Housing Meat Rabbits in a Colony

This publish was most these days updated on February 14th, 2022

Are you planning on elevating rabbits in a rabbit colony? Colony elevating rabbits isn’t a model new idea, nevertheless there are some key points to consider in your rabbit colony setup. On this text we speak about the appropriate technique to plan the simplest rabbit colony in your state of affairs.

We’re elevating meat rabbits in a colony. I am not solely sure how we acquired to this particular degree the place I assumed elevating meat rabbits was a great suggestion, nevertheless someplace alongside the highway, I study some information about bunnies that made me want to give it a go.

What’s a Rabbit Colony?

A rabbit colony is normally group housing for rabbits the place they keep collectively in a additional pure technique. Usually a colony will embrace a fenced house or shed with each grime or deep bedding on the bottom and each artificial shelters or space for the rabbits to create their very personal burrow and feeding areas.
Breeding in a rabbit colony usually happens naturally, with the does normally controlling after they need to be bred.

Soar to:
Why Not Cage Improve?
Why Should You Improve Your Private Rabbits
Elevating Meat Rabbits in a Colony
Shed Colony
How Quite a bit Room Do I Need?
Designing a Rabbit Colony
Feeding in a Rabbit Colony
Preserving a Rabbit Colony Clear
Introducing New Rabbits to your Colony

Should you want to know additional about why we chosen to spice up meat rabbits on our homestead study 5 Causes to Improve Meat Rabbits. We now have chosen to spice up colony rabbits reasonably than caged ones, study on to hunt out out why.

Why protect rabbits in a colony and by no means in cages?

Like chickens, industrial meat rabbits is perhaps saved in cages and bred intensively. Rabbits are naturally social and prefer to run, play and frolic in social groups known as a ‘fluffle’.

House rabbits are completely completely different to the solitary cotton tail found inside the wild inside the USA.

Preserving rabbits in an individual cage is additional widespread when of us elevate for rabbit meat, nevertheless a wire cage can merely be swapped for pasture based colonies in a lot of circumstances.

Good rabbit husbandry requires defending rabbits warmth, dry, and out of their very personal filth, whereas providing relevant meals and water along with social interaction. All of these is perhaps achieved with a successfully deliberate rabbit colony setup.

I take into accout as a child going with my mother to decide on up a pet rabbit for the kindergarten she labored at. The girl we acquired it from had a small shed that you just walked into and there have been rabbits and guinea pigs far and huge.

It was pretty implausible. All of them appeared so snug and free, and they also have been very nice. I decided if I was to get rabbits that is how I need to protect them.

As soon as we first acquired married our first pet was a rabbit we named Nudge Montgomery. Nudge was an precise character, and he lived in a pet pen within the house, and we often let him out for run spherical. He was a really snug bunny.

When your grandparents have been youthful having meat rabbits inside the yard was commonplace. In precise truth, rabbits have been bred for meat for tons of, probably 1000’s of years.

That was sooner than all of us decided to pay one other individual to do the arduous part of elevating/dispatching our meat, so we’ll select it up from the grocery retailer and by no means have to think about the best way it acquired there or the best way it lived.

We now have become thus far away from our meals, we truly do not know regarding the course of or administration over their environments anymore.

Why Should You Improve Your Private Meat Rabbits

Yard meat rabbits are making a comeback. A BIG comeback. They’re small, quiet, low-cost and simple to spice up, so that you probably can have them in your yard and your neighbors might be none the wiser.

You might feed them what you want them to eat, and also you perceive that they’ve lived a implausible life, with only one unhealthy day. That, my mates, is snug meat. Ethical meat. My kind of meat.
New Zealand rabbits are the breed principally saved as meat rabbits, and with only some exceptions, they adapt successfully and quickly to colony life.

RELATED: Naturally feeding rabbits

Benefits to defending meat rabbits in cages:

Caged rabbit housing does have some benefits, significantly when you’re breeding rabbits. Cages is maybe hanging cages or an individual rabbit tractor.

• They’re simple to catch.
• It is super simple to take care of clear as a result of the poop falls by the cage.
• It is easier to protect them cool – heat kills additional rabbits than the chilly does.
• They don’t wrestle after they don’t get the prospect to take motion.
• And you could stack many many cages into an space.

The draw again to explicit individual cages are many

• The preliminary setup worth is additional.
• The persevering with feeding/watering takes a really very long time day-after-day.
• The rabbits don’t have the room to run and play.
• They’ve a lot much less muscle tone.
• They don’t get to be social like rabbits want to be.

Planning the BEST Rabbit Colony Setup

There are a variety of selections for colonies for rabbits. They range from a double sized cage/hen tractor and housing 2 or 3 does collectively, to a well-fenced paddock to take care of predators out and rabbits in letting them keep in self-dug flooring holes.

Which kind of colony you resolve relies upon upon your property and land you might have accessible, along with your preferences. A small shed can merely convert to a colony pen, significantly in case you add a deep litter system.

