# Ongoing rabbit project



## SuburbanFarmChic (Jan 13, 2012)

So I figured I'd let you all follow along in my attempts at backyard rabbiting.   I did not have much by way of initial set up costs as I inherited my brothers set up when they were not able to keep neighborhood dogs out of their yard.  Don't know who the dogs belonged to and it was a rental that didn't want large fences installed.  Dogs can't attack the rabbits if the rabbits aren't there. 

As it was all coming down from NY I didn't get big outside cages so I'm working on building those.  Currently plywood and tarps are my friend.  


At start up we received.   

Sam - a NZ buck of great size and demeanor  - He's a love bug. 

Melody - A broken white NZ? doe w/ wild bunny splotches - Small litters, builds her nest late, otherwise good mama. 

Raspberry - A sherbet color NZ? doe with a lighter underbelly.  Large litters, builds a great nest but tends not to use it for kindling, fairly good mama. Slightly spazzy.   


And 2 freezer boys that were not named.  


At the start we did not breed anybody as when the dogs got into the cages several of the rabbits got out and were out for the whole night and we didn't know who was bred.  Bunnies were delivered to my house on Labor Day weekend. 

 In Sept, (I will look up the date)  Melody had a litter of 3.   Built her nest around day 4 with some assistance.  She pulled lots of fur, just didn't really do much aside from that.    

Bred Rasberry in October and had a litter of 9 in November.  4 were on the wire and of those 2 made it so we had 7.   For some reason she then decided to kill one of them. I think she was cleaning it and accidentally bit it and it yelped and so she offed it to keep it from making noise/drawing predators.  It had damage only on it's privates and it's throat.  So then we had a healthy six that were doing well. Fast forward to Thanksgiving weekend and we have 6 cute healthy babies. One was a harlequin doe and even though she was little I REALLY wanted to keep her.  Well she disappeared that weekend. Just poof gone out of a closed cage.   

About a week after Rasp kindled in Nov we rebred Melody so she was due mid December. She'd only had 3 kits in Sept, they were all weaned and eating solids and she was back in great condition.  I tried the double breeding thing 8hrs apart and it worked. In Dec she had 7 kits which is the MOST she's ever had ever. I even called my brother's GF to confirm.  So she's not totally silly levels of infertile she just ovulates low.  

 I had brought her cage into the house because she's crap at nest making and we were going to have 18* weather.  She kindled inside with ZERO nest. Glad she wasn't outside.  I did learn my lesson about moving a litter though as when we put her back outside w/ the babies at 4 days old she abandoned the litter.  Won't do that again.    

A friend was going through a divorce and I inherited their something/something doe that looks like a wild bunny. She is about 1/3 smaller than the NZs but not teeny.  Got her Dec 10th with her hutch, supplies, and their chickens and coop/tractor. (Tractor my heinie, I wouldn't haul this thing around the yard)  Anyway, this is the rabbit page so enough about the chicken tractor that only houses 4 birds but takes 3 guys to move.  I bred her the weekend she got here so she's due any minute. I expect she actually kindled last night and I checked the cage for anything on the wire but didn't open the hutch because it  is finally feeling like winter outside and it is COLD and WINDY and if there are newborn babies I don't want to chill them. We'll wait for this afternoon.  BTW she built a lovely nest and it is full of nice warm bunny hair.  and OMG  my dog just had the nastiest gas ever and I have to stop typing now and go find a breathing mask.



OK back. I know one Labrador that is NOT getting ANY  more bacon grease on her food. OY.  

So we have a pending litter today or tomorrow at the latest I think. She could pretend she's a goat and may hold onto them for a while.  


Melody was rebred about a week ago and is due early Feb.  

Rasp's litter had some issues.  This is the litter that was let out of the cages. There was one BIG godzilla doe that I REALLY REALLY wanted to keep.  Well while we were in NJ for my grandmother's funeral she and 2 others were let out of the cages. Remember we were down to 5 kits because one went missing at Thanksgiving.  Now down to 2 in the cage and 2 in the yard and one absolutely gone.  The next day one of the ones in the cage died. Don't know what happened, it might have choked, it's mouth was full of food.  We made several attempts to catch the 2 in the yard and the dogs got one of them. Big white girly was still out and about though and I managed to FINALLY catch her some time last week. She was out for about 4-6 days. I know there were 2 days in the middle where we didn't see her at ALL and thought a hawk got her but then she poofed into the bunny yard again and finally was of size to trip the live trap.  So I put her and her remaining sibling in a cage together since the doe wanted nothing to do with her now after her little jaunt around the yard. 

Since Rasp was in good condition and hadn't nursed anybody in about a week I rebred her this week and she's due a week after Melody in Feb.  My plan is normally NOT to rebreed so close but they both essentially lost litters and were still in good condition and I need to replace those babies. 

As far as processing we have freezered two boys and they were TASTY.  

