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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 9:28:50 GMT -5
Post by eyeofthestorm on Dec 30, 2010 9:28:50 GMT -5
I am very seriously considering raising rabbits. Part of me thinks I must be crazy (as if I am not busy enough), but another part of me thinks that rabbits might just be the simplest way to do what I'm looking for. I'd like meat in the freezer, and I'm also willing to deal with the grooming to harvest fiber from angoras. I like the idea of spinning, but I think I will probably just sell it. I don't know anyone IRL who has rabbits...but I like the way you all think and would be very interested in your thoughts. DH keeps dropping hints about chickens. I'm not anti-chicken. I'm just anti-me dealing with chickens right now. I think chickens are really fun and interesting...on my friends' farm. They are talkative (I hear the chickens here in town...IDK if we're allowed chickens in town, but those are either chickens or some very confused cats & dogs). They are smelly. The give the kids the stink eye (okay, maybe I'm a little anti-chicken). Plus....<SIGH> although we HAVEN'T gone out of town since September...I just don't believe our travel days are over....yet. Here's my thinking on rabbits: - They are quiet
- They don't have as good a feed to meat conversion as chickens, but I still think it's doable.
- They don't take up quite as much space.
- From what I've read, they provide lots of their own replacements. My only personal experience with this was a pet rabbit (of a boyfriend in my long past) who presented him with a little two weeks after her got him(her). I don't think that rabbit was much of a mother, but the kits did just fine anyway.
- It sounds (again, from what I'm reading), that I can set up watering and feed systems so if we leave town for a few days, they'll be all right.
- We'll need to build a shelter for the (wire) hutches. I want it to look nice (BnB guests, keep the town happy, etc). Sun off them in summer, wind break in winter...
My concerns: - The shelter I'm considering would have a roof and be closed in on three sides in the winter...I'm guessing this might not be enough to keep out possum/raccoons/stray dogs...or am I wrong?
- I have heard (not read, at least not yet) that scared/nervous rabbits won't thrive. Won't breed, won't eat. BUT, I read last night in Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits that domestic rabbits have been bred domestically for so many generations that they no longer retain instincts to fear predators. Really?
If you have any thoughts, I'd appreciate hearing them.
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 9:53:17 GMT -5
Post by Valerie on Dec 30, 2010 9:53:17 GMT -5
I think Christy, here, raises rabbits. I might be wrong on that though. Before we moved here, my next-door neighbor raised rabbits. Some he ate, and some he sold to snake people, and some he kept just for breeding. He had them in a small part of his yard with his trailer on one side, privacy fence on the other, and a tarp over top of it all to keep out the rain. He did put some kind of heat out there on super cold nights, though. The didn't really stink, but they did have some kind of earthy, manurey smell, which you get anytime you have a lot of poo in a small space. I would have to say their aroma was larger than that of my chickens. Good thing about rabbit manure, you can put it straight in the garden without composting it first. He had an awesome garden! Like any critter, some of them were gentle, some of them would bite and scratch. Some of the does were good mamas and some would kill their babies as soon as they were born. It took a while to weed out all the undesirables, and he was always buying and selling at the auction. He had a good setup going until one day some dogs got in there and somehow managed to knock the hutches over and kill all his rabbits. I don't know how they managed that; he'd never had a problem before. Overall they were pretty trouble free. I used to feed them for him when he went out of town. He gave them feed, alfalfa, and fresh water each day. Most of them were pretty sweet. He had a lot of the dutch lop ear kind and they are precious. He had some rex's too, and we didn't mind people eating them. They just aren't as cute and cuddly as the lops. One thing's for sure -- they're quiet! ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) Lots less hassle than dogs, too.
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 11:31:14 GMT -5
Post by Cyngbaeld on Dec 30, 2010 11:31:14 GMT -5
I had some for about a yr, but it is too hot here. The males get sterile when the temp is above IIRC 85F and that is most of the yr. I put a lot of work and feed into them and didn't get enough meat to make it worth the bother. Lots of losses to the heat in the summer too. Plus I thought the meat was too bland. Many people like it though.
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 12:14:33 GMT -5
Post by sunshine on Dec 30, 2010 12:14:33 GMT -5
I love rabbit meat. We stopped raising them for two reasons. First, as Kim noted, it's just too hot for them here. It's hard to keep them from heat-stroking in our summers. And then, DH was in charge of the butchering, and just didn't have the time for it.
If I tried again, I would want them on the ground, colony style. I don't like having them in cages. Of course, your first concern as a keeper of any animal is its safety.
My other concern in your case would be raising something in town that is likely to scream loudly when you kill it. You might have an unwelcome visit from the animal rights folks.
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 13:27:35 GMT -5
Post by eyeofthestorm on Dec 30, 2010 13:27:35 GMT -5
My other concern in your case would be raising something in town that is likely to scream loudly when you kill it. You might have an unwelcome visit from the animal rights folks. <eyeroll> Something I had hoped to avoid. I was hoping they'd be quiet enough no one might even know they were here. I was concerned about the heat, too - but the author of the Storey's book keeps referring to this great breeder in Dallas. No hotter there than here (we're an hour south of Dallas). But with a big rabbitry, I imagine he's got more $ into his set up. I did some research online. Now looking at cavies (guinea pigs) too. I watched Andrew Zimmern have some when he was in Peru. Plus, the Texels and some other breed produce spinnable fiber. One person who sells the fiber was saying she gets 2.5 oz of fibre every 6 months...that sounds like an awful lot for a little critter like that... Back to reading. Thanks for the input.
