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ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: Brent on January 04, 2008, 12:01:53 pm

Title: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brent on January 04, 2008, 12:01:53 pm
Hello all,
     My name is Brent Clark.  I recently started breeding rabbits for meat please check out my website there are links to rabbit breeding info and many other homestead links. Rabbit is the healthiest meat and a single doe can produce more meat in a year than a cow! :shock:  Less space required .... Check it out use the links.  Oh well sorry, I cant post the URL.  You can go to freewebs and then search for clarks homestead if you want to go through all that I would appriciate some feedback.  I'M NOT SELLING ANY THING JUST EXCHANGING USEFULL INFORMATION. I AM NOT A SPAMMER!
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Cindi on January 04, 2008, 12:06:48 pm
Brent, welcome to our forum.  Great place to spend some time.  We are beekeepers and farmers and so on and so on.  We have rabbits, yep, they breed and they do this thing of rearing young very quickly.  We don't eat them though.  I don't think that we could get around to getting them ready for the table.  I like rabbit meat.  It is indeed good.  If you make enough posts on our forum, there will come a time when you can post links.  This is truly just a buffer to ensure the integrity of members posting, to keep our forum and safe and family friendly environment.  Stick around, tell us about yourself, you'll enjoy your time spent and get a few laughs out of some funny tales that people tell. Have a great and wonderful day, Cindi
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on January 04, 2008, 01:06:53 pm
Mmmmmmmm, fried rabbit! Love it! Stewed, etc... The domestic ones are more tender and lend better to frying.

Thinking of rabbit, but still chasing after Cindi's ducks! :-D, JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: KONASDAD on January 04, 2008, 05:05:24 pm
a relative used to do just that over thirty years ago. He also grew great tomatoes w/ the manure. nothing better.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: mark on January 04, 2008, 07:09:20 pm
   brent

      you're preaching to the choir :-D.   satins are our preferred breed

mark
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: asprince on January 04, 2008, 07:51:52 pm
Now Cindi let me get this straight. You can kill and eat Hewy, Dewy, and Lewy Duck and even Fog Horn Leg Horn rooster, but you have trouble with Buggs Bunny?

Welcome Mark, please update your profile so we know your location.

Steve
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brian D. Bray on January 04, 2008, 09:58:17 pm
As a young man 2 of my favorite foods was Rabbit and Bull Frog Legs.  The legs on both are 95% meat with very small bones.

My brother and I bagged a lot of rabbits with our shotguns and gigged a lot of frogs.  One thing I learn from him, that I've never forgotten, is that the day you take your girlfriend frog gigging is the last date you'll ever have with her--works for chacing houd dogs after coons, bobcat, mountain lion, or bear too.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on January 04, 2008, 11:53:44 pm
Brian, nothing like frog legs, yeah! And froggin' is the best! I use to love froggin' in the wee hrs of the morning. I've had a couple of girl friends that liked froggin'.

Rib it, rib it, JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Cindi on January 05, 2008, 12:33:02 am
Steve, oooooooo.  I have had experience with raising rabbits, so many years ago, when I was a very young woman, two little children.  We had a wonderful cage that was above the ground, it had about 8 parts to it where the rabbits lived.  It was a beautiful cage.

I took up with a man who lived with me for a couple of years.  He wanted to use the rabbits for food.  So, I was game for this.  We had so many, and yes, I had heard that rabbit was lovely meat.  I to this day remember sad things about the rabbits.  We did eat some of the meat.  I was an unskilled cook in my young and early years and the rabbit was so darn tough, I remember that clearly too.  I didn't think that it tasted like chicken.  I also remember things about the death of the rabbits.  I won't talk about that because it is too hard to speak about, but I can tell you, I can still hear them in my mind's eye.  There must be better and more animal friendly ways to put these critters on our food table.

