Spring is the ideal time of year for breeding meat rabbits. You should be breeding your rabbits as close to year-round as possible. Ideally, every five weeks or so.
Spring presents the perfect time for meat rabbit breeding, so you should work hard to hit the spring breeding times. If you have struggled to breed rabbits before, your best bet is often breeding in the spring.
Why is spring such a great time to breed meat rabbits?
Jump to:
- Natural Rhythm and Lengthening Daylight
- Moderate Temperatures and Steadier Weather
- Raising Up Kits through the Weaning Stage Before the Heat of Summer Sets In
- VIDEO: Why is Spring the BEST Time to Breed Meat Rabbits?
- No Worries about Heat Sterility
- Time for Another Breeding Before Summer Heat Hits
- Spring Breeding Comes Naturally to Meat Rabbits
Natural Rhythm and Lengthening Daylight
Spring is the natural time of year for rabbits to start breeding. (Remember everyone being twitterpated in Bambi?)
Although rabbits can and will breed all year long, you will find that there are times of the year when it is definitely easier than others. Those times of year are when the days are long.
Just like chickens coming out of a molt that begin laying and breeding again in the spring, rabbits will naturally do the same. As soon as the days start getting longer, it will start getting easier to get does to lift and to see successful fall offs.
Moderate Temperatures and Steadier Weather
Not only is breeding itself easier, but it is easier to manage young kits when they are not being as challenged by the highs and lows of weather and climate.
You will have more time and a better chance of responding to chilled kits or kits born out of the nest box in the warmer months (but don’t take this too much for granted -- it doesn’t take much to chill a kit, even in spring and summer!).
Pregnancy, birthing, and tending to kits will be easier on the does in the spring, too, before the weather gets hot. Rabbits have the most trouble in high heat. A doe is more likely to have difficulties in the heat of summer than in the moderate temperatures of spring (or even the colder temperatures of winter, for that matter).
It is better to time your breedings to straddle the highs of summer to reduce heat stress on the does (and the kits, too).
Raising Up Kits through the Weaning Stage Before the Heat of Summer Sets In
As mentioned, high summer heat is a serious stressor for rabbits. Weaning is also a time of transition, change, and stress for kits. So, the best scenario for young kits is to get them past the five to six-week-old weaning age/stage before they have to deal with the additional stresses of summer heat.
Well-timed spring breeding and kindling allow you to do this.
Mid to late-spring breedings are worthwhile, too. Just do your best to straddle the dog days of summer’s high heat.
VIDEO: Why is Spring the BEST Time to Breed Meat Rabbits?
No Worries about Heat Sterility
Heat sterility is a problem for bucks in many areas, especially if they are consistently experiencing consecutive days of heat over 90 degrees (33 C).
Bucks will come back from heat sterility when the temperatures cool down again, but this can take a month or more. So, while fall can present similar conditions light- and temperature-wise, it can be a difficult time to breed if bucks are still rebounding from sterility from the summer. And summer can obviously (but not always) cause a buck to go sterile.
Even if your buck experienced heat sterility last year in the summer (and maybe early fall, depending on where you live), they will be over it by the spring.
And, in the event that your bucks are sterile in the summer and fall, it is important to breed your rabbits in the spring to optimize their breeding and maintain the most regular breeding schedule that you can.
Regular breeding is the key to good doe health, breeding, mothering, and production.
Time for Another Breeding Before Summer Heat Hits
You can very easily breed a doe back by four weeks postpartum (after kindling). If you breed early in the spring, you can get a second breeding in before summer comes.
This is a great way to hedge bets against low reproduction over the summer and fall. Even if that is not the regular schedule you keep, it is something to strongly consider for spring breeding. This is especially true if you live in a hot climate or one that gets hot in the summer.
Spring Breeding Comes Naturally to Meat Rabbits
There’s a reason rabbits breed naturally in the spring. It’s the same reason that so many other animals do. They are naturally inclined to be more receptive and to breed and produce better. The time and weather are better for rearing young. Life for you, as a breeder, will be easier all around. Make sure to get spring breedings on your schedule. But also, remember that the best health and reproduction is a steady, year-round schedule for domestic meat rabbits!
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