Why You Should Raise Meat Rabbits in a Colony (Pros and Cons)

in this video I want to talk about the pros and cons of raising meat rabbits in a colony and that's what we've been doing in fact and the main reason why we decided to raise our meat rabbits new zealands and the colonies because unlike the solitary wild rabbits like the American Cottontail most meat rabbit breeds including the New Zealand's Californian chinchilla Etc they naturally thrive in colonies and naturally live in larger groups and are not solitary and so we decided to do the same we got a breeding Trio of New Zealand a while back and we started to raise them for meat to feed ourselves as well as our German Shepherd in this video I want to talk about the pros and cons a little bit so you can if you're new to meat rabbits if you're considering adding new meat rabbits to your homes that are raising meat rabbits you might be able to use some of those pros and cons as guidelines to decide if a colony setup might be right for you and let's start with some of the advantages of raising meat rabbits in a colony I mean bottom line really is it provides a or it mimics the natural environment that those rabbits are used to you know they're live in a group and that's what they like best they're not solitary and that was really one of the main factors because we always try to raise our animals in an environment that's as natural as possible to their I guess wild counterparts number two is infrastructure requirements you know if you want to raise rabbits in cages depending on the number of rabbits of course you're gonna get the dose and and bugs Etc you have to get them you know different cages set up you know maybe with fans you need to You Know cover them there is a lot of infrastructure potential a lot of infrastructure required to make that work and to make it as convenient as possible for you to raise them in our case all we did is we built one relatively large rabbit hutch where everyone is in not the Growers we move the mountain into Mobile rabbits tractors that we can move across the lawn but our breeding Trio as well as the two litters of each dough are in that touch and they all live together and it just makes the infrastructure needs fairly simple we only need one watering system we only need one feeder well actually we have two just because of the number of rabbits but we don't have to have a dedicated watering system and feeding equipment for every single cage that we would potentially need if we went the traditional cage routes daily chores is another thing you know I have a day chop you know and my wife you know homeschools the kids Etc so we are not full term or full-time farmers and so we always try to keep chores to a minimum and try to keep everything running as efficiently as possible and so by having everyone with exception of the roads in a single Hutch it makes it very easy in the morning to do the chores you know we just checked the water it's actually it's hooked up to a rain barrel that gets fed you know by rain so we don't have to fill that barrel and that feeds all the nipples we have a separate Bowl feed a water purple hooked up to our water to a hose so there's always water we don't have to worry about you know all we do we need to refill the water or anything the only thing we do is we bring in fresh greens every morning and we make sure to have you know their pellets Etc and that the water is somewhat clean otherwise we have to dump it every so often so it keeps the chores relatively simple in comparison to you know having to do this for X number of cages one thing that is not required as part of a colony setup but that we choose that we chose to do is to allow them to borrow so in other words our Hutch is actually on soil we duck down three feet we put in we laid a mesh wire on the bottom and then we filled the dirt back in but that basically gives them three feet of room to make tunnels to borrow basically and that's another one of their natural behaviors that we wanted to encourage so they are allowed to build tunnels which has a number of advantages and also some disadvantages but the advantages really are that we we've practically Inc increased their square footage because they have two levels almost they have you know the underground they have the main level and then they even have some pellets where they can jump on top so we have more than just what the square footage of our rabbit hutch would suggest they can also regulate their temperature much better because underground in a temperature is fairly consistent so even if it's super hot or super cold outside they can just go underground which is you know during the day most of the kids they're always underground just the adults are usually above ground and they can you know manage their own temperature and it's not a problem you don't have to worry about you know nesting boxes or anything they take care of everything so you don't have to there is very little maintenance and work involved um and they just do their thing immunity is another big issue I mean you know allowing rabbits to socialize helps support their immune system it's much like you know human kids when they get together yes they exchange germs they might get you know the sniffers or whatever but ultimately it benefits their immune system from having them all together especially if it's a somewhat enclosed group you know we don't have you know rabbits that visit our farm you know and then leave again like kids would so it's relatively enclosed but still it builds