Meat rabbits in the suburbs?

[ChocolateMouse]

Ah, beware rabbit algebra, though! If you thought chicken math was bad.... Rabbit algebra is worse.

If you have four adult rabbits (One buck, 3 does) as your end goal, make sure you have 7-8 cages. And STICK TO YOUR GOAL. Do NOT go over!

In theory, 4 rabbits, 5 cages (4 and a grow out pen). In reality it's not so simple.

You need 4 cages for the 4 rabbits (obviously). If you breed one rabbit a month (or use the buddy system and breed two rabbits at once, also common), you'll have two litters growing out at any given time. Which in theory means one litter nursing (1-4 weeks) one litter weaning (5-8 weeks) and one litter in it's own cage growing out (8-12 weeks). However...

Sometimes litters wean very quickly. Does can wean as early as 4 weeks and can get really upset with weaned kits harassing her. She can get aggressive, so you'd best have two grow out cages available.
Then if a kit gets hurt you'd best have another, because a hurt kit is often picked on, and a sick kit can get them all sick. You'd also best have yet another cage in case you're late butchering. Rabbits start breeding as young as 16 weeks, so you'll need to separate them by gender.

Oh, but then you need to replace each rabbit after 4-5 years, which means raising out a new rabbit every 18 months or so. Which means you have another cage with your prospective rabbit (better to have two, so you can pick the one that grows up better, so two cages?) And you wanna make sure you have three productive rabbits at once, especially since first and second time does are prone to loosing litters. So you need your original 4, your two grow out cages, a quarantine cage, a cage for your replacement doe(s) and just in case, one more cage because there's a 50% chance she will actually raise her litter out and you'll need a cage for them too.

Now you have 10 cages, 5 adult rabbits, and 30 kits... But you "only do upkeep on four rabbits!".

Then most of the time at least 2 cages will be empty, and sometimes 3-4 will be. And suddenly that rabbit whose breed or color you didn't think was raised in your area will show up on Craigslist and you'll think "Oh! I even have the extra cages for them!". Next thing you know you're building 4-8 MORE cages because of course you need a buck for your doe, and one buck servicing one doe is just so inefficient, and really you need the genetic diversity anyhow... And then you need to make sure you have cages for the grow outs, and oh don't forget the REPLACEMENTS because there's no way you're letting this awesome line go without trying to preserve it for future generations... And then your friend tells you about this angora who happens to need a new home....

The next thing you know your four rabbits is now, oh, 14-20 not including kits and you're raising four separate lines of rabbits and wondering when they started taking up so much time!?

Rabbits get out of hand, fast. So make sure you're sticking to a plan until you feel VERY ready to expand. It's tough, but eventually you gotta let it go. I culled 8 adult, healthy, productive project rabbits one year because of the aforementioned situation. We're talking irrplaceable mixes. 12-14 kit litters, 12lb rabbit, 75% dressage ratios... I just couldn't keep up with them AND purebred rabbits at the same time.

So pick one thing and stick with it for a year or two before you even consider adding more. If you're not vigilant, rabbit algebra gets waaaay worse than chicken math. And be ready because those extras WILL creep up on you whether you like it or not. If you build 5 cages for 4 rabbits you'll be fine... Only right up until something goes wrong. If you have 6 cages you'll be fine.. Until 2 things go wrong at once. After you're set for 3 things going wrong at once, you're pretty safe until you wanna replace a rabbit or get a new one.

I try to have 3 empty cages at any given time, not including litters. It takes a lot of self control to not fill them.

 

[BirdOfPray]

Ha! I think I would be susceptible to rabbit algebra... "but it's just one more, and we already have the space!" Fortunately, my husband is firmly anchored in the math of reality and gently reins in my crazier ideas.

My thinking right now is this: within the next year, we'll be replacing that shed we have. It's in bad shape (cobbled together by the previous owner of the house), and I don't want to start anything before we replace it. When we do replace it, we plan specifically for a rabbit setup. We put in 7 or 8 cages like you suggest, since the end goal is 4 adults. And then we start with one rabbit (I'm guessing a buck) while I get the hang of the whole rabbit ownership thing, and the fiber harvesting and so on. Once that's going reasonably well, we add a doe (presumably for my oldest son, who's already demonstrated sufficient responsibility that he's been allowed to have his own pet). We can try breeding and see how it works out. I don't see that we'd need more than one breeding doe at a time, since this would just be for personal consumption. After another couple of years, the first doe is probably nearing the end of her breeding career at about the time my second child is ready to be responsible for his own rabbit so we get another doe (or if he's not interested, another one for me -- huzzah!). And down the road, a fourth rabbit if my youngest is interested, or another one for me, or maybe we decide we're done with the meat rabbit thing for whatever reason and we just pursue the fiber thing. We'd be limited in our ability to breed and keep the more promising babies, because I don't think my kids would do well with culling the old-timers. On the plus side, that might work in our favor because you really can't call it a "breeding operation" in violation of HOA rules if we're not breeding and improving our lines and keeping offspring on a regular basis.