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Ending our Pastured Rabbits Experiment

1/14/2017

2 Comments

 
After three years of trial and error and some successes, I have decided to stop raising rabbits. We have been raising rabbits on pasture in 4x8 colony tractors with two nest boxes in each and a buck and 2 does per tractor. The rabbits were healthy and happy and got along well together and were making good litters.

The main reason for quitting is that our pastured hogs are rooting and digging and making the pasture too lumpy and uneven to keep the boxes flat enough to the ground to stop the rabbits from escaping through the gaps. Also, I try to mow as little as possible and the tall grass lifts the boxes up high enough for rabbits to sneak under and get out.

In the video I go into depth explaining the reasons why we chose to use this method and how it could work well for someone with flatter pasture which gets clipped regularly and is able to keep dogs and other predators away. I've not seen anyone else with a completely mobile rabbitry but I think it is a good method and I hope this info could help someone fit rabbits into an ethical, healthy rotational grazing scheme without the battery cages and all the associated problems with them.
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2 Comments
Nicholas Covey link
1/14/2017 12:39:57 pm

I remember reading some commentary by Joel Salatin pertaining to his son Daniel's pastured rabbit operation. He claimed that in rabbit pastures they would unroll and pin down poultry netting directly on the ground and let vegetation grow up through it. This allowed them to run the tractor across the ground and kept the risk of the rabbit digging out to a minimum. However, I recall that in three (don't quote me on this number, but it sounds right) years the rabbits could dig BETWEEN the tractor and the poultry netting, as there had been that much soil accumulation.

Did you have many issues with parasites when you first moved them into contact with the earth?

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JACOB VANBENDEGON
1/14/2017 04:00:26 pm

My only parasite issues were bot fly. In general, they would easily heal from it. I really just got started with genetics so I think it could've been much better.

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