I have had so much fun with our rabbits, it's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous that an adult human being, capable of designing rocket ships (okay, well not me, but human beings in general) can be this thoroughly entertained by a fluffy six pound creature with a tail.
I often find myself meandering out to their cages, just to look at them. And feed them little bits of clover I pick from the yard on the way.
It's a good thing I don't “pay” myself as I calculate the financial end of having the rabbits, because the time invested with them would really add up! Of course, this is from my personal choice. They could really care less if I came to look at them. In fact, all they really require is five minutes of feeding time in the morning. But still, venturing out to visit them allows for a little sweet break in my day. A time to reground. Refocus. And reenergize my homesteading efforts.
Last weekend, one of our does gave birth to eight (YES! EIGHT!) new little kits. And considering the fact that our last doe only gave birth to five (two of which survived), this was a real encouragement for us! Less than two months ago, we started with five rabbits – four does, one buck. We now have fifteen.
Because. Well, you know what they say about rabbits.
We have a closed-breeding-system, meaning we regulate when the rabbits breed. A colony-style-system simply houses all the rabbits together and allows them to breed at will. This might be an alternative looking into at some point, but for now, the managed breeding system is much more feasible for us.
I thought I'd share how we've set up the breeding system, as of now. Mind you, we're still very new to this, but “in theory” it's working quite well! And it helps us to keep being overrun by rabbits.
1. To start, we breed a doe. We do this by putting the doe into our buck's (aka: Scooter) cage. Does can be territorial of their cages and may not allow the buck to mount, so to keep it easy on everyone, we take the girl to the boy's cage. We let him get his groove on three times, to ensure she is bred. This takes all of three minutes. Seriously.
2. 30-31 days later, the doe will “kit” or have her babies (let's refer to these as Litter #1). She is kept in a cage that has a nesting box for this purpose where she can have them in private and keep them safe from the weather and predators.
3. As soon as the doe gives birth, we breed another doe. Like, the same day. Let's refer to these as Litter #2.
4. Litter #1 will nurse their mother for six weeks before they are weaned.
5. When Litter #1 is ready to wean at six weeks, Litter #2 will be about 2 weeks old. And a third doe will have been bred (the day that Litter #2 was born).
5. After weaning, Litter #1 will be moved to a new pen together where they will continue to grow until they are 8-10 weeks old. Basically, this means we only have to feed them for an additional 2-4 weeks after weaning. So, let's say, at 8 weeks Litter #1 is ready to butcher. Litter #2 will now 4 weeks. Litter #3 will now be born. And a fourth doe will have been bred.
6. Two weeks later, Litter #2 will be weaned and moved to a new pen. And two weeks after that, they will be ready to butcher (they are now eight weeks old).
Basically, the system is set up so that we have a litter of rabbits to butcher each month. Every four weeks, we will have a litter that is ready for harvest.
We could make it more often than that – as we have four does.
We also could make it less frequent than that – by delaying breeding a doe after a litter is born.
But for us, as of now, it's a good set up. We will only have to butcher once per month, which helps to save time. The downside is that if a doe only has a litter of two then we will only have two rabbits to eat during the month. But, alternatively, if she has a litter of eight (yay!) than we will have eight rabbits to eat during the month! The extra from one month can be frozen and held for months with smaller harvests.
Our first litter is currently five weeks old. Only three weeks until we harvest our first two rabbits! And as the system goes, the second litter of eight (currently one week old), will be ready four weeks after that.
I realize this is a lot of talk about week counting and the rabbit-mamba. But it's all part of homesteading! Establishing an effective breeding schedule is crucial to meat production – especially since we're doing it to help supply our family with meat and save money!
You may want to check out this wonderful resource that speaks further to the idea of breeding schedules, specifically for small-scale, backyard meat production.
Abby Van Houtan
Thanks for all the great info. I too have been in the midst of rabbits on the homestead. Ours won’t be ready to bread until June or so. I’m so excited! Crazy homesteaders ๐
Kristen
Love the info. We’ve been looking into getting rabbits, and this gives me an idea of what that might look like week to week.
Mary Gilbert
great info. We, too, want to get rabbits for meat. the question is…housing. how many CAGES do you have and how BIG are they? if you have four does…and one buck (?)…does that mean you have 5 cages for these single bunnies…with four having a nesting box? what about the litter that you wean from the momma…where do they go until they are ready for…well…dinner? do you also have 2 or 3 BIGGER cages for these 2 – 8 rabbits to live until the fateful day?
Thanks for the help with this ๐
Karol Tenacious Martin
separate cages, what we did was build several double cages, so we could section of the Momma’s from the babies after they were done nursing. During the rest of the time we kept the “window” between the “stalls” open so she could get back and forth and use the whole cage. if you butcher before you wean then you don’t need the divider but I do recommend a larger cage for the Does. ours was 2.5ft wide by 4.5 feet long. The bucks went in smaller cages. When breeding take the Does to the Buck. In general once they are solitary they like to stay that way (fighting). we had boxes in all of our cages mother or not, just a box turned upside down with an open “side” to get in and out. Never leave your males and females together past 12 weeks unless you want pregnancies and eating of newborns. ๐ Males come into “season” able to breed a full 30 days AFTER the Does – but once you see testes it’s time to separate. Better to have a butcher schedule so you don’t have to deal with the other stuff. ๐
Johannah Lawrence
Mary, I’m not sure what Shaye is doing, but I use a more commercial style caging system. This system is highly sanitary and easy for you to build at home.