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 13:43:30 GMT -5
Post by sunshine on Dec 30, 2010 13:43:30 GMT -5
I guess we're about an hour south of you. Heat would definitely be an issue.
I'm not supposing you've heard a rabbit scream. I'm not sure if there are butchering techniques that avoid that issue. But I know if you use the bonk on the head method, you can expect a sound something like a very loud lady's scream. It's the reason my brother gave up raising rabbits.
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 16:25:11 GMT -5
Post by eyeofthestorm on Dec 30, 2010 16:25:11 GMT -5
When I was a kid, our pet cat took our the neighbor's pet rabbit one day. That scream about took my mother out. So, yeah, I knew about it. I was just thinking that if they didn't mention it in the Storey book, maybe it was just something associated with a scary cat bearing down on you. But, if it's a skill issue, I don't suppose I want a lot of rabbits screaming while I learn to kill them quick.
I was reading a paper on raising cavies for meat - I guess the Heifer project has some programs going in Africa. Anyway, they give three methods for killing, and then mention that each requires some practice to become efficient. And according to them, cavies are loud.
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 17:49:05 GMT -5
Post by Cyngbaeld on Dec 30, 2010 17:49:05 GMT -5
Yes, it is too hot where you are for rabbits. I'm near Austin, a little south of Sunshine. Have you thought of quail?
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Rabbits
Dec 30, 2010 23:25:53 GMT -5
Post by meemo on Dec 30, 2010 23:25:53 GMT -5
We raised rabbits for meat for several years. We liked the meat and they didnt scream when we bonked them. I held them by the back legs, Paul stretched their neck by pulling their ears forward and gave them a sound whack at the base of the neck. The other way to do it without screaming takes a little practice. Hold them by the neck, with their feet close to the ground and give a little jerk up. It breaks their neck. No time for screaming. When it got hot in the summer we put froze soda bottles of ice. They did just fine. In the winter time when it was goin to be really cold we put hay in their boxes. Paul's neighbors in central Florida when he was growing up kept rabbits to eat. Maybe the rabbits are different these days. It didnt hurt them. Of all the animals we've kept they were the easiest. Not to mention the wonderful fertilizer that you can use right away. It wont burn your plants. We had some bodacious tomatos that were planted in rabbit droppings.
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Rabbits
Dec 31, 2010 7:32:26 GMT -5
Post by Valerie on Dec 31, 2010 7:32:26 GMT -5
Yeah, my neighbor lives in Florida and his bucks never went sterile. And it shore 'nuff gets hot here, for a long time!. During super hot times he would run a large fan blowing under the hutches, not right on the bunnies. Those mamas cranked out babies all year long, every 21 days!
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Rabbits
Dec 31, 2010 7:52:04 GMT -5
Post by eyeofthestorm on Dec 31, 2010 7:52:04 GMT -5
Okay, I think I may make some calls here. See what some of these bigger-than-I-want-to-be rabbitries say.
I'm really not so excited about cavies. I *know* we like rabbit meat...I don't want to end up with cavies and find out we don't care for the meat. I don't want to end up with a bunch of pets I didn't expect (I *do* think guinea pigs are cute...I think it's all the talking/whistling). And I've also read - it seems they have a lot more issues with birth defects/birthing problems/dying sows than what I've read about rabbits. So far.
Valerie, the heat here is really different than FL (I lived in Central FL for 14 years). While I find it more tolerable here because of the lower humidity, it is quite a bit hotter. But, here, I can sit outside comfortably in the shade at 104, 105 because the air never stops moving. Sometimes it's more comfortable out there than in the a/c. Of course, I don't wear a fur coat.
Thanks everyone.
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Rabbits
Dec 31, 2010 9:30:33 GMT -5
Post by meemo on Dec 31, 2010 9:30:33 GMT -5
About the breeds. We found that mixed breed rabbits were hardier and had more kits. I know its goin to sound weird but it took us a year to get rabbits that would breed consistantly. We became the laughingstock in our circle of friends because we had rabbits that didnt produce. EVERYBODY knows that rabbits multiply over night. Not ours. Also I think we got as much meat from the rabbits as the chickens. We really enjoyed the meat. I still have a couple of jars canned up. They make better dumplins or noodles than chicken.
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Rabbits
Jan 19, 2011 7:17:18 GMT -5
Post by eyeofthestorm on Jan 19, 2011 7:17:18 GMT -5
Well, drat.
We'd pretty much decided (from our standpoint), we were doing this. So yesterday, I went into city hall to check the zoning. They are actually changing it right now...and we won't be able to have any type of livestock on our property here in town (our lot, which is a nice sized lot, is too small per the pending code). Ironically, the zoning officer was in the room and suggested we make a 4H project out of it (although, I didn't see anything in the wording that exempted kids' projects...<eyebrows raised>).
DH pretty much has his mind made up...he told me that just means we aren't doing it here...we'll do it at our next place. Oy.
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Rabbits
Jan 19, 2011 11:44:02 GMT -5
Post by Valerie on Jan 19, 2011 11:44:02 GMT -5
Amazing how they make these laws keeping people from having useful animals like chickens, goats, and rabbits, yet people can have 20 dogs per block, yapping and stinking, and nobody cares. Amazing.
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