Just gave some sprouted lentils to my youngn's yesterday... planning on a once a week protein bump, since the FF is in the 15% range or so... we'll see how it works. They sure liked it, once they figured out what it was...
What breeds of meat rabbit would you pick if you only had room to keep maybe 2 males and 4 females around... not counting the 'grow out' of the litters? Is there a thread where you talk about raising them together w chooks?
Aleta; There's so many different breeds of "acceptable" meat rabbits it's all about YOUR production goals. There's about 30 different "good" rabbit breeds for meat, some have better feed conversion, some have pretty coats some grow as fast as possible, some make good pets, some have wool, some are expensive show animals, some are rare heritage breeds....
If you are Only growing for meat with NO ulterior motives, go for Cali's or NZWs. Look for a rabbit that looks like a bowling ball under fur for it's backside, and has the shoulders to support it. Ask about dressage ratios, litter sizes, growth rates (4-5lbs in 10-12 weeks is the goal), parentage, etc. You don't need a pedigree for awesome meat rabbits. Beware of fancy cross breeds (meat mutts) without good parent stock because they get hybrid vigor gen 1, but not gen 2. I back up my crosses with a dad that looks like a bowling ball and a pedigreed mom from a line that produces documented 12 kit litters.
As for keeping rabbits with chickens, I don't like to write about it (and so haven't made a thread) only because people often say "it worked for them" (and it can) and get offended, but there's some serious problems with it... Rabbits are social until 5 months and then they can become murderers that will kill each other at any time, so it's really hard to have a rabbit "colony" free-ranging with your hens (not to mention all the other problems with rabbit colonies but I'll refrain). Chicken feed is VERY bad for rabbits. High-protein rabbit feed is 18%, high calcium rabbit feed is 2% and they need 20% fiber or they have serious GI issues. Chicken feed is only 7% fiber, and 24% protein or 4% calcium like in chicken feed can kill a rabbit, not to mention some chicken feeds have meat which is a HUGE no-no. A lot of parasites and diseases easy to fix in chickens kill rabbits easy and are hard to treat. And sometimes rabbits and chickens injure each other trying to have some inter-species dirty time and can get into really bad fights in defense.
Rabbits are really just good at doing one thing well always. Living alone, living on dry ground, having lots of tiny helpless kits, turning grass into food. Anything a little off can be a significant detriment unlike chickens. It's a TOTALLY different husbandry. Chickens seem to meet your needs mostly, and can be culled out to become what you need. You need to meet the rabbit's needs or they'll just not produce. They specialize in the highest protein lowest fat meat in the world and need equally specific care. (It's not HARD, you do one thing and stick to it and make changes super slowly is all.)
The best way to keep rabbits (IMO) is in cages that are suspended above the chickens. This can be a hutch off the ground that the chickens can crawl under, or wire cages hung from the ceiling of a hoop house etc. The chickens will eat the rabbit poop, spilt rabbit feed, bugs that grow in the rabbit litter, dig through rabbit bedding, the whole nine yards. Used rabbit bedding (straw, hay, shavings, compressed paper pellets, expensive biodegradable petstore stuff) is a good addition to Deep Litter too. So I just have a hutch and my chickens can crawl under it (the edge of their pen IS the rabbit hutch with mesh around the bottom) and they eat up anything they find loose on the ground. Which is why I feed my hens minimally... There's a scattering of 18% protein feed under the rabbit hutch most days if they care to look. In the winter I give my bunnies some cracked corn and they always leave some behind which the chooks will love. But they're not REALLY kept "together" they just have access to the neighboring space, you know?
We'll have tea. And no hurricanes.