They made some very lovely pelts.  We had them tanned and they were beauties.  Seems to me that he caught a couple of racoons, and those pelts adorned our living room coffee table.  No clue where the pelts all went, no clue where he went.  And that is all a good thing, hee, hee  :roll: ;) :) :) :) :)  So happy.

We don't kill our poulty ourselves.  We take them to the killer, he kills , de-feathers and guts them and all we have is a warm carcass in our hands, to set into that cooler full of ice that is brought along for quick chilling.  I can handle that.  That is all.  Even at that, I have "learned" to eat this food.  It was not that easy at first.  Oh things we do.  Have a great night and a wonderful day.  Cindi

Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Angi_H on January 05, 2008, 02:58:15 am
Brain doing things like that would have never gotten rid of me ha ha. I am a country gal and a tom boy at that. I like anything out doors. Camping with nothing but a sleeping bag and a back pack in the back woods. living off the land Now there is camping.

Angi
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Burl on January 05, 2008, 01:46:04 pm
Slow cooked w/homemade sauerkraut , homegrown potatoes and carrots . Yumm !  I think the Germans call it  " hausennfeffer " .
                                                 ---Burl---
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: mark on January 05, 2008, 02:50:55 pm
what is the point of raising your own animals for food and then taking them to someone to have them butchered?  any savings you may get by raising your own food would be offset by paying someone else to butcher.  then there is transport costs.  may as well just hit the supermarket and be done with it.  i know hunters with that mind set also......kill a deer and pay to have it wrapped nice  etc... i just can't wrap my head around it.  i prefer to handle all of it myself.   in for a penny in for a pound!
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Cindi on January 06, 2008, 01:31:14 am
Mark, I don't agree with you at all.  Yes, it is far cheaper to do all the work yourself.  You say, why not just go to the super market and buy the goods.  I have to say, "whatever!!".  We grow this food on our property because we know what goes into the production of this food.  It is good, it has no chemicals, all the poultry is free range, full of good ol' Mother Nature's goodness.  So what if we pay a little bit of extra money to have it processed for us.  The small amount that the slaughter house charges is so minimal and it is not that far away, so gas is not an issue either, I cannot even comment on this. 

We have slaughtered our own fowl before.  It is dirty and time consuming work, and if I must say, I am rather squeemish when it comes to this kind of work.  I choose not to.  So, allow me/us this, without being abrupt like you were about it, that was uncalled for.  Some people may not be in it to save every penny that they can.  Maybe they just really like the quality one gets from their own raised goods. 

Hmmm.....let me think, kill it ourselves, being so grossed out by this that I cannot eat the food.

Have it processed at the slaughter house.  Enjoying a great meal in my home, something that I have grown on my own property.  Well, this choice is clear.  We all have our preferences in life, that is what makes the world an interesting and great place to live, to each his own,  ;) :)  Have a great and most wonderful day, Cindi
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: pdmattox on January 06, 2008, 10:29:49 am
I for one don't worry about the money end of the issue,It is the end product that matters to me. I raise cattle and have been in the industry all my life. I have seen what goes into the producton of beef,pork and chicken and I would never choose the grocery store stuff to my own meat and veggies produced on our farms. So many growth hormones are in feed and in injections that are given to the animals and then passed on through the meat to us. vegies get washed and waxed in the field before being boxed and if you ever witness this process, again you can not beat the homegrown stuff.  I am not the orgainic grower or anything but choose my stuff over any store bought stuff. Try it, you may like it better. Money is not everything.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: mark on January 06, 2008, 10:38:25 am
cindi

    abrupt?  wasn't trying to be so my apologies if you saw it that way.  to me the "processing" is just a natural part of raising your own and i have no problem with it. butchers are not cheap to process deer ( have no idea what they charge for chickens and rabbit) and i have seen them butcher a number of deer hanging in a row with the same knife. if one was spoiled that would contaminate the others.  i prefer to not only know what my animals are feeding on but how they are processed.   skills are learned when anything is repeated enough and squeemish would take a walk too.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Cindi on January 06, 2008, 11:05:41 am
Mark, I did see it as abrupt, but then that is just the way I see things sometimes I guess.  I reacted to what you said and I am sorry too for acting that way, I accept this apology, but probably, really, no apology was really needed.  It's OK, truly.

