Ridgetop
Herd Master
Excellent. Breeding younger and keeping her in production will make her a successful breeder. Hardest thing to teach DH's 4-H kids was that you have to keep breeding your rabbits in order to keep them fertile and producing. Some kids would breed their young does for meat pens, not breed again until 9 months later, and then wonder why the doe wouldn't breed or take.
I used an intensive breeding schedule with New Zealand Whites. Breed, palpate at 10-14 days, rebreed if necessary, kindle, rebreed when kits were 6 weeks old, remove doe at 8 weeks to cage next to litter, and 2 weeks later out in nest box for next litter. We used lights on timers in the barn to artificially extend the daylight hours and my does bred all winter long. We kept late fall bucks to breed the does in the summer when the older bucks would go sterile from the heat. Careful planning on my calendar, careful record keeping, increased protein levels in does feeding schedule, and it worked well. We had 100 holes in our barn, breeding about 60 rabbits year round. I bred so I would have multiple litters every week in order to be able to foster kits in an emergency. DH also showed his rabbits and the "show culls" were our butcher sales. Since DH was very good at judging a rabbit, our "culls" were great meat rabbits! Later we switched to Californians and DH decided he liked them better, they would raise kits to 5 lb. fryers a week sooner than the NZWs. We sold a lot of breeding stock until our children got into larger livestock and kept encroaching on DH's rabbit barn! LOL
No rabbits at the moment, but DH wants to get some trios and start breeding (and possibly showing) again. I have all the commercial hanging babysaver cages, screen feeders, watering system parts, carriers, judging cage, and nest boxes stored in the old milk shed! LOL Just need to do some work on the lower shed, build manure pits, and hang the cages.
Good luck with your breeding operation. An older very experienced breeder we knew, and showed with, when asked if his rabbits were good, said "Yes, with peas and carrots" and then laugh like crazy at his own joke. Charlie Coons knew more about rabbits than anyone I ever met and loved teaching others - a great man loved by everyone.
I used an intensive breeding schedule with New Zealand Whites. Breed, palpate at 10-14 days, rebreed if necessary, kindle, rebreed when kits were 6 weeks old, remove doe at 8 weeks to cage next to litter, and 2 weeks later out in nest box for next litter. We used lights on timers in the barn to artificially extend the daylight hours and my does bred all winter long. We kept late fall bucks to breed the does in the summer when the older bucks would go sterile from the heat. Careful planning on my calendar, careful record keeping, increased protein levels in does feeding schedule, and it worked well. We had 100 holes in our barn, breeding about 60 rabbits year round. I bred so I would have multiple litters every week in order to be able to foster kits in an emergency. DH also showed his rabbits and the "show culls" were our butcher sales. Since DH was very good at judging a rabbit, our "culls" were great meat rabbits! Later we switched to Californians and DH decided he liked them better, they would raise kits to 5 lb. fryers a week sooner than the NZWs. We sold a lot of breeding stock until our children got into larger livestock and kept encroaching on DH's rabbit barn! LOL
No rabbits at the moment, but DH wants to get some trios and start breeding (and possibly showing) again. I have all the commercial hanging babysaver cages, screen feeders, watering system parts, carriers, judging cage, and nest boxes stored in the old milk shed! LOL Just need to do some work on the lower shed, build manure pits, and hang the cages.
Good luck with your breeding operation. An older very experienced breeder we knew, and showed with, when asked if his rabbits were good, said "Yes, with peas and carrots" and then laugh like crazy at his own joke. Charlie Coons knew more about rabbits than anyone I ever met and loved teaching others - a great man loved by everyone.
