musings after second season with meat rabbits

[Rainey]

Now that the cold is keeping us indoors more and there's only one litter of growouts left and no more litters until late winter/early spring I have time to stop and think about what we've learned and what we still need to figure out.

Just did a year end review of the gardens and plans for next season and I almost think it would make sense to raise rabbits just for the manure to put on the gardens. Very pleased.

The batch we just butchered last week grew better through the fall months than the previous litter did through the late summer. We feed lots of fresh forage and need to think about when that is at its peak and when the rabbits have the best appetites and set up a schedule for breeding next year.

I was surprised at how many visitors wanted to observe and/or help with butchering. And how interested they've been in natural feeding. No hostiles about eating the poor little bunnies. A couple times that parents weren't sure how their kids would respond to the answer to the question "what do you do with all these rabbits?" but no hysterics or threats or anything.

So pleased that we didn't keep the doe that had small litters and a splay-legged kit, the doe that bit every chance she got, the doe that lost her whole first litter and 7 out of 11 of her second. The 2 does we've kept each had 3 litters this season for a total of 47 kits grown out. And we have kept 2 does out of the better of those to try next year.

We have lots of rabbit in the freezer, roast rabbit for supper tonight, broth and meat for soup and dumplings some day soon, and the chickens are picking whatever was left from the bones when I was done with them. And if we breed more does next year and have more rabbit than we can eat ourselves, we've already had a few people asking if we'll ever be selling rabbits to eat, rabbits to breed.

The new bigger space makes rabbit chores so much easier. That should lead to handling them more, cutting toenails more often, getting better pictures . . .

We've started feeding fodder again a week or more ago--had to wait until it was cool enough so it doesn't grow mold (Thanks, Maggie, for that tip) Pleased with how the natural feeding has worked out so far. Hoping the mulberry trees put some size on next year. Want to experiment with amounts of the various things we feed to see what works best, how it changes over the seasons. Have gained confidence in checking backbones weekly and making adjustments. Surprised how quickly we can correct when somebunny is a bit thin or fat.

Still wondering whether the junior buck we kept will be old enough to breed at the end of this winter and still feeling uncertain about choosing kits to keep for breeding but hope it will be clearer as we go.

Really glad I found RT and that so many of you have been so willing to answer questions and share your experience. Thanks!

 

[Zass]

So pleased that we didn't keep the doe that had small litters and a splay-legged kit, the doe that bit every chance she got, the doe that lost her whole first litter and 7 out of 11 of her second. The 2 does we've kept each had 3 litters this season for a total of 47 kits grown out. And we have kept 2 does out of the better of those to try next year.

I have never once regretted such culling. Instead, I tend to feel a strong sense of relief.
After a few 100 perfectly healthy and good natured animals are raised and eaten, it seems like the choice to cull for even minor problems becomes MUCH easier.

Still wondering whether the junior buck we kept will be old enough to breed at the end of this winter.

The only way I know to speed up sexual development in mammals is to increase calories.
Body fat is said to reduce a buck's libido quite a bit though.
Not sure it would be worth the risk to boost calories, when he will get there in his own time.

 

[TF3]

Great progress and thanks for sharing your reflections!!

 

[SoDak Thriver]

There's a lot of hope here for this rabbit noob. I'm looking forward to a better year. Meat rabbits are my thing, so thanks, Rainey!

 

[Rainey]

I have never once regretted such culling. Instead, I tend to feel a strong sense of relief.
After a few 100 perfectly healthy and good natured animals are raised and eaten, it seems like the choice to cull for even minor problems becomes MUCH easier.

Culling for even minor problems is easy since our goal is meat. The part I still feel unsure about is what to keep long enough to try breeding (am gaining confidence on this) and having a longer term breeding strategy. We're doing this on a small scale--only breeding 3 or 4 does at any given time and so only will keep one buck (except to keep the old one until the new one is proven). So I wonder if we're narrowing down too tightly. The 3 does we kept last season were from one of the original does. Now the rabbits we've kept from this year all come from one of those 3--clearly the best although the smallest as an adult. I know line breeding is an accepted practice. I just don't know how long we could expect to do it (culling hard all the time) before having problems. Next year we'll even be breeding the young buck to 2 junior does that are full sisters to him, but I don't plan to keep any of their offspring for breeding. Hoping we'll get some keepers from the new buck with the 2 does we bred all this season.

Although we've had goats and pigs and chickens for years, rabbits are the first livestock we've bred ourselves so have a lot to learn.