Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[U_Stormcrow]

Added the first of three (planned) meat rabbits to the property today. This is the buck. Does coming from different breeding lines. If we like this, this guy will become a meal next year, and we'll replace him as top breeder with a flemish giant to increase average size.

How does this relate to my culling project??? It doesn't, except its what I was doing today instead of culling chickens. Tommorow should be a culling day, in between building a nice hot fire to dispose of some bones from past cullings, and feeding it with some other things we need burned. I also need to read up on clarifying goat fat, before I try to make soap with it...

 

[SheaLoner]

I havent tried crossing with flemish for my meat buns. It always seemed that they would add too much bone and slow growth rate. But mine are mutts that were someone elses project so maybe somewhere in the line there's some flemish.

 

[NatJ]

If we like this, this guy will become a meal next year, and we'll replace him as top breeder with a flemish giant to increase average size.

Adding Flemish Giant rabbits may be similar to adding Brahmas to meat chickens. If you want a great big mature animal, it helps. But if you want to butcher them relatively young, you find a lot of bone relative to the amount of meat.

The "commercial" meat rabbits, like New Zealands and Californians, were bred to give a good amount of actual meat relative to feed eaten, in a reasonable amount of time. So they were bred for fast early growth, and not a giant bone structure.

The obvious way to check is about the same as with chickens: weigh them at various ages, butcher at various ages, compare results until you decide what you like.

If you like the offspring of this buck, you might want to keep him while you try a Flemish Giant buck, then a litter or two later you can decide which buck to butcher.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you both for the sage advice, and quickly - before I commit to a path of potential ruin! I'll look into the NZs and CAs.

 

[SheaLoner]

Depending on what you want for meat out of these you have some leeway in what to look for. I keep two meat mutts for "quick" 12-14 wk rabbits and Satins for fur. Anything in the weight of 10+lbs for a year old doe with a good breeding record should do well for meat. I mostly breed for fur with Standard Satins and they are 6+months at harvest and a solid 5-6lb in my freezer.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The plan is 1 buck, 2 does, seperate pens, alternate breedings, and put young offspring into freezer camp when they are meal for two sized. I'm not confident I'm going to develop the ability to tan hides any time soon - working on the goat hide at present. Somethign else for tomorrow's list - its been soaking, needs a scraping.


Keep out a doe or two if they have good size and color as eventual replacements, and turn the buck over (or at least, be looking to turn the buck over) after a year of breeding, just as i do with the chickens, to keep the gene pool fresh. The does I expect to keep longer, just as with my best hens.

 

[Jennc-123]

Flemish giants are less feed efficient, I culled them from my breeding program.

 

[Solanacae]

Added the first of three (planned) meat rabbits to the property today. This is the buck. Does coming from different breeding lines. If we like this, this guy will become a meal next year, and we'll replace him as top breeder with a flemish giant to increase average size.

View attachment 3035435

How does this relate to my culling project??? It doesn't, except its what I was doing today instead of culling chickens. Tommorow should be a culling day, in between building a nice hot fire to dispose of some bones from past cullings, and feeding it with some other things we need burned. I also need to read up on clarifying goat fat, before I try to make soap with it...

The thing I learned from two rounds of clarifying tallow was to cut the fat into small pieces. It saves you a lot of time and maximizes the surface area for the fat to be expelled from the other tissues.

I got my mom to take some pictures of the wood mold we use. We have two like this, and we adjust our recipes so they fill one or two sides of the mold evenly. The block made with 1.5 2x4’s screwed together fits loosely in the mold and we wrap the freezer paper around with the plastic side facing in where the soap will go. Once we have the paper taped, we pull it off and shimmy it down into the mold and tape the top so it stays open. You don’t want a hot lye mess getting where it’s not supposed to be. After we have the soap poured in, we put a foam square (also wrapped in freezer paper, plastic side out) on the top to provide a little insulation on top. The foam came from an old camping mattress that was starting to fall apart.

There’s tons of recipes you can use, but when you’re making soap, some good equipment makes a big difference. I would highly recommend making sure you have a good scale that’s accurate to grams so you can be precise with your measurements, particularly your lye. A couple of thermometers are also important because you want your oils/fats to be as close to the same temperature as your lye water as possible. Gloves and eye protection are a must. If you have an immersion blender, you will save yourself a LOT of time spent stirring. Depending on what oils/fats and other ingredients you use, we’re talking minutes compared to close to an hour.

Always pour the lye into the water and not the other way around. Work outside or somewhere with really good ventilation because the lye creates some pretty noxious fumes. Long sleeves/pants and closed toe shoes are a good idea, though I admit I’ve not always worn them while soaping.

Do a few basic batches with the same recipe (I’d recommend something with 3, maybe 4, common oils/fats, like olive, coconut and tallow, maybe a little castor) before you start tinkering with fancy add-ins so you can get the technique down. This one is a nice basic recipe:
https://www.iamcountryside.com/soapmaking/a-basic-tallow-soap-recipe/

Two more thoughts - Palm oil is similar to tallow as far as the fatty acid profile is concerned, so you can substitute tallow for palm oil in recipes. Most basic soap recipes are a olive/coconut/palm base, and some will throw in some castor oil for a little richness to the lather. Second, sodium lactate is a great thing to add once you’ve gotten comfortable with the basic technique. It’s not expensive, helps the bar last longer and lather better, and speeds up how quickly you get to trace. I’ve read that some people just use salt, though I’ve never tried it.

Article you may find helpful:
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...d-tricks/guest-post-rendering-tallow-soaping/

 

[U_Stormcrow]

No pictures this time - was busy with other tasks, but did take two Roos (4.86# and 4.5# live weights) - both looked like Ugly, except obviously much smaller, lacking the leg/foot feathers, and different comb. Likely big barred over Silver Laced instead of Big Barred over Brahma.

I also took one hen, 5.18# live weight. She was some washed out blend of pencilling, lacing, and the blue gene. Like someone covered their hands with pencil lead, then tried to wipe it off by repeatedly crumpling the same sheet of paper. I wanted to take a few of the all white girls, but none would get within reach, and this little girl is our thief - steals ginger snap treats from the goats, harasses the poor blind diabetic dog while he's trying to leave piles, darts in the RV when the door is open, and generally one of the first to find any seed i put down. Under other circumstances, I might have kept it - good size for a hen, obviously some pattern, good to great free ranger (plenty of fat on her, too!), and smart - but I love the dog more.

The boys were parted out for a shallow braise, and because of the extra fat on the hen, I kept her whole for stewing.

 

[HomesteadNowhere]

I would say absolutely no to flemish giants for meat rabbits. I had two and they were out-eating my dairy goats. Absolutely not exaggerated. I had two goats I was milking at the same time and the flemish were acting starved and I upped their pellets all the way to a full scoop each, same scoop as the goats got. And the flemish would have happily chomped through nearly a small square bale and still act starved.
Flemish grow bone, skin/fur, and organs for their first year! Then they start to fill out. Didn't take me long to sell them on. Anyone who makes it work is absolutely the exception to the rule on that. I've seen it done over and over.

I'm down to one Californian doe that I just need to put down and skin and feed to the dog. I'm over it. I started with some Dutch, because they were fair price and close enough. Ever since I chased "real meat rabbits" and hit every brick wall and learning curve there is for rabbits. Those Dutch did better than any Florida white, Californian, new Zealand,... They are smaller but still have the 60% dress out. And they actually breed! And they raise the kits!

I'm holding out to find some nice Dutch again. Only rabbits I'd keep at this point, ten years in.