New blood in my colony?

[GBov]

Had a thought last night as to how to get another doe in my colony and need to ask if it will work.

At 4H we have a large silver/blue doe (no idea what kind she is but she is pretty as a picture, silver blue with a dew lap) I was wondering if I bred her to one of our big pink eyed meat rabbits (Haven't had enough tea this morning, my memory isn't working and I cant remember what they are called lol) and then take the babies at six weeks and turn them loose in the colony.

Honey and Bowler dont seem to take any notice to the very young weanlings so would they even notice new babies running about the place? Bowler is trying to run his older offspring out of the colony right now but they are all boys.

Oh yeh, and one more question for y'all. How well will a large doe do when bred to a very large buck? I know bunnies are small when born but I dont want to give a new doe of unknown age any extra problems.

[GBov]

Well, darn! I thought sure someone would know lol.

[MaggieJ]

How big is your colony, GBov? Are there numerous hiding places for the youngsters if the adults get a bit aggressive? If you decide to try this, I'd suggest putting a small shelter in one corner and create a creep area, where the youngsters could go to be safe and eat and drink in peace until they get acclimatized. I think the adults would accept them, although Bowler might be a problem. You would need to be prepared to intervene if it didn't work.

[KSALguy]

young kits will be accepted, as they mature the bucks will get harrassed badly by the adult buck and the new does will learn their place quickly from the queen doe, lots of hiding places like Maggiej said, also it should not be a problem to breed the blue doe to the NZW buck,

[Macybaby]

one problem is those young does are going to get pregnant as soon as they are physically able, being with an older buck. I only time I had a very young doe get pregnant was when I moved the litter in with the adult buck for grow out. He was fine with that, but one doe matured faster than I expected. I don't think any of the young bucks were mature yet, so the adult buck didn't care about them.

I butchered at about 16 weeks, and found one doe pregnant, though not by much. I had not expected any of the does to be fertile that early on, though I had planned on butchering them two weeks earlier, and she would not have been at that point.

If you want to make sure your does are older before mating, you could remove the buck for a while. If you want kits, just let the older doe visit the buck and then put her back.

The time I decided to keep a doe, I removed her with the rest of the litter at 8 weeks. Let her grow up more and then put her back in with her Mom. I didn't have any fighting with them, they did fine though I never bred them while they were living together.

[MaggieJ]

If space allows in a colony, it is an excellent idea to have a pen in one corner with a bunny door that can be kept open or closed off at need. Useful for separating the buck while still keeping him part of the colony and also useful if a doe gets a little nursed down and needs a break, when introducing new rabbits, or when a member of the colony has a small injury or non-infectious illness that needs treating.

[KSALguy]

in my natural ground colony i didnt have any problem with the young does breeding too soon for their health, i did go out to butcher as needed one time and caught a young doe that was bred, she got a get out of jail free pass that day, at one point i ended up with 7 breeding does in the colony plus litters and the buck, i didnt separate the buck except twice when i sent him to freezer camp to make room for a younger buck comming up,

[Macybaby]

KSALguy - how big is your setup? I think that most problems are solved with size, the smaller the setup, the more problems. I know one person that has a rather large setup, and does nothing but occasionally cull rabbits for eating. They seem to have gotten to a point that is somewhat self sustaining, he's got lots of does and bucks, but does not get overrun with kits. But who knows - they are born underground and he never sees anything until they surface.

I would love to have a natural ground colony, but I live where the water table is very high and it's quite flat. With the heavy rain we've had the last few years, it's done a number on the burrowing and ground nesting wildlife. It's normal to go out after a rain and find burrows filled with water. Unless it gets really dry, our sump for our basement runs several times a day. In the spring, it runs several times a minute.

[KSALguy]

their burrows were all under an 8x8 coop, they had access to an aditional 20x30 run plus the inside of the coop as well, one buck at all times, and any where from 3-8 adult breeding does, and any number of kits of varying ages, i lost some to the urge to scatter and they would break out into the woods, there still is one calico rabbit loose around the property that escaped long ago, part of the pen was open on top and owls got a few kits but the rest made for an active earth moveing rabbit breeding warren.

right now i dont have rabbits due to haveing to move the coop down the hill away from the house and its too wet down there, but once i move and get set up the way i want it its on again lol,

[SquashNut]

I was going to ask if you could foster very young kits to a doe inside the colony, but i guess colony raisers don't have that much hands on knowledge to do that.

[KSALguy]

depends on how the colony is set up, a natural colony like mine, no you cant really foster kits in the nest because all the nests are under ground, but in a colony set up like Macybaby then yes you could foster, the thing is you really dont need too in this case as young weaned kits will be accepted into the colony no problem, the only time you will have fighting when adding new animals is if you add an adult of eather gender, some will accept some wont,