Official SS Rabbit Thread

[rebecca100]

My dd just had a litter of eight born Monday. Her first litter. Each kid has their own doe and has the rule that they can save one rabbit out of the litter and either sell or eat the rest to help pay for the feed. Ours are all mutts other than my french lop doe. Her husband died last year in the heat. He was beautiful.

 

[tortoise]

How are your cages set up?

I have the 24x24x16 cages on frames stacked 2 cages high, with plastic pans under each cage. They are in a shed (with a window!).

In winter, I buy bags that fit in the plastic trays and change them once a week. I hate this! By the end of the week, the shed smells awful!

Otherwise, I dump the trays and rinse them with the hose every couple days. I have the window and the shed door open so there is no smell in the shed. Nice.

I also put bunnies out in the grass in a pen when their coats and weather permit.

I have to figure a way to burn hair off the cages. It sticks EVERYWHERE and then gets full of poo and pee. Gross.

What is your cage setup? Pictures please!

 

[miss_thenorth]

I have to figure a way to burn hair off the cages. It sticks EVERYWHERE and then gets full of poo and pee. Gross.

propane torch.

 

[Aidenbaby]

I'm getting my first bunny tomorrow morning. She is a New Zealand that was listed on Craigslist for $15. I'm planning on keeping her with the hens until I can build a hutch. My long term plans are to breed for meat. I am just not sure whether or not I can actually "do the deed". I wasn't sure with my chickens but now know that I could if I needed to (my girls are for eggs).

 

[Bettacreek]

My cages are 24x24x18 tall. The whole unit is four wide to save on wire. My doors, I just randomly cut a square out that looked good, then cut wood strips to fit as a frame. The wood was salvaged from a "door frame" downstairs under the stairs. It's just the small stripping, two inches wide. The bottom wire is .5"x.5" and the sides/tops are all 1x1. I don't have any issues with fur sticking. I DID in my cage when the buck was inside. That was a total pain in the butt. A torch would work well, but may not be worth it if that's all that you'd use it for. BUT, you can use that to burn fur off your carcasses as well! Anyways, mine are all outdoors with a $5 tarp. I'm hoping to "hang" it somewhere so that I don't have to worry about moving them all over timbucktu, but, for short term, I'm fine with it, since their poop is good for the grass. My next cages will probably be framed with wood and probably poultry wire for tops/sides. The wood frame just seems like it would make things much less tedious (and probably won't make my fingers cry like building an all wire cage does, lol). I'll have to get pictures when I get a chance. It's been raining like the dickens. :/

 

[Aidenbaby]

I have a dilema. My husband is vehemently opposed to getting another animal. At the moment, we have 5 chickens (illegal in out town but the neighbors don't mind), 3 cats, 1 dog, my husband, 2 children and myself. Did I mention that we live on 1/12th of an acre, a normal suburb plot size? I'm thinking about getting her anyway and just "sneaking" her into the coop. Do you think he'll notice a rabbit in with the loco pollo's?

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I have a dilema. My husband is vehemently opposed to getting another animal. At the moment, we have 5 chickens (illegal in out town but the neighbors don't mind), 3 cats, 1 dog, my husband, 2 children and myself. Did I mention that we live on 1/12th of an acre, a normal suburb plot size? I'm thinking about getting her anyway and just "sneaking" her into the coop. Do you think he'll notice a rabbit in with the loco pollo's?

My hubby is usually opposed to getting new animals, but the rabbits were the exception. He absolutely loves the rabbits. The key is to boggle his mind with facts, after I told my hubby the factual benefits of rabbits(we raise them for meat) he was thrilled to find the facts to be true. If it were up to him, we would drop all the other animals and just do rabbits. No plucking, no brooding, no incubating, no cackling, crowing, or clucking. All you do is feed and water the rabbits, bring the bucks and does together for a little lovin and the rabbit mothers take care of the rest.

1) A doe can produce up to 1000% her body weight in food per year.
2) Rabbits can be raised in confinement, whereas chickens need much more space.
3) Chicken reproduction is "light sensitive", whereas rabbit reproduction is opportunity sensitive.
4) It is much easier to raise food for rabbits than it is food for chickens.
5) Since rabbits are raised in confinement, it drastically reduces the threat to your herd from predators.
6) You can skin and butcher 5 rabbits to every chicken given the same amount of time.
7) Rabbit fur can be a separate barter item. (http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/lib2/rabbits.htm)

9 A doe rabbit that weighs 10 pounds can produce 320 pounds of meat in a year. !!! WOW !!!. This is more than a cow and it takes 2 acres of land to raise a cow. ( http://www.ardengrabbit.com/facts.html )

That last one is my hubby's favorite fact and spouts it off to people who ask why we raise rabbits.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

This was copied from another gardening/SS forum, I hate to copy without credit, but I know we can't post links to other similar forums. Anyway, here is another use for rabbits and the article is not mine.

