Author Topic: who raises rabbits and eats them? (Read 2061 times)

hillbill · « **on:** March 11, 2012, 01:01:26 PM »

i have been keeping rabbits for a year or two. i now find myself with almost more rabbits than i can eat.i am a single guy and i will eat them 3 to 4 times a week. i find it is good for my health. they are low in fat and delicious. but what am i gonna do with the overflow?

Blue Duck · « **Reply #1 on:** March 11, 2012, 03:01:26 PM »

They make great sausage. One more way. Enjoy.

goodshot · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2012, 06:33:49 PM »

jerky

hillbill · « **Reply #3 on:** March 12, 2012, 01:07:04 AM »

never thought of rabbit jerky. mite be a good use for the older cull rabbits.

chefjeff · « **Reply #4 on:** March 12, 2012, 03:19:54 AM »

There is a good market for them @ around $10 each here.

Couger · « **Reply #5 on:** March 12, 2012, 04:33:24 AM »

Quote from: hillbill on March 12, 2012, 01:07:04 AM

never thought of rabbit jerky. mite be a good use for the older cull rabbits.

Congrats HillBill. Thats great if your bunnies are overwhelming your kitchen and diiner plates!

Not sure where you're at or relatives who'd want to share your success, but do you have feed stores in the area? If YES (which I'd bet is likely), why not offer some bunnies for SALE? Or for trade? (fresh eggs?, honey?, fresh beef?, fresh lamb?, whatever someone might trade ya for?).

Also don't forget your droppings might be worth a small fortune to sell to gardeners, and the worms likely to live in the same might make good bait.

What breed of rabbits are you using?

hillbill · « **Reply #6 on:** March 12, 2012, 02:16:38 PM »

im getting to the point where i may have to start selling some of them. my daughter and i went to a poultry swap this weekend and they were wanting 15 buks for bunnys that didnt look as nice as mine and prob only were 4 weeks old.
i started out with some new zealand california cross brood stock. then somebody gave me a black buck and doe that looked like some kind of lop type but are now easily as big as my new zealand types. so i now have blacks, whites and whites with calif gray ears and tails.
this winter i was eating bunny 3 times a week or so just to keep up with the supply. not complaining! very delicious and easy to cook. there is definitely a learning curve to raising them but with a lil forethought and work such as planting wheat grass and turnip greens for them to eat they can be raised fairly cheap.

BUGEYE · « **Reply #7 on:** March 13, 2012, 02:21:41 AM »

the best meal on earth is rabbit, wild or tame, browned and then smothered with sage gravy.

charles p · « **Reply #8 on:** March 13, 2012, 11:23:38 AM »

Used to love to hunt rabbits, and eat them. Then I built some boxes and caught a few. Did not enjoy harvesting rabbits who were looking back at me. A chicken - no problem.

tacklebury · « **Reply #9 on:** March 13, 2012, 05:17:07 PM »

Used to for a bit. Mine apparently never took off like that, but I think if they did, the Jerkey idea's a good one. If you have a dehydrator, simply drying them until really hard and breaking up into pieces and make your own dry vegetable rabbit soup. If you dry carrots, celery, potato slices and rabbit you could just portion them into vacuum bags (if you have a vacuum bagger or get one) w/ a bit of dry milk, salt and pepper and have some good long-term storage dry goods. All you'd have to do is add water and boil and you'd have a hearty soup.

Lost Farmboy · « **Reply #10 on:** March 16, 2012, 11:59:56 AM »

Quote from: chefjeff on March 12, 2012, 03:19:54 AM

There is a good market for them @ around $10 each here.

Best idea. (sell)

Do you keep your bucks separate from your does? You can control how many you have.

hillbill · « **Reply #11 on:** March 16, 2012, 01:54:23 PM »

Quote from: Lost Farmboy on March 16, 2012, 11:59:56 AM

Quote from: chefjeff on March 12, 2012, 03:19:54 AM
There is a good market for them @ around $10 each here.

