Hiram's Hutch Rabbitry and Farmstead

06/12/2026

In case you were wondering, I'm officially going through a 50 # bag of rabbit feed every night

06/11/2026

My elder flowers came with friends 🤣

06/11/2026

Finally finished the remodel on this hutch. With my chores taking close to 4 hours to accomplish right now, around all the other stuff i've got going on, projects take WAY longer than i'd like. Now i just have to move the other doe into her new apartment and I can start on something else

06/11/2026

Just a friendly reminder 🤣

06/11/2026

This dog is so derpy

06/11/2026

Sorry if you're getting sick of dark videos with blinky lights, but the lighting bugs make me happy. I find it relaxing to watch them, and not everyone is as blessed as I am to see them nightly.

06/11/2026

Indigo's blue babies

06/11/2026

We've went over the important aspects of feed, how to transition them( if necessary) and my preferred water bottles.
Today's re-share for fair, we're gonna go over the best way to feed those meat rabbits

With fair season quickly approaching, I thought we'd touch on raising market rabbits.

Most fairs have a minimum weight of 3.5lbs per rabbit for market pens or single fryers. Most have a maximum weight of 5 or 6 lbs. ( fair advisors if you could chime in on exact, i would appreciate it) And most fairs around here are in the summer, making it incredibly difficult to get rabbits to put on weight. They simply just don't eat as much when it is hot. A way around that is feeding in the evening, when it is cooler. They are crepuscular, meaning most active at dawn and dusk, feeding at dusk means they're up and more apt to eat.

Now, feeding them a diet solely of a complete pellet is the most effective way for them to put on weight. Hay and forage don't provide everything necessary to pack on pounds ( well, ounces in the case of rabbits, but you get the gist). Will they grow? Yes. But not as fast. And with a ticking clock ,that time matters.

Making sure they always have access to feed is key, but there can be alot of wasted feed. It's not as bad with a well mounted j feeder, providing they can't flip it or dig the feed out, because the old feed is just about always exiting before newly added ( as long as your making sure to push all of it towards the bottom before putting new in). With bowls, rabbits are prone to sitting in them and inevitably pooping and peeing in them. You can't just add new on top. It must be dumped. And rabbits won't eat old feed. The approach I take is usually 1 cup per rabbit in the pen fed in the evening. If they consume it all by morning, I add another cup. Generally, they aren't going to finish that completely during the day because of the whole not eating when it's hot thing. However, I up the morning amount if they do. They always have access to fresh feed that way. But you aren't having to waste as much because it's almost empty by the next evening.

They should always have access to water. Ideally, changed out a few times a day when it is hot.

Cages should be kept clean. If you're using cages with trays, they should be dumped frequently ( perfect garden fertilizer). I don't recommend indoor style cages where shavings are utilized. But that's just my personal opinion. Any buildup on the wire should be scraped off.

Did I miss anything? Or any additional questions? Let me know.

06/10/2026

It's humid and gross, but baby smooches make it all better.

Show me your babies! Any kind, doesn't matter if it isn't a bunny