Are chickens easier and cheaper than rabbits?

[Frenchie]

I agree, it all depends upon what you are aiming for.

Chickens and rabbits just go together for me because I hate waste of all kinds and between them they can eat everything we don't. All veg scraps go to the bunnies and all leftovers go to the chickens.

No matter how good I am at using up bits, sometimes there is stuff that cant be used and, with a fortnightly garbage collection, the bins smell something awful with food waste in them. Can't WAIT to get our new hens, just a few weeks to go.

With just hens, the scraps come back as super quality eggs, but if you are raising dual-purpose or hatching your own your scraps turn into both meat and eggs. Feed does have to be bought as well so factor in that cost as well.

Chickens are noisy, rabbits not. Both of them make quality fertilizer for the veg patch.

I can dispatch and dress out a fryer in 4.46 minutes and scalding/cleaning a meat bird takes me 9 minutes - but clean up is MUCH faster and easier after doing rabbits.

My advice is, have both! <br /><br /> __________ Sat Jan 23, 2021 11:23 am __________ <br /><br /> Oh, forgot to add, rabbits give you a pelt to work with while chicken feathers have very few uses.

Did I already say have both? :lol:

I have yet to raise rabbits but I got on this forum because I'm tempted. The laying chickens I raised gave us delicious eggs and foraged a great deal of their food outside except when they had to be cooped in for the winter. After they start laying eggs, the chicken meat gets tough and is better for soup & stew. They will lay abundantly for 2-3 yrs. Those all get converted into stewing meat and great broth or Coq au Vin.
If you want chicken for tender meat, you have to go with Cornish Cross, which is ready in a matter of weeks.
4 weeks for Cornish Game hens and 8-9 weeks for the full grown Cornish Cross. at that age they are very tender.
I take my chickens to the slaughter house as I'm getting too old to do it myself now. I'm not sure they butcher rabbits there, although they seem to butcher pigs, lambs...

 

[BunBun71]

I have yet to raise rabbits but I got on this forum because I'm tempted. The laying chickens I raised gave us delicious eggs and foraged a great deal of their food outside except when they had to be cooped in for the winter. After they start laying eggs, the chicken meat gets tough and is better for soup & stew. They will lay abundantly for 2-3 yrs. Those all get converted into stewing meat and great broth or Coq au Vin.
If you want chicken for tender meat, you have to go with Cornish Cross, which is ready in a matter of weeks.
4 weeks for Cornish Game hens and 8-9 weeks for the full grown Cornish Cross. at that age they are very tender.
I take my chickens to the slaughter house as I'm getting too old to do it myself now. I'm not sure they butcher rabbits there, although they seem to butcher pigs, lambs...

That is not true about they will lay eggs 2-3 yrs. Once they stop laying you should not sell them or you should not kill them.

 

[MaggieJ]

That is not true about they will lay eggs 2-3 yrs. Once they stop laying you should not sell them or you should not kill them.

BunBun71,

This makes no sense to me. Hens will lay eggs for many years, pretty much their whole lives, but with the number of eggs produced decreasing over time. Some will slow down so much that they cannot be considered productive enough to keep. Then the owner faces a decision.

What would you have people do with hens that are no longer laying enough eggs to pay for the cost of keeping them?

In a backyard set-up where the owner just wants eggs for their own table, carrying a few unproductive hens may not be a problem. They become essentially yard pets, though they are still useful for their insect-eating and for their manure. They also help maintain the "pecking order" -- the social life of the hens. Every time a hen dies or is culled, the hens have to adjust their rank within the flock. So for many people raising chickens as a hobby it is easier just to keep the older hens around, as long as they are healthy and not causing fights in the yard.

In a chickens-for-profit set-up, this is often not feasible. The owner needs to make enough money to make it worthwhile and therefore the hens need to earn their keep. Many people keep the hens only for their most productive year or two. After that, they are usually culled and made into soup or pet food. This is the difference between a commercial venture and a hobby.

Supermarket eggs are often produced in a "battery" operation, with each hen in a small cage and the eggs being collected automatically. While more profitable because unprofitable hens can be spotted and culled, these set-ups are considered inhumane by many. This is a matter for government regulation and as governments in the Western World are elected by the people, these laws can be changed when enough people care about them.

It is fine to discuss the different ways of doing things and to say why you prefer one way to another, but I'm always sorry to see people try to impose their beliefs on others -- especially by using "shoulds" or "shouldn'ts". When you do this, you are not showing respect for the right of others to decide for themselves within the existing laws. I'd like to see you consider the whole picture before you make blanket statements of that kind.

After informing yourself more fully, if you really disagree with the laws governing animal husbandry (or anything else), you can work to bring about changes to those laws. It's a part of your privilege and responsibility as a citizen in a democracy.

 

[Cosima]

It is fine to discuss the different ways of doing things and to say why you prefer one way to another, but I'm always sorry to see people try to impose their beliefs on others -- especially by using "shoulds" or "shouldn'ts". When you do this, you are not showing respect for the right of others to decide for themselves within the existing laws. I'd like to see you consider the whole picture before you make blanket statements of that kind.

