Towards the end of the month, I will start the does back up on the rabbit breeding program, everyone is in good shape, they are all nicely weighted but are not fat either, which is perfect, I have enjoyed the break, and I know its good for the does as well..
I will aim to have litters in the nest box’s for the end of march, I am going to be tracking them a bit, I have three does, and I plan to do three different feeding programs on each litter and then compare the results and share them with you. More on that to follow on a later post..
All the does produce different size kits, but I have sizes from last year and will compare their average growth rates to their littermates and consider mother size up to a point.
They are being breed by two different bucks, two are going to Dusty and one is going to Big Blue, as I don’t want to bred mother to son, so Dusty can’t go to Tippee Toes, but he is a Big Blue son, I want to see if I can get more that that color to pop in the litters, as I would ideally like three or more hides with that matched shading for rabbit pelts.
I am aiming for three litters per doe for 2014. Do you have rabbits, how is your rabbit breeding program doing, do you breed in winter? do you rest for the two hard months? Are you looking forward to spring breeding, are you going to breed in feb for litters in march?
Just another Day on the Farm 
We had a hard January in the rabbitry with several losses that put us back at square one. We decided to take a break from raising rabbits for now. Our son brought his favorite doe, Fuzz, inside as a pet. It’s a very rare occurrence that a “livestock” animal gets to cross over into the world of indoor pets here at our farm. She is pretty thrilled with her new cushy living arrangements (not that we don’t have nice housing for our livestock…but indoors is much different than in the barn!). Especially with a high outside of 3F today!
I’m sorry about the loss, that never easy, but agree its rare that a breeder becomes a house pet, I will bet that fuzz enjoys it, tippy toes was a pet, she still likes cuddles
We will start breeding again at the end of February also, for end of March babies. I will breed two of my does, the ones who rested the longest, Piper and Sweetie Belle, and then breed the next two does about a a month later, and then the final two a month after that. Everyone should have had a good break that way.
That’s a good plan, I find three does does enough for us with all the rest that is happening on the farm, so are you hoping to stay with six producing does, does that meet your needs?
I think so. Six seems to give us a lot of meat, but doesn’t overwhelm us. We may drop to 5 depending on the outcome of Andromeda’s next litter. If she has another small litter, I’m not sure we’d keep her.