Rabbits for food

[120 Acres]

BB stated in another thread that she prefers butchering rabbits over chickens, this got me thinking about raising rabbits again.

What breed of rabbit is best for butchering? I have only eaten wild.

How much feed to they require?

Can I fence off a large area and let them "free roam" or do they have to be in an enclosed pen?

If they free roam, will this cut down on the feed expense?

Any helpful tips?

 

[Mitch Rapp]

BB stated in another thread that she prefers butchering rabbits over chickens, this got me thinking about raising rabbits again.

What breed of rabbit is best for butchering? I have only eaten wild.

New Zealands, specifically white NZs are the best for meat and for heat tolerance which is your biggest enemy in Ok.

How much feed to they require?

Depends a lot on what you feed them, you can supplement them with stuff like banana peels, dandelions, purslane and alfalfa and cut way down on feed, I think for 4 rabbits I used a 40 pound bag of food each month or so when NOT supplementing.

Can I fence off a large area and let them "free roam" or do they have to be in an enclosed pen?

Best way I know of to "free roam" them is in a shed, this protects them from the elements and predators, but can get complicated, I never looked too much into it.

If they free roam, will this cut down on the feed expense?

It could, but if they free roam in a yard, they can dig out. Ever heard of a chicken tractor? similar things can be done for the rabbits.

Any helpful tips?

My answers in blue

 

[BadgeBunny]

120, I gotta go outside and get the chickens and rabbits' pens cleaned out ... Not to mention, gather dog poo, which I've been rather neglectful about in this cold ...

That said, I've got rabbits in both pens and in a colony. Each have their own pros and cons but I'm fixing to go strictly to pens only so I'll have room to put in some more chickens (got a couple of friends who like my eggs! ) and get my quail pens in ... (Not enough room in that little backyard of mine. Thank GAWD the City in their infinite wisdom decided it was okay to garden in your front yard, otherwise I'd be in a world of hurt ... lol)

The weather's WAY, WAY, WAY too nice to be inside but I have some links and personal experiences I'll post up tonight.

You guys GO OUTSIDE!

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Ok, as for tips, if you garden, you will love the rabbit fertilizer that they produce in abundance.

Find a shady spot to keep them in, rabbits do not like heat, I will post a video of my rabbits back when we had an extremely hot year so you can see what I did.

Look on youtube, there are several guys on there who have a ton of good info on raising the rabbits.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Another video of mine, my rabbits were black NZs and a mutt, you can find white NZs, just look around or call coops or check craigslist




This guys early videos helped me a ton, he has since moved on to bigger animals, but did backyard rabbits for a long time.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JRSKICK1/videos

 

[Hump66]

BB stated in another thread that she prefers butchering rabbits over chickens...

Only because she doesn't have this fantastic form of entertainment and utility!

 

[Dirty Dave]

Wow Mitch you setup looks just like mine. We use frozen bottles and a mister also. This winter has sucked cause of the frozen water bottles. What do you do for that?? My wife thaws them out every couple of hours.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Be careful feeding rabbits too much greens. Especially if you put young rabbits on green bermuda to graze at will, they will get scours and can die. These other guys answered most of the questions as I would have.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Wow Mitch you setup looks just like mine. We use frozen bottles and a mister also. This winter has sucked cause of the frozen water bottles. What do you do for that?? My wife thaws them out every couple of hours.

We'd swap bottles out a couple of times a day. We moved a couple years ago and had to stop doing the rabbits for a while. Sold the ones we had off. Hoping to start back up this spring.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[BadgeBunny]

LOL at Hump!! That thing is WICKED!!

Dave, I have 2 sets of waterers for each pen and rotated them out 3 to 4 times a day for the bunnies that are outside. That way I didn't get soaking wet trying to thaw them out and then have to take them back outside while my hands were wet ...

Also, I noticed that the girls who are in the colony (which has an uncovered end) would eat the snow off the tops of their doghouses ... I've seen heated waterers on Amazon and know of a fella who used them last year. He liked them but he had all his bunnies in pens so the electrical elements were somewhat sheltered. That would not be the case with mine. The waterers on my colony are pretty much out in the elements.

OK ... 120 ... while my lunch is cooking I'll tell you this much about my rabbit experiences so far ...

If you want to keep a colony you are gonna need quite a bit of room. Does are mean and very territorial ... VERY mean ... and VERY VERY territorial ... "Bitches" is not too strong a word. Even now, with 5 different "hidey-holes" for 4 does, I will still find fur thrown here and there from fights that occurred overnight. I have one doe inside right now that the other does ganged up on and I have no doubt would have killed if I hadn't finally removed her from the colony. (We are talking 5 rabbits in a 200 square foot pen.) And every doe I have has torn ears, there's a torn nose here and there but honestly, for the most part, they get along well. It's just that when rabbits fight they mean business ... And they can do quite a bit of damage in about 0.000048 seconds.

The does that are inside pens are in the garage, with sports radio playing 24/7 softly. Nothing rocks their world and I mean NOTHING. The radio playing desensitizes them to noise and they will lounge around and come up to you to get petted even when GC is out in the garage with all his power tools making racket and the neighbor guys over shooting the bull ...

Rabbits, in my experience, are just like any other animal. They can be as neurotic as you let them be. If you tip-toe around them they will kill their young, miscarry, injure themselves trying to get away from you when you need to treat them, etc. If you don't put up with that crap, they will be much better off for it and you will find yourself with better momma bunnies in the long run.

My rabbits are not afraid of my dogs and will even run the fence and "play" with the dogs. The inside rabbits will greet the dogs at the door of their pen when I feed and water. Of course, I have no illusions about what will happen if I let the dogs and rabbits "play" together but that doesn't mean I need to never let the rabbits see or smell a dog. I've smacked a dog for snapping at a rabbit, just like I've smacked a rabbit for trying to bite me ... LOL

I don't leave my poor bucks out in the colony. Those does would make short work of them, one way or the other, I'm afraid. Each buck has his own pen, but they are all outside, too.

I've got NZ does, a Calif. buck and a couple of "mutt" bucks.

OK ... that's it for now ...