Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Aliza" <realfood@wonderfulfarm.com>]

I know lots of folks who do colony rabbits - I was going to do this with my german angoras - just cant stand to see bunnies in cages - or anything for that matter.  There is a big difference between a colony set up and doing pastured bunnies.  Seems to be that if you have a permenant colony setup like a chicken coop you end up with all the same parasite and health problems that the folks doing confinement livestock end up with.  I do know of one farm - cant find their site at the moment - that has their brood does and bucks in raised large cages (rather like small barns)  that they move around - keeps the babies clean and healthy and they get more and better live litters - mama bunnies can be vicious to other mamas bunnies - then they move the weaned litters out on the grass in Salatin style pens that are moved daily.   They do bring grasses to the mamas and litters so they dont have a transition problem when they put them on the grass.  I would go with this type of situation long before using a permenant colony setting.  Another way I have seen colonies done - this for fiber bunnies - is to have them in a barn in colonies on non earth flooring (wood or linoleum) with litter boxes and take them out every day for grazing.   Fiber bunnies have very different needs then short coated rabbits.   One thing to concider is that you cannot keep uncastrated males together in colonies - they will really maim each other and can even kill each other fighting over does - and that there must be enough space for the does to have their litters so that they cannot see anothers litter as some will pop over and kill all the other bunnies in the other nest.  Rabbits can be sweet but they can also be really really vicious. 

 

Aliza

----- Original Message -----

From: Ken Hargesheimer

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 7:30 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Agriculture and Food Consumption

Carrie and other rabbit producers,

 

I have followed their rabbit business since day 1.  The son was 12-14 yeas old when he began raising rabbits on grass and was doing so to produce meat but after a short time the demand for breeders became more important.  He is now graduated from college and last time I heard was back on the farm, married with a couple kids.

 

I have an article which tells about raising rabbits all together rather than in cages.  Cost was very, very low.  Used an old hen house with deep bedding.  I asked a rabbit breeder about this and he said "we stopped doing that 50 years ago" but some of us like to "think outside the box" and the person said that they had no problems raising them in a "herd".   I have read about a Nigerian doing this. 

 

Has anyone tried it? 

 

Ken Hargesheimer

Carrie Shepard <carrieshepard@yahoo.com> wrote:

I hadn't followed their meat rabbit enterprise and am intrigued by that info about grazing them.

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