Do you eat Rabbit?

[Bleenie]

Betta creek, I bought my 2 for $8/ea at our local auction. The guy planned on taking them home to butcher that day and i was So excited when i got them, since i plan on breeding for meat also. I was also going to try to learn to cure the skins so that they could be useful too, maybe try to sell them? The ones I have are tri-color and very pretty, I am hoping to find a broken black doe to add soon too.

 

[Bettacreek]

Aren't the auctions simply amazing? Yes, you do have to sort through, as many are very old or very young, but, there are plenty there that are of a good age and health and just simply great rabbits for the home breeder. I also plan to use the pelts. I'm very fortunate, the BF and his brother do a lot of hunting and trapping, and the brother is pretty skilled at working pelts. We're hoping to convert a heat-less dryer into a pelt worker thing so that the hardest part of curing the pelts would then be the easiest. That would be a great way to do a bunch of pelts all in one go too. I'm really hoping to make blankets before next winter, since it sometimes gets super cold in here, and we have to wait for the fire to toast us all back up. Any pelts I get would only be white, but I do have a dutch buck, so I may be able to get some black babies for black fur. I'll just have to do a bit of research on genetics, or just test it out for the heck of it.

ETA: In my personal opinion, in order to make any bit of money out of the pelts, you really do need to turn them into a finished product, like a blanket, coat, purse, whatever. Rabbit pelts alone don't bring very much money, and you'd probably get lucky to get $1 per pelt. It's really not worth it, IMO, to put all of that work into it for $1.

 

[Anianna]

I want pelts for my own personal use, but I'm having a heck of a time finding any local supplier for the fleshing board, fleshing knife, and stretchers. I didn't really want to make my own. I guess I'll have to search around online for that stuff. Anybody like a particular supplier?

 

[Bleenie]

Bettacreek, do you know how they cure them? I have never done it before but my mother has with animals they have trapped..or found, lol. someone had hit a raccoon right before us and it was HUGE. we picked it up and took it home to her to take care of..man that sounds so backwoods and gross, lol, but i knew she would think it was just great.

We realized afterwards that the thing was still, just barely, alive. she finished it right away though. I want to find a way to make them cured nicely and how to make them workable..a dryer is a great idea, never thought of that before.

Anianna, I can buy them directly from a local muzzleloader shop for $3/ea. you could probably get them from a taxidermist too. Already cured and ready to use of course.

 

[babalubird]

We plan to raise and eat rabbits at the farm as well. I had it deep in Mexico in the mountains, at a German-owned restaurant of all things. It was rabbit fricassee and it was delicious.

I think fricassee is sure the best way to get introduced to rabbit anyway. I found this recipe but have not tried it. Sure sounds good though and TASTE OF HOME has never disappointed me on their tasty rescipes: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Rabbit-Fricassee.

Let us know how you enjoy it.

Connie

PS: Well, that link is a little spastic on getting you to the recipe. It will take you to the TASTE OF HOME page. If it says recipe not found, enter "rabbit fricassee" in the search engine and it should take you there.

 

[Anianna]

Quote:
I used to get pelts at a craft store in TN, but nobody out this way seems to carry any rabbit pelts. Gander Mountain carries some fox pelts sometimes, but they sell them more as a luxury decoration type item than for crafting with. I know how to do my own if I could just get the supplies. If I'm going to be raising rabbits for meat anyway, I might as well make the most use of them. I asked every place around here I could think of and they all just looked at me like I was from outer space. Even the taxidermist didn't use a fleshing knife, but he didn't do pelts, either, it seems. There isn't a lot of pelt hunting in this area.

I suppose I could use a metal ruler, it's straight and dull, but it may be too dull. That can be remedied, though. I guess I'm going to have to build everything myself. Remembering the dimensions for everything and proper gauge wire for the stretchers is the toughest part. I may have to put up with some trial and error to get it right.

 

[wekiva bird]

domestic rabbit taste better than wild too me. my gsds loves all the wild game i cook for them too.

 

[silkiechicken]

I want to try rabbit, sounds interesting.

 

[Bettacreek]

Quote:
Unfortunately, I've never done it. There are several "manuals" online though. I plan to simply let the BF's brother teach me. He has a fox hide down being cured right now. He said he'd teach me on the next rabbit hide.

 

[abellchicken]

We just cut ours into cubes and fry in butter. It is awesome.

K