli and whatever else works! Doing the biointensive gardening method, if we follow the plan closely we should have no need to rototill again and weeds, pests and diseases should be kept to a minimum!

We are also planning to buy rolls of recycled rubber that we can trim to fit the walk ways between the beds - both for weed suppression and for ease of movement. I want to get one of those little carts that I can sit on and just roll my way along the beds to work in the beds! I already have a good wholesale source for this, since I found them to put rubber soles on felted wool slippers once I get around to making those to sell in my shop.

Oh, one last thing. Not sure if you already do this, but look into seed saving off of heirloom plants. We only buy seeds now when we want to try a new variety or when we have a really bad growing season.

Yes! This will be one more big learning curve for us, but we have a seed company just 40 minutes from us that sells organic seeds that we will be able to harvest our own seeds from. We will see how tired we are and how much time we have when the time comes for harvesting! I know last year we processed 400 pounds of fruit, starting in June and not ending until October. In the midst of that we had to process our over 100 dungeness crab from July 1st to Labor Day. This year will will also be caring for the rabbits and processing everything from the garden… plus we still have to work our regular jobs and do some sight seeing around our side of the State! So glad our DS, aged 20, is living back at home with us this year or we wouldn't be biting off so much in one year!

Just a few comments from someone who has had to learn the hard way. I would love to see some pics once you're up and running!

__________ Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:07 am __________

Just one more thought… since we already have our fruit tress and have been doing food preservation for a couple years- do we get to say that we are Homesteader's once we have Rabbits and the garden in place? We already have a simple compost pile - no bin system yet. Or do we have to wait until we have chickens, too? LOL!

 

[BlueMoods]

Just keep them dry, sync the litters and, if you fish, learn to tie flies and fly fish. Rabbit fur, marabou and hackle feather from chickens - perfect for DIY fishing flies.

 

[skysthelimit]

5 litters a year from each doe might be a bit much. I breed aggressively, most times back to back, and just barely get 4 litters a year. My does have 8-12 kits on average. Large litters, summer heat and winter light decrease, plus the heavy breed back means these does shut down on their own. I bred through the hot summer back to back the year before, and the does shut down from Aug. to Feb. This year I took my time and it was cooler, and my last litter was November. Does are bred and will kindle next week.

If you are going to attempt a heavy breed back schedule,buy rabbits from someone who 1) raises for meat, 2) uses a similar breed back schedule.

 

[Comet007]

Just keep them dry, sync the litters and, if you fish, learn to tie flies and fly fish. Rabbit fur, marabou and hackle feather from chickens - perfect for DIY fishing flies.

DH by profession is a Fisheries Biologist, he's been tying his flies since he was a kid! I'm sure he's already plotting this, though it doesn't seem to endear the chicken idea to him, sadly enough! He's a duck & goose hunter also - he brought home 111 birds this season, which is about average for him. He says there's a reason that he fillets the breasts and leaves the rest alone! I won't eat the duck or goose, but I will make things for him to eat with it. We have two little dogs and they get most of it - this provides about 4 months of food for them, since we make their food.

__________ Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:14 am __________

5 litters a year from each doe might be a bit much. I breed aggressively, most times back to back, and just barely get 4 litters a year. My does have 8-12 kits on average. Large litters, summer heat and winter light decrease, plus the heavy breed back means these does shut down on their own. I bred through the hot summer back to back the year before, and the does shut down from Aug. to Feb. This year I took my time and it was cooler, and my last litter was November. Does are bred and will kindle next week.

If you are going to attempt a heavy breed back schedule,buy rabbits from someone who 1) raises for meat, 2) uses a similar breed back schedule.

Hmmm… We will, of course, see how it goes once we get started. Everything I've read has indicated that heavy breeding is 7-8 litters. Tables don't copy very well to forums - but I posted my starting lineup here below - the numbers indicate litters 1 through 5, the days at the left are the estimated times. This basically has us re-breeding 42 days after kindling. I've read that their milk starts cutting back at 3 weeks, so we'll move the litters to Grow cages at 4 weeks. This gives the doe 3 weeks from when the milk starts to fade, and two weeks free time from when the kits are moved out before she is bred again.

I have Harvest set at 9 weeks from kindling, but of course if they're ready at 8 or 10 weeks then that's when we'll do that. If we breed both does at once then we can use fostering and culling to keep the litter sizes to 8 kits. At best this gives us 16 rabbits to harvest every 73 days. Even if we lose 6 (God forbid), that gives us roughly one rabbit per week for eating. If we have a bounty of 16, then we can use some for dog food. Hopefully between this and the ducks we will be able to stop purchasing ground beef for the dogs meat loaf that we make for them. Actually with laying hens and a garden we won't have to buy ANY ingredients for their dog loaf! We generally make enough dog loaf at a time to last about 4-5 weeks and it goes in the freezer in 4 cup pyrex dishes. Our little babies are spoiled.


Day
1 1 Breed
31 1 Kindle
59 1 Litter to Grow cages
73 2 Re-breed
94 1 Harvest
104 2 Kindle
132 2 Litter to Grow cages
146 3 Re-breed
167 2 Harvest
177 3 Kindle
205 3 Litter to Grow cages
219 4 Re-breed
240 3 Harvest
250 4 Kindle
278 4 Litter to Grow cages
292 5 Re-breed
313 4 Harvest
323 5 Kindle
351 5 Litter to Grow cages
365 1 Re-breed (start of 2nd breeding year)
384 5 Harvest

Obviously we will be a few weeks past the year mark at the 5th harvest, but with a harvest averaging every 73 days that will mean 5 harvests per breeding year after the first one. <br /><br /> __________ Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:33 am __________ <br /><br /> Looking at all this - I can see where having an extra empty 24*30 cage would be good, so we can move the breeding does (one at a time of course) into it while we thoroughly clean her cage after a litter has been removed to the grow cages. We would have a two week span before breeding her again where we could fit in a deep cleaning on our own schedule.

 

[skysthelimit]

That's an ideal plan, but not necessarily true to life. Especially if you don't start out with rabbits bred for high production. It's like the ideal 5lbs by 8 weeks, which is a goal but not what most people get. Most people get 5lbs more around 10-12 weeks.

Rabbits don't always breed like rabbits, they can and will refuse breedings or miss. Does do feed past 3 weeks, not all kits do well with weaning at 4 weeks. 4 years and I have just now been able to get my does to breed at the same time, and still not all took.

 

[Zass]

Sky has a good point, you are going to need production animals.
I think your best bet would be to source your rabbits from a breeder who already has their rabbits on a schedule close to what you intend.

You will find a huge difference in methods used by us meat raisers.
For example,
I have more rabbits that I breed less often. I wean bucks out between 6 and 8 weeks, and just leave the doelings in with their mother until I decide to butcher or feel like re-breeding her.

I worry about meat-to-bone-ratio, health, temperment, and fur quality more than I do fryer size at 8 weeks.

So someone who breeds like I do would not be an ideal source for what you have in mind.