should I breed her?

[coffeenutdesigns]

I have a doe that hasn't been receptive when I was trying to breed her back 5 weeks post kindle. That was a couple of weeks ago. Now she is acting hot to trot. I have already bred my other doe I was planning on breeding at the same time, so I have no other doe to pair her with, but she was a great first time mom the last time around.

My real concern is that if I breed her now, she will kindle in May and it will already be getting miserable hot here. In fact, some days it is already miserable hot. I am planning on bolting a fan to the rabbit shed soon and haven't ruled out the possibility of frozen water bottles, but I don't know if May is too late for west TX.

 

[SyP]

I am debating the same thing right now, here in the San Joaquin vally we have the same hot summers. I have fans set up and a swamp cooler style rabbitry which keeps temps 15 degrees cooler than the outside temp, so I,m going to go for it. I think it all boils down to how much faith you have in your rabbitry keeping the rabbits cool. This will be my last litter until the fall though, July and August can be 110F here. :happysun:

 

[Cali]

I'm interested in this too, I just bred two california does so I'm really hoping they take because I don't think I'll be able to breed them again til the temperatures get cooler. I would really like to breed my Satin doe one more time as well, but I'm not sure if I should.

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

I am debating the same thing right now, here in the San Joaquin vally we have the same hot summers. I have fans set up and a swamp cooler style rabbitry which keeps temps 15 degrees cooler than the outside temp, so I,m going to go for it. I think it all boils down to how much faith you have in your rabbitry keeping the rabbits cool. This will be my last litter until the fall though, July and August can be 110F here. :happysun:

This is my first year and the rabbit shed is still a work in progress, so I don't have any faith just yet. I do have a storage shed with air conditioning I could put them in if I have to, so I might go for it. I know DH is ready for NO rabbits in the "man cave" but it's not like he is out there doing anything with it anyway.

 

[Marinea]

This is my first year and the rabbit shed is still a work in progress, so I don't have any faith just yet. I do have a storage shed with air conditioning I could put them in if I have to, so I might go for it. I know DH is ready for NO rabbits in the "man cave" but it's not like he is out there doing anything with it anyway.

*hides from hubby the idea that work sheds can have air conditioning*

 

[Secuono]

I wanna live further north! Not just for the rabbits, but for me, too!
I'm attempting to breed now for the last litter until fall.

 

[LauraNJ]

I'm 3-6 hours north of VA, depending on where in VA but the beveran I will be breeding in a couple weeks is going to remain inside for the litter. We had a couple weeks of 100F plus last summer and it was just hot and humid. I spent my days swapping frozen water bottles, turning sprinklers on to cool the roof of the hutches and just checking buns.

I know I would be stressed to the max if I put Lola back outside so I've decided to just let stay in here and then I can check on the kits more frequently. SHe seems to have adjusted to all the household/kid noises and comes to the front of the cage to check what is going on so that is my plan.

If you have a basement or unused room and really want a summer litter, maybe just bring in the doe and then you don't have to worry about overheating.

I think an ac work shed is an awesome idea, except for the cost of the electric.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

A couple of threads with discussion on heat tolerance:

breeding-in-heat-tolerance-t8482.html

minimum-and-maximum-temperatures-t3887.html

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

I'm not so much interested in breeding heat tolerance INTO my herd as much as dealing with the herd and temps I am faced with at the moment. As soon as I posted this we had a 106 degree day, so I'm thinking I am just going to hold off. I do NOT want to deal with the worry.