their immunity and we've not had any major issues with disease fortunately meat flavor is also another aspect the more they can the rabbits can use their muscles they're more flavorful the meat is yes it's a little bit tougher and that's one of the downsides but just the flavor of a rabbit that can move that is active is better than one that is just sitting in a cage and cannot really move much at all breeding and kindling is very hands-off which is a pro and a con as we'll talk about here in a bit but the advantage is you don't have to do anything you know there is no bringing the buck to the dough or vice versa or you know timing the breeding Etc they just do whatever they want to and I mean they breed I mean every month or six weeks or whatever you know we have a new litter or at least a dough is pregnant again we see the kids usually for the first time when they are about three weeks old that's when they come out from under from the tunnels but beyond that there is nothing absolutely nothing we have to do they take care of everything they clean up the you know giving birth obviously building the nests nothing that we have to do nothing we have to be involved in we don't have to separate the buck bring it in it'll take it out Etc they all live happily together the dough only gets spread when she wants to the buck no does not eat the kids everything is just working as it would in nature you know very hands-off and we very much like that because that means less work for us now keep in mind we're breeding those meat rabbits for to you know produce or make food for us we are not commercial breeders you know we don't care about breeding performance or you know some of the other maybe metrics that someone would care about who breeds rabbits commercially we don't care about that we also don't necessarily care about natural selection and keep you know we just let the trio breathe until they're you know don't breathe anymore and then we get a new tree or maybe at some point dinner will will separate some of the you know the ones the better ones and keep them in a separate rabbit hutch in the same setup if we want to keep them and you know use them as our future breeding stock but for now we just let them do the thing it's been working beautifully they you know we every couple of weeks we can Harvest you know six to seven rabbits and that's really all we wanted now there are a couple of disadvantages to letting them be in a colony and in particular letting them you know borrow and let's maybe start with you know breeding performance and record keeping you know we don't know when our rabbits are born you know because we don't see what's happening on the ground we tried like you know one of those you know cameras you know like on a on a cable to stick it in and see what's going on but it didn't really work and ultimately we we don't really care you know we we see those kids as I said usually around the three week Mark that's when they come out and with the oh there is a new letter and then sometimes we know who the litter is from but not all the time so usually we see it you know when we see a a little one nursing at the moment saying okay that letter is from you know Mom number a or Mom number B we also you know notice regular right now for example one Mom is pregnant and the other one there is already a little underground we suspect because she doesn't look pregnant anymore and usually that's the time of the you know time of the month when you know we would have a new litter so we suspect that whatever is underground right now belongs to arm a and whatever and Mom B is still pregnant and there's usually always a like a two week or so difference between the litter so one are always a little bit bigger already than the other one so we can kind of tell them apart but it's still difficult and if you want to keep detailed record of you know birth weights Etc and all of the things it's almost impossible especially if you let them borrow um so we don't do that we don't care about it but if that's something you care about the colony borrowing approach is probably not for you catching rabbits you know for the purpose of treating them of whatever you might need to do you know tagging their ears or whatever can be a challenge now our kids fortunately they have made it their mission to cuddle with the small ones once they're out of the tunnels and so you know they catch them they spend an hour in there until they've caught every single one and then they cuddle with them and then the rabbits get used to it and then they you can easily pick them up but especially in the beginning with the first letter that was almost impossible to catch it was like a four men or if the entire family was involved in catching those rabbits when we moved them to the Tractor because they can go underground and in underground there's nothing you can do you have to wait until they come out and then block the tunnel entrances so that's another downside of that approach Disease Control is another potential issue and unfortunately we haven't had any diseases our rabbits seem to have a very good immune system which is you know encouraged by being in close contact with each other but if you introduce a disease either from the outside or if one of the rabbits gets sick chances are every single one you know get sick or at least there is a higher chance because they are so close together that's another potential disadvantage Waste Control can be a problem depending on how you've set up if you use a deep litter method