[Rosemary]

Hmm, useful stuff. Thanks for this.

[cloddopper]

Rosemary, I've been playing on the rabbit theme again & It crossed my mind to tell you about the Mordant rabbit hutch
 It is a long prismatic shape with the nest /shelter at one end
 As it is triangular the three sides save quite a lot money & effort by using less materials .
The floor is also made of wire usually a thick 40 mm galv mesh , it stops dig out and stops fox in though ferrets & rats can some times succeed .
 as it is a triangle it's easy to fit two log stretcher type handles either as a set screwed on for each cage or one set for several cages if you make & put a simple upside down hook to lift them by .
 Again  because of it being a triangle it's easy to hinge one side along the half high level so you can get access to the run  , same with the house end . Do make the nest box idea inthe house end for rabbits suffer tremebndously if they get wet fur and can't hinker down nice & snug to dry out.
 in winter the nutirions and vitamins of the grass decline as soon as we start to move on from summer right into the spring growth perios so you will need to supplement the grass fees omne way or anothe .

Giving a very varied diet helps keep them really healthy.  One thing all the meat rabbits I had as a kid ( I sold them to neighbours ) loved was oven dried potato & carrot peelings & frozen ( cut off with an axe)  Brussels sprout stalks in the deepest of trhe harsh winter we had from October to March in the early 1960's  .

They not only nest in hay & barley straw they love to nibble it to help keep their teeth down same with up to 3 inch thick chunks of apple wood branches .

The hay & straw also helps their food system work well for they need it to make the correct fecal pellet ,  which they eat neat , direct from their anus to keep re-infecting their gut with cellulose breaking down bacteria. (  cocotrophy [ SP ??]  )
 

[Rosemary]

They're quite fascinating things, rabbits, aren't they 

[cloddopper]

Oh , one thing to be careful of is rabbit pox or syphilis  if you get it be brutal in hygene & culling & don't get stock for those suppliers again .

Missed it will wipe your herd out and cost you money .
 
In the buck he is " off his task "  , often  has a darkish raspberry sort of coloured penis instead of the normal light pink  & it often looks to have several tiny greyish spider web type lines of colour where the flesh cracks open .

In the doe it is like a dark split raspberry again with the spider web sign in evidence from about day four , the vagina is puffy /inflamed .

 It was always our golden  rule no matter what else happened that any new stock brought in was quarantined in a separate rabbit shed ( old concrete garage well away from the other rabbits ) for at least 14 days .  Each rabbit being carefully  checked over every other day .

 The bucks and does in the meat production sheds  were always checked over in good electric lighting at every mating session .   In one shed we found evidence of the buck having the pox so culled & cremated him
 Five does he'd serviced also had to go the same way . Everything they had had contact with was taken out the shed & submerged into a big tank of " Virkon S disinfectant " for 1/2 an hour, before being power washed off , then sprayed with fresh Virkon S and left to dry  before being put back into use .

 We think that how it occurred was from mosquitos coming into the shed at night with us when we did the mating as some nights you had to fight your way through the bloody things.
The insect -o-cutor took care of most of them when  the lights were turned off .
 As a precaution against further incidents of the pox we used to take a large aerosol of fly spray with us to the sheds on calm nights and give a quick 2 second burst of spray by the door , having held our breath whilst doing it and going in through  the door .
 It seems that the mozzies followed our scents from the house when they were disturbed by the PIR flood lights or the C O2 in our breath . For on exiting the sheds we only seemed to picked up the mozzies about half way ( 80 mtrs from the sheds ) on the way back to the house,  as we passed the veg beds & back in to the house via the cellar rooms  door so we could de- mozzie ourselves before getting out the work gear & entering the living area.

Rabbits mate better in the mid evening  around 21.00 hrs. or if you have time clock set enforced lighting  system  in the darkness period  .