Jacob Springs rabbit program (discontinued) - Revision history

Ahoussney at 11:56, 27 March 2017

2017-03-27T11:56:24Z

Ahoussney at 07:01, 15 February 2015

2015-02-15T07:01:19Z

Ahoussney at 06:59, 15 February 2015

2015-02-15T06:59:50Z

Ahoussney: /* Colony management */

2015-02-15T06:46:14Z

‎Colony management

Ahoussney: /* Experiments in breeding */

2015-02-15T06:45:51Z

‎Experiments in breeding

Ahoussney: /* Experiments in breeding in burrows */

2015-02-15T06:25:42Z

‎Experiments in breeding in burrows

Ahoussney: /* Experiments in removing commercial feeds */

2015-02-15T06:17:15Z

‎Experiments in removing commercial feeds

Ahoussney: Created page with "Jacob Springs Farm discontinued their meat rabbit program in 2014 due to the higher than average labor-to-return of the program, limited success in breeding rabbit tha..."

2015-02-15T03:47:11Z

Created page with "Jacob Springs Farm discontinued their meat rabbit program in 2014 due to the higher than average labor-to-return of the program, limited success in breeding rabbit tha..."

New page

[[Jacob Springs Farm]] discontinued their meat [[rabbit]] program in 2014 due to the higher than average labor-to-return of the program, limited success in breeding rabbit that would thrive on grass and hay alone and an incident in which one of the farm children has his finger bitten off by a buck. (The finger was successfully re-attached). The program was given over to another farmer who continues to produce rabbits.

[[Image:Rabbits.jpg|thumb|Rabbits were housed in movable shelters that allowed them to graze without allowing them to escape by digging.]]

==shelters==
Movable grazing shelters were built in a number of different versions, each improving upon the last. One key feature was the slatted bottom allowing grazing but not escape. The ideal slat spacing was found to be 2" or less. Slats should be oriented in the same direction the shelter is intended to be moved. Unique runners and pulling handles were added to making moving the shelters easier.

==Colony breeding and wintering==

Successes - breeding, wintering, preventing burrow out while allowing den creation, low labor requirements, hay consumption

Challenges - rats eating babies.

==Experiments in removing commercial feeds==

Failures

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:56, 27 March 2017
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	[[Jacob Springs Farm]] discontinued their meat [[rabbit]] program in 2014 due to the low profitability (despite high demand and strong prices) of the program, limited success in breeding rabbit that would thrive on grass and hay alone and an incident in which one of the farm children has his finger bitten off by a buck. (The finger was successfully re-attached). The program was given over to another farmer who continues to produce rabbits.	+	[[Jacob Springs Farm]] discontinued their meat [[rabbit]] program in 2014 due to the low profitability (despite high demand and strong prices) of the program, limited success in breeding rabbit that would thrive on grass and hay alone and an incident in which one of the farm children has his finger bitten off by a buck. (The finger was successfully re-attached). The program was given over to another farmer who came to the same conclusion we did and no longer continues to produce rabbits.

	[[Image:Rabbits.jpg\|thumb\|Rabbits were housed in movable shelters that allowed them to graze without allowing them to escape by digging.]]		[[Image:Rabbits.jpg\|thumb\|Rabbits were housed in movable shelters that allowed them to graze without allowing them to escape by digging.]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:01, 15 February 2015
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	[[Jacob Springs Farm]] discontinued their meat [[rabbit]] program in 2014 due to the ~~higher than average labor-to-return~~ of the program, limited success in breeding rabbit that would thrive on grass and hay alone and an incident in which one of the farm children has his finger bitten off by a buck. (The finger was successfully re-attached). The program was given over to another farmer who continues to produce rabbits.	+	[[Jacob Springs Farm]] discontinued their meat [[rabbit]] program in 2014 due to the low profitability (despite high demand and strong prices) of the program, limited success in breeding rabbit that would thrive on grass and hay alone and an incident in which one of the farm children has his finger bitten off by a buck. (The finger was successfully re-attached). The program was given over to another farmer who continues to produce rabbits.

	[[Image:Rabbits.jpg\|thumb\|Rabbits were housed in movable shelters that allowed them to graze without allowing them to escape by digging.]]		[[Image:Rabbits.jpg\|thumb\|Rabbits were housed in movable shelters that allowed them to graze without allowing them to escape by digging.]]

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 [[Image:Rabbits.jpg|thumb|Rabbits were housed in movable shelters that allowed them to graze without allowing them to escape by digging.]]
-==shelters==
+==Market and economics==
 Movable grazing shelters were built in a number of different versions, each improving upon the last. One key feature was the slatted bottom allowing grazing but not escape. The ideal slat spacing was found to be 2" or less. Slats should be oriented in the same direction the shelter is intended to be moved. Unique runners and pulling handles were added to making moving the shelters easier.
@@ Line 16: / Line 19: @@
 Failures - young rabbits on grass
 ==Experiments in breeding==