Of the Sept litter we have 1 girl and 2 boys.  The boys are freezer bound probably in Feb and the girl I will keep for now. I want to see if she's a better nest builder than her mama.  If she is, Melody goes.  


Oh and yesterday we inherited another doe. She's smaller than the December doe so I'm not sure I can breed her to my big buck. I may look for a medium size buck and keep the largest baby and just breed that line up. I need to do something with her for her to earn her keep. She's another pretty orange girl and is almost 2 yrs old so I need to breed her soon.   She's been a house bunny and is rather spoiled and was transitioned to the garage for a couple weeks and then days outside in preparation for coming here.  Of course her first night here was COLD and WINDY.   So for now she's just chilling out. I'll look for a smaller buck and then breed her when I can.  I'm going to let her adjust to her new surroundings first. 


Cages:  We have about 5 of the wire rabbit cages, a wire ferret cage and uh some other kind of wire cage that I am in the process of transforming into outdoor hutches. I'm using the wire as the outside area and then attaching legs and a box w/ more legs and a roof to the back of it. I think I'm going to pick up some of the "clear" corrugated roofing to cover the wire areas as their food is getting wet sometimes and that's both a waste and a pain.  The wood all comes from stuff I've picked up free off of CL and stacked in the wood pile under the deck for random usage so I only have labor and gas in the van for that.  It was all local pick ups anyway.   

The cages all came with the rabbits or I was given them when I took in somebody's chickens last summer.  

I did buy a roll of hardware cloth to make some additional runs so that was uh I think 25.00.  

My plan is to track expenses, sales, losses, success, failures, here for the whole project from here on out.  I will endeavor to get photos up of the bunnies so you know who I am talking about. 

The rabbit yard is a disaster right now with everything in mid project and other stuff going on but there is a grand plan and it WILL happen.


----------



## aggieterpkatie (Jan 13, 2012)

Sorry about your dog.  

Good luck with your rabbits!!!  I know what you mean about having to work to get your set up done. I've got my 2 new does in a pen in the barn with window screens and plywood covering the top.  Got the wire and supplies to make the cages, I just havent' done it yet!    Good luck with your new litter! Crossing my fingers for lots of healthy babies for you!


----------



## Ms. Research (Jan 13, 2012)

Wishing you all the luck with your new "Backyard Rabbitry".

Thanks for letting us follow along.  

K


----------



## oneacrefarm (Jan 13, 2012)

Ok I am SO glad I hadn't just taken a swig of coffee when you got to the part about the dog...LOL!


----------



## Legacy (Jan 15, 2012)

Sounds like you are off to a great start. Get all of your mistakes out of the way and get some babies popping out like crazy and then you will want to improve your stock. Your smaller, mixed rabbits will be costing you as much to feed and house as larger rabbits but they will be giving you less meat in the long run. When you are talking about several litters per year, that's considerably less meat.

I breed 3 weeks after kindling as long as the mommas are still in good condition. That way the kits get their full 6 weeks of nursing and the momma has a week off before kindling again.


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Jan 15, 2012)

I'm going into it knowing that the 2 smaller girls will cost me as far as meat goes.  They are pets that I agreed to take for someone and the deal was they get bred to help at least maintain their keep. They each belong to a friend of mine that comes over to help with farm stuff, building hutches, weeding, etc so while those two may not financially carry their own weight in traded favors they make up for it.  As far as the actual meat stock, yep. Plans are to breed up quality and growth rate and probably next summer bring in a buck for some new blood.  Of everybody I have right now I am most pleased with my buck. 


And if the 2 little girls only have smaller babies, I'll time their litters for the Chickenstocks and such and ditch babies there.   And rabbits are not such a pain to butcher that the little ones aren't worth it. Unlike chickens which I am SO fine with never butchering again.    If I ever raise out chickens again I will completely use a processor. 




And edit for update is that I am completely thrilled I went ahead and dropped the 15.00 on some extra water bottle kits as we've been needing to put out a fresh bottle AM and PM with freezing issues.  Bring a fresh bottle out w/ warm water in the morning and bring the old ones in to thaw and rinse out.  Repeat after dinner.  If they weren't 20.00 each I would consider heated water bottles.


----------



## Legacy (Jan 15, 2012)

SuburbanFarmChic said:
			
		

> And rabbits are not such a pain to butcher that the little ones aren't worth it. Unlike chickens which I am SO fine with never butchering again.


I am SOOO right there with you! After butchering chickens, rabbits are a breeze. I never want to have to butcher another chicken!


----------



## secuono (Jan 16, 2012)

Bantams are the worst, not enough meat to bother. I have no idea how game hunters keep the interest going...


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Jan 16, 2012)

I have ONE rooster left that I have been supposed to butcher for about 3 months now.  I keep finding total bs excuses as to why this weekend won't work.


