Is it possible for me to pasture my rabbits?

I know everyone wants to yell "YES!" but I'm worried about losing any rabbits I leave outside due to extreme weather and predators.  Winter is a no-go for pastured rabbit where I live as the weather drops to -40C regularly with at least a few days of -50C which would kill even the most cold-tolerant domestic rabbit that isn't getting a heat source, plus the grass is buried under a metre or so of snow. Spring is also a no-go as my property is mostly flooded and tends to stay that way until summer finally hits. Even for that 7 months of the year that I would be able to place a rabbit tractor outside, they would have to contend with flash floods, humid 30C to 35C heat in the height of summer, an unrelenting horde of ticks, biting flies, and mosquitoes, and a variety of predators including black bears, coyotes, feral/roaming dogs and cats, raccoons, foxes, weasels, as well as bald eagles, harrier hawks, and kestrels. There's also plenty of wild cottontails here so there's a disk of disease transmission, albeit it's a lesser concern since they tend to stick to my treed portion of my property; my lawn is like 75% grass 25% moss, which is another barrier to pasturing them as what forage is available is pretty poor.

I really want to try pasturing my grow-out rabbits (I'm still keeping my breeding stock and wee ones indoors for aforementioned reasons), but I don't know anyone that's been able to successfully pasture them in a tractor here - something always kills them. If anyone lives in a similarly inhospitable area I'd love to get some insight on if it's possible, and if so, how you do it. I'm hesitant to start constructing a tractor just to have some critter rip off the walls or have the rabbits die from other causes.

Personally, I'd go with my gut, and not do it. That *seems* to be your instinct, too...

Carla Burke wrote:Personally, I'd go with my gut, and not do it. That *seems* to be your instinct, too...

The gut instinct is no, I was just hoping someone found a way to make it work ;-;

Many years ago Mother Earth had an article on this.  I am working on memory here on an article that I read maybe 45 years ago. Anyway the area was fenced on all sides I including top and bottom.  There was ample hay for the rabbits to burrow into.

Based on the challenges you mentioned, I feel like the risks far exceed any potential benefits. I've had poor results in trying to pasture/tractor grow-outs, and my environmental factors aren't as extreme as yours.
I rarely get snow in the winter, but I suspect that the ground being covered in snow would defeat the purpose of feeding on pasture, even if they didn't freeze from the wind. My issue is the winter is just cold enough to keep most vegetation killed down in winter, and the sun is so intense in the rest of the seasons that it's hard to make a tractor that's large & covered enough to protect them from the different angles of the sun during the day's progression.
Weather aside, the predators are an issue. Since Mother Nature made rabbits to be the ideal prey for so many different predators, she basically designed them to reproduce quickly and die easily. So, even if you made the tractor bear-proof, there's still a good chance that the rabbits would die anyway from a heart attack or something like that.
Honestly, while I feel pasturing the grow-outs would be an awesome way to produce the rabbit meat, I suspect it will be easier and safer to simply spend a few minutes each day to gather a bucket-full of weeds and other forage, then distribute it to the rabbits in the cage.

Kc Simmons wrote:Based on the challenges you mentioned, I feel like the risks far exceed any potential benefits. I've had poor results in trying to pasture/tractor grow-outs, and my environmental factors aren't as extreme as yours.
I rarely get snow in the winter, but I suspect that the ground being covered in snow would defeat the purpose of feeding on pasture, even if they didn't freeze from the wind. My issue is the winter is just cold enough to keep most vegetation killed down in winter, and the sun is so intense in the rest of the seasons that it's hard to make a tractor that's large & covered enough to protect them from the different angles of the sun during the day's progression.
Weather aside, the predators are an issue. Since Mother Nature made rabbits to be the ideal prey for so many different predators, she basically designed them to reproduce quickly and die easily. So, even if you made the tractor bear-proof, there's still a good chance that the rabbits would die anyway from a heart attack or something like that.
Honestly, while I feel pasturing the grow-outs would be an awesome way to produce the rabbit meat, I suspect it will be easier and safer to simply spend a few minutes each day to gather a bucket-full of weeds and other forage, then distribute it to the rabbits in the cage.

Well, it's at least reassuring to know I haven't been the only one having these issues - now that the frost is gone I've been collecting a big handful of grass, dandelions, and thistle every day to add to everyone's hay so I guess that's the closest they're going to get. Oh well lol.

Sorry I couldn't offer something more optimistic, on this one, Heather. 😬🤷‍♀️ Believe me, I'd love to find a better answer!

I've seen a video somewhere with a woman who's raising them in tractors but I don't know her climate.  There's a pretty good chance I saw it here.  

It's something I'd like to do but the closest I've come is taking them out to a day pen.  I've seen several people let them run loose in the barn or parts thereof and they seem to have happy bunnies.

With the extremes mentioned, tractor seems impractical - cost vs benefit vs risk. That said, a permanent pen, attached to their winter quarters, safe from flooding, could offer an alternative, part time. Trenched sides, metal roofing or mesh buried a good three feet down to prevent anyone digging in/out, topped with electric fencing, and netting top.  

This could start small with 6 foot wide fingers, 20 feet long; as time and money allowed, additional fingers could be added, for rotation, off each corner. Over time, the space between these fingers could be closed, at the open end, to create triangle safe zones for other animals or more rabbits.