RELATED: Elevating meat rabbits – your excessive 5 questions answered

Prime concepts for safeguarding a rabbit colony

There are some key takeaways that you may find out about organising a rabbit colony at your own home:

• Use a roof to protect your rabbits from local weather and predators
• In case you’re using wire fencing use baby saver wire throughout the bottom
• Maintain your colony clear by using litter packing containers and deep litter
• Cut back rivals for feed by providing numerous feed and water stations
• Does prefer to determine on the place they nest, and the additional selections the upper
• Bucks can keep alongside along with your does as long as you don’t should predict the timing of litters
• Current a minimum of 10 sq. ft per grownup, twice that for breeding female rabbits
• Bunnies prefer to run and leap so numerous ranges for leaping helps protect them entertained
• You might pull weaned grow-outs out to their very personal pen to increase their meals consumption and reduce congestion inside the colony
• Maintain your plan versatile, you probably can change it up if one factor is just not working
• Rabbit colonies work successfully for every meat rabbits and pet rabbits

Simple strategies to rearrange a rabbit colony

There are a large number of the best way to rearrange a rabbit colony, nevertheless all ought to allow a minimum of 1 sq meter / 10 sq ft per grownup rabbit, and twice that for a breeding doe. So that you would possibly merely match a breeding pair in a 3m2 or 30sq ft house. The additional does you might have, the extra room per doe you will need to embrace to scale back combating. Ideally you will solely have one buck per colony till your areas are very big. One buck can merely service 10-20 does.

Exterior Rabbit Colony

This kind of colony housing entails digging a 600mm (2ft) deep trench all through the sting of the paddock and burying roofing tin, heavy accountability geotextile or hen wire or netting to stop them digging out.

In NZ and Australia, it’s important to to then depart the paddock fallow for 3-4 months to verify RCD virus dies sooner than you introduce your rabbits.

To keep away from losing having to dig correct throughout the perimeter some people are having success with filling the colony with 300mm of very rocky fill – broken bricks, rocks, big gravel.

Not solely does this strongly discourage digging nevertheless it improves drainage significantly. Within the midst of this sort of prepare, you probably can then add a truckload or two of excessive soil and allow the rabbits to burrow into it.

Flooring burrows defend from every heat and chilly with out air-conditioning, they’re shielded from wind, rain and flying predators.

RELATED: why it’s best to let your rabbits burrow

The good micro organism that keep inside the soil will assemble your rabbit colonies infants immunity and you will find your self with a far more robust baby rabbit once they’re raised this style.

In England inside the 1600s-1700s+ they may protect warrens, and use ferrets, rats or terriers to flush out the rabbits.

These days I like to recommend you merely feed your rabbits in a delegated house inside the colony that could be shut off/made smaller when you may catch your rabbits.

Rabbit Colony in a shed or barn

Someplace inside the middle between a shared hutch and a paddock is what we’ve got now chosen to be so we’ve got now a shed colony.

This eliminates the contact with wild rabbits, minimizing the RCD (and completely different diseases) hazard, and is a manageable measurement for our first time.

Flooring selections for indoor properties embrace concrete, pavers or bricks, grime lined in welded wire/geotex materials or stall mats. Each has its private deserves, and worth, go along with the easiest you may afford.

We now have a mixture of free bricks on one half and wire with bricks throughout the sting on the alternative half, both facet have grime beneath.
The wire lastly rusted ample for them to dig by after 6 years, so we’ve got now modified it with a layer of corrugated roofing iron and lined it in bedding, thus far it is working successfully.

The upside to the grime beneath is that any spilled water or bunny urine can merely soak into the earth, this minimizes the stench.

RELATED: Colony vs cage

How Quite a bit Room Do I Need for a Rabbit Colony?

To work out what sized space you need is a bit sophisticated. NZ doesn’t appear to have approved minimal caging measurement requirements, nevertheless it does focus on with the American necessities.

For explicit individual cages most people allow 1m2 per grownup rabbit (10sq ft). In a colony you need to allow a mama rabbit twice this measurement to account for her baby rabbits.

Should you occur to switch your grow-outs (weaned rising infants) to a unique house they get half the allotted space of an grownup rabbit each as meat rabbits are moved on sooner than they attain their grownup measurement.

MATHS TIME: Our shed, is 9.89m2/106 sq ft (whether or not it’s beneath 10m2 in NZ you don’t need developing consent to assemble it).

Actually one among these adults is my buck so he merely needs 1m2. So that leaves 9m2  for the mamas. 9 /2= 4.5. So in my 10m2 shed I’ll match 4 does and my buck and their infants as a lot as 12 weeks outdated pretty fortuitously, with 1m spare for them to share spherical.

You might reverse this to work out how rather a lot space you would want for x number of rabbits as successfully. The place D is does and B is bucks based on a median of 8 kits per doe.

METRIC: m2 = (1 x B) + (2 x D)
IMPERIAL: sq ft = (10 x B) + (20 x D)

Designing a Rabbit Colony

You might improve the bottom space by developing vertically, I plan on together with numerous .8m huge cupboards for them to climb on, rabbits love being up extreme.