I take my hat off to you that you can take care of anything stock that you process, that is alot of work.  Like I said, I have seen it here.  My Sister has no issues with any part of the processing of food.  Sometimes it is just so much more quickly done (like when you have 15 large birds to deal with)  at the slaughter house.  She watches the killer dude and she knows what he does, that is good too.  And probably, one day, I will be able to actually take part in this work, and save a little bit of money.

But honestly Mark, maybe $5.00 gas, 2 hours personal time to drive there and back, including the processing of the ducks, $1.00 per bird.  All done, from placing the birds into cages, travel, slaughter.  We can have them ready for our freezer in about 4 hours.  And there is no mess.  It really is not that much.

Our neighbour has a killer dude that comes to her house when it is chicken slaughter time, now that is fast and inexpensive too.  He does not do the ducks though, only chickens.  She can have 100 birds done in about an hour there, it is really really worth every penny of it.

So I guess there are pros and cons with everything.  Have a fantastic day, Cindi
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brian D. Bray on January 06, 2008, 11:52:31 pm
Still have the compound pully and gambrel stored in the shed awaiting the next butchering.  I will probably butcher last years kid as a yearling.  Bury the offel in the garden and plant pumkins on it.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Angi_H on January 07, 2008, 02:23:44 am
Cindi has it cheap up near her and if I had a processer that only charged me 1.00 per bird you better believe me when I would gladly take all  of them to that person. But I dont and with my chronic pain and my fibro a day of processing birds has me in bed paying for it with high pain for a week. And if I had someone as close as Cindi does I would do that as well.


Angi
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Scadsobees on January 07, 2008, 09:43:12 am
Yeah, butchered plenty of chickens before I was a teen.  That is enough to pay somebody to do that for me.

Now, I didn't have any problem cutting up a couple of deer.  That was some good meat!!

Rick
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: reinbeau on January 07, 2008, 06:04:37 pm
Mark, I believe Cindi said it costs a buck a bird for slaughter.  I would do the exact same thing, let someone else handle the mess.  You think differently.  That's what makes the world go round!  I don't think you'll find too many people here who don't care deeply about the food they eat, the land they live on or the livestock they raise.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Sean Kelly on January 23, 2008, 06:27:11 am
Where would one buy rabbit meat?  I've tried to convince my wife to let me raise rabbits for meat but she's dead set against it.  She has a real hard time with me killing a cute fuzzy cuddley bunny.  I've only had rabbit once before and I love it.  I've been looking (not very hard though) for a meat shop that sells rabbit, hoping that after she tastes some she'll change her mind.  :-)

Sean Kelly
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: suprstakr on February 29, 2008, 09:10:14 pm
New Zeland Whites are my best meat rabbits.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brian D. Bray on March 01, 2008, 01:19:46 am
Generally the meat varity of rabbits are: New Zealand Whites, Belgium Hares, California Whites, Checker Giants, and Flemish Giants.

I've had them all at one time or another.  For eaze of rearing the New Zealands or Belgiums are best, for flavor I prefer the Flemish.  The Flemish also come in a variety of colors from Black to Blonde and Cinimon with Orange and Red being fairly common. 

