Raising Meat Rabbits

[chickadee5002]

Just found this... we have raised meat rabbits for about a year, we have NZ, Flemish and Ca crosses.. Yesterday we butchered all the ones we weren't going to breed... we had 8/3 mo olds and a 2 year old doe that had not been producing well, she would throw 2-3 kits instead of 9-12 like she had... We have our breeders in hand made wooden cages with wire floors and sides mounted on the walls of the rabbit house. Next to this female was one of her sons, a 3 month old..mind you, the wire we used to separate the rabbits in the wall cages was the very small stuff. When my husband butchered her he found she had 3 almost full term kits in her!!

We were astounded one because to be able to have bred would have taken some maneuvering on both the rabbits part and two, she may have been a week or less away from kitting and that meant the male beside her was only 2 months old!! It never ceases to amaze me the things we continually are learning, just when we think we have it down...

For future reference, all males on one side of the "house and girls on the other

Oh my goodness! We actually just picked our breeders up yesterday. Which am totally excited about! All of our cages have a 3 inch gap between each other which makes a great hay rack!
Here are the buns we got yesterday all New Zealands


Ramses black buck


Olaf white buck


Cookie broken black junior doe


Dotty broken black junior doe


Punkin' red junior doe


Honey red junior doe


Stormy amber/chocolate agouti? doe


Lyta white doe



So excited to start breeding! Love them so much!

 

[AmericanMom]

Oh my goodness! We actually just picked our breeders up yesterday. Which am totally excited about! All of our cages have a 3 inch gap between each other which makes a great hay rack!
Here are the buns we got yesterday all New Zealands


Ramses black buck


Olaf white buck


Cookie broken black junior doe


Dotty broken black junior doe


Punkin' red junior doe


Honey red junior doe


Stormy amber/chocolate agouti? doe


Lyta white doe



So excited to start breeding! Love them so much!

Nice looking rabbits!!!!! I love raising them, they are so easy and the GK love them... We discovered a way to make them pay for themselves, when we breed them we sell the females and butcher the males.. We get anywhere between 10-15 each for the females depending on age between 6-10 weeks and have sold a few of the 8 mo old females for more when we offer to breed them when the owners pick them up.. The last go around we had like 14 females and sold them all within a two week span... made enough to purchase feed until spring! And be careful which rabbit you put next to whom lol...that wire is a lot larger than ours was

 

[chickadee5002]

Nice looking rabbits!!!!! I love raising them, they are so easy and the GK love them... We discovered a way to make them pay for themselves, when we breed them we sell the females and butcher the males.. We get anywhere between 10-15 each for the females depending on age between 6-10 weeks and have sold a few of the 8 mo old females for more when we offer to breed them when the owners pick them up.. The last go around we had like 14 females and sold them all within a two week span... made enough to purchase feed until spring! And be careful which rabbit you put next to whom lol...that wire is a lot larger than ours was

Awesome! We have 2-2 tier hanging cages that so far

are working great! I put a 3 inch gap between each cage so there wouldn't be any ear or fur biting which also makes for a great hayrack! We have corrugated plastic sheets underneath of them to carry the pee and poo to a gutter that rolls down to a bucket

so far am loving this system! I hope to do as good as you when I start breeding!

 

[RedRidge]

Our 2 level sections of 2 pairs use pvc roofing and guttering. Our single level hang directly over dirt.

 

[AmericanMom]

Our 2 level sections of 2 pairs use pvc roofing and guttering. Our single level hang directly over dirt.

All our cages are single rows... We keep saying were going to work out something to catch the poo instead of it falling onto the dirt floor but we have yet to get around to it... I do put down a layer of straw to make for easier pitchforking at the end of the week

I love it tho, Our garden was so great this year, on either side of us our neighbors are the "green thumb" types, there lawns are always so perfect with their gardens always producing more than they need, we have struggled the last couple years and have had a few issues with our garden...Not this year, while our neighbors struggled to even get a decent row of corn to grow our garden was the best it has ever been, some of our corn stalks measured alittle over 9 feet tall!.. It was so nice for a change for us to make sure they had enough to get them thru the year! cant beat the rabbit manure for fertilizer!

 

[RedRidge]

Under the cages that fall to the dirt in the barn I have an angled piece of hardware cloth to direct the pellets to one side. This makes scooping up the pellets easy since they are dry and the urine falls straight through to the pine pelleted bedding underneath (buns tend to always pee and poop in the same spot which is helpful). The pellets then go directly onto one of the gardens once a week. The pine bedding pellets absorb any odor and only need replacing about twice a year at which time they go onto the compost pile.

I'm all about very low maintenance and working smarter and not harder. ;-)

 

[Monstro]

Stormy amber/chocolate agouti? doe [/quote] We only had NZW's so unsure, but people I know who had multiple colors never crossed the red and black because the resulting color wasn't a show quality. So Stormy might be the result of that type of breeding, just a guess.

 

[AmericanMom]

Under the cages that fall to the dirt in the barn I have an angled piece of hardware cloth to direct the pellets to one side. This makes scooping up the pellets easy since they are dry and the urine falls straight through to the pine pelleted bedding underneath (buns tend to always pee and poop in the same spot which is helpful). The pellets then go directly onto one of the gardens once a week. The pine bedding pellets absorb any odor and only need replacing about twice a year at which time they go onto the compost pile.

I'm all about very low maintenance and working smarter and not harder. ;-)

We are in the process of converting part of the rabbit house to a chick brooder so hopefully can get DH to help me get something set up...
I do have a question, we just butchered 9 buns and hadn't planned on re-breeding til December but I have read where long periods between breeding is not good for the females... thoughts? It has already been alittle over three months since the last kitting for both our does. We have never went this long between breeding before but wanted to make it a bit easier going into winter.

 

[RedRidge]

If her weight is good I wouldn't worry about it. Just don't let her get too heavy over the next few months. We breed 3 times a year and Dec 1st is ideal as one of those times for us because the kits get weaned about march 1st when we really start having good grass. No problems reaching good 12 week butcher weights on forage only for those who are destined for the freezer.

We always look at "how" different litters will be grown out and what shows we plan to attend. Then back up from there to have the animals all ready at the right weights and ages at the right times.

 

[AmericanMom]

If her weight is good I wouldn't worry about it. Just don't let her get too heavy over the next few months. We breed 3 times a year and Dec 1st is ideal as one of those times for us because the kits get weaned about march 1st when we really start having good grass. No problems reaching good 12 week butcher weights on forage only for those who are destined for the freezer.

We always look at "how" different litters will be grown out and what shows we plan to attend. Then back up from there to have the animals all ready at the right weights and ages at the right times.

Ok good! I figured if we waited til December the kits would be weaned about spring and frankly its easier to sell the ones we aren't going to eat in the spring and summer... We butcher between 10-12 weeks.. I am very strict on the amount of food the buns get as I had heard it hard on the females to give birth if they are heavy.. They get a measured amount of 18% protein pellets twice a day, vegetables or fruit in the morning and valley grass in the evening..
We don't show our bunnies, they are just mutts