how many times per day can a male rabbit buck breed?

how much sex is too much sex per day for a male rabbit?
because i have to breed back each female twice right?

in one day the most I would suggest, personally, would be one doe in the morning and one in the evening. maybe one at noon if you really had to.

they only need one covering (squeal, fall off) but three coverings is considered best in small rabbit community as far as I've seen. I like to go for three or more if I only need to breed the one doe. but sometimes she only cooperates for one covering and has a good litter.

also make sure its not too hot. if its too hot the buck will go sterile for a period of time. don't worry as soon as it cools off and its been a while he will be fine again. I've never had that happen to me but I think its generally about a week soonest that the buck starts throwin litters again.

kadence blevins wrote:in one day the most I would suggest, personally, would be one doe in the morning and one in the evening. maybe one at noon if you really had to.

they only need one covering (squeal, fall off) but three coverings is considered best in small rabbit community as far as I've seen. I like to go for three or more if I only need to breed the one doe. but sometimes she only cooperates for one covering and has a good litter.

also make sure its not too hot. if its too hot the buck will go sterile for a period of time. don't worry as soon as it cools off and its been a while he will be fine again. I've never had that happen to me but I think its generally about a week soonest that the buck starts throwin litters again.

good advice i wanted to setup a female colony so getting as many young females to live together when they are young makes the colony work better

I would also like to try a colony setup. though I will copy my thoughts as with another thread... here: https://permies.com/forums/posts/list/80/8648?OWASP_CSRFTOKEN=GIWV-QQCA-TSSG-E7JF-BPHY-LFJM-AL19-IJ5B#212281

kadence blevins wrote:

John Kitsteiner wrote:I know many people do this around the world in the right climate, but I haven't heard of anyone acutally doing this in the U.S. with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, or chickens.

This would not be for a commercial venture, but to provide my family with good quality food.

Is this possible? I plan on living in the Pacific Northwest in a few years, and I am trying to develop the conceptual framework now, before I am there.

What would it take?

Thanks!
Doc K

this is because in the areas that people do this the animals are local breeds that have been bred to live that way for centuries. the US breeds have not. also, those people aren't getting excellent production out of those animals. they are getting whatever they can from what the animals can give on minimal food they have available.

put a US born and bred super producing lines out in those areas.... watch it shrivel up and die slowly of starvation. they just *cannot* live on that without the feed and supplementing and they've been bred to give milk ahead of everything else in life really.

I read that modern US coturnix quail you have to really keep up on the grit and calcium they get because they will literally lay an egg (or even two) every day no matter what that they can literally die because the insufficient calcium intake they put all towards eggs instead of their bodies.

meat rabbits are another example. on good feed you can have a litter of 8-15 that make 4-5lbs at 8-10wks old. and that mom rabbit can be bred two wks after she kindled for another litter just the same. and then do it again.
but you put those exact same rabbits on grass and hay only..... you will see litter numbers drop to 3-5 per litter or less. the young rabbits will take until 14wks or longer to reach 4lbs. your breeders will die or become unable to keep breeding at much younger age.

this is what you need to look at when thinking about this in my opinion. you cant cut off something without the animals having some aspect of productiveness go down.

with rabbits in a colony it is similar to this. because the rabbits aren't in a set amount of fairly small space. they can run around and "waste" a lot of energy. this means they will eat probably the same or a little more and not grow as much. because they can run around and burn off more energy so it wont go into growing body mass. so as with natural feeding, you will get a bit longer growout rates.
I would not expect 4-5lb fryers at 8wks as with caged/hutched rabbits.

kadence blevins wrote:I would also like to try a colony setup. though I will copy my thoughts as with another thread... here: https://permies.com/forums/posts/list/80/8648?OWASP_CSRFTOKEN=GIWV-QQCA-TSSG-E7JF-BPHY-LFJM-AL19-IJ5B#212281

kadence blevins wrote:

John Kitsteiner wrote:I know many people do this around the world in the right climate, but I haven't heard of anyone acutally doing this in the U.S. with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, or chickens.

This would not be for a commercial venture, but to provide my family with good quality food.

Is this possible? I plan on living in the Pacific Northwest in a few years, and I am trying to develop the conceptual framework now, before I am there.

What would it take?

Thanks!
Doc K

this is because in the areas that people do this the animals are local breeds that have been bred to live that way for centuries. the US breeds have not. also, those people aren't getting excellent production out of those animals. they are getting whatever they can from what the animals can give on minimal food they have available.

put a US born and bred super producing lines out in those areas.... watch it shrivel up and die slowly of starvation. they just *cannot* live on that without the feed and supplementing and they've been bred to give milk ahead of everything else in life really.

I read that modern US coturnix quail you have to really keep up on the grit and calcium they get because they will literally lay an egg (or even two) every day no matter what that they can literally die because the insufficient calcium intake they put all towards eggs instead of their bodies.

meat rabbits are another example. on good feed you can have a litter of 8-15 that make 4-5lbs at 8-10wks old. and that mom rabbit can be bred two wks after she kindled for another litter just the same. and then do it again.
but you put those exact same rabbits on grass and hay only..... you will see litter numbers drop to 3-5 per litter or less. the young rabbits will take until 14wks or longer to reach 4lbs. your breeders will die or become unable to keep breeding at much younger age.

this is what you need to look at when thinking about this in my opinion. you cant cut off something without the animals having some aspect of productiveness go down.

with rabbits in a colony it is similar to this. because the rabbits aren't in a set amount of fairly small space. they can run around and "waste" a lot of energy. this means they will eat probably the same or a little more and not grow as much. because they can run around and burn off more energy so it wont go into growing body mass. so as with natural feeding, you will get a bit longer growout rates.
I would not expect 4-5lb fryers at 8wks as with caged/hutched rabbits.

thanks a lot for the quote .. i expect they would. take longer i was setting up a tick tock colony. (i always notice the way australian rabbits swarm food) anyways i figure i can use a tick tock pasture system and put little doors or something.. to let the rabbits out into that paddock. if i put the good food on the far end and let them at the start of twilight i can put a small net or something to protect from over head predators. basically i was gonna figure it out. my friends rabbit free ranges in the back yard. comes in at night. we were sitting on the tables.. on the far side of the yard the rabbit .. cross the whole yard.. from the area it was feeding in just because we were eating strawberry and the dang thing loves strawberry tops.. anyways i figured the breeders could live in a colony then you put them weaned babies into tractors to finish off.. on grass and (whatever).

the thing about it is. I wouldn't want to keep an anamil if it required me to go to the feed store to supply it. makes no sense. i would want an animal that could live off garden waste and grass which i have tons of. That was the point. It's like keeping duck or geese . they use to be fatten naturally off the winter grain harvest leavings. pigs off fallen acorns. or nuts/ fruits. if you need to put that much energy into the fattening up then the system is broken. .. i always think of meat animals as windfall. a way to use up product that would otherwise be un deserbale for humans (aka carrot tops) which are so freakin good but people dont eat em.


also keep in mind. i never cared for the cage system. it's bleak and unnatural. so many people getting into this "prepper" movement with rabbits and I look at them in the cages and shiver. Then i look at the old rabbit warren systems, and im like well this could work just dig out a whole throw down some drainage pipes and fencing under it. burry it all plant some grass. punch out holes out of pottery . instant rabbit warren. YAY norman's

ps. your right the super breeds would do awful.. in the middle of africa

I super super super super suggest checking out the colony section of rabbittalk (dot) com. far as I have found it has the most real good info from people who have actually seriously done colonies and tell what did or did not work. and honestly want to help others make good colonies that will hopefully work for them.