Talk to me about: Meat Rabbits

[DellaMyDarling]

The "fat 6" hens came to me in what I can only describe as a large rabbit hutch converted to chicken coop. The conditions...oh my.
As terrible as it is for a flock, a few mods will make it perfect for rabbits. Specifically, I'm thinking future meat rabbit colony!

So tell me about rabbit housing, such as can males be housed with does, how many does per hutch, those things.
Tell me about "rabbit tractors" that I may build to give them quality outdoor time during the day. I'm thinking it possible to build one portion, an inner hutch, sturdy enough for predator resistance. Neighbors rabbits haven't been taken yet...
Do you have horror stories?
Got any epic "rabbit raising for dummies" books to recommend?
Your top choice of dual purpose breed?
How do you tackle the "cuteness factor" when it is time to, erm, harvest?

 

[cassie]

The "fat 6" hens came to me in what I can only describe as a large rabbit hutch converted to chicken coop. The conditions...oh my.
As terrible as it is for a flock, a few mods will make it perfect for rabbits. Specifically, I'm thinking future meat rabbit colony!

So tell me about rabbit housing, such as can males be housed with does, how many does per hutch, those things.
Tell me about "rabbit tractors" that I may build to give them quality outdoor time during the day. I'm thinking it possible to build one portion, an inner hutch, sturdy enough for predator resistance. Neighbors rabbits haven't been taken yet...
Do you have horror stories?
Got any epic "rabbit raising for dummies" books to recommend?
Your top choice of dual purpose breed?
How do you tackle the "cuteness factor" when it is time to, erm, harvest?

Buy a book. Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennett is a good one to start with. It tells you everything you need to know about housing, feeding, breeding, and processing meat rabbits. It is inexpensive and is available on amazon.com. That is where I got mine. To start with, mature rabbits need to be housed individually unless you have a LOT of space where they can get away from each other.

 

[Sara L]

I definitely recommend the storey's guide book, it has a ton of great info. You want to keep one rabbit per cage. Does can be very territorial. Some might be fine together for a while and then suddenly they aren't fine and you will have an injured rabbit or two. You want to keep the buck separate from the does until you want them to breed, then bring the female to his cage. He should do his thing and "fall off" 3 times and she should be pregnant, take her back to her cage and 28-35 days later you should have babies. Most rabbits have the babies on day 31. You need to add the nest box a few days to a week prior to expected due date.

There are pros and cons to raising in cages or as a colony. There are a few threads that have addressed these already.

The cuteness factor is hard. I get around it by not naming the bunnies who are destined to be eaten. Only my breeders get names. They are ridiculously cute and very soft. It helps to have other people process with you, especially if they are experienced or didn't deal with the rabbits as they grew. That way if you chicken out, they can do the deed. I have found cervical dislocation using something similar to the hopper popper or the broomstick method is really fast and the rabbit is gone very quickly. No screaming if you do it right. There are a couple of good YouTube videos about butchering rabbits.

My meat rabbits are mixed. Chinchilla and Flemish mix doe, Flemish and NZR doe, and two purebred Rex rabbits because I'm interested in trying to tan the furs. I found mine on Craigslist and a Facebook meat rabbit group.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

like the others have said, storey's guide to raising rabbits is really good.

i don't raise meat rabbits but there is a lot of good info in that book.

if i did chose to raise rabbits i would run a colony setting. did quite a bit of research on the subject before i decided that it was not for me.

for the cuteness factor, that was the reason i could not do it. its weird i just can not kill a animal i have raised/cared for. so am not much help here.
yet i have no issue trapping and hunting animals.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

I currently have the butchering yips. I did okay for a while and now I'm struggling not to feel like a monster. So I'm mightily enjoying my bunnies but I can't plan enact any breedings until I get over that and do my last half dozen birds (and honestly, the freezer is still full anyways). The extra rabbit cuteness is going to be a problem.

It's not a bad idea to have purebred/pedigreed and/or highly desirable rabbits just so that if you have favorites you can take the time to sell them knowing they will move.

8 weeks is a pretty good rule of thumb for butchering, but some breeds take longer to flesh out and should go more like 12-14 weeks (giants). The breeder I got my flemmie from runs them until more like 4 months, and they are whopping 5-6 lb dressed carcasses but also more suitable for stewing/pressure cooking (if you have meat rabbits, get an instant pot. seriously) than frying or grilling.

I wish I could help with tractors but we don't have grass. I built some little ones for the quail I can stick them in while supervised with their harnesses on but I'm pretty sure the big gals could flip them right over.