8-12 weeks for rabbits. I know someone who used to butcher at 6-8 weeks of age. She was used to raising squab so the small amount of meat didn't bother her. She said it was extremely tender and tasty. I highly recommend rabbit to anyone wanting a leaner meat (look up "rabbit fever" or "rabbit starvation"). We're going to be dining on rabbits a lot to make up for the rest of our diet.
Meat recommendations:
Quail: They taste mostly like chicken and are extremely easy to hatch, raise, and butcher. The Coturnix start laying at 8-10 weeks of age and are ready to butcher at that time, as well. I don't understand why everyone doesn't have quail. They're colony breeders, so few cages are needed to house them (one for breeders, one for youngsters, one for brooding), and they're extremely easy to raise. Plus hard boiled quail eggs are just fun to have. Somehow eating a mini-egg makes it seem different.
Muscovies: They taste like veal. Seriously. It's really tasty. Butchering is at about 10ish weeks of age. Try a pair or a trio. These are very quiet, mellow birds that are excellent sitters and foragers. Two hens can sit up to three times a year and hatch out a dozen ducklings each time. That's a lot of veal
.
Geese: Easy and fun to raise. So far geese are our favorite bird on the farm. Roast goose tastes a lot like roast beef and isn't at all greasy. Butchering is at 10-12 weeks when the bird is 10-12lbs. One pair will sit up to twice a year if you remove the goslings, once if you let them raise their own. That's roughly 8-20 per year per goose, which translates to 80-200lbs of meat in the freezer.
Pigeon: Really cheap and easy to raise and also soothing to hear down in the barn. One pair of pigeons will raise 10-12 squab per year and don't eat much at all, which keeps the overall cost down. Over-cooked squab will taste like liver, otherwise it's...well...squab tastes like squab. You know you're not eating anything but squab. It's a nice change in pace. I recommend trying a pair. Pigeons can be kept indoors in a bird cage or outside in a rabbit pen.
This year I want to try pheasant, chukar, and guinea. I keep missing out on trying all three.