I make either 5 or 6 compartment cages (depends on how much room you want your rabbits to have and how big the rabbits are). My rabbits are NZ whites, about 10 pounds at maturity. My cages are a bit small for the breed but that is because I am working on a limited budget. So here is the 6 compartment cage:
Sides: 1*2*18 in. wire
Top: 1*2*24 in wire
Bottom: 1*1/2*24 in wire
(Do not use hardware cloth for this project as it is not strong enough! Trust me, I did it on my first cage)
The cage is 12 ft long * 24 in wide * 18 in high
Each compartment is 24*24 inches, so there are 6 compartments in a 12 foot cage.
If you prefer a bigger cage (especially for does with nest boxes), you can do a 4 compartment variety, with each individual cage being 3 ft* 24 in.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me at my facebook page: Jojo’s Rural Rabbits
Laura Catherine
Shortly after we started our homesteading adventure with chickens, someone gave us three rabbits. We’ve been hooked since. Like you, sometimes I just hang out with them. Great post!
Josee Bergeron
Interesting. We only have two breeding does right now (which will be kindling any day!) and we breed them at the same time. This way if one doe only has one or two kits we’ll foster them to the other doe and rebreed her.
http://www.backwoodsmama.com
KM
When breeding realize this; 1st mating the doe will drop eggs, 2nd mating she will drop MORE eggs, do the mating no more than a day a part and better 12 hours. Don’t do more than 2 matings, reason being, the kits take a certain amount of time to gestate and her body goes by the last mating, so the first, second, etc. mating results (embroys) will “wait” for the last matings results to catch up, some may be born dead. if this happens she will eat the dead ones, this is natural – let her do it, it is her way of replenishing her body after having to expend all that energy on those kits. ๐
John
Is it better to alow the Buck to mount consecutively in a shorter period of time like the Elliot’s ( 3 times with in 3min) or is a brief amount of rest required between mountings with in the 12hr period?
Shaye Elliott
We never had a problem getting the does bred by doing just 3x in a row!
Krista Odermann
I have had questions about the rabbits, and I keep forgetting to ask them! Okay, here goes: Have you ever butchered a rabbit before? Have you ever eaten rabbit before? Do you have recipes lined up to use for the rabbits, or do you just plan to swap them out for chicken in recipes? (I have heard it tastes like chicken….?), and also will you still buy sides of beef, and chickens, or are you planning on relying on rabbit as your main meat source?
Johannah Lawrence
Shaye,
I totally understand your obsession. Since I got my first rabbits, I have spent hours just going outside to check on them, petting them, and watching them. And I spend even more hours devising the schedule and filling in my calendar so that I can have a plan for my rabbits. Anything to give me something to do with them, I will do it.
Monica
If I wanted 2 or 3 does and 1 buck, what is the housing set up you’d recommend? I’m located in KS so it’s really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter. I’d also like to have runs for my bunnies, but if they cant share a run it sound like separate runs would add up $wise fast!
Fidelis Deo
In my rabbit set up I keep my does in a 30×36 inch cage (one doe per cage). This gives room for a nesting box when she needs it and some room for her kits til they are weaned. My buck is kept in a 30×24 inch cage. I have an a-frame run that I let my rabbits share. I’ll put one rabbit in the run for a few hours then put it back in its cage and let another rabbit have the run. Rabbits from the same litter I keep together til they are ready for my table, so they all can share the run at the same time. I’m currently am working on building a second set of cages, because I am quickly running out of space. My goal is to have around 7 does and two bucks. With each kit I keep an eye to see which rabbits grow the fastest and healthiest. By keeping the best does and buying new bucks every so often I can keep a good healthy group of rabbits.
Rhonda
What type of rabbits do you use for meat? We are considering raising some for meat.
Jenn
It’s been many years since I raised rabbits (like, high school!) but I thought you were supposed to wait to butcher bunnies until they were 3-4 months old?
Shaye Elliott
People do them at all times – it depends on how big you want them!
Michelle
We are starting our breeding cycle with two doe’s and a buck. Rabbits are new to me and I have zero experience feeding my family rabbit. I found your breeding information excellent and I was hoping you would have some recipes to share. Please let me know if you do.
Thank you
Shaye Elliott
Watch for these coming! We just harvested 13!
Liz
I have new Zealand Flemish giant crosses. But there are many different breeds that are good meat rabbits.
https://www.ontariorabbits.com/post/what-are-the-best-meat-rabbit-breeds
Heather
Our Satin Angora just kindled earlier this week and we all go out to look at them multiple times throughout the day. We tried meat rabbits a few years ago, but no one would eat them!
Mary Lavaliere
USDA Rabbit meat rabbit stats: Fryer 8-12 wks old weight 4-5.5 lbs dresses out at 2-3 lbs. A roaster is 10 wks to 6 mos. weight 5.5-8 lbs. dresses out at 3-4 lbs. All weights variable according to breed and feeding.. Generally 1lb feed/meat ratio.
Casey English
What breed have you found to enjoy the most? (Temperament, Profitable, Low Maintenance)
Susan
Can you send me your set up enclosure we are just starting out and would like for someone with experience show me the correct housing
Jackie
How many times do you breed the does? Also, do you keep the breeders until they die?