I agree. In my opinion every one should be aloud to believe in something different. I know, I used "should".

 

[Frenchie]

That is not true about they will lay eggs 2-3 yrs. Once they stop laying you should not sell them or you should not kill them.

The breed I used was for laying eggs. Once they stop laying, they can still be good for lowering harmful insects and producing manure. I'm not so offended by your use of "should", as in you should do this or not do that. As a professional linguist, the use of "should" is used to try and give an order, but in a softer tone. Essentially, it is an *opinion*. One that can be respected... or not. And yes: my hens gave us eggs for 2 years but after that, they produced very little. [only half of them were laying, and not even reliably]. It made no economic sense to keep them and they were taking the place/food of another batch of good laying hens and their health was declining.
If you do not want to sell them, [which would be a dirty trick IMHO since your buyer would get animals that won't give the advantage that a buyer seeks] and not kill them, then your purpose is to keep them around as pets. I do not have that purpose in mind, but more power to you if you do.
Opinions are very important as they can give us different perspectives, and the more opinions we get, frankly, the richer the human experience and the more solutions we can choose from. We respect that everyone's freedom to do as one pleases only goes as far as another person's nose. In every problem that confronts us, we need more ideas, not less.
Had you been living closer to me, I would have offered you my non laying hens for a price; the price of the food I put into them and the price of their replacement. That could have worked for me. Maybe it would have worked for you too?

 

[HTAcres]

At our place, our objective is that every animal we buy or produce have a happy healthy life, however long that happens to be. Even ourselves, as humans, have only the present moment. I am choosing to spend my precious present moment writing this because I because it is essential that anyone caring for animals develop their own philosophy that guides their decision-making that works for their situation. My daughter put it well - our animals are either Products, Producers or Pets. Each person has to decide for themselves how many Pets they can afford. We have two Pet dogs - our breeding pair of German Shepherds and even they are also producers at this time and also work. Right now in my chicken coop, I have 30 Producers and one Pet - a six-year-old EE that was part of my first flock when I started again with chickens. In my rabbitry, which is less than a year old, I have two bucks that I will probably keep on as Pets after their breeding life or rehome to a pet environment. We play extensively with the little kits even though some will be Producers and some will be Products. We are VERY grateful for the role each plays in our life. We don't control everything. When a kit dies, it is fed to my female German Shepherd and goes into the making of puppies (which always find good homes). Same when I need to cull a chicken for whatever reason. We just acquired a Jersey heifer and a Jersey steer. Both will be treated as well as we possibly can though in the natural course of events, one will be with us a lot longer. So many in our world are completely out of touch with the kind of animal husbandry that supports human life. I try to be kind with their feelings because I do understand. But it is not sustainable for us not to make the hard decisions.

 

[HTAcres]

Fr

I have yet to raise rabbits but I got on this forum because I'm tempted.

If you are looking to provide good meat for your family, I think rabbits are one of the easiest and best in terms of food conversion and just plain enjoyment. The meat is clean and very healthy and you can produce as much as you need in a fairly short time. The dispatching does take some girding of the loins but once you get over it, it's not that bad and easier than chickens.

 

[MaggieJ]

We are all simply offering opinions. It saddens me to see the implication of duty, correctness, or obligation implied by the most common use of the word "should." This, too, is an opinion.

People who do not want to have to deal with unproductive older hens might be happier raising a heritage breed. I've had several of these breeds over the years: Speckled Sussex, Dominiques, Welsummers, Cuckoo Marans. All continued to earn their keep throughout their lives. I've had hens of seven or eight years still laying 3-4 eggs a week.

Hens that stop laying after a year or two sound like the kind they use in battery chicken barns. They are breeds that have been developed for short, intensely productive lives. They may not be the best choice for a small backyard flock.

 

[eco2pia]

That is not true about they will lay eggs 2-3 yrs. Once they stop laying you should not sell them or you should not kill them.

Perhaps you are vegan, and do not eat any animals, or animal products like eggs. Some of us here do.

I have raised animals on a farm most of my life for the express purpose of eating them, I have also had pets. I see that your rabbit BunBun is a pet. I understand that. My cat is a pet, and I have had pet dogs and horses over the years. It would be extremely difficult if not impossible for me to eat them.

Most people do not raise cats for meat, but both dogs and horses are raised for meat. I would not tell a person who was raising meat that they should not kill their own meat unless I could say I was opposed to eating any meat. To me that is an ethical decision--if I will eat meat (I will) then I will not outsource the raising and dispatch of that meat just to fool myself into thinking my hands are "clean". I will not judge the person who does the work that keeps me fed and I will not judge someone for hiring that job out if it is not something they can do humanely themselves.

