Rabbit CAFO Goes Permaculture

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Re: Rabbit CAFO Goes Permaculture

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Sun Sep 29, 2013 4:49 pm

That is always an option, just out last the B*st**ds,,,,,, ;) Moving the tractor with dolly wheels the way Joel Salitine does is always an option. I don't know what that would cost, wheels are expensive. Just putting down wire around the edges might work to stop them from digging. But as you say, if you just wait they will be too big to escape, :lol: time will take care of the problem. ;)
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Re: Rabbit CAFO Goes Permaculture

Postby mannytheseacow » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:30 am

For sure, Joel has it down to a science. My first chicken tractor had some old lawn mower wheels on it. I've just got too many rock and holes.... I couldn't roll anything across my rocky soil unless it had balloon tires on it!
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Re: Rabbit CAFO Goes Permaculture

Postby mannytheseacow » Sun Dec 01, 2013 1:37 am

Well there aint much grass left around these parts for keeping rabbits on pasture. Due to this, I went through and butchered my first two litters today. One litter was 11 weeks old and the other 13 weeks. Overall, I have to say that I'm not too impressed with the genetics of the French lop mothers. They are good mothers and have tasty meat, but they don't grow as quickly as the production breeds, or put as much energy into meat. My California buck has done real well; he's large, and knows just what to do. The young ones that took on more of the California traits also were noticeably larger, more meaty, and more fatty than the rabbits that had more of the mother/lop traits.

After selling a couple and losing one, that put me at 10 rabbits for the eating. They only averaged about 4 pounds each; 2 pounds dressed on the bone. Production breeds should be much larger at 10 weeks and I'm hoping that's what my California doe will produce when she gets mated with the buck in the spring. I would expect a much larger litter size, too. I plan on selling off the two lop mothers as soon as I wean their current litters. They're nice looking rabbits for pets or something, but that isn't quite the purpose of these rabbits. Pets and plants are only good for eating around my place. :lol:

So- I've worked with rabbit quite a bit and eaten plenty of it, but this was my first time going breeding to butcher to plate. For anyone that's never butchered a rabbit, it's about the easiest of creatures to do, in my opinion. They skin real easy and can be completely skinned, cleaned and boned (if desired) easily with a good strong pair of scissors. It took me about 3 hours to do 10 rabbits, and that was with two tea breaks included.
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