Two different Rabbit Colony Set ups. Willow Creek Homestead VS Mama Grows
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ส.ค. 2024
- Lets compare and contrast my suburban back yard meat rabbit colony with Idahos four acre homestead meat rabbit colony.
Sorry for the poor video quality, but take the info.
![Why We Broke Up Our Rabbit Colony [Lessons Learned and New Strategy]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hBRF12-dCGs/mqdefault.jpg)
![Why We Broke Up Our Rabbit Colony [Lessons Learned and New Strategy]](/img/tr.png)
Aww I wish we could do a rabbit colony. I don't like cages either but they would all get eaten by predators. We have tons of Hawks, "free-range" neighbor cats, foxes, and owls. We will have a rabbit tractor so they can hang out on grass most days.
Great video! Comparing both setups, what a great idea and a great environment for the bunnies. Nice to see them having hopping space .
I love this so much, you both did great jobs with building rabbit colonies.
LOVED seeing the differences side by side in both our setups! Great video! :)
ok, this is one of the most educational vids about keeping rabbits i have seen the whole week. thank you very much, subscribed !!
Nice to see queers living out in the wilderness where they not bothering anyone. Thank you
I really appreciate you saying know your predator problems, bc some ppl will say your way is the only way, but we have hawks/raccoons/foxes/etc that would snatch our buns up in a moment if we left tops off of cages. Love this video it was very educational I'm happy to have found your channel.
Thanks for posting. I have had caged rabbits in the past, am now thinking of restarting but with colony style. Very informative.
I Love this..you both have great rabbit colonies that work for you ...good info ladies, thank you ! 🙂
Great job. Due to numerous preditors in my area, I have to house my rabbits in hutches. Hawks, coyote, fox, bobcat, and my own dog, are just too many preditors coming in all directions at a colony. I would love to let them live a more natural life.
Love both you ladies. I dont own rabbits but this is good info from either set up. Its kinda like chickens... We all do it different and there are pros and cons to all situations.
I just read some advice on free breeding: that you then need to give each doe 50 square feet each of space (excluding the shelters, water bowls etc), and 20 square feet for the buck. And keep the shelters at least 3 feet apart. So if you have less space, free breeding is not possible. So then you would have to keep the buck separate, and take the does to him for breeding.
Great vid, please say more about bucket burrows and how you make and place them
Been researching how to make a colony that will hold up to the bears and bobcats up where I live. Wish I could do something as loose as you but they'd be bear food in a week. Right now mine live in cages inside a brick building but they are safe from predators and air conditioned in the hot summers. Looking at a sort of raised colony system inside a barn eventually, with a couple feet of dirt inside what would basically be a giant cage.
I like your burrows. If cats can get in your hutch or warren, it is not safe enough, IMO.
Very interesting contrasting and comparing the two set ups. Really enjoy the immense knowledge you both have.🙏
Great video. I just started colonizing this spring. I'm not sure about winter as we get a ton of snow. But it is great right now.
I'm new to WillowCreek from this week. Probably why this one just poped up in my recommendations. I love seeing thw differences. I know she is moving. I'll go follow her and see how that goes.
Great video! I think I think I'm going to build a colony as soon as the ground thaws here in Price. A colony will make it much easier during the winter.
Love your video! Keep up the good work ladies!
Great video on rabbit husbandry
Great info! I like the comparison of the two colony set ups!
I’m out in South Texas where it gets really hot I’m gonna use ice chess for the barrels
Enjoyed this rabbit blog only ever had them as pets tfs xx
Great Vid.
Thumbs Up..
Yes i agree it depends on where you live at my house there is so many cats that theywould eat them so the safest thing we could do is put them in cages i got a doe that is 5 yrs old now lost the buck over a yr agoe they both where muts and had call nezeland and those two went to frezzer camp but with my old girl we got 2 red nezeland and one is a buck they love to get attention and pedicures
Thanks for providing this video!
What’s the story with you two? Bestie friends since childhood? That’s what I imagine. Anyway, another great video! Thanks!
A childhood friend that would have been lovely! We actually met through TH-cam a little over a year ago! She is a wonderful close and dear friend!
@@WillowCreekHomestead I know this was from 2 years ago so I'm not sure if you have found out yet or not but supposedly the pelts are better from over 6 months as the young ones it's very difficult to tan them properly, they usually end up damaged or the hair falls out or something like that, it's been probably 4 years since I read what the reason was and I haven't gone through all of the steps of tanning so you would need to look into it further. If nothing else it might help the next person reading if you have already found out. I'm not saying it can't work it's just not as likely to come out the way you want it to when they are at a processing age
Edit: Oh and I forgot to mention it was great to hear the differences between the 2 of your setups. Great video!
Would buried chicken wire be enough to keep them from digging out?
Woow i koveyou guys you get yourself a subscriber well explained
Heads ripped off and bodies still there typically means raccoon or even mink. Can’t usually take their pray and don’t kill in “bulk”
Informative. 👍👍👍
it's good to see
Interesting! I am thinking of getting a couple of female rabbits for their compost. Will not have any if I have to use a cage. Thanks!
Of course you would have compost if you use a cage, you just collect it differently.
Nice Job on this Video!
Have you had any problems with Does having their babies all around the colony? That has happened to me with two does so far.
With heads always gone, sound more like a skunk. Their tell tail kill is missing heads.
The cat thing is kind of a dick move. Cats are really meant to be leashed. Yet everyone eats bunnies so a proper enclosure seems like the proper route.