I would suggest locating raiser of rabbits near you and buying 1 or 2 fryers (8-10 weeks) and see how you like them.  If someone beside you are doing the raising and butchering maybe your wife won't be so anti once she eats one.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Bigeddie on March 01, 2008, 11:59:30 am
I payed $250.00 at our county fairs market animal sale for a roaster rabbit. It was delivered to my house dressed and wrapped, I cooked it and my wife wouldn't even taste it. It tasted great and I got to eat the whole thing. She grew up in the city and I grew up here in the woods eating cottontail ,snowshoe ,deer ,coon,bear, fish and what ever was eatable. To each his own. By the way, the kid I bought the rabbit from put the money in the bank for college. I feel good about helping 4H kids, I've purchased an animal for the last 20yrs. at our sale, paying way over market price to help the kids. We have a great bunch of young folks in 4H, polite,honest and hard working.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on March 01, 2008, 12:19:43 pm
I payed $250.00 at our county fairs market animal sale for a roaster rabbit. It was delivered to my house dressed and wrapped, I cooked it and my wife wouldn't even taste it. It tasted great and I got to eat the whole thing. She grew up in the city and I grew up here in the woods eating cottontail ,snowshoe ,deer ,coon,bear, fish and what ever was eatable. To each his own. By the way, the kid I bought the rabbit from put the money in the bank for college. I feel good about helping 4H kids, I've purchased an animal for the last 20yrs. at our sale, paying way over market price to help the kids. We have a great bunch of young folks in 4H, polite,honest and hard working.

Wow, it was an expensive rabbit meal but well worth it, good for you Eddie!!!

....JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Bigeddie on March 01, 2008, 12:47:17 pm
Thanks JP,

I don't know if you have makket animal sales where you live, but if you do I would urge you to go. Every one who attends gets involved even if they dont buy or bid.Everyone get to yell, clap ,whoop and holler as the bidding goes on. The kids faces just beam when they are in the sale ring with their animal and the bids keep going up.
I laid out big bucks for a turkey last year and my wife will eat that. I guess she thinks turkeys arn't as cuddly as bunnies.

Eddie
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: ooptec on March 01, 2008, 06:40:38 pm
First farm rule taught children here in Saskatchewan

DON'T NAME YOUR FOOD

lol

Butchering is a job no-one seems to jump at yet I think

that at least once everyone should do it to instill respect for what you eat.

But then I've said that about acid and opening your mind too.

cheers

peter
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brian D. Bray on March 02, 2008, 12:24:29 am
Thanks JP,

I don't know if you have makket animal sales where you live, but if you do I would urge you to go. Every one who attends gets involved even if they dont buy or bid.Everyone get to yell, clap ,whoop and holler as the bidding goes on. The kids faces just beam when they are in the sale ring with their animal and the bids keep going up.
I laid out big bucks for a turkey last year and my wife will eat that. I guess she thinks turkeys arn't as cuddly as bunnies.

Eddie

Neither do I, a rabbit has never chased me up a tree.  A 40 lb Tom did, when I was 3, then I got big enough to have a shotgun.   I now fear no turkey.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on March 02, 2008, 07:54:08 am
Hey Brian I've been chased by a turkey too, how funny, how scary! Those spurs ain't nothing to joke about no. My grandfather was a butcher and taught me how to butcher. My first was pigs. I don't mind butchering game, I am a meat eater so I must, besides I am a hunter too. I have people remark that hunting is cruel but I have tried vegetarianism and even veganism but after a point my body needed things only meat could give it. I know hunting can be a touchy subject but to me its much more than just the taking of game besides wild game is so much better for you.

....JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: _Brenda_ on March 02, 2008, 11:43:19 am
We raised and butchered some rabbits years ago. Then we couldn't eat them. :oops: Guest we are softies when it comes to fuzzy rabbits.

When I was a kid, we eat lots of wild rabbit and squirrel, because we were poor and dad was a hunter.  I have a hard time raising something and butchering it, though.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on March 02, 2008, 01:25:04 pm
We raised and butchered some rabbits years ago. Then we couldn't eat them. :oops: Guest we are softies when it comes to fuzzy rabbits.

When I was a kid, we eat lots of wild rabbit and squirrel, because we were poor and dad was a hunter.  I have a hard time raising something and butchering it, though.

