Tell me about your meat rabbits

I'm working on this for you. Hope to have some photos and a story later today.

https://homesteadsurvivalsite.com/meat-

Cool!
Any of these rabbits?

Good. Love to see your set up. I raised meat rabbits about 35 years ago. It might be time to do it again. I still have rolls of the 2"X1" mesh for the top + sides + the 1/2x1/2 for the bottom as well as the clips. I previously had a 1/2" PVC pipe running between the cages w/ a dribbler system + the water in a tank w/ a toilet float. It helps to have a sheet metal shop to make the breaks in the mesh w/ no waste. Also to make the external feeders.

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
https://homesteadsurvivalsite.com/meat-

Cool!
Any of these rabbits?

That's a good link.

So I am still very much a beginner with meat rabbits. Here's a few photos and what I have done so far. I'm using a new photo hosting site so bear with me on photo sizes here.

I have one silver fox doe and two bucks. One NZ doe from a neighbor. I traded her using my bucks to breed her does for the NZ doe. Two does and one buck would be enough for me. One litter so far. They are SF's and will end up in the freezer or maybe pressure canned.

Rabbit is very lean meat and can be pretty dry so I may opt for canning them all.

My setup is simple, I have cages hanging inside a small chicken coup and will use it for the winter months. Getting ready to build a summer season set up soon. Rabbits do not do well with heat and summers get hot and humid where I live.






I like the cages I bought recently off a craigslist ad. They are made by Bass Equipment and are excellent. I recommend them though many people build their own cages. Homemade cages generally do not have enough support in the bottoms for big meat rabbits. So I prefer these commercial models.

I hang the cages with the floors just below shoulder height for easy access. I keep a variety of containers underneath them to collect the manure and urine.

I would say the primary reason I have the rabbits is for the manure for my gardens. It can be used 'green' or composted. The photo below is right out of the collection bins and into a planting bed. I will now add a commercial planting medium and sand and mix this up for vegetable plants.



Rabbits need access to water all the time. I primarily feed a commercial pellet and give some hay or a handful of grass now and then. They also like to chew on twigs and eat the bark. I have to imagine living in a cage full time is pretty boring so giving them something to chew on probably helps.

I have found that does are in general, very unfriendly. In fact my SF doe has earned the name Grumpy. The NZ is also very aggressive and flighty. Bucks are always pretty mellow and love back scratches, they are much calmer it seems.

I have spent some time with those kits to pet them and of the four, three are right at the door when I open it to conduct business. They will be much easier to deal with at butchering time.

The device below is supposed to make processing easier. I look forward to trying it. It's called The Original Hopper Popper

Thanks for sharing! The silver foxes look pretty. The hopper popper looks like another device I saw on a video but they criticized it for bruising the meat around the necks. They opted for a pellet gun to the back of the head to come out the mouth to kill instantly without meat loss.

I think the meat bruising is from being a bit overzealous on wringing the necks. I know a lot of people who use devices like this.

The main reason cervical dislocation is better than a headshot is to be able to bleed the animal out quickly. Head shots stop the heart right away, dislocation, the heart still pumps for awhile. Cut the neck as soon as you dislocate.

We would always just bring them out by the rear feet + quickly hit them on the base of the skull/ vertebrae with a large metal pipe. It causes instant death + then cut the throat + bleed out immediately.

Grumpy, my silver fox doe, built a nest and began giving birth yesterday to her second litter.



Rabbits are fun to watch when they build their nests. They pack their mouths with hay and pull lots of fur to line the nest they build.

It's getting close to the time where I can butcher my first litter of kits. They are almost three months old. I have been studying this video. The boneless presentation is appealing. I can freeze or pressure can the meat and would take the bones and make stock out of them separately. The stock can be canned or frozen.

Something else I have learned about rabbits which is VERY neat. Does will foster other kits quite readily.

So if you have one doe kindle a large litter and another doe has a smaller litter you can shuffle the kits around to even the burden out. I did that with these two recent litters. One doe had seven kits, the other just two. I gave the other doe two kits from the large litter. She has raised them just like her own.

Great post

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
It's getting close to the time where I can butcher my first litter of kits. They are almost three months old. I have been studying this video. The boneless presentation is appealing. I can freeze or pressure can the meat and would take the bones and make stock out of them separately. The stock can be canned or frozen.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J6ud68Qmdyc" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

https://www.azgfd.com/rabbit-h...confirmed-in-arizona

We are seeing this here. I have seen several articles from around the country also.
coues
ds

I think that anyone interested in the raising of caged rabbits should also buy a copy of Merck's Veterinary manual. Mine has come in handy over the years.