Thank you. I'm giving her a long break and keeping 1 female. There decision made!! Sorry Lil Acorn for hoarding in on your post. I'm done now.
This is great. I'm learning a lot.
Since I am just starting out, I plan to breed more my first year. I want to get some in the freezer first. Then I can slow down. It kinda depends on litter size too. 6 is good, but I don't know how much I really need.
I think how many litters you can expect depends on your rabbits' genetics and the way you manage them. Some of my brood does have 5-6 litters before I retire them, but others have far more than that. If a doe gives me outstanding bunnies I tend to rebreed her more times than does that produce fair-to-middling offspring. Black Star was one of my Champion-makers and she had nine litters. She was bred the first time at 8 months of age, and was still producing good-size litters at age 4 when her career ended suddenly as a result of a broken back.
The graph below shows her production; most of the litters in which she kindled far more than she weaned were the result of my fostering some of her kits to does with smaller litters.
Is this true? My 18 mo doe just kindled her fourth...this was with the summer off. She had 3 whole months to chill and she was the most cantankerous thing. Bred her back and she settles right into gestation...i swear shes only content when mothering. But I have not heard anything like a litter number expiration on rabbits. Id genuinely like to know if anyone holds this experience.
Ok. Now you got me thinking. This graph shows me that quite a few litters do not have 100% success in making it to weaning. What factors played a part in those litters with so many losses? I'm not techy, but can you use this data to come up with a loss percentage? I may need to buy more rabbits.I think how many litters you can expect depends on your rabbits' genetics and the way you manage them. Some of my brood does have 5-6 litters before I retire them, but others have far more than that. If a doe gives me outstanding bunnies I tend to rebreed her more times than does that produce fair-to-middling offspring. Black Star was one of my Champion-makers and she had nine litters. She was bred the first time at 8 months of age, and was still producing good-size litters at age 4 when her career ended suddenly as a result of a broken back.
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Most of the litters in which she weaned less than she kindled were a result of my moving some of her kits to other does. Reasons for that include balancing litter numbers (I prefer 4-7 kits in each nest box if I can swing it), rearranging kits among boxes to achieve uniform colors/sizes in meat pens, and giving kits to boxes that don't have enough kits to keep them warm. Her actual losses were:
My experience has been that meat rabbit breed does are happiest and healthiest when they're kept in production. Rabbits are really made for reproduction! Like you're doing, I monitor the doe's condition and only take her out of production if she looks like she's faltering. I find the same thing that @Rabbit Tree Farm and @Preitler do:
