Raising our New Zealand Meat Rabbits *Start to finish - Birth to processing* Possible Graphic pics*

[Angelicisi]

The hammer was on the list , that's how my grandparents did it, but this is much neater for me! A lot of people use pellets here...lead pellets while its a shot to the head and the heads removed anyway, It still bothered me enough not too go that route for our regular butchering. I will still field dress a wild we shoot or other game tho. Lol

Awesome! I'm using the "bash'em in the head " method.

 

[Angelicisi]

One of our does with her ten babies

 

[Angelicisi]

Hubby hung fans for the bunnies! They LOVE them.
All buns are relaxed and while I thought the hum from fans would bother them, I think they like the background noise steady like that

He used large box fans rated for the elements and free hung them so as to prevent then falling over/gettin knocked over or being bumped into.
He also positioned them in such a way that the airflow does not hit a cage directly or a wall.
One fan on each isle pointed opposing directions keeps dust to a minimum and air flowing well. He has set up cooling tables behind them (last year a small cooler we filled 3/4 way up with water and froze it. Set behind fans indoors and got almost 7 degree cooler air out the front , small but significant here, every degree matters) we want to try this outdoors too. Ice cooling may not help enough outdoors, but we got to try

 

[Crickett]

Nice! I'd like to be able to do something like that for my buns!

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

Hubby hung fans for the bunnies! They LOVE them.
All buns are relaxed and while I thought the hum from fans would bother them, I think they like the background noise steady like that

He used large box fans rated for the elements and free hung them so as to prevent then falling over/gettin knocked over or being bumped into.
He also positioned them in such a way that the airflow does not hit a cage directly or a wall.
One fan on each isle pointed opposing directions keeps dust to a minimum and air flowing well. He has set up cooling tables behind them (last year a small cooler we filled 3/4 way up with water and froze it. Set behind fans indoors and got almost 7 degree cooler air out the front , small but significant here, every degree matters) we want to try this outdoors too. Ice cooling may not help enough outdoors, but we got to try

Wow, that looks like a nice setup... not just the fans, the whole area! Have you shared more photos of the area on this thread (sorry, I've scanned the whole thing, but it's long and I haven't had a chance yet to read in detail)? I am interested in raising rabbits for meat and have no experience whatsoever (raising ducks for eggs now, not so much for meat) and am in the initial phases of planning a setup. That's why I'm curious to know more about the area you've created for this purpose. Thanks!

 

[Crickett]

If you decide to eat any of your ducks, be prepared to pluck, pluck, pluck and pluck some more!

 

[Angelicisi]

Hubby is still building he has a set of cages (similar to Doe Crackers cage with ten babies) he building to wrap around the outside perimeter seen here.
The 5 gallon auto waterers really saved a TON of time and effort once numbers started to grow. We sell the faster than we can breed them still so we are taking a season off to get some numbers up again bunny ranch retreat for the next 60 days

I rake up spent hay and place it around veggies in garden as a mulch. Works awesome to keep soil cooler and moister in our summer heat. Good nutes leech during watering too

Then I bag up all the rabbit berries (poop) into old feed sacks and sell that too! Makes awesome fertilizer and safe to use straight outta the rabbit! We actually just got in rice sacks we are going to use up
too.

Wow, that looks like a nice setup... not just the fans, the whole area! Have you shared more photos of the area on this thread (sorry, I've scanned the whole thing, but it's long and I haven't had a chance yet to read in detail)? I am interested in raising rabbits for meat and have no experience whatsoever (raising ducks for eggs now, not so much for meat) and am in the initial phases of planning a setup. That's why I'm curious to know more about the area you've created for this purpose. Thanks!

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

Wow Angelicisi, that is all so nice! Right down to the way you put the rabbit berries

to good use! I love the colors of the framing on the inside of the structure. Those look like some satisfied rabbits! I have many more questions, but I'll catch up on the whole thread first... I'm sure I'll find answers for most of 'em.

 

[Angelicisi]

Thanks. There's great peeps here with a lot of tips! Feel free to ask anything.
The bunnies are happy so far! The building they are attached to is a workshop/old schoolhouse we are redoing. Inside rooms are being converted to hold cages that stack and a waste disposal system (trays that roll waste to buckets-very kewl - very long project due to cost tho )
The pink wood is irregular wood or cheap wood here. They paint the boards fluorescent pink and sell them super duper cheap due to a scuff or bent/warped board -we use the warped ones by cutting them down for bracing
We started with a reduced Holland lop that melted our hearts and BAM! 50 rabbits a small rabbitry and another hundred rabbits in the plans!

I graduated chicken math and fell into bunny algebra.

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

Thanks. There's great peeps here with a lot of tips! Feel free to ask anything.
The bunnies are happy so far! The building they are attached to is a workshop/old schoolhouse we are redoing. Inside rooms are being converted to hold cages that stack and a waste disposal system (trays that roll waste to buckets-very kewl - very long project due to cost tho

)
The pink wood is irregular wood or cheap wood here. They paint the boards fluorescent pink and sell them super duper cheap due to a scuff or bent/warped board -we use the warped ones by cutting them down for bracing

We started with a reduced Holland lop that melted our hearts and BAM! 50 rabbits a small rabbitry and another hundred rabbits in the plans!

I graduated chicken math and fell into bunny algebra.

The "cheap" boards look awesome! Can't wait to catch up with you whole story!