Cynthias Rabbit Warmed Greenhouse

Cynthias greenhouse is located in North Central Idaho, in a mountainous
region that is probably a USDA class 3b or 4a for hardiness. Normally, the
last frost occurs in early to mid June while the first frost usually occurs
in early September. This is a region with a very short growing season.
Summer temperatures rarely exceed 80. Winter temperatures typically
reach -10 to -30 F in January.

In spite of this, using this greenhouse, Cynthia is able to grow fresh
produce most of the year. There is no heating in the greenhouse other than
the rabbits and the composting activity that goes on under the rabbit
cages. Using this greenhouse, she is able to begin planting things like
tomatoes, etc. in February or March. The greenhouse is located to provide
full exposure to the sun from the southeast and south. To the west, there
is a hill and trees which shade the evening sun somewhat.

With this greenhouse, it is possible to get 9-10 months of production on
about 500 square feet of growing space. Normally, in this area, the
growing season will only last 2-3 months. As an example, when visited in
December, she was still growing kale in the beds.

Cynthias greenhouse is constructed as follows:

Overall dimensions: 14 ft. wide by 40 ft. long. Peak roof with wall
height of 8 ft. Roughly a 5-12 pitch on roof.

Construction materials: Rough cut 2x lumber for framing. East, South and
West walls and roof are formed using corrugated plastic sheeting. The
North wall is solid.

Rabbit hutches: total of 16 hutches. Two rows of eight each in the center
of the greenhouse. Hutches are 2 ft. by 4 ft. by 18-24 inches high.
Hutches are elevated approx. 2 ft off the ground and have screen bottoms,
allowing the droppings to fall through to the ground beneath. Droppings
from the rabbits are allowed to compost under the hutches. She then adds
this composted material to the grow beds in the greenhouse.

Grow beds: there are several grow beds in the greenhouse. One long wall
faces south. On this wall, there are three sets of grow beds, each roughly
18-24 inches wide, that run the length of the wall. One of these grow beds
rests on the ground. The second is elevated approx. 3 ft. above the first,
with the third elevated approx. 3 ft. above that one.

Another large grow bed is located approx. 2 ft. above the rabbit hutches.
It is 4 ft. wide by approx. 32 ft. long.

A fourth bed is located along the north wall, elevated about 6 ft. off the
ground. Like the ones on the south wall, it is approx. 18-24 inches wide
and 40 ft. long. There is a shelf below this grow bed for tools and
general work and storage space below that.

The framing for the roof extends over the center grow bed and provides
supports for climbing plants (such as beans, tomatoes, melons, etc.).
Fluorescent light fixtures are located over each grow bed and could be
potentially used for grow lights, although this is not done by Cynthia.

Ventilation: the only ventilation in the building are two man-doors in the
ends. She is able to keep the heat down in the summer simply by opening
these doors.

Composting: Cynthia allows the rabbit droppings to compost under the
cages. Media from the grow beds was originally sawdust, some sand, and the
composted rabbit droppings. She originally ordered in 1 lb. of red wiggler
worms to assist in the composting. She uses the composted material (and
worms) for all her grow beds. Very little additional fertilizer is used at
this point

Thought it was cool.

 

[Aidenbaby]

That is VERY cool. My only problem (besides hubby not wanting moer critters) is that would literally take up 1/3 - 1/2 of my entire back yard, 28 feet by 60 feet. LOL Do you think I can convince hubby to give up his dreams of a green grass lawn (yuck)? I did convince him that letting the loco pollo's free-range the back yard would be good soil prep during the winter in preparation for grass seed.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

That is VERY cool. My only problem (besides hubby not wanting moer critters) is that would literally take up 1/3 - 1/2 of my entire back yard, 28 feet by 60 feet. LOL Do you think I can convince hubby to give up his dreams of a green grass lawn (yuck)? I did convince him that letting the loco pollo's free-range the back yard would be good soil prep during the winter in preparation for grass seed.

Oh, I realize that, that last article was for SS rabbit discussion in general and not to your dilema specifically. But if you did, you could always size it down.

The bunny facts were for you and your husband. We have big sandy spots in our yard where the grass just doesn't grow because we live in the sandhills and it's just sand and sandspurs. So, over the winter we took the droppings from our 4 rabbits and spread them across these big sandy spots and VOILA! the grass pops up and is green even before the rest of the lawn. You don't have to age or compost it, like other manures. We just throw it straight on the lawn and in the garden. That stuff is awesome.