Goats vs. Rabbits

[Vadard]

can you, please, post some pics of your rabbit's colony? I plan to raise rabbits but know nothing about them exept I will never ever keep them in cages.

I’d love to see/hear more about your rabbit colony, too. I love the idea. Curious how you maintain sanitation and keep them from digging out. Thanks for chiming in!

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

My rabbits really don’t try to dig out. I do have some chicken wire lining the chain link at the bottom but that’s just to keep the kits in. They don’t know any better and will wander off. My colony is completely outdoors, 1/2 acre split into 5 areas and they have a lot of small structures to hide under in case of hawks. They prefer the single sided ones most of all. Don’t plan to build any shelters that are too enclosed (like my mineral tubs, they won’t use them.

This video is of the buck section, all the boys get separated at 6-8 weeks, whenever I notice the first “adult” behaviors. You can see my goats in the background and yes they are hard on fences!
My rabbit colony

This from last summer when I had my broody hens down in the colony.

This is one of the Does’ areas last winter. They loved the snow, we haven’t had much this year though.

I also did try rabbit tractors also but I didn’t like limiting their roaming so much. In my colony they all have their favorite spots but they do go a fair distance to find the best piece of grass or whatever.

If you are on Instagram check out #colonyrabbits and you can see more of my pics and other people’s too.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

But nah, unless you want dairy, do rabbits. They're small, silent, sanitary, stackable, soft... Well, you get the idea.

But I want both.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Depending on your setup you don’t need to be that on top of goat poop examination. Listen to Goat Talk with the Goat Doc, she doesn’t recommend doing it that often and she owns a goat dairy.

For rabbit sanitation, I try to rotate the rabbits around but it’s an imperfect system. Does with kits in the ground won’t be moved. Right now my areas are all in use so I take a bucket, shovel, and rake and get what I can. Having a large area makes it less of an issue.

 

[Vadard]

My rabbits really don’t try to dig out. I do have some chicken wire lining the chain link at the bottom but that’s just to keep the kits in. They don’t know any better and will wander off. My colony is completely outdoors, 1/2 acre split into 5 areas and they have a lot of small structures to hide under in case of hawks. They prefer the single sided ones most of all. Don’t plan to build any shelters that are too enclosed (like my mineral tubs, they won’t use them.

This video is of the buck section, all the boys get separated at 6-8 weeks, whenever I notice the first “adult” behaviors. You can see my goats in the background and yes they are hard on fences!
My rabbit colony

This from last summer when I had my broody hens down in the colony.
View attachment 2505840

This is one of the Does’ areas last winter. They loved the snow, we haven’t had much this year though.
View attachment 2505841
I also did try rabbit tractors also but I didn’t like limiting their roaming so much. In my colony they all have their favorite spots but they do go a fair distance to find the best piece of grass or whatever.

If you are on Instagram check out #colonyrabbits and you can see more of my pics and other people’s too.

This is so interesting—thanks for posting the pics and sharing your experiences. I’ll definitely think about going the colony route. Thanks for the video, too!

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

This is so interesting—thanks for posting the pics and sharing your experiences. I’ll definitely think about going the colony route. Thanks for the video, too!

I had this dilemma myself whether to raise goats or rabbits and a book about raising goats talked me out of goats. It was when I got to the section on castration and burning horns off that did me in. Then I looked into rabbits and it was soooo immensely different that I was on cloud 9.

 

[chickengr]

My rabbits really don’t try to dig out. I do have some chicken wire lining the chain link at the bottom but that’s just to keep the kits in. They don’t know any better and will wander off. My colony is completely outdoors, 1/2 acre split into 5 areas and they have a lot of small structures to hide under in case of hawks. They prefer the single sided ones most of all. Don’t plan to build any shelters that are too enclosed (like my mineral tubs, they won’t use them.

This video is of the buck section, all the boys get separated at 6-8 weeks, whenever I notice the first “adult” behaviors. You can see my goats in the background and yes they are hard on fences!
My rabbit colony

This from last summer when I had my broody hens down in the colony.
View attachment 2505840

This is one of the Does’ areas last winter. They loved the snow, we haven’t had much this year though.
View attachment 2505841
I also did try rabbit tractors also but I didn’t like limiting their roaming so much. In my colony they all have their favorite spots but they do go a fair distance to find the best piece of grass or whatever.

If you are on Instagram check out #colonyrabbits and you can see more of my pics and other people’s too.

thank you, it looks nice. happy rabbits.

are they locked up at night? I am going to move to a fox land, there are other predators as well. I will need to keep all my animals safe at night.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

No, they are loose in their area at all times. I don’t think it would be possible to herd them up night anyway. They dig burrows and if they see a threat, down they go. That includes me until they are old enough to remember I bring the treats.

Our main predators are stray dogs, feral cats, and hawks. Since our rabbits are so big they are not in much danger from any of those when they are full grown. Having a good fence and hiding places has kept them safe from the rest. I also keep aggressive does so they have the instincts to protect their kits. I did lose one rabbit to a cat but that was because I had a gap in the fence at the gate that I wasn’t aware of. When I fixed that, getting to the rabbits became too much effort for the cat to bother with.

If you have the option, a nice electric net fence around the wire fence would keep out foxes. We use that in the summer to keep the goats off the fence But you can’t have the electric around the rabbits directly, they will chew the plastic and there goes your expensive fence.

 

[cassie]

It should also be mentioned that goats can contract tuberculosis and it can be spread to humans. That being said as far as a food source and not purely dairy rabbits raised off the ground are better

I have never heard of a case of a goat with TB in this country in decades. That isn't saying they can't get it, it is just that it is extremely rare. I have known of a few cases of TB in cattle, but that is very rare also. If you pasteurize your milk it will take care of both TB and brucellosis.

 

[cassie]

Having had both, I can tell you rabbits are a lot less expensive and labor intensive than goats. I would suggest you get the book, Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennett. It is an excellent beginner's book and it covers all phases of rabbit raising from buying stock to selecting a breed to housing, feeding, and butchering. It isn't expensive and you can get it on amazon.com. That is where I got my copy. I haven't had any rabbits since I moved from California to Missouri. I thought about building a small rabbitry and getting some purebred Florida Whites for meat and to show. Then COVID hit and I nixed that idea at least for now.