Best idea. (sell)
yes bucks are kept seperate. all rabbits in separate cages. i put the does in with the buck for breeding only then back to ther cages.

i like the jerky idea with the dried veggies! fast food bunny soup!

Do you keep your bucks separate from your does? You can control how many you have.

mcbammer · « **Reply #12 on:** March 16, 2012, 02:24:32 PM »

Im curious , Ive eaten wild ones , do tame rabbits taste simular. Do you have problems with varmints hanging around.?

hillbill · « **Reply #13 on:** March 16, 2012, 03:06:00 PM »

no they dont taste the same at all. very mild tasteing, tender if butchered young, larger and more meat.
no varmints so far, but i have a really mean sheba inu dog. and ive killed every varmint here for last 20 years. not to say it wont happen tho, we got lots of coons. but bobcats and coyotes will not set foot in rifle range of my house.

hillbill · « **Reply #14 on:** March 16, 2012, 03:14:14 PM »

a nice tender fryer rabbit can be baked or fried jus like chiken. no gamey taste at all. the older ones i cook in the crock pot with bbq sauce and they fall off the bone.i would eat fried rabbit every day of the week but i know it aint good for me! better than chiken but still not good for me.
my fav recipe is jus kill a yung one and brush it with bbq sauce heavily and bake it for 75 min at 400 degrees.cut up in pieces of course.very good eating!

mcbammer · « **Reply #15 on:** March 17, 2012, 04:24:56 AM »

What is the feed cost per week? What breed of rabbit is the best for meat?

tacklebury · « **Reply #16 on:** March 17, 2012, 05:36:53 AM »

Rabbits are quite easy to maintain and we never paid hardly anything for our feed. We fed them grass clippings all summer, and when the farmers went through and harvested their corn, we "gleaned" cob corn and broke it off the cobs into bushel baskets. We'd usually fill 3 bushel baskets from just one field behind our house. Occasionally, I'd go pick up one bale of hay in the winter for a couple bucks to give them some greens to go with the shelled corn. And they are some really good eating.

They do love lettuce and such though and when ever we had lettuce or cabbage that started to go bad, they would get that also. If you want to get really fancy you can get some dry food that has vitamins in it, but if you are just raising to butcher doesn't make much sense to add the cost.

LunaticFringeInc · « **Reply #17 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:17:03 PM »

I like the Florida Whites. Not as big as some of the other meat breeds but due to the smaller bone structure you get about the same amount of actual meat that one would get off a New Zealand. Smaller rabbit means less feed and smaller more compact cage set ups.

mcbammer · « **Reply #18 on:** March 18, 2012, 12:10:17 AM »

I remember as a teenager , mowing hay on the farm the young rabbits would run out of the way of the sicklebar. I caught many to see if I could raise them . Never was able to keep one alive longer than couple of days .

52bagman · « **Reply #19 on:** March 18, 2012, 12:58:52 AM »

I too tried to raise young wild rabbits as a kid but with no luck. I think stress does them in.

hillbill · « **Reply #20 on:** March 18, 2012, 12:40:02 PM »

Quote from: mcbammer on March 17, 2012, 04:24:56 AM

What is the feed cost per week? What breed of rabbit is the best for meat?

what rabbit is best for meat is really hard to tell between the 3 real meat breeds.new zealand, californias and florida whites. new zealand and californias are the industry standard and it is said that the floridas are more heat resistant. which is a good thing. i lost a couple of mine this summer when it got over 105 degrees before i got fans on them.but i dont have any floridas.

feed cost per week is hard to calculate. i will say that if all you feed them is commercial feed, then you prob are not goin to money out on them as far as meat for how much you spend on feed.the brood stock doesnt really eat a lot if you ration them but a pen full of fryers growing up will eat everything in sight. i could buy the cheap 10 lbs bags of chiken at wal mart and be ahead money wise if all i was .but mine mostly eat greens i raise such as turnips, both greens and roots. and sum rabbits plain wont eat turnip roots, while others will love them. wheat greens which i also grow, they love. and about any type of grass and lots of non toxic weeds.clover, fescue, willow limbs and leaves and apple leaves and bark. i spend about 10 minutes a day with a knife and a bucket cutting greens for my herd. but high summer and dead winter yu will be feeding pellets and more hay.

