Practical Management Methods for Heat Preservation and Cold Protection of Hares in Spring

The hare is a new species farmed in recent years. Its meat is more delicious than that of domestic rabbits, its disease resistance and vitality are stronger, and its market price is also higher than that of domestic rabbits. Therefore, many small and medium-sized investors have successively developed special hare farming. However, at present many farmers lack experience in spring heat preservation and cold protection for hares, resulting in decreased production performance and reduced economic benefits. This article introduces relevant measures for cold protection and heat preservation in spring from two aspects: the exterior and interior of the rabbit house.

Cold Protection and Heat Preservation Measures for the Exterior of the Rabbit House

1. Thicken the roof. A 5-10 cm thick layer of straw can be spread over the roof, or an insulation layer of insulating foam plastic can be installed underneath, so that cold wind cannot blow into the rabbit house and heat is not easily released from the roof.

2. Set up wind-blocking materials outside the walls of the rabbit house. Use wooden boards, straw curtains, plastic films, straw bales or straw bags and other coverings to seal tightly the places around the rabbit house that are exposed to wind or leak air, so as to prevent cold wind from invading; piling an appropriate amount of straw outside the north wall of the rabbit house also has the effect of blocking wind and keeping warm. Usually, the outer walls of the rabbit house are wrapped with plastic film and fixed with iron nails and wooden strips, and the thermal insulation materials can be recycled.

3. Thicken doors and windows. Make the doors and windows on the walls of the rabbit house double-layered, or use glass plus film, for a better heat preservation effect.

4. Do a good job of heat preservation and ventilation. On cold days, open the doors and windows for ventilation after 10 a.m. every day. If raised in free-range mode, release the hares into the exercise yard. After 4 p.m., close the doors and windows properly according to the temperature. This is an important task for heat preservation. During ventilation, because moist air and harmful waste gases tend to accumulate in the lower part of the space, opening the ground-level windows is more conducive to discharging moisture from the house and keeping the environment inside the house dry.

Cold Protection and Heat Preservation Measures Inside the Rabbit House

1. A warm room should be established in the breeding house for female rabbits. When the temperature is below 18°C, in order to maintain a normal living environment for the young rabbits, a warm room is needed. A heater or electric stove can be used to appropriately heat the breeding rabbit house, or a stove fire can be used inside the house for heating. To prevent carbon dioxide poisoning, pipes must be used to exhaust waste gas properly.

2. Young rabbits and growing rabbits should be kept warm reasonably.

① Increase the stocking density of rabbits in the house. In cold seasons, the stocking density of rabbit cages should be increased by 30%-50% compared with summer and autumn, letting the rabbits sleep close to one another, which can raise the house temperature.

② Arrange flexibly. According to the characteristics that younger rabbits need higher temperatures and older rabbits have a stronger ability to resist cold, younger small rabbits can be placed on the upper layer where the room temperature is higher, and older rabbits can be placed on the lower layer where the room temperature is lower.

3. Equip the breeding rabbit house with air conditioning. Equip the breeding rabbit house with air conditioning so that rabbits waiting to be bred live in a rabbit house at 18-28°C. At such temperatures, the conception rate of female rabbits is high, and mating is more likely to succeed.

4. Use the biogas from the rabbit farm's biogas digester to assemble a heating system. Install a biogas-heated hot water boiler and use hot water pipes for heating (similar to the heating system of buildings in the north), so that the rabbits can lie on the floor. The temperature inside the house is best kept above 18°C. During operation, the temperature also needs to be adjusted according to the physical condition of the old, young, weak and sick rabbits kept in each rabbit house.

5. Spread dry bedding material in the cages and ventilate in a timely manner. Set wooden boards where the rabbits lie and place dry straw on them to reduce the loss of body heat from the rabbits. At noon on clear days, take advantage of the high-temperature period to release the rabbits into the exercise yard to bask in the sun, which helps accelerate blood circulation and strengthen their physique; open the doors, windows and ground-level windows for moderate ventilation to promote air circulation inside the house, and at the same time discharge moisture and harmful gases from the house.

6. Remove feces and urine regularly. Because there is a lot of feces and urine in the rabbit house and the humidity is high, the room becomes even more damp and cold, and there are many harmful gases, which easily cause respiratory diseases in hares. Therefore, removing feces and urine in a timely manner can greatly reduce the humidity in the house and raise the temperature. Train free-range rabbits to defecate and urinate outside the house and eat and live inside the house, and the humidity in the rabbit house will decrease and the air will be better. For rabbit houses equipped with floor manure and urine gutters, after washing the floor, be sure to block the openings connecting the inside and outside of the house with wooden boards to prevent cold wind from invading.

7. Adopt the dry manure cleaning process. In the cold and rainy weather of winter and spring, rabbit manure should be collected by sweeping and shoveling, and the use of water for washing inside the house should be minimized as much as possible, so as to reduce heat loss in the house and lower the humidity inside the house.

8. Turn on hot air facilities. Electric hot air furnaces and coal-heated hot air furnace heating devices are mostly used to deliver warm fresh air to the farrowing house for female rabbits and the rearing house for young rabbits. In spring, the air in the rabbit house is required to be warm and dry. When the temperature in the farrowing room for female rabbits is 20-23°C, it is beneficial for improving the survival rate of young rabbits; when the temperature in the rearing house for young rabbits is 20-24°C, diseases are reduced and growth is good.

9. Feed warm water. Lack of water in the rabbit body often causes indigestion, reduced appetite, metabolic disorders, and decreased body condition. Therefore, for penned hares in cold seasons, it is essential to ensure the supply of enough warm water at around 20°C. The hot water pipes of the biogas-heated hot water boiler can be used to provide clean hot water as the water supply for the rabbit farm (for rabbit drinking water, mixing feed and cleaning water). At the same time, pay attention to water leakage in the water supply system and automatic drinkers to prevent excessive humidity in the house caused by water leakage.

10. Replace wet disinfection inside the house with flame disinfection. Wet spray disinfection inside the house increases the humidity in the house, which is not conducive to heat preservation and dehumidification on rabbit farms in spring. Use a liquefied gas spray gun to carry out one-time high-temperature flame spray disinfection on objects in the rabbit farm that are not afraid of fire. This can not only achieve the purpose of disinfection, but also increase the ambient temperature inside the house, achieving two goals at once. Flame disinfection is particularly suitable for the disinfection of the farrowing house for female rabbits and the rearing house for young rabbits, as well as for removing rabbit hair from rabbit houses and rabbit cages and disinfecting the environment when hares are molting.