New Zealand Rabbits are Here!



Rabbits at 9 weeks.



Jersey- our "broken" buck



This week we picked up our New Zealand rabbits.  We had met with a breeder several weeks ago but, the clutch was too little to sex the bucks and does.  Our goal was to pick up a good buck and three does.  New Zealand rabbits are breed to produce meat. The breed is typically all white, albinos.  This is preferred so that stray hairs on meat are not as noticeable.  The Brokens were not recognized as part of the breed until last year.  When we arrived, Jamey fell in love with our young buck's brother, a "broken" (mixed black and white).  So now we have 5.    The average female can produce up to 200 lbs. of rabbit meat per year.  Isn't that crazy! Our rabbits were born in March and already weight 6 lbs.  We will be waiting until the end of summer to breed our first pair.

Laying out the cages to get the spacing correct. 

Now we are getting somewhere. 



This week I started working on an out door hutch. I hope to keep them out of the garage most of the year but, we will see how they do in the heat this summer. I found a photo of a design I liked. When finished there will be an automatic watering system and all the rabbit manure will fall to the ground into a compost pile for easy clean up. Rabbit manure is one of the best natural fertilizers you can get.