Raising Rabbits in Colonies

In general I would love to hear about your successful rabbits colony set ups!

More specifically, when can I expect kits?  I have 4 does and 2 bucks who have been living together happily for many months. They are all 7-8 months old.  I kinda thought there would be some kits by now so I'm anxiously waiting 🤞.

I realize I might have to get rid of one buck eventually if they start fighting, one of them was sold to me as a doe so that's how I ended up with two.  I have seen one of the bucks try to breed the girls but unsuccessfully from what I've seen.

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Rabbits probably won't breed till spring if you're in a temperate region

Martin Mikulcik wrote:Rabbits probably won't breed till spring if you're in a temperate egion

Interesting! I've heard of a lot of people breeding their rabbits through the winter though? Perhaps that's it though, it is pretty cold lately.

It's not so much the cold as the photoperiod and in the summer heat stress is a real thing.  Atleast thats my theory.  Artificial light could help, I've seen recommending a change from 8h light to 16h, 8 days before breeding,

Thea Carmella wrote:

Martin Mikulcik wrote:Rabbits probably won't breed till spring if you're in a temperate egion

Interesting! I've heard of a lot of people breeding their rabbits through the winter though? Perhaps that's it though, it is pretty cold lately.

My son's rabbits mated on the last week of December. We're still keeping them separated until we figure out how to colonize them, but as soon as we let them out of their cages the buck was on the doe.

My silver fox doe kindled in late December. 7 babies.

My New Zealand on the other hand hasn't shown any signs.

Born are in colony set ups.  We built enclosures with cattle panels taking advantage of existing structures (the chicken coop for one,  the north side of the house with an old garbage burning exterior fireplace for the other). Keeping two sets of breeding pairs in two different colonies has worked well to mitigate the disease problems we had when they were all together.

I have raised meat rabbits since around 2016 and built a colony setup in 2020. My first negative happened within the first week and a half with the breeding rabbits just going nuts and the bucks were in separate areas but also horsing around. Three of my best does and a buck broke their own backs. After that things went well for awhile and then it got to a point with breeding a few does and then the occasional buck from a previous litter slips through the cracks and is in with the does resulting in litters that weren’t planned on .This has resulted in quite a few litter losses when does have had unexpected litters in the dead of winter. We found that they are not as well socialized with people in a colony which makes them difficult to catch especially if its for a customer. We have decided to custom build 12-15 separate housing units and a couple decent sized grow out cages inside the current enclosure for the rabbits this spring. We separated some already into a hutch that I built and that seems to be a safer and better alternative for us.

Dennis Hillier wrote: Three of my best does and a buck broke their own backs.

I've had that happen with hybrid flemish giants.  They grow so big with such thin bone structure

Definitely was a sad day for me, my buck Frosty and doe blueberry were two of my favorite rabbits. Old frosty was a Californian and that little dude would stand on his hind legs and clap and rub his front paws together when he would see me coming. He would do anything to get my attention and hang out, I actually tried to nurse him along after his accident but had to put him down eventually as he was not going to survive for the long term.

That is really sad. Sorry that happened. So far I am having success with a sort of hybrid situation, although I am not even a year into this, so I have limited experience. I have my rabbits in separate cages at night. I let them out in the late morning when I feed them and they spend the day out in a pretty good sized fenced area. They get frisky kind of like dogs when the weather changes and they jump around. They climb a lot but they have never climbed out. They seem to do that when it is cool and they are excited and happy. Anyway, they mainly eat and lounge around together. In the evening I put their food in their cage and they usually come up to me and let me pick them up. When I started this setup, I had to use a net to catch them, they did NOT Want to be put up. Then they caught on to the routine and they seem to like to be put up at night now. They have never tried to dig out or anything. When my doe's kits get bigger, I don't think I am going to let them out of the grow out cage. I think I will just keep things simple.

For me personally I think the colony setting made me feel better than having them in cages but from a safety and handling standpoint it’s not ideal, I think the accidental breeding is also a negative factor that results in to many losses and having to deal with more rabbits than intended or needed