Breeding and grow out

[Upper Penn Love]

I have a few questions that have arisen and I haven't found answers to while pursuing the forum.

1. When to begin breeding? I live as north as you can go in the U.S. so some northern dwellers experience on this. Some helpful average high and low temperatures for my area are: April 48-29, May 60-40, June 70-50, .... Will they breed whenever you put them together and I should just adjust my timeline so that they can be moved into the outside grow out pen when it's warm enough. A helpful tip would be what temperature is warm enough for 4-6 week old kits? Since April can still get some night freezes would I be looking at breeding the first half of February?

My plan is to have a buck and 2 does that over winter, probably in the garage in hanging wire cages of appropriate size. Once it's warm enough to move back outside they will have their own small hutches with a completely wire run (even wire over the grass to prevent digging out) in addition I plan on having a large hutch with a huge wire run for grow out litters.
2. Does this sound acceptable so far? I still haven't figured out an appropriate size for grow out hutch or pen...

3. I've read some conflicting ideas about how long to keep rabbits together in a grow out pen. I've read that they don't begin to fight until sexual maturity. That they reach sexual maturity at about 24 weeks, but also that fighting begins at 12 weeks... Is space an issue in this? I'd like to keep them in the grow out pen as long as possible for the best pelts. Once they need to be separated they will be harvested for meat and pelts, if not already sold. I suppose I could also take out any troublemakers early to keep the peace.

4. Just want to double check that keeping litters 6wks apart in the same pen will not work no matter what space they are given or number of feeders.

5. Does anyone use straw over wire and tray to prevent sore hock?

6. Anyone know how long you can keep homegrown dried Timothy or alfalfa hay? I was thinking of growing some this year and storing it, starting the rabbits next winter/ spring or whenever I come across a deal.

 

[DianeS]

1 - You will have more temperature problems with newborn kits in the nestboxes than you will have with older kits in the growout pens. Older kits can tell they are cold, know that snuggling brings warmth, see the other kits, and make the appropriate moves to end up snuggling in a pile for warmth. A healthy litter of older kits will not die from cold unless it is close to zero. Kits, on the other hand, are blind and move generally in a straight line hoping they will run into something warm, and try to dig downward hoping nestbox materials cover them. If one is outside the nestbox in that environment, neither of those movements will help, and in even cool weather they will die - even in 40 degree temps they can die. This is why many of us keep an eye on overnight temps when we have kits in the nestbox, and bring the whole nestbox inside during cold temperatures, and return it to mom's cage in the warmer daytime. So yes, watch temperatures when choosing to breed, but that's because of kits in the nestbox, not older kits in a growout cage.

2 - I commented on your grow out pen again, after the ugly commenting had passed.

3 a - Think of "sexual maturity" in rabbits the same way as humans. When do humans start to have sex? Yeah - anywhere from age 13 to 20 and up. Same with rabbits. There are litters documented from does as young as 14 weeks, and litters from does who the owners swore had not been exposed to a buck except their own 12-16 week old kits. So leaving opposite sex together past about age 12 weeks is as iffy as leaving opposite sex 13 year olds together -- it's unlikely you'll get babies or fighting from it, but are you willing to take the risk that does exist?

3 b - The age for "best pelts" and the age for "most cost effective rabbit meat" are NOT the same age. After about 12 weeks of age, the kits do not turn their feed into meat as effectively - it starts being used for more bone mass instead. So you are paying more for food (because older rabbits eat more), and not getting more meat. And the meat you will get won't be as tender - rabbit meat is supposed to be best between 10-12 weeks of age. But the issue of pelts is completely different - if you want real, industrial type rabbit pelts, with an adult coat and the thicker adult skin, then you want to grow the rabbits out to about 6-7 months of age. Prior to that it is a thinner skinned pelt that is easier to tear while tanning, and a baby coat that can be identified as such by a good judge of rabbit fur. (Baby pelts are still usable, they're just not tough. Think about making decorations and hats, instead of something like gloves that need to have strength.)

4 - I've never tried it, and don't want to. I've seen what a 2-week difference did when I tried to foster a single kit into an older litter. Ugly. So I won't try it to see what happens. If it works out for you, I'd like to know it.

5 - Mine get straw during the coldest weather, and no other times. And I remove all of it the minute the cold passes. (That is, cold in *Colorado*, so I'm talking about straw in cages if the weather was below zero, snowing, and high winds.) If your breeding stock is good, and cages kept clean, you will not have rabbits with sore hocks. But if you allow rabbits access to straw that has been peed on, then they will sit there and get wet feet, which are much more suceptible to damage. If you want them to have a resting area off the wire, get the plastic resting mats that have slits in them to allow urine and poop to roll on through. That might be the best of both worlds you're looking for.

6 - I have no idea how long you can keep homegrown hay. I imagine homegrown will keep as long as commercially grown - that is, over the course of a year from one harvest to the next. But someone more knowledgeable about hay will have to chime in on that one.

Hope that helps!