Monthly Archives: June 2012

We’re Raising Rabbits

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We began raising rabbits yesterday. We now own two eight-week old, American Chinchilla Rabbit does (female). We will get a buck (male), of the same breed, from another nearby breeder soon. We weren’t completely ready for rabbits, but the opportunity presented itself and we decided to take advantage of it. The hutches were all assembled, but we hadn’t build the covered area to put them in yet. So the two does are staying, temporarily, in one of the completed hutches in the garage. We put blocks underneath the hutch to raise it off the floor and cardboard underneath to absorb the urine.

Actually they could stay there for a while, we aren’t really in a hurry. Females can’t breed until six months of age (males at five months). The gestation period is 31 days; the kits are typically butchered at three months. So we need to get a mature buck not later then the beginning of October; then the soonest we could have our first litter would be the beginning of November; and the soonest they could be butchered would next February.

Part of me wishes we could have gotten older ones, to be able to move the process along faster. But I think we’ll appreciate having the extra time to learn about our rabbits, before we have to worry about breeding them and dealing with the litters. There’s times we feel impatient, but I think this is a good time to move slowly and deliberately.

We’ve only got the one hutch, that they are in, fully set up. Last night we just put water and food into bowls. Today I made a trip to the feed store and bought a feed bin, a water bottle spout/holder (that works with a two-liter plastic bottle), a 25-pound bag of rabbit feed, and a bale of grass hay (I commented to Sarah that’s the first bale of hay I’d ever ‘owned’).

As far as the breed we didn’t go looking for Chinchilla Rabbits, we actually didn’t go looking for any specific breed. We were given the name of a reputable breeder, and that’s what he had. But I had seen them before and thought they were a very attractive breed. Apparently they are considered a rare breed rabbit (threatened with extinction); so it’s kind of neat to be able to help a threatened species. They are considered excellent for both fur and meat, they quickly grow to a good size, breed large litters, and are good mothers. Apparently their “demand” has dropped since we now rarely use rabbits for their pelts, and white rabbits are the most in demand for meat.

Our goal of becoming more self-sustainable has taken another large step. By bringing in rabbits we’ll be able to produce a high quality, quickly regenerating source of protein. While they’re alive we’ll give them the best life we can, and in death we’ll quietly thank them for what they give us.

We know nothing about raising rabbits, but we will learn. We’ll keep you posted on our successes, failures, and learning experiences along the way. For anyone considering getting rabbits I highly recommend RiseandShineRabbitry.com (also like him on Facebook, he puts out lots of tips and info on rabbits) and the book Story’s Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennett.

(Wednesday: Sarah’s View)

What We Did This Week To Prep 6/01/12

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Now that the garden is mostly in place, minus a few things still in the greenhouse, there really isn’t that much to report out there. I go out and check the garden each day and smile as I see the progress our plants are making. Strawberries and squash are starting to bloom, the raspberries have lots of small green berries. I weed as necessary, water when it’s too dry (though we do live in Western WA and that’s not a big problem), and reset the mouse traps.

Mouse traps? Well we’ve had a problem keeping Kate (our 9 month old Border Collie) out of the garden, and especially from digging in the nice soft soil (that we worked so hard to get). We debated options of fencing the whole thing in (but she can easily jump over three feet, she’d just see it as another fun challenge), or putting in an invisible fence–though that costs a lot and seemed to be a bit of over-kill. So I came up with the idea of trying mouse traps. She’s already jumpy and overly cautious of the unknown, so I put traps in the places she had been digging, near the compost, our new plants, and her usual paths. In the past couple of weeks she’s set off several of the traps (getting her nose once) but is getting much better at avoiding the areas they are in and, in general, just staying out of the garden.

I finished reading Holding Their Own II: The Independents (the sequel to Holding Their Own that I reviewed a couple weeks ago). It was okay. It’s changed from being a prepper-type book, with many good ideas incorporated into a novel, to a post-apocalyptic, adventure, “super cool guy hero” book. (If you enjoy Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels you’d probably enjoy continuing this series; though they’re not nearly as well written as Child’s). Joe Nobody expands the scope of his original book and is now taking on the task of rebuilding the nation, with opposing factions–the federal government and the “Independents”–moving toward civil war. The second book ends leading straight into a third book.

Ryan and I (with some help from Emily and Alison) spent quite a bit of time this week building rabbit hutches. I bought a roll of 1” x 2” 14 gauge galvanized wire fencing, cut it and bent in into a square. Then, using J clips, attached it to itself and put on a roof, and using 1/2” x 1” wire fencing, attached the floor. This weekend we’ll build the frame to hold them and be ready for the rabbits. I’ve got a potential lead for rabbits, but haven’t heard back from him yet; if anyone knows of a good source of rabbits in Western Washington let me know, otherwise I’ll just hit Craigslist.

Quote of the Week: “The only time you can have too much ammo is if you’re drowning or on fire.” -Jeff Chudwin

What did you do?

(Monday: We’re Raising Rabbits)