Animal Guides
Chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, quail, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, cattle and bees: getting started, housing, feeding, care and health.
Raising Chickens →How-To Guides
Step-by-step guides for every animal, the garden, orchard, pasture and compost: getting started, housing, feeding, daily care, breeding, health and harvest.
Garden and Land Guides
The vegetable garden, orchard, pasture and compost — with the key numbers and links to the trackers that keep your records.
Growing a Garden →Raising Rabbits
Meat rabbits are quiet, fit in a garage or shed, and turn hay and pellets into lean meat efficiently. Their droppings go straight onto the garden without composting.
- Pregnancy
- 31 days (28–35)
- Nest box in
- day 28
- Wean kits
- 6–8 weeks
- Fryers ready
- 10–12 weeks, about 5 lb
- Too hot above
- 85°F
1Getting started
- Meat breeds: New Zealand, Californian, Rex, Champagne d’Argent, Silver Fox. Start with 2–3 does and a buck.
- Buy from a breeder with records; ask about growth rates and mothering.
- Each doe can raise about 4–6 litters a year of 6–10 kits.
2Housing
- Wire cages about 2.5 × 3 ft per medium doe (larger for big breeds), or a dig-proof colony pen.
- Shade and airflow matter most: heat kills rabbits faster than cold.
- Give a resting mat in wire cages to prevent sore hocks.
- Under the cages, raise worms or collect manure for the garden.
3Feeding and water
- Pellets (16–18% protein) plus free-choice grass hay for gut health.
- A medium doe eats about 4–6 oz of pellets a day; a nursing doe and litter, much more.
- Introduce greens slowly; sudden diet changes cause diarrhea in young rabbits.
- Water bottles freeze — swap them twice a day in winter and add frozen bottles in summer.
4Breeding
- Breed medium does at 5–6 months, large breeds at 8–9 months.
- Always take the doe to the buck’s cage, never the other way.
- Palpate at 10–14 days; put the nest box in at day 28; kindling around day 31.
- Check the nest the day after kindling and remove any dead kits.
5Health
- Snuffles (runny nose, wet front paws) spreads — isolate and don’t breed that rabbit.
- Check ears for crusts (ear mites) and hocks for sores.
- A rabbit that stops eating or pooping needs help today — GI stasis can kill within a day.
- RHDV2, a deadly rabbit virus, is now in much of the US: keep wild rabbits away and ask a vet about the vaccine.
6Processing
- Fryers at 10–12 weeks (about 5 lb live) give tender meat; roasters are older.
- Expect about 50–60% of live weight as dressed meat.
- Tan the hides, or compost them; rabbit manure is a “cold” manure you can use fresh.
Space guide
For each animalFencing: Cages or a dig-proof colony pen
- About 2.5 × 3 ft per medium adult; 10 sq ft for large breeds
- Grow-outs: 1.5–2 sq ft each in a colony pen
- Nest box about 10 × 18 in for medium does
Rules of thumb — more room is always better, and breed, climate and local rules can change what you need. Sketch it out in the Barn & Garden Planner.
Put it to work
These free tools keep the records for you once you’ve made an account:
These are rules of thumb from university extension guidance. Breed, climate and your state’s rules change the details — your county extension office is the best place to ask, and you can find it on the selling rules page by ZIP code.