9acres, I am a softy as well, and if I had to survive by eating animals I raised, well I wouldn't have a choice, but ordinarily, if I form an attachment with an animal don't even think about killing that animal in my presence or behind my back, you will be in trouble. I raised piglets for a short time a while back that were wild caught and I tried to find them a home where they wouldn't be slaughtered. I found a home for them but that lasted a yr and the people decided it was too difficult to keep up with them and slaughtered them. Called me to see if I wanted some of the meat, which I declined. There was no way, after all I had named them Cool Breeze and Little Girl. Will never forget those little pigs, I grew very attached to them. That was 20yrs ago.

....JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brian D. Bray on March 03, 2008, 12:47:50 am
Having spent the first 9 years of my life on a farm I was use to cooking meat so fresh it was still kicking.  The only animal we had that my brother and I refused to eat was a young steer our grandfather taught us to train as an ox.  We modified an old horse harness and that steer pulled us all over in a milk cart (for cans) turned chariot.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Cindi on March 03, 2008, 12:56:50 am
Brian, yes, those old times, the things that we did as kids.....memories. beautiful and wonderful life wishes to us all.  Cindi
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Beekissed on March 17, 2008, 11:24:25 pm
We used to breed New Zealands for the children's 4-H fair animals and it was an experience.  For anyone wanting to buy young rabbits for eating, contact your local Extension Agent who should be able to give you a few names of kids in the county who raise rabbits.  To keep your rabbits producing well, one has to keep breeding them and if you don't eat them, well, that leaves an opportunity for selling to folks.  Also, the kids who have some for auction at the fair, more than likely have some at home for sale.  I have been butchering animals since I was old enough to heft an axe but I will tell you....rabbits are the hardest for me to kill!  Something about the clean white fur and the stuffed animal appearance.  It's not really an attachment to the animals as I find them about as dumb as chickens and most of them are not the friendliest animals.  Oh, sorry to all you chicken lovers....I love them too but I still feel the majority of them are sort of dumb.  If I could pay someone a dollar to kill each chicken, I'm afraid I would do it, also.  I'm not squeamish at all, but the mess and the time is well worth the money.  Not that I would trust the local slaughter house to kill and butcher in a clean manner!  But if someone came to my house and I could kick back in a lawn chair and watch the whole process while someone else did it.....well, THAT would be worth a dollar!!!   :-D
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on March 18, 2008, 07:01:51 am
We used to breed New Zealands for the children's 4-H fair animals and it was an experience.  For anyone wanting to buy young rabbits for eating, contact your local Extension Agent who should be able to give you a few names of kids in the county who raise rabbits.  To keep your rabbits producing well, one has to keep breeding them and if you don't eat them, well, that leaves an opportunity for selling to folks.  Also, the kids who have some for auction at the fair, more than likely have some at home for sale.  I have been butchering animals since I was old enough to heft an axe but I will tell you....rabbits are the hardest for me to kill!  Something about the clean white fur and the stuffed animal appearance.  It's not really an attachment to the animals as I find them about as dumb as chickens and most of them are not the friendliest animals.  Oh, sorry to all you chicken lovers....I love them too but I still feel the majority of them are sort of dumb.  If I could pay someone a dollar to kill each chicken, I'm afraid I would do it, also.  I'm not squeamish at all, but the mess and the time is well worth the money.  Not that I would trust the local slaughter house to kill and butcher in a clean manner!  But if someone came to my house and I could kick back in a lawn chair and watch the whole process while someone else did it.....well, THAT would be worth a dollar!!!   :-D

I'm sorry but I find this post a little disturbing. Well, the end part anyway. I now am visualing these little chickens lining up single file at the chopping block while you are stitting back in your lawn chair sipping long island ice teas, paying a dollar a chop, to some axe murder to do your dirty deeds for you. The horror!!!

...JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: suprstakr on March 18, 2008, 07:46:28 am
ooooo don't forget the blindfolds over theyr eyes  :-D
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on March 18, 2008, 10:01:22 am
ooooo don't forget the blindfolds over theyr eyes  :-D

Yeah Stakr, they probably got their beaks taped shut too!

...JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: ooptec on March 18, 2008, 10:40:20 am
Boy, does no-one else find the irony in this thread??

cheers

peter
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Beekissed on March 18, 2008, 11:54:21 pm
Oh, JP, sorry to offend your sensibilities!   :-D  yep, I would sit back and watch....just to make sure they were doing it to my specifications, you know!   :-*   :-D
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on March 19, 2008, 12:12:27 am
Oh, JP, sorry to offend your sensibilities!   :-D  yep, I would sit back and watch....just to make sure they were doing it to my specifications, you know!   :-*   :-D

Oooh you're bad!!

...JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: johnnybigfish on March 19, 2008, 12:45:22 am
Hey guys!
 I dont hunt but I like to shoot guns(very rarely tho). I have friends who practically live to hunt!. I also benefit from their hunting as they will give me deer meat, wild hogs, and wild turkeys.But, as for me,I dont have the heart to hunt. I remember, as a teenager, shooting turtles(Hundreds of 'em!) just to kill them...Just for the thrill. I look back and REALLY REGRET doing this!
 Now fishing is what I can do!...From start to finish!..From making the lures, to catching, to cleaning, and then on to cooking and eating them! And I'm GOOD at it!(humbly speaking, of course)
 But, as I tell lots of people.....If the fish laid on the floor of the boat, With their eyes following my movements in the boat or while I'm sliding them around getting ready to fillet them...or they made crying sounds or something like that,.....I wouldnt be able to fish.
Imagine, 100 fish all doing this stuff.........Luckily, for the sake of my own conscience fish arent like this, so i fish, and do good!
 I had chickens once and ate the eggs. But one day a dog came and killed all of my chickens in one setting...Even "Henny Penny" a little white banty who would sit in our laps while we sat out on the
deck :'(
 I have pigeons now, and when i have to thin them out occasionally I'll tear out their breast(like people do with dove) and eat them, just so I dont feel like their life was wasted.
Anyways,...Thats just the way I am! :)

your friend,
john
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brian D. Bray on March 19, 2008, 12:50:18 am
Johnnybigfish,

I eat 3 parts of the pigeon, breast, gizzard, and heart--the 3 largest organs in their little bodies.  I figure that if a Turkey had the same size breast for its size as a pigeon has it would have 1/2 again as much breast meat.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: johnnybigfish on March 19, 2008, 01:02:21 am
hey Brian,
It never occured to me about the gizzard and heart. What a great idea! I suppose I'll need to rinse the gizzard out so I dont bust any teeth on the grit, right?
 By the way, how are you doing with the pigeon racing? Young birds have started now, havent they?
your friend,
john
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: poka-bee on March 19, 2008, 01:10:38 am
I would have to be pretty hungry to eat any of my own animals...maybe if I had tons & someone else took em away & they came back looking like they came from Costco...Dad had a great idea one time, he brought home about 12 rabbits to butcher...well there was this one that all of us fell in love with, even Mom..I still remember how those bunnies screamed when he whacked em...,Mom cooked the first meal but wouldn't eat it (she was really mad at him), then stated shw wouldn't cook any more.  I don't remember if he gave it away, cooked it or what! That was the last time he tried something like that.

