Can you colonize rabbits?

[Run-A-Muck Ranch]

Quote:
In one of the areas we actually had a buck and doe running together. Yes we ended up with babies. But we wanted that so it was ok. The others were all does running together. So no worries there. We have related and unrelated does running together. We have yet to see any of them fight. At one time we did have a few different bucks running together. It was litterally within minutes that they started fighting. So we had to seperate them. All we did for that was put up a piece of fencing to seperate them. They can still see each other and will actually lay along the fence line touching back to back, but it prevents any fighting among the males. Now in one LARGE cage we have 2 males. They are litter mates. They have been together since day one and they do not fight at all. They are roughly a year old right now. We tried seperating them because of all the advice on not keeping bucks together. Well when we did it was almost as if they went through a depression, and looked so pathetically sad that we put them back together and they get along great... We have lots and lots of rabbits. 41 or 43 (I forget sometimes). We have all different kinds too.... Lionheads, Mini Lops, Holland Lops, Jersey Wooleys, Flemish Giants, Champagene d'Argents, American Fuzzy Lops, Polish, and 2 little mutt babies that we just recently had given to us. Our girls are very into there rabbits and show them in 4-H. We even have babies. Some for sale, some they are keeping. I am by no means an expert on rabbits, but I know what works and what doesn't work for us. If you have any other questions, I can try and help answer to the best of my ability.

 

[spook]

Interestingly, nothing to do with colonizing rabbits but it is, a friend of mine on the coast of Maine, having a barn and land, she adopts peoples bunnies that they no longer want, the shelters actually call her if they are going to euthanize them, she has them fixed and cages them for 3 months. After that 3 months, everyone is accustomed to them, they are usually happy with the place, know where to get food and she releases them into the barn with option to return to that box as often as they need to. Eventually all those bunnies get closed into a area for the night and she feeds, waters and releases them the next day to do what bunnies do.
Its quite interesting, at first I thought it was cruel, but home much happier can a bunny be then to run free through a bunch of fields, food, safety and some hang out by the pool when they are in that fenced in area!
Good luck with your bunnies!

 

[mekasmom]

Hi,
I happened upon this site, and registered just to answer this question. I have seven does and two bucks colonized. By late spring- early summer there will be over a hundred rabbits that will fill our freezers for the next year. Again in the fall there will be the same amount. I try to keep at least two bucks a year and a half-dozen does to see us through the winter and repopulate. Mine are mostly giant breeds with a California mix too.
Yes, you can colonize rabbits with no problems. As long as the area is escape proof, has sufficiant room and straw for digging and nest making, it works fine. We have about a dozen nest boxes spread on the floor for the does to choose from. There is no real fighting. The does do tell each other to "stay away" from their own occupied nest box, but it isn't fighting. It is just that they run out of the box and chase another one a few hops from it if it tries to enter. No biting, no true contact at all. And the two bucks get along fine too. Nobody has ever killed each other, nobody has ever even wounded another member of the colony.
I have considered separating them into two groups in separate pens with a buck and a few does each. But this one barn pen works well so far, so I just didn't do it. Our pen is ten by fourteen ft or so. Rabbits are much happier in a colony where they can run, dig, chew, etc. I wouldn't go back to raising them in hutches.
So the answer to your question is, Yes, you can colonize. I have done it for years with no problem and good production of bunnies.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Well, thanks for the reply! I am still deciding on what I'll do. I hate to have them in cages, but I don't want a gazillion babies running around! Mine are all small, some very small, so I don't know how good they would be for meat. The person that gave me two of them was using them for meat, but she got rid of hers to get the new zealands? I think. I'm just basically wanting to sell them as pets. I really need to figure out where some shows are. I have a pair of mini rex that are just dolls. The other bunnies are a dutch doe, and two other does and one buck I am not sure what breeds the others are, but they are about the same size as the dutch. Thank you for the reply!

 

[spookyevilone]

Hiya.
I used to raise, breed and show rabbits. I kept mine all together in an outside pen, however, I had built it for rabbits.

Dug a 3' deep x 15' long hole in the ground. Dropped in a welded hardware cloth floor with sides j-clipped to it - sides went up 3' so they were a total of 6' tall but 3' submerged in the earth. Put the dirt back, seeded it with grass, herb, and dandelion seeds (which I gathered the year before). Planted gooseberry bushes around the outside of three of the sides to help keep predators out - gooseberry bushes have evil thorns on them. Built a top door out of that plastic rippled roofing material to let light through but also provide shade - it was actually cut in half and one half was a double door that had the plastic on top and another hardware cloth door underneath so I could open it for ventilation/sunlight in the summer while keeping the rain roof on. Cut a door on the remaining open side. The wooden hutch was placed inside the pen.

Doe rabbits by nature will dig. If you breed them, they will REALLY dig and they'll go down as deep as possible. That's why there was a bottom on the pen, under the ground. Otherwise, they'd have escaped or dug down so far I couldn't dig them back up if I had to.

Every so often, I'd go in and use the hose to powerwash the grass and flood any excess pellets out. Then I'd have green rabbits, because they'd go roll in the damp grass

Raised males and females together - never had a problem with bucks killing each other. My giant French lop male was the king of the pen and they'd scuffle off and on for rank, but he outweighed them by around 10lbs, so he'd swat them once and they'd give up. He was very laid back. None of the males ever killed the kits, and the younger bunnies would be stuck 'babysitting' the kits while the moms went out and ate.
-Spooky