| new issue to experienced rabbit producers and those with other forms of livestock; they have been dealing with it for centuries.
Cattle, goat, sheep, and poultry producers will be the first to tell you that heat in the South will have an impact upon their animals during the four months of summer. And, therefore, they often choose not to allow their breeding stock to give birth during the summer.
Rabbits do not “deal” with temperatures above ninety degrees and high humidity. Their fur coat does not easily allow them to radiate body heat. Ideal temperatures for rabbits range from the fifties through the sixties.
By its nature, pregnancy is stressful on an animals (or humans) during any time of the year. Add to that the summer heat and high humidity and you will quickly realize reproduction presents seasonal challenges. If you decide to allow your rabbits to breed during the summer months, then implement some kind of cooling system that will allow your herd to increase.
Heat stress can cause bucks to become temporarily sterile, does not to reproduce, miscarry and abort their young, even worse die from heat stress, ignore the new born, and deliver on the wire rather than the next box. The results will be a high mortality rate among the young, or worse yet the does.
However, there are ways to deal with these issues and most of them are fairly affordable to those of us who have not made our first million from raising rabbits.
As I mentioned earlier, livestock and poultry producers have been dealing with summer heat stress and reproductive management for a long time. Rabbit producers need to take a look at what these farmers have done, then develop a reproductive management plan for their rabbit operation. Depending upon your plan, availability of resources, and creativity your solution will vary from another rabbit producer down the road or on the other end of the state. If you can afford to idle your breeding stock during the summer months, still make arrangements for some form of air movement to keep the rabbits comfortable. If you are like me and do not have electricity, then you better have an open barn, pray for a continuous breeze, and deal with rabbits and heat issues.
Doing nothing is always an option! If you choose to allow your rabbits to reproduce without providing a way for them to cope with the heat, you can be guaranteed an increase of problems in some form. I personally am choosing the path of least resistance for the remainder of this summer; I will not allow my rabbits to reproduce until after the first of September. By waiting until the first of September to allow my rabbits to breed, they will kindle towards the end of the month when temperatures have begun to cool off and does are most likely to cope with the heat, carry to term, and take good care of their young. I call this my “positive do nothing” plan. Why do I choose this? I do not have electricity available in my barn.
Speaking of electricity, fans may be an option for keeping your does comfortable during the summer heat. Do not allow the fans to blow directly on the rabbits, it will only annoy them and stress them out. Hang the fans above the rabbit cages and utilize them to keep air moving, this will not only help the rabbits cool off, but will discourage flies from buzzing around. And we know the presence of flies’ results in transmission of disease. Many of the rabbit operations I have visited use box fans and not heavy duty “industrial” type fans.
If you have available freezer space, a surplus of empty soft drink bottles and water can provide a primitive air conditioner for your rabbits. Fill a soft drink bottle mostly full with water, put it in the freezer over night, and in the morning you have a container of ice that can be put in with the rabbit. Be sure to remove the paper from the bottle before putting it in with the rabbit; it will get bored and pull the paper off, then play with it. Once your rabbits become friends with their individual coolers you will see them lying up against the bottles of relief. Implementing this on a daily basis can be time consuming; it requires taking up the bottles in the evening, placing them back in the freezer, and putting them back out in the morning. However, this does work, is affordable, and will increase the likelihood of successful breeding and kindling.
Those of you who are familiar with the poultry and greenhouse industry know about using swamp coolers. This requires fans, water, and panels of material that the water can trickle through. Air is pulled across water running down through the panels and acts as a primitive air conditioner. This set-up is usually placed at the end of a chicken house or greenhouse and is economically feasible. To locate such equipment I would suggest visiting a local greenhouse, poultry producer, or poultry supply house and inquiring about availability and cost...
In my opinion the five options previously mentioned are viable, practical, and feasible to most small-scale and limited resource farmers. One idea I have not mentioned is air conditioning and enclosed facilities. Unless you are receiving substantially more money per rabbit than most us, this is not an option! Rabbit production at best is a supplemental form of income. The effort and expense associated with establishing and operating a controlled climate for your rabbits are not practical, cost effective, nor economically feasible. Fresh air is essential for rabbit production for two reasons (1) it reduces the opportunity for disease, and (2) it reduces problems and odor associated with urine that accumulates.
As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, the management plan for each rabbit production operation will vary from farm to farm. As a manager of your operation you will determine what works best for your farm. And more than likely your plan will best suit your goals and objectives. You are the manager of your operation, you must manage it, not allow it to manage you. As a manager you must minimize all forms of stress on your rabbits. Stressed out rabbits have a lowered immune system and are more susceptible to becoming ill.
Allowing your rabbits to breed from June first to August thirty-first can be done only if you implement a plan to keep your rabbits comfortable. Failure to do so will only result in disappointment, frustration, a high mortality rate among your breeding stock, their young, and financial losses.
As farm manager you must realize losses will occur among your animals; it is up to you to determine the likelihood of those losses and whether they are acceptable or accidental. As an enterprise, rabbit production is a nontraditional form of agriculture production. It faces more risk than traditional forms of agriculture production. Then again, farming by nature is a risky business compared to industrial enterprises in general. |
