2 breeding Mommas per person is our general rule of thumb ... plus at least 1 Buck. Only 1 is needed but we keep 3 on a rotational breeding schedule to keep the genetics mixed up generation after generation. We do 3 cycles a year.
Love your graphics and how you addressed live weight vs. processed weight. You can also maximize harvest with rabbits by using organs, making bone broth with the bones-if you pressure cook the bones with vinegar they get soft and crumble so you can feed them to your dogs and cats, or dehydrate them and add them into your garden soil.
I'll Second That... Great Video! - It looks like one buck and two does is certainly the way to go for us to get started. I process my own venison and usually get 30-35 pounds of ground venison from a Whitetail doe so a trio of meat rabbits can 'reasonably and easily' produce the equivalent of three, maybe four Whitetail doe venison meat.
Yes, and not only that but adds some variety to the freezer and dinner table which is nice. Rabbit meat is more of a white meat (ie. Chicken like) so a good mix!
Great video. Very informative video. We’ve ordered our cages from KW Cages and will be first time breeders for meat. We will be starting with one buck and two does. We live in NE Oklahoma. Not sure yet where to purchase our first trio. Any suggestions? Thanks again.
Happy to hear you are starting. I would try looking on Facebook groups we are a part of a lot of them and that is a great way to sell and rehome rabbits and other animals. Best of luck!
I know I am SUPER LATE to the party, but I have a couple questions... In your video you say siblings cannot reproduce, but I read one of the comments that siblings from either doe can? or am I misunderstanding? I would try to raise mine free range, so what is worst case scenario if they mate too regularly? What happens if the siblings of the same doe try to mate each other? Great video by the way!
If I live in a city and have a house. Can rabbits be kept in the garage or shed during the winter? Where to buy pre-built cages? How much? Can you recommend sources? How to keep them warm in the winter?
All great questions and writing details on each: Can rabbits be kept in the garage or shed during the winter? - yes, meat rabbits have a nice thick winter coat so you really want to make sure to just keep them dry and have walls to keep a barrier between the wind Where to buy pre-built cages? How much? Can you recommend sources? - We love our cages from Pointer. You will need to assemble them but it doesn't take too long and they are priced well and will last a long time! When we bought our 3 tier cage I believe it was around $400. How to keep them warm in the winter? - Meat rabbits have a great winter coat from their thick fur so you dont have to worry about keeping them too warm, you really just need to worry about keeping them dry and sheltered from the wind.
I don’t really get the linear math here; why only repeatedly breed the two initial does and harvest the new ones? In your initial kindle, assuming you have sixteen kits (8 from each doe) and assuming a gender ratio of 50:50... giving you eight male kits and eight female kits, why not just harvest six of the males and breed the remaining two males with females of differing mothers? Then instead of a constant cycle of sixteen kits every six weeks, your numbers compound... six weeks later, assuming eight kits per doe (ten does total) = 80 kits.
When you do it this way, you will have a lot rabbits at one time, but what is with the rest of the year? You have to feed a lot more adult rabbits, you need way more cages and nesting boxes at the same time, way more space and Equipment. You need to buy new rabbits to prevent incest... And also first time mothers are often not the best