My nesting packing containers are moreover designed with the thought that they might want to climb on excessive of them and leap off them.

They love having obstacles and tunnels and points to play with. You might make beds out of rubbermaid totes or outdated pet carry crates with their doorways eradicated. Moreover they like giant truck tires.

Give them a great deal of wood that they’re going to chew – apple, pear, untreated pine, willow, and birch are all safe selections.

Rabbits want to lie in mud, it helps kill off parasites. Give them a mud wallow with some sand, dry grime and hand stuffed with wood ash and a handful of diatomaceous earth – the equivalent combine you give chickens for the same issue. You might add some sage and lavender crushed up too in case you want. These will all help repel/kill the cretins that annoy your rabbits. For additional on

You might add some sage and lavender crushed up too in case you want. These will all help repel/kill the cretins that annoy your rabbits. For additional on parasite administration study proper right here.

Given an enormous stack of bales of hay or straw the rabbits will burrow in and make their nests in there. Nevertheless so will the native mice/rat inhabitants.

 
Some of us might say why not merely free range rabbits in your yard. The reason not to do this is principally two fold – 1) it is illegal in most areas which have a wild rabbit downside like Australia and New Zealand and a pair of) Predators usually tend to take out your rabbits within the occasion that they don’t have a safe place to call their very personal.

Feeding in a Rabbit Colony

Communal feeding areas must be successfully spaced out so there are not any fights, and have 2 water sources for the same trigger.

Rabbits do successfully on a balanced pure weight-reduction plan. Should you occur to pick it is best to make the most of purely industrial rabbit pellets, or a mixture of the two. A J feeder at each station is a monetary method to verify the rising rabbits have entry to as rather a lot meals as they need whereas limiting the waste. We now have moreover effectively used hanging hen feeders with every rabbit pellet or full grain meals.

Preserving a Rabbit Colony Clear

In case you’re using a shed, I like to recommend you make the most of the ‘deep litter method’. Find yourself a provide of low-cost or free bedding supplies – pine shavings or straw work successfully.

Rabbit droppings harbor diseases like coccidiosis, so ensuring that modern bedding is added to cowl these repeatedly is important to the properly being of your rabbitry.

Put 20-30cm (8-12 inches) of bedding down over a dusting of barn lime and diatomaceous earth. The lime will reduce/neutralize the ammonia pee odor and the diatomaceous earth helps protect flees, mites and ticks at bay.

Grownup rabbits will tend to make use of 1 or two areas as the lavatory. Baby rabbits will go the place they stand, so raking extreme layer of deep litter day-after-day is helpful.

Solely disturb the underside when you plan to it filter out. I do that every 3 months, nevertheless in case you protect together with modern bedding on excessive, you’ll get away with the massive filter out yearly.
The smaller your rabbit pen, the additional normally it’s important to to clear it out.

In case you’re going your entire hog and doing an enormous shed or paddock, a mud flooring sown in grass/feed/barley you may merely hose occasionally to soak inside the pee/poop works successfully.
Inserting a raised house lined in small wire beneath the rabbit feed and beneath the waterer will allow the poops they do whereas consuming and ingesting fall away, serving to to take care of the realm cleaner.
Maintain nesting packing containers free of poop whereas they aren’t occupied with a litter of kits, a nesting area makes an fascinating litter area!

Introducing New Rabbits to your Colony

To scale back combating inside the colony you may current a great deal of hiding areas and a number of other different meals/water stations to scale back rivals.

It’s normally most interesting in case you’ll be able to introduce everyone on the same time to the realm, so no person has time to say the territory first. Youthful rabbits are a lot much less extra more likely to wrestle, nevertheless you then cannot buy one which’s “confirmed” ie has already had a litter.

In case you’re introducing a model new rabbit to your colony, it’s prompt that they go into quarantine for 35 days first, someplace away out of your main rabbits like a hutch in your backyard.

Always feed/are more likely to the quarantined rabbit ultimate with a purpose to not share spherical any potential sickness along with your private stock.

As quickly because the quarantine interval is over, attempt introducing your rabbit in a pen inside your colony first for each week or two in order that they get used to at least one one other. A canine crate or pet pen is nice. Then enable them to out and watch intently for scuffles – you probably can squirt the perpetrator with a water bottle if scuffles are getting extreme.

After numerous straightforward supervised outings you probably can enable them to be part of the fluffle (certain a bunch of numerous rabbits referred to as a fluffle, cute correct?). Maintain a be careful for accidents or piles of fur that will suggest a wrestle.

Some rabbits regulate very properly, others will not ever regulate. Usually it is easier to remove or cull the dominant/bully as they perhaps set off unrest for all the occupants of your colony anyway.

Related: The Ultimate Data to Elevating Meat Rabbits In Colonies.

Do you keep your rabbits in a colony? Inform me about your setup inside the suggestions underneath!

Want to know all about elevating rabbits in a colony?

Check out our very private e-book proper right here:

Accessible on Kindle and in paperback or from our retailer 

Please Pin and Share!