mcbammer · « **Reply #21 on:** March 18, 2012, 02:44:53 PM »

Quote from: hillbill on March 18, 2012, 12:40:02 PM

Quote from: mcbammer on March 17, 2012, 04:24:56 AM
What is the feed cost per week? What breed of rabbit is the best for meat?
what rabbit is best for meat is really hard to tell between the 3 real meat breeds.new zealand, californias and florida whites. new zealand and californias are the industry standard and it is said that the floridas are more heat resistant. which is a good thing. i lost a couple of mine this summer when it got over 105 degrees before i got fans on them.but i dont have any floridas.

feed cost per week is hard to calculate. i will say that if all you feed them is commercial feed, then you prob are not goin to money out on them as far as meat for how much you spend on feed.the brood stock doesnt really eat a lot if you ration them but a pen full of fryers growing up will eat everything in sight. i could buy the cheap 10 lbs bags of chiken at wal mart and be ahead money wise if all i was .but mine mostly eat greens i raise such as turnips, both greens and roots. and sum rabbits plain wont eat turnip roots, while others will love them. wheat greens which i also grow, they love. and about any type of grass and lots of non toxic weeds.clover, fescue, willow limbs and leaves and apple leaves and bark. i spend about 10 minutes a day with a knife and a bucket cutting greens for my herd. but high summer and dead winter yu will be feeding pellets and more hay.

Thanks for the information, I am going to find someone around here and buy one to see if I like the taste .

RemingtonMagnum · « **Reply #22 on:** March 19, 2012, 03:38:42 PM »

Hi Friends

Replace the word chicken in Chicken POt pie and make it just the same way. They are fantastic. I love cage raised rabbit.

Don Jackson Remington Magnum/Ultramag

cybin · « **Reply #23 on:** March 19, 2012, 04:28:02 PM »

Over a BBQ grill--basked with BBQ sause is GREAT.

cybin

hillbill · « **Reply #24 on:** March 20, 2012, 02:00:36 PM »

my fav easy and quick recipe is just to take 3 or 4 pieces of bunny and lay them in a lightly oiled glass baking dish and drench them in bbq suace of your choice. cook at 400 degrees at 1hr 15 min. i love it!
now i use young rabbits for this, older ones have to be pressure cooked for a bit first.

evidrine · « **Reply #25 on:** March 20, 2012, 02:42:52 PM »

Lets not forget a about Rabbit-Pot-Pie!

Not a whole lot you cant do with a rabbit. My dad raised them when I was growing up and now I'm starting myself. I'm currently in the process of making my second set of cages. I sure home mide take off like yours have.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #26 on:** March 21, 2012, 12:03:31 AM »

Id have to say that tame rabbit is probably my favorite meat. I tried raising some when the kids were young but when it came time to butcher all i had was tears. Even though i told the kids that they were going to get ate they about adopted them as pets and would have had to be tied down and forced to eat them. Ended up giving them to a buddy who had a farm. Had to tell the kids they were going to the farm because it was such a nice place for them to live. Little did they know some came back wrapped in paper.

StrawHat · « **Reply #27 on:** March 21, 2012, 12:58:55 AM »

We raised New Zealands for about 10 years. Good eating. I kept the largest doe and buck from some of the litters to replace my herd doe and buck. Gradually increasing the size of my rabbits. I kept them separate so I could control the size of my "herd" and bred them only two or three times a year. Overbreeding can wear out a doe. We ate well for the time we raised them. It was a couple of years before the neighbors realized we even had them. The droppings are great for the garden. I kept sawdust under the hutches and would add it to the garden soil every year. Things grew great!

I may have to build a couple of hutches again...

52bagman · « **Reply #28 on:** March 21, 2012, 01:22:01 AM »

My Dad raised and sold them when I was a kid, had around 200. Neighbor kids opened all the doors they could reach and my job was to catch around 80 that were on the loose. I did get em all but one and ended up shooting it just to get "even".