I have no idea what BunBun71's dietary choices are, and I absolutely defend BunBun71's right to whatever those choices are, but I would like to point out that the subtitle of this forum is "Meat Rabbit and Farming Forum", and this thread is in the "meat rabbit" forum, so if you are vegan you might want to limit yourself to the pet portions of the site...If you find eating animals distasteful this is not the place to hang out.

I guess all I am saying is that I prize being honest with myself at a minimum. Internal consistancy is importantly to me. Maybe BunBun71 doesn't eat meat. But if they do, they might want to carefully consider where that comes from, and how it is produced.

 

[BunBun71]

Perhaps you are vegan, and do not eat any animals, or animal products like eggs. Some of us here do.

I have raised animals on a farm most of my life for the express purpose of eating them, I have also had pets. I see that your rabbit BunBun is a pet. I understand that. My cat is a pet, and I have had pet dogs and horses over the years. It would be extremely difficult if not impossible for me to eat them.

Most people do not raise cats for meat, but both dogs and horses are raised for meat. I would not tell a person who was raising meat that they should not kill their own meat unless I could say I was opposed to eating any meat. To me that is an ethical decision--if I will eat meat (I will) then I will not outsource the raising and dispatch of that meat just to fool myself into thinking my hands are "clean". I will not judge the person who does the work that keeps me fed and I will not judge someone for hiring that job out if it is not something they can do humanely themselves.

I have no idea what BunBun71's dietary choices are, and I absolutely defend BunBun71's right to whatever those choices are, but I would like to point out that the subtitle of this forum is "Meat Rabbit and Farming Forum", and this thread is in the "meat rabbit" forum, so if you are vegan you might want to limit yourself to the pet portions of the site...If you find eating animals distasteful this is not the place to hang out.

I guess all I am saying is that I prize being honest with myself at a minimum. Internal consistancy is importantly to me. Maybe BunBun71 doesn't eat meat. But if they do, they might want to carefully consider where that comes from, and how it is produced.

Okay, Thanks a lot, Sorry about that, Is there any way I can delete my post?

 

[Cosima]

Mm, I don’t think so. Can you still edit it?

 

[Cosima]

If you can edit it then you will probably be able to delete the writing but I don’t think that you can delete.

 

[eco2pia]

Okay, Thanks a lot, Sorry about that, Is there any way I can delete my post?

I don't think you need to delete the post BunBun71, it sparked an interesting discussion. We SHOULD all wrestle with these topics periodically. I have come to some conclusions based on my experiences, and other people have different conclusions. Sharing those is what it is all about, and sometimes thinking these things through helps.

I hatched chicken eggs this year, and my step kids were fascinated. 50% of the chicks were roosters, and even if we could have a rooster in town we couldn't have kept as many as we got. We raised them for meat, and the kids were initially very upset. They wanted to buy all girl chicks in the future. But all chickens hatch at 50% male. What happens to hatchery chicks that are sexed male is pretty awful. Ours got to grow up and have a good, if short, life, and their end was fast and as painless as I could make it. It gave them a lot to think about. It gives us all a lot to think about.

 

[eco2pia]

it amuses me that I use the word "should" here and that is what set all this off, haha. I guess that is also an opinion--that these thoughts are worth thinking about in the first place.

anyway, thank you for the conversation!

 

[Nibbles]

Okay, Thanks a lot, Sorry about that, Is there any way I can delete my post?

No, there's not. And you may be out of the window of editing time. But it's okay. Everyone lives and learns. That's all this is.

 

[HTAcres]

I totally agree and I really like people who can live and learn!!!!

 

[Plinsc]

Hello
I have 6 chickens left to get to the freezer then done with chickens here. We have 10 Muscovy ducks that gave us 30 hatched eggs! If I were granted a do over I would skip the chickens all together. I did a run of Cornish cross also and didn’t enjoy them at all, though 25 chicken in the freezer was nice.
Late Jan-mid February the 30 ducks will be making the freezer camp March.
as for rabbits we have Silver Fox- 2 males and 4 females, getting ready to breed this week.

 

[Softie]

Fat scoop a day for 25 hens, put up each night. 50 total hens. Eggs sell for $4/dz. Make money March - July; spend it August - February. On feed. Compost from local restaurant is a good way to offset costs. We don't do that. Having fresh eggs every day is awesome for your health and budget - great source of protein. rabbits are good meat and produce well also; meat is a side dish, veggies are main dish.

 

[mfalconer]

I really love the complimentary combo of heritage chickens and rabbits. I've been doing that since 2012. Below is my opinion of the things I like the best of each animal...
The rabbit advantage is that they produce:
1. a lean carcass that grows very fast and breaks down easily into meal portions, also delicious livers!
2. excellent manure
The chicken advantage is that they produce:
1. excellent carcass for roasting whole/halved and making stock (don't forget to add the feet!)
2. EGGS obviously! I have one hen that will be 10 years old the spring. She has not laid in about a year now though... She's my only "pet" chicken.

There are lots of things I dislike about these animals too but not enough to change what I'm doing.

 

[Plinsc]

Yep! Always comes down to preferences!