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 ===Colony management ===
-In time for winter we then moved the breeding population into colonies for winter - each colony measured about 6 x 10 (we used some of our [[meat chicken shelters]] that were empty for winter) and had one buck and four does. The enclosures were prepared by laying down sections of chain-link fence and some chicken wire under the open-bottomed shelters, bales of old, moldy hay were stacked, two high, all around the perimeter, including between colonies, as a wind barrier and visual obstruction. Each enclosure was outfitted with a [[tire feeder]], a hay rack and a [http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07419-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&sfb=1&itemguid=30e089c7-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&utm_content=11386&ccd=IFH003&mr:trackingCode=DFEEA264-3C81-E211-BA78-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=plaonline&mr:ad=43741505443&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=84506945203&gclid=CIbAmees48MCFYREaQod_bcA2Q rubber water dish] This system worked quite well and several litters of kits were born in this setup, however some were eaten by rats and perhaps other predators.
+In time for winter we then moved the breeding population into colonies for winter - each colony measured about 6' x 10' (we used some of our [[meat chicken shelters]] that were empty for winter) and had one buck and four does. The enclosures were prepared by laying down sections of chain-link fence and some chicken wire under the open-bottomed shelters, bales of old, moldy hay were stacked, two high, all around the perimeter, including between colonies, as a wind barrier and visual obstruction. Each enclosure was outfitted with a [[tire feeder]], a hay rack and a [http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07419-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&sfb=1&itemguid=30e089c7-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&utm_content=11386&ccd=IFH003&mr:trackingCode=DFEEA264-3C81-E211-BA78-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=plaonline&mr:ad=43741505443&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=84506945203&gclid=CIbAmees48MCFYREaQod_bcA2Q rubber water dish] This system worked quite well and several litters of kits were born in this setup, however some were eaten by rats and perhaps other predators.
 ===Burrows===
 Being unsatisfied with the management intensity of breeding in cages or movable enclosures, we decided to try to allow rabbits to follow their instincts and kindle(give birth) in burrows. To accomplish this we made use of an area up against our house that was bounded on two sides by the foundation and on two sides by a concrete pathway - we reasoned that the concrete would prevent rabbits from burrowing out of the enclosure. Above ground, we used heavy woven wire fencing supported by stakes and blocked on the bottom by heavy railroad ties. The experiment was partly successful, but ultimately the system never reached a point of overall success before we terminated it. The rabbits quickly dug several burrows that were deeper than we could see or reach the bottom with our arms. They did kindle you in the burrows, some of which reached an age of beginning to explore outside the nest before they were killed by our farm cats. Two females died in their burrows shortly after kindling of unknown disease and another showed signs of parasite load. This may have been due to having limited access to new ground, perhaps heat stress played a part due to that location and nutrition may have been a problem since they were being fed primarily hay, grass clippings and vegetable scraps. Ultimately, it proved difficult to achieve success at breeding due to a combination of factors. We probably tried to change too much at once and never answered our questions conclusively.

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 Initially we used a standard breeding method of housing each female in her own cage with a nest box. We were unsatisfied with this method because:
-#It's labor intensive to feed and water each cage separately - this does not scale easily
+#It's labor intensive to feed and water each cage separately - especially in winter - this does not scale easily
 #It's infrastructure intensive to house and provide dishes and/or waterers for all breeding rabbits
 #It's difficult to feed home-grown [[Fodder and Forage|fodder]] in cages, so feeding becomes expensive
@@ Line 32: / Line 32: @@
 We then built a divided grazing shelter with built-in nesting boxes - our thought was that this would be an improvement upon individual cages, it was an improvement with regard to feeding grass, but the labor need actually increased (needed to move the shelters daily) and the other problems remained.
 ===Burrows===
 Being unsatisfied with the management intensity of breeding in cages or movable enclosures, we decided to try to allow rabbits to follow their instincts and kindle(give birth) in burrows. To accomplish this we made use of an area up against our house that was bounded on two sides by the foundation and on two sides by a concrete pathway - we reasoned that the concrete would prevent rabbits from burrowing out of the enclosure. Above ground, we used heavy woven wire fencing supported by stakes and blocked on the bottom by heavy railroad ties. The experiment was partly successful, but ultimately the system never reached a point of overall success before we terminated it. The rabbits quickly dug several burrows that were deeper than we could see or reach the bottom with our arms. They did kindle you in the burrows, some of which reached an age of beginning to explore outside the nest before they were killed by our farm cats. Two females died in their burrows shortly after kindling of unknown disease and another showed signs of parasite load. This may have been due to having limited access to new ground, perhaps heat stress played a part due to that location and nutrition may have been a problem since they were being fed primarily hay, grass clippings and vegetable scraps. Ultimately, it proved difficult to achieve success at breeding due to a combination of factors. We probably tried to change too much at once and never answered our questions conclusively.

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:17, 15 February 2015
Line 13:		Line 13:

	==Experiments in removing commercial feeds==		==Experiments in removing commercial feeds==
		+	Successes - hay

−	Failures	+	Failures - young rabbits on grass
		+
		+	==Experiments in breeding in burrows==
		+	Being unsatisfied with the management intensity of breeding in cages or movable enclosures, we decided to try to allow rabbits to follow their instincts and kindle(give birth) in burrows. To accomplish this we made use of an area up against our house that was bounded on two sides by the foundation and on two sides by a concrete pathway - we reasoned that the concrete would prevent rabbits from burrowing out of the enclosure. Above ground, we used heavy woven wire fencing supported by stakes and blocked on the bottom by heavy railroad ties. The experiment was partly successful, but ultimately the system never reached a point of overall success before we terminated it. The rabbits quickly dug several burrows that were deeper than we could see or reach the bottom with our arms. They did kindle you in the burrows, some of which reached an age of beginning to explore outside the nest before they were killed by our farm cats. Two females died in their burrows shortly after kindling of unknown disease and another showed signs of parasite load. This may have been due to having limited access to new ground, perhaps heat stress played a part due to that location and nutrition may have been a problem since they were being fed primarily hay, grass clippings and vegetable scraps. Ultimately, it proved difficult to achieve success at breeding due to a combination of factors. We probably tried to change too much at once and never answered our questions conclusively.