it's usually not a problem because you just add fresh litter on top and you know it turns into compost in our case we are on soil so you know the urine you know know seeps into the soil in the beginning we didn't do deep litter because we were on soil and most of it got absorbed but then you know we also started just adding wood chips on top and you know we do that every so often and that takes care of things but if you're on concrete and if deep littering is not an option or you don't want to do this that means you have to you know clean it out if you have rabbits in cages where the droppings can fall through to the ground and you catch them and then carry them off it can be much easier again it depends on what kind of system you want to set up and and what's most convenient for you the meat as I alluded to is tougher likely in Colony rabbits because they use their muscles more so it's again more flavorful but also tougher that means you either harvest the rabbits a little earlier than usual or you cook them longer now our rabbits we typically Harvest when they have about four and a half pounds and we've so far meat has been excellent there was no issue whatsoever with the meat wasn't tough it was very good and um and yeah so that but that could be a potential downside if you prefer very tender meat now before we wrap it up here let's talk about a couple of uh frequently asked questions so you get an idea of you know what's required first is you know how much square feet of space do Colony rabbits need and as a rule of thumb each Buck needs approximately 10 square feet and each dough including her litter one liter requires approximately 20 square feet of floor space now our rabbit hutch when we have outside has 96 square feet and that's more than enough space for or more than enough room for one buck and the two does with their respective litter and then he also at peak times we might have I don't know 17 rabbits or so in the colony that live on you know those two levels basically and then the grow outs once they reach uh once they are about maybe eight ten weeks or so we move them into separate tractors that we pull across the lawn so they eat fresh grass and less fewer pellets and you know we we have we provide enough room for the new litter that might already be Underground the second thing we've heard a lot well doesn't the bug eat the baby bun as well but there is a risk of that happening depending on you know your setup maybe depending on how much space Etc you have our buck is like the gentlest dude you've ever seen it's the friendliest one you can pick him up you can turn him around like a like a baby um and he just lets you do everything with him he's super gentle super nice he is not shown any aggression whatsoever now are there aggressive bugs maybe they are maybe that happens but in our case that doesn't seem to be the case and also you know in nature if rabbits live in a colony you know they live in a colony so I guess by default bugs are used to living with kids and I don't think it's a an issue per se not that it cannot be an issue but I don't think that's something you would necessarily expect the second thing is doesn't the dog get over bread when the buck is always with her the doll tells the buck when she is ready uh to be bred um so I don't think there was an issue rabbits like to those like to be pregnant that's what they do they breed like rabbits literally and so we have not had that issue the bug doesn't seem to be trying uh you know when she's either pregnant or when she doesn't want to so based on what we've seen not no issue whatsoever they get pregnant regularly but we have not seen the buck make you know making anything more difficult what do we feed our Colony rabbits or what do you feed Colony rabbits you know we have a combination of fresh greens that we collect from the backyard whatever we can find um you know we grow some Alfalfa and some legumes and leafy greens and stuff to feed them or just grab you know weeds or whatever we can find you know Twigs from trees that they can eat there are certain things rabbit shooter the candidate but that's what we feed them and then uh Hey fresh hay and pellets that's really that combination it's free choice to eat whatever you want to for fresh water I have mentioned we use a combination of nipples and a bowl that are fed by a 100 gallon rain barrel as well as a water hose so we have two kind of systems working together in case one you know breaks for whatever reason there's always a second source of water um we're there we're gonna wrap it up I'm gonna link a couple of additional resources and especially a blog post that I've written on the very topic that provides even more information what I could cover in this video so check that out if you like this video give it a thumbs up subscribe stick around until the next 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Channel: Kummer Homestead

Views: 102,665

Keywords: Homesteading, Homestead, DIY, rabbits, rabbitfarming, rabbit, rabbit hutch, colony rabbits, colony rabbit farming, colony rabbit hutch walkthrough, rabbit hutch walkthrough, baby rabbits, rabbit farming, rabbits for homesteading, rabbits on a farm, raising colony rabbits, raising rabbits in a colony, pros of raising rabbits, cons of raising rabbits, pros of raising rabbits in a colony, cons of raising rabbits in a colony, rabbit colony farming, rabbits on a homestead, homestead

Id: ZSTOE3XqQ84

Length: 14min 43sec (883 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 19 2023