----------



## autumnprairie (Jan 16, 2012)

SuburbanFarmChic said:
			
		

> I have ONE rooster left that I have been supposed to butcher for about 3 months now.  I keep finding total bs excuses as to why this weekend won't work.



I have never butchered a chicken and if I want it done I will have to do it. How hard is it?


----------



## secuono (Jan 16, 2012)

I find it easy to butcher a large fowl chicken, it's the medium, small and tiny chickens that you should never bother with before the egg even hatches, lol. 
You can skin them, feathers and all or go the slow route and pluck them.


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Jan 16, 2012)

It's not that hard to off a rooster. Especially one that crows at 4:30 AM. Every AM.   


 It's the mess and stink and feathers.  I think this time I'm just going to gut, skin and then debone.   If I can avoid the feather pulling I'll be thrilled.  


Also as my husband puts it, defeathering a chicken smells a little bit like chicken poop soup. It tends to put me off of chicken meat for several days.   Not an issue with anything else I've ever butchered.


----------



## autumnprairie (Jan 16, 2012)

ok I will skin my chihckens the skin isn't good for me anyway  Thanks guys


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Mar 5, 2012)

Updating with the current news. 

While a warm winter we hadn't bred for a while.  We had one litter born last Saturday that was 8 kits and 7 were alive.  This was the first time doe that was a little older and we were worried she wouldn't take. She was bred earlier when we first got her and nothing so I left her penned with the buck for 24hrs and we got 8 kits. Not bad for a first timer.  She made a great nest and only the runt was still born.   I'll check on everybody again later today and hopefully they're all doing well. 

Finding I can sell the buns on the fryer into roaster size for about $20 butchered.  That works for me!!   Just bred crazy orange doe and my replacement doe that was from the Sept litter to see how she does.


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Apr 22, 2012)

Updating this. 


 Melody (the one that had 8 kits in the last post) went a little psycho and killed them all. I had to move her to a new hutch due to wind damage so I figured it might be the cause and gave her another chance.  She offed all of her next litter (which was only 3 again) so she went in the freezer.  Found uterine and ovarian cycts when I butchered her.   

Raspberry had another litter eh - 3 weeks ago. Had 7, one was still born.  She kept all six until this week and we lost one to an accidental kick I think when she freaked a bit when we mowed the yard the first time. I did a necropsy on it and it had blood in the intestines so I think when she jumped she kicked it.  It was one of the rew in the litter.  Remaining are 1 Rew, 3 Harlequin and 1 sandy orange.  Probably keeping one of the harlequin. The white is sold when it is ready to go. 


Flopsy's babies did well and we just sold all but 2 of that litter at Chickenstock. 


Replacement girl, which my day care child may have named Mr. Naughtygrass, didn't take on her first breeding but is due in a little over a week on her second try and is futzing around with nest stuff so I'm hopeful. I haven't had time to palpate her. 

And my big news is that yesterday I was given a FG doe and her entire litter of 9 kits for a birthday present. EIGHT of the babies are girls.  The doe is sandy color, most of the babies are wild coloring but one looks like a silver fox rabbit. Really hoping that is a girl.  Because I want to keep it though I have a disproportionate chance of it being the lone boy.   Going to spend the day building some bigger cages. These puppies are HUGE.  

I wish there was a butcher around here that did rabbits, just to open up my avenues for sales.  I know I can do under 1000 here w/o being certified, etc.  I still like to have those pretty little USDA stickers on the packages in case anyone comes asking questions.  It just makes life easier.


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Apr 23, 2012)

Sold 2 of the FG babies.  I'm seriously considering keeping the lone male to breed back. We shall see.


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Apr 27, 2012)

Our doe out of crazy bad mama just had her first litter. I was REALLY nervous about this because her mom was kind of terrible but for her first litter she built a great little nest, pulled fur, had them all IN the nest on a cold night and all were alive as of an hour ago with full bellies. She had them last night or this morning so I wanted to make sure she was feeding them.  She had seven in all. Six are pink like they will be white and 1 is brown like it will be wild bunny color like her.  Buck was a REW NZ and also incidentally is her father but I didn't want to worry about bringing in another buck if she was going to be a fail.  All these will probably be terminal. 

Oh and I guess she gets to keep her name of Mr. Naughtygrass and not Mrs. Freezerbound.  


  Mr NaughtyGrass being a name from the same child that called our meat whether BBQ-Cut and you had to make a scissors motion with your hands when you said Cut.  Yes, every time.  But he also likes to wrap baling twine around his legs until he can't walk and then fall over, make a gargling noise and flop around.  He's pretending he's a cooking chicken.  Uh.. right.  This will go over SO well at preschool. 


Anyway back to rabbits.  Wooo yaa they are all doing well.  I massively need to make bigger cages for some. It's a work in progress that is more work than progress.  But so far everyone is doing well.


----------

