Self Sufficiency Links: Rabbits
Top : Rabbits
Links:
Journey to self sufficiency

Rabbits

After reading John Seymours book I thought that it might be nice to have a couple of does and a buck around to provide a little extra meat. I mentioned it to a buddy at work and he sold me 3 does and a buck for a decent price. I found a local mink farm and they let me grab a few old mink cages and I was in the bunny business.

Our first year we actually had dismal success getting them to breed. We ended the year with only 2 more bunnies than when we started. I take the blame though for putting them out in portable hutches and not providing a decent supplement to the grass they were eating.

The next year my buddy was looking to sell more rabbits and I was looking to sell some laying hens so we swapped. For 14 layers I got 11 rabbits with cages. I kept them all in cages and fed a boatload of pellets. We had little bunnies coming out of our ears. We kept the breeding does in cages and moved the little ones to the old chicken tractor and the prtable hutches when we weaned them. I butchered rabbits till I was sick of it and sold a bunch to a local pet store.

We have pretty much gotten out of the rabbit business. Sold most of the cages to a neighbor kid. I may get back into them. If I can tractor the young up to decent weights without too much extra expensive pelleted feed they may be a better deal than chickens. Some experimenting will be in store for the coming years...

Rabbit Links