Jody
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Beekissed on March 19, 2008, 03:14:44 pm
  I don't know, folks.  The animals are appealing while they are still living but once they are dead they just seem like meat to me.  No life, no personality, no problem...I don't seem to have trouble eating them once they are butchered.  Maybe all that farm livin' has made me sensible but...animals have been utilized for food in this way since time began.  At least my animals have a good, clean and healthy life with little to no stress, unlike commercially raised poultry and beef.  The deer we kill are done so quickly and quietly, as we only bowhunt.  No running deer to each other and the animal having to run a gauntlet of rifle fire until it is brought down.  They are beautiful animals, they die a quick death and they are very tasty in the skillet.  I don't see the sorrow in that.  If you are a meat eater, something had to die.  Having the courage to do the killing yourself and making sure it is done with compassion and mercy is a GOOD thing.  Anyone get to see that film on those cattle being moved with a forklift in the CA slaugherhouse?  THAT is how store-bought meat gets to die. 
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: Brian D. Bray on March 19, 2008, 11:41:54 pm
hey Brian,
It never occured to me about the gizzard and heart. What a great idea! I suppose I'll need to rinse the gizzard out so I dont bust any teeth on the grit, right?
 By the way, how are you doing with the pigeon racing? Young birds have started now, havent they?
your friend,
john

The gizzard has a lining that needs to be peeled off.  Cut the gizzard open and wash it out then peel the liner. 

I've been sick for the last week and unable to maintain my training regimen for my old birds so the racing season for those may be over before it starts as they need to be tossed 3-4 times a week at ever increasing distances prior to racing.  My health keeps getting in the way.  The Young bird races run from July to September so I have more time for training that way.  I'll probably switch to racing just the young birds this year.
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: johnnybigfish on March 19, 2008, 11:59:46 pm
Boy oh boy!
 Thats really got to be costly with the gas prices now!
Back when dad was racing we were lucky enough to be dealing with freight companies every day so the drivers would take our birds on training tosses for us.(I dont mean every day tho) We usually didnt go over 50 miles on weekends, but there were occasions where a nabor would be going to Dallas or Oklahoma city for the weekend.This was convenient as long as they were going in the direction of race releases for the season. Down here the longest races are 500 miles, unless its a futurity race, and then, best i can recollect, they were 600 miles at most.
I liked young birds best I suppose because everybody had a better chance at winning the "Pool"..(oops, i mean race) :-D
.Well, at least you'll be able to do the young bird season if all goes well!
your friend,
john
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: JP on March 20, 2008, 01:24:24 am
hey Brian,
It never occured to me about the gizzard and heart. What a great idea! I suppose I'll need to rinse the gizzard out so I dont bust any teeth on the grit, right?
 By the way, how are you doing with the pigeon racing? Young birds have started now, havent they?
your friend,
john

The gizzard has a lining that needs to be peeled off.  Cut the gizzard open and wash it out then peel the liner. 

I've been sick for the last week and unable to maintain my training regimen for my old birds so the racing season for those may be over before it starts as they need to be tossed 3-4 times a week at ever increasing distances prior to racing.  My health keeps getting in the way.  The Young bird races run from July to September so I have more time for training that way.  I'll probably switch to racing just the young birds this year.

Brian, sorry to hear you're under the weather. I wish you a speedy recovery.

...JP
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: doak on March 24, 2008, 12:17:16 am
Bottom line, how do you know what you're getting at the store?
We stopped at a hamburger  joint once. My wife and two older son's and myself,couldn't eat the burgers.
And I can eat some pretty rough stuff.
Had to through them away, our dog wouldn't even eat it.

As for using the same knife, unless you eat the meat not well done or raw, well what can I say.
 doak
Title: Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
Post by: doak on March 24, 2008, 02:45:01 pm
Try this.
Use cages up just high so it is easy to tend to the bunnies.
Use cement blocks or treated 2x10 or 12 inch timbers.
put about two inches of peat moss in and in about a week plant red wigglers in the bed.
in about 6 mo to a year take the top layer off then scoop out the bottom layer, which is worm castings.
screen the worms out and put them back in with the top layer.
You don't have to add any peat this time.
Once the worms get started you will have more than you need for fishing, "if you fish".
You may have to water a little once in a while,  and keep the bed raked level.
Not much smell either. :)doak