Are chickens easier and cheaper than rabbits?

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I used to have chickens, like around 45 of them.
Sadly, they were picked off by predators, and we haven't had them for a while.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

I have both rabbits and chickens. We only have chickens for eggs.

We started with chickens about 2 years ago. We got old layers from an egg farm for $5 each. We built the henhouse out of an old 6'x10' utility trailer that was not road worthy. 2/3 of it is chicken roosts and the back 1/3 is feed storage. We use sand in it instead of hay, although I have grass in the nest boxes. Sand makes cleaning the coop QUICK and EASY. I have a waist high counter under the roosts, covered with sand. I clean it out every day or two, takes about 2 minutes, tops. Keeps the flies down as well, as the poop dries out in the sand. We had the sand and the trailer, and the boards for the roosts (we never throw anything away, so they were super cheap to set up)

The chickens take about 2 minutes a day (avg for cleaning & getting eggs) I made a self-closing feeder that holds about 50 lbs, so I rarely have to do more than pick up eggs and say hi to the girls (who are intensely jealous of the rabbits because they don't get any attention anymore) Every couple weeks I have to refill the feed. They are free range.

Rabbits - we bought out a guy that was getting rid of his rabbits. Our rabbits are housed in 3 metal dog crates and 2 giant cages made from rubbermaid wire shelves. I have heard that can be a problem, but I added 1/4" hardware cloth on the bottom so I think that will solve the 'sore hock' possibility. I would definitely recommend the wire shelving as a quick and VERY secure way to build a hutch. We have tons of coyotes here, and there is always the possibility of a roaming pit bull, although I haven't seen one in this neighborhood. They can both go through hardware cloth, but they can't get through the wire shelving. We have a chain link fence with cover to keep them out, but I have been known to forget to close the gate

The feeders have to be filled, the water bottles (8) have to be taken down, filled & hung, hay boxes filled. I am slowly streamlining things - I now have water bottles that hold a gallon, so I shouldn't have to give water 2x a day. I cut branches, grass or bamboo for them. So, the rabbits DO take more time. BUT I LOVE hanging out with the rabbits. They have been our best investment. They are better than therapy! And not as mean as chickens LOL.

Also I have sold some babies, and they have brought some money to offset the feed costs. We have gotten literally thousands of eggs.

So, rabbits are more work and more $$ at this point, but well worth it - even though the chickens hate it when I say that!

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I have both rabbits and chickens. We only have chickens for eggs.

We started with chickens about 2 years ago. We got old layers from an egg farm for $5 each. We built the henhouse out of an old 6'x10' utility trailer that was not road worthy. 2/3 of it is chicken roosts and the back 1/3 is feed storage. We use sand in it instead of hay, although I have grass in the nest boxes. Sand makes cleaning the coop QUICK and EASY. I have a waist high counter under the roosts, covered with sand. I clean it out every day or two, takes about 2 minutes, tops. Keeps the flies down as well, as the poop dries out in the sand. We had the sand and the trailer, and the boards for the roosts (we never throw anything away, so they were super cheap to set up)

The chickens take about 2 minutes a day (avg for cleaning & getting eggs) I made a self-closing feeder that holds about 50 lbs, so I rarely have to do more than pick up eggs and say hi to the girls (who are intensely jealous of the rabbits because they don't get any attention anymore