Let me start by saying I believe in NO, NONE, ZIP, ZERO superstitions. I laugh at old wives tales about rearing children. I mock baseball players that won’t step on the foul line as they run out to take their position on the field. I don’t eat the same meal before every basketball game or baseball game in which I play. I don’t wear one sock pulled up, while the other is pushed down. I don’t feel lopsided if my right hand doesn’t do something my left hand just did.

Introduction to Moon Phase Breeding

Now that we have that all clear, what about breeding rabbits by phases of the moon? This is an interesting concept that I have seen on many websites. Problem is that none of the websites that have the charts really give us anything close to scientific data to back up their claim. In fact many of the sites just say, “I don’t know if this stuff works, but here’s the chart.” We aren’t going to start breeding by phases of the moon either, but over the next couple of weeks we are going to take a look back, and see how close our production compared to the moon phases.

How did Rabbit Breeding get Tied in with Moon Phases?

So where did this concept of breeding by moon phases actually come from? The moon has played a huge role in witchcraft, Greek mythology and Roman mythology throughout history. Both the Greek goddess Selene and the Roman goddess Luna had the moon under their control and human fertility in their power.

Today many couples struggling with fertility will try to conceive by the various phases of the moon. Hunters will hunt deer based on phases of the moon. Even worms are bred by the phases of the moon. Gardening is often done on moon phases. Considering the mythological role the moon has played in history it is no surprise that rabbits are bred by phases of the moon.

How it Works

Two things come into play when breeding by the phases of the moon. The first is whether there is a new moon or a full moon. Breeding during a new moon increases the number of does in a litter. Breeding by a full moon increases the number of bucks in a litter.

The second thing that comes into play is the zodiac signs. The various signs either produce good, poor or best quality of the bucks or does. For example does bred during Aries, Gemini and Sagittarius have a tendency to produce poor quality bucks according to the theory.

When you combine the moon phases with the zodiac signs you then can breed for specific results. So if a New Moon occurs during a zodiac time that produces the best does that when you should breed for does. Like if a New Moon occurred on July 17, which is during the zodiac sign Cancer that would be a great time to breed for does, because the New Moon produces the most does and Cancer produces the best does.

Scientific Analysis

Scientifically it will be easy to produces results base on the new and full moons. Either you produced more does or you didn’t. However, the results of the zodiac will be much more complicated. First we don’t keep all of our rabbits, so knowing how well that junior may have turned out now that he’s a year old is pretty hard to determine unless you’ve kept in touch with everyone to whom you’ve sold a rabbit. Second quality is somewhat subjective.

I did find two breeders who did some of their own scientific studies on a small scale regarding moon phases breeding. Teresa Wooden of Brightside Woolies has two nice charts showing her results from one sampling. Laurie Stroupe of The Nature Trail also posted some findings she made from her one look at moon phase breeding. Watch for our findings in an upcoming article but for now, here are the 2006 moon phase charts.

Helpful Moon Phase Charts

2006 Calendar
New Moon	Full Moon	Light Side
Does	Bucks	Dates
Dec. 31st	Jan. 14th	Jan. 15th - Jan. 28th
Jan. 29th	Feb. 13th	Feb. 13th - Feb. 27th
Feb. 28th	Mar. 14th	Mar. 15th - Mar. 28th
Mar. 29th	Apr. 13th	Apr. 13th - Apr. 26th
Apr. 27th	May 13th	May 14th - May 26th
May 27th	Jun. 11th	Jun. 12th - Jun. 24th
Jun. 25th	Jul. 11th	Jul. 12th - Jul. 24th
Jul. 25th	Aug. 9th	Aug. 10th - Aug. 22nd
Aug. 23rd	Sep. 7th	Sep. 8th - Sep. 21st
Sep. 22nd	Oct. 7th	Oct. 8th - Oct. 21st
Oct. 22nd	Nov. 5th	Nov. 6th - Nov. 19th
Nov. 20th	Dec. 5th	Dec. 6th - Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th	Jan. 3rd, 2007	Jan. 4th, 2007 - Jan. 18th, 2007

Zodiac Calendar
Most Fertile	Zodiac Sign	Dates	Sex/Quality
	Aquarius	Jan. 21st - Feb. 19th	Good quality Bucks
Doe	Pisces	Feb. 20th - Mar. 20th	Best quality Does
	Aries	Mar. 21st - Apr. 20th	Poor quality Bucks
Doe	Taurus	Apr. 21st - May 21st	Good quality Does
	Gemini	May 22nd - Jun. 21st	Poor quality Bucks
Buck	Cancer	Jun. 22nd - Jul. 22nd	Best quality Does
	Leo	Jul. 23rd - Aug. 21st	Poor quality Bucks
	Virgo	Aug. 22nd - Sep. 23rd	Poor quality Does
	Libra	Sep. 24th - Oct. 23rd	Best quality Bucks
Doe	Scorpio	Oct. 24th - Nov. 22nd	Best quality Does
	Sagittarius	Nov. 23rd - Dec. 22nd	Poor quality Bucks
	Capricorn	Dec. 23rd - Jan. 20th	Good quality Does