Colonies
VERY generalized and condensed review of Colony housing .
Their are way more cons then pros in Colony keeping. But many still choose this form of housing. Issues with colonies are you need space, young rabbits, and be willing to walk away and not interfere with territorial fighting. Colonies can take up to a year to establish and a few years to allow natural selection take it course for disease resistance, although even then that doesn't prevent a deadly out break of a new disease and many have lost their entire colony over night to a new pathogen or a determined stray dog.
If you choose to start a colony it is not recommended to use older stock, so if you already have rabbits you would basically have to start over completely with young fresh stock. Rabbits are EXTREMELY territorial, not every Rabbit will be able to be housed in a colony setting even when introduced young. Selecting Rabbits suited to colony life has a Lot to do with Ample space and disposition. Colony focused groups tell you to throw them all in together and walk away as the fur flys, and do not interfere with territorial fights. You may come back 24 hours latter as recommended to ripped ears, flesh, neutered or mutilated and dead suffering rabbits. That is not a risk I choose to knowingly exposé my stock to, but is part of the risk with setting up a new colony.
Bear minimum of space needed for each rabbit to mark out it's territory within a colony to where it feels safe and will not challenge another rabbit is a minimum 50sqft Per Doe (80sqft being better), and minimum 30 sqft per (50sqft being better) single buck with Does. This may NOT be enough space for all rabbits to live peacefully in a colony as some does may want to hold a larger area.
Secondary issues with colonies arise from the fact that rabbits living on the ground are very susceptible to the three P's , predators, parasites and pathogens. It can be harder to catch early and treat diseases in a colony , and even harder to eradicate pathogens and parasites from soil.
Other issues are rabbits aren't always nice to babies, many are just bad mothers, and when allowed to go to ground to nest you may never find those failed litters, if you run more then one buck, pedigree tracking becomes impossible, and you lose control over being able to select for better traits and being able to select for type to improve your stock, so you need to consider management systems and breeding.
If the buck is left with the doe, does will be bred back to back a practice many try to avoid becuse it can exhaust the doe physically.
Mentally rabbits that were studied in a colony setting actually showed to have more fear and higher cortisol levels becuse like their wild counterparts they had to remain on alert for extended period of time to watch for threats from predators and other rabbits.
Domesticated rabbits descend from European wild rabbits. European wild rabbits live in groups depending upon resources available. The more resources that are available, the less tightly they group, and actually prefer quite a bit of distance from the other rabbits. A literature review concluded that wild rabbits are either dominant or subordinate and the subordinate animals live in a constant state of stress and fear when in a group setting. Dominant animals require submission from subordinate daily, and if not performed, leads to violent fighting. Domesticated rabbits allowed to live in colonies showed much aggression to each other, and the reviewers came to the conclusion that rabbits are very aggressively territorial animals and for their safety, should be housed individually. The Social Nature of European Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
a Colony of 5 rabbits would need no less then 25 ft x 10ft , enclosure for 5 rabbits to keep safety in a colony.
