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Author Topic: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!  (Read 16461 times)

Offline Brent

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WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« 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!

Offline Cindi

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #1 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
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline JP

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #2 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
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Offline KONASDAD

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #3 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.
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Offline mark

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2008, 07:09:20 pm »
   brent

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

mark

Offline asprince

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #5 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
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Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #6 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.
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Offline JP

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #7 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
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Offline Cindi

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #8 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

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Angi_H

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #9 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

Offline Burl

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #10 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 " .
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Offline mark

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #11 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!

Offline Cindi

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #12 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
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline pdmattox

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #13 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.

Offline mark

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #14 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.

Offline Cindi

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #15 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
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #16 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.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline Angi_H

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #17 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

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #18 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
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Offline reinbeau

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Re: WHY YOU SHOULD BREED RABBITS FOR MEAT!
« Reply #19 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.