Raising Rabbits

The USDA considers rabbits as pets and not livestock. Chickens on the other hand are classified as livestock and are restricked by most towns/cities.

OGM

 

Yup, plus its easier to keep rabbits in a small shed or some such and have no one even know they are there than chickens. If you make moveable ground cages you can feed the rabbits from the lawn most of the year too.

 

I got my first doe this past weekend ( a 8 month old New Zealand). She has a date this week-end for some scheduled bunny-sex with my choice of daddy-rabbits. I thought about breeding her with a giant Flemish bunny but I think I'll stay with smaller ones for meat raising.

 

I bought a year old New Zealand doe today and had her and my other doe bred with Flemish Giant. I bought a seven week old Flemish giant buck and five six week old New Zealand/Californian does. My bunny ranch is now in operation; I think.

 

Rabbits must have a lot of CLEAN water. That's even more important than food sometimes. Clean as in NO poop or piddle in the bowl (recommend elevating waterer or using a hang-on-the-cage type).

Wind and wet will kill a rabbit faster than you could believe, so make sure that while they have plenty of air flow, they are absolutely dry and have shelter from the winds.

Rabbits do not have to have the latest dry pellet feed on the market. You can mix your own grains quite easily with a little research (and save money). They will benefit greatly from any fresh clover, grass, etc. you give them in the warmer months, as well. (We pick up and give them the grass clippings from mowing - bunnies love it!)

 

Re: Raising Rabbits - the taste

Ok, I was all set to get into rabbits full bore thinking they were the ideal survival livestock to raise. I even found that a neighbor of mine is doing it and promised me some Californians from his litter. This turned out to be a cool twist since I didn't know he was survival minded, now we have an informal agreement to help each other out if TSHTF.

As a kid, I ate rabbit with family in Italy and they fooled me into thinking it was chicken and I liked it, so no big deal right?

WRONG.

Just to test the waters I had my wife buy some of that frozen "pel-freeze" (frozen raw rabbit) and cook it up. It was ROUGH!
She put half in the crock pot and fried up the other half. The crock-post stuff stunk up the whole house. They both tasted VERY gamey. The fried stuff, less so. She's not the best cook in the world, but MAN OH MAN!

So is that it? Does it get any better? Is it just the brand, the recipe or what? Is there a way of cooking this stuff Colonel Sanders style that makes it more appetizing, or do I just drop the idea and start building a chicken coop?

Of course, I could just raise 'em and sell 'em and be happy that I have the ability to produce meat if TSHTF (in which case, I'm sure they'd taste great), but I was hoping to get a bit more out of it.

Any insight from rabbit connoisseurs is welcome.