The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Other => Rabbits => Topic started by: Clansman on September 23, 2014, 11:14:46 am

Title: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: Clansman on September 23, 2014, 11:14:46 am: Two young litters of unrelated NZW's about to be separated into age/sex groups

(http://i59.tinypic.com/10qx8xh.jpg)
Title: Re: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: HesterF on September 24, 2014, 11:57:54 pm: So cute - just don't tell my son they're going to end up as Bunny Dinner, he'd have a fit!
Title: Re: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: Clansman on September 25, 2014, 10:23:38 am: These ones are safe, they'll all be breeding stock :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: Steph Hen on September 28, 2014, 07:51:30 pm: My husband asks if you have a lot of magicians down your way? :D

I explained that they were for eating!
Title: Re: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: in the hills on September 30, 2014, 04:05:58 pm: They are really sweet. :love:

I'd have to keep them all as pets though. We have a house rabbit .... it would be a bit like eating the 'dog' for us.
Title: Re: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: lord flynn on September 30, 2014, 04:13:02 pm: Quote from: Clansman on September 25, 2014, 10:23:38 am
These ones are safe, they'll all be breeding stock :thumbsup:

how many are you breeding! I have thought about it but know I wouldnt be able to do it which is a shame as I like rabbit.
Title: Re: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: Clansman on September 30, 2014, 04:48:41 pm: I'm planning to have two bucks, 5 breeding does and always have a few in reserve.

I sell quite a few breeding pairs/trios and at the moment all they young ones are selling as pets :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Bunny Breakfast
Post by: cloddopper on October 28, 2014, 02:11:52 am: 7 weeks before Easter was the time I moved over from growing meat to growing for the pet trade at Easter . This is the time when I took off the future breeding stock and sold the rest .

Re:- your different buck ..

I know it's difficult when you have just a few animals but try to find at least seven generations of separation in the stock lines .. it will give you high quality stock .
If you cross in a different breed of buck you'll tend to get cross breed vigour this can often mak an outstanding result or a dismal failure .

Never take breeding stock from the doe that produces the highest number of Kits.
Go for the one which has about 8% less than her , for in nature the high producers are freaks and tend to have growth & development weaknesses etc. in the next couple of generations plus they tend to eat more .

This may sound daft, but it's true , this is some of the lots of advice I got from a guy called Roger Parkin . He used to be one of the old ministry of food officers ,mainly dealing with rabbits & farm stock for most of his career till he retired around the mid 1980's .