How funny I thought I just had weird rabbits because I put a pie plate in one of my cages to put hay on and the next morning the rabbits were sitting on the pie plate even though they have Slots of wood that they can sit on
I love water bottles but for baby chicks not bunnies lol although I loved my rabbit nipple 55 gallon waterer in warm weather. I used it for all my birds and my bunnies though and they arent any good in cold weather. Those horrible bottles are wonderful for quail chicks, chicks, ducklings, goslings etc because they are so much less wasteful than horrible poultry waterers for chicks lol. I think sometimes the best tools arent exactly labeled for the right animals. Grown chickens can use poultry waterers but chicks make such a mess and shavings in it and ahhh they just drive me crazy. My friend Ashley uses rabbit waterers for chicks and I have never looked back lol. I only need to pull them out for chicks too so they stay working longer. Its not worth it for big birds and bunnies, tried it, too much refilling. My pet rats have a water bottle but they are small and only need it refilled like every 3 days.
Also rabbits dont handle baths etc well like when their face gets wet so likely the being wet from rain stressed it before you came at it. If that helps you feel a bit better. I caused a heart attack too because I had to bathe a rabbit with an infection. The water kinda starts this quiet panic mode, like they zone out. Its possible for them to snap out of it, but maybe that had something to do with it?
Sunnie DIY what great Info on the bottles!!! The chick water gets soooo gross!!
@@WillowCreekHomestead yep, I havent looked back since. Its not worth changing a milliom water bottles all over the area for all the different animals but its worth it for a concetrated space like a brooder. And soooo worth not having to change the waterers every 5 minutes because they gunked it up lol. Everyone gets water and less changing it for us. Win win. Lol. I hated those waterers I even tried the marbles and elevating the chick waterers which was better than nothing but those bottles were a game changer. Isnt it funny though they label those for mammals, and the poultry waterers for chicks and chickens are labeled for birds but they work better for the opposite lol. Well at least when you have a lot. If it was just a couple the bottles wouldnt be annoying for bunnies. This upcoming spring I am gonna set up my 55 gallon waterer with the rabbit nipple bits on the maple sap tubing it worked great (just not in the cold since they still have metal tips).
If I had chickens again I could just expand it with more nipples for the other pen. 55 gallons goes a long way. So much less water refilling and it isnt getting dirty.
In your pen it would be super easy to set up a food grade 55 gallon barrel and the water nipple things. They are different than the poultry nipples. I even prefer the rabbit water nipples for poultry and waterfowl because even the waterfowl could trigger them (unlike the verticle poultry nipples which trigger has to be directly poked it was shaped so they could rattle the trigger with their big mouths).
Really curious as to what you meant by the colony regulating itself after an initial breeding spurt? Does that mean the does do not allow the bucks to impregnate them at some point where they are tired from birthing and nursing?
If left in the colony a buck may sometimes kill the kits in order to redirect the doe to be receptive to mating again.
What about bearing pipe
Really interesting, well done video! @willow creek homestead, I'm curious: what do you plan to do with your pelts?
It's nice
It hurts to see them in a cage, but their meat tastes good.
Me: Bad Mama
Question I need advice- how to you prevent fleas, worms etc?
I have never had fleas, but worms you can add some diatamatous earth to their pellets. You can go chemical and give them ivermectin-its a common dewormer found in farm stores. I have not had to deal with fleas or worms so I am sorry I am not much help.
How do the rabbits not tunnel out of the enclosure?
They do. So in Willow Creek's colony when they start to tunnel she would put a brick in the tunnel. In my colony I lined the floor with chicken wire so they couldn't. Pros and cons of a large colony vs small.
Just found you and thank you for having some rabbit colony material up it is hard to find. We live in Boise ID and have a colony of our own we have a 12 x 40 rabbit colony and are currently breeding only silver fox rabbits that we got from a great guy in south eastern ID. If you are curious about where we got our rabbits or just want to talk shop please do I always love to talk about rabbits. On a side not also the Silver Fox rabbits are huge and much larger then the New Zealand White we had in the past also better temperament and softer.
Yall don't have any Hawks?
awesome. and that cat is guilty as charged. lets sentence his candy ass to life in exile never to return again. me. judge take no mess has spoken
My old English looked an awful lot like your rex. She had a 5 foot double height hutch and didn't fair not as nearly as Trish rabbit's. Please look at the more natural way to keep your bunnies. They will be happy and heavier in any situation.
What about predatory birds? I'd think you'd need a net overhead.
Is your fence the 2x4 all the way down or is it smaller? Feel like 2x4 they could squeeze out, but I’m hopeful since that is what my future colony is already done in.
They use 1in x 2 in cage wire for a reason and 1/2 x 1in for the bottom 4 inch s so baby s don,t fall out .
So what happens to the cat ?
Can I take my caged rabbits and put them out in Colony like you do like in a small area I only have a 15 by 40 foot space to work with and I have between 12 to 20 rabbits your thoughts please
I think you could do that. 20 might be crowded. 12 is defiantly do able. You should do it.
@@MamaGrows what if I put like 10 of them out at a time one day and then put them up and then put the other 10 out and rotate them what do you think about that
cat owners must be more responsible, they are animals that have a high impact on the ecosystem where they are allowed to walk in complete freedom.
Bucket borrow????
Bucket Burrow, like how an animal burrows in the ground. Its basically a pre made burrow for them to control where they have their babies.
I would venture to say, if you sprayed that cat with a water hose and continued spraying as you open the cage door, I bet it would never come back in you yard again.
My neighbors cat was coming into my yard. Trouble was it was trying to bite people. I used the above technique and had no more issues with the cat.
Definitely do this! There are so many non-violent ways to deal with stray cats. DO NOT try to kill a stray cat, there are tons of fines you could get slapped with, not to mention the guilt of possibly taking someone's beloved pet away from them. Call animal control, or capture them and take them to an animal shelter yourself.