Where to keep the bucks...

[Wisconsin Ann]

When you have 2 or 3 bucks, either as breeding or woolers (like the JW ) do you keep them in their own room where they can't see/smell the females? Or are they kept in a cage in the room with the females? I've seen a housing set up with cages near the females, and I've been reading about housing where their in their own room.

Does it make a difference? I'll be setting up for some adult New Zealand's and a Cal soon, who probably can't go into a colony setup. I'm still at the stage where I can move things around for an optimum setup. (from what I've read, I shouldn't try to put adult does and buck from a caged system into a colony)

I think you have more of a problem separating the bucks from the other bucks, not the bucks from the does. I have 2 bucks. I have one hutch that has 4 holes, so I keep one buck on each end of the hutch, and the 2 middle holes I put females in, especially those who are next in line to be bred. Bucks next to does (at least in my experience) do fine. Bucks next to bucks will sometimes fight through the cage, pull each others fur, bite ears, and spray each other (and everything else). When I bought these rabbits, one of the bucks was a big sprayer. He was next to another buck. Since moving them around, he no longer sprays.

[MaggieJ]

I have no experience with fibre rabbits, but I did keep my buns in an 8' x 8' room in the goose house for a couple of winter. One year, I kept my buck in a cage on sawhorses and the three girls in a floor pen. It was okay, but I felt a bit sorry for the buck when the girls were running free.

The next year, I divided the floor pen to give the buck a narrow strip down one side of the floor pen. He seemed quite happy running back and forth on his side of the partition whenever the girls were active and I noticed no problems with spraying. If I were doing floor pens again, this is the way I would do it. Much nicer for the buck than a cage.

If I were doing the same thing with two bucks, I would partition two opposite corners so they would not be side by side. The girls would have the remaining space. Just some input to consider... It may be helpful even though the situations are not identical.

[Truckinguy]

I have four bucks and they are all on the bottom shelf with does on the top shelf. I haven't noticed any problems being in cages beside each other. The cages are about a foot apart on the same shelf. I have some does on two other walls of the garage which the bucks can see.

When I breed them I usually put a buck and doe's cages beside each other for the night and they are usually ready to get at each other in the morning (didn't work this morning!). Otherwise, they all seem to get along fine.

[brody]

I keep my bucks apart or I notice more spraying ..
alternating them works for me as well (I like maggie's description much better than I'd would my own)