Meat Rabbits

[Hunter John]

Nice setup Fox.

[Fox]

I like that I can move individual rabbits around and keep them in the shade.

All lids and access have raccoon proof latches (2 actions to open), including spring hooks on the wood lids and spring close snaps on the wire.

I still want to paint the outside of the hutches white to reduce the heat for the summer but that will not happen for a little while yet.

[fishy steve]

how you making out fox? any kits yet?

i just had 11 more yesterday... was her first litter so hoping she takes care of them... so far she has... she started making the nest at day 20 so she definately has the instinct... my other litter is now 9 weeks old and 5 lbs each. 2 more rabbits due in the next 2 weeks... gonna go broke feeding them lol

[Fox]

I have one litter of 13ish that is a 9 days old, another litter of 11ish at 7 days old and the last doe had her first litter this morning, there is about 10 in her litter total but 2 died at birth.

It looks like the first 2 had 14 each but the one lost 1 and the second lost 3 at birth.

I have not been able to do a proper count as they are really squirmy and the moms are a little nuts, I was bit through my coat and into my skin by the one, ha ha.

They are eating more but I would not say going poor. I had 1 guy at the gun club as me about buying some, a couple friends want to buy some and family as well.

The plan is to keep 2 does from the first 2 litters, they are from an outside buck and that will give me 5 does and 1 buck, if I need a different buck I can get my does studded by a neighbour.

Things are starting to work out.

[fishy steve]

wait till the little ones start eating... with 6 of them at 6 weeks old they were eating a full J feeder of food a day...

i picked up another buck, hes a pure bred NZW, so gonna try some pure bred NZW's, see which buck throws better litters... if i cant sell any rabbits wont be keeping this many rabbits for myself. i also had people say they would buy rabbits when ready, so far no takers lol

probably this weekend i will put the first couple in the freezer, and let a couple more fatten up

[Fox]

After about 5lbs the growth rate flattens out.

I met 3 people this past week who want rabbits at 8 weeks, if I can sell 30 over the entire year at $15 each I will not pay a dime for food for the 6 that I keep around. My goal is to reduce my food costs and offset my hobby farm expenses, not trying to make money on this.

My thoughts are to have the rabbits, chickens, ducks and garden pay for themselves, if I can do that then my food becomes free off the property, cross your fingers I guess on that end.

Fishy, I am getting food at $0.56/kg or $0.25/lb in quantity from a commercial operation. At this point in a month with the 4 meat rabbits (3 pregnant) and 1 pet for the fiancee we are at 1 bag down, so about $15/month to keep them. If the fryers are a full bag a month, even 2, that is $30/month or $60 to take them to market weight. If I just keep them for the freezer I am well under $1/lb, not bad at all.

[poltrojan]

After about 5lbs the growth rate flattens out.

I met 3 people this past week who want rabbits at 8 weeks, if I can sell 30 over the entire year at $15 each I will not pay a dime for food for the 6 that I keep around. My goal is to reduce my food costs and offset my hobby farm expenses, not trying to make money on this.

My thoughts are to have the rabbits, chickens, ducks and garden pay for themselves, if I can do that then my food becomes free off the property, cross your fingers I guess on that end.

Fishy, I am getting food at $0.56/kg or $0.25/lb in quantity from a commercial operation. At this point in a month with the 4 meat rabbits (3 pregnant) and 1 pet for the fiancee we are at 1 bag down, so about $15/month to keep them. If the fryers are a full bag a month, even 2, that is $30/month or $60 to take them to market weight. If I just keep them for the freezer I am well under $1/lb, not bad at all.

don't forget to weather in unexpected expenses due to weather or predators. I used to live off farmer's hobby farm/air rifle tag game land. I heard and saw chickens and ducks go missing due to predators; that hobby farm was well fenced too.

[Fox]

don't forget to weather in unexpected expenses due to weather or predators. I used to live off farmer's hobby farm/air rifle tag game land. I heard and saw chickens and ducks go missing due to predators; that hobby farm was well fenced too.

Of course, you have to work all that in, but you cannot expect to lose nothing or everything, you have to work out costs as they come and develop data for the future.

At this point in time I have minimal expenses (approx $700) total into full operations including a stash of food, hutches and runs with all feeder and waterers. This is for 6 mature production rabbits and 2 fryer cages/hutches as well as a quarantine and over 300lbs of feed sitting in the basement which is rodent free.

I need to get approximately 250lbs (100 rabbits) of meat to build back the expenses if I just have it in my freezer, or offset that by the cost of live sales at $15 each at 5lbs.

You will always have predators but you do what you can to mitigate that.
These cages are latched and locked and there is nothing else I can do.

I also don't plan on free ranging anything, that is just like throwing money away.

[Fox]

Did a count tonight, 13 alive from the first litter, 12 alive from the second litter and 6 alive from the third litter, 31 meat rabbit bunnies in total, day 10, 8 and 2 for the 3 litters.

One of the 6 from the third litter is a runt, it was in the back corner of the nest, I pulled it out and put it at the front and on top of the pile, we shall see how things all work out in the end.

[poltrojan]

oh here is an advise, not sure where you keep the food. but my previous landowner/hobby farmer had a shed of food.
she used an old non-working fridge or freezer and put it on the skid. the reason is so the rats/mice or other mammals won't chew their way through. pretty hard to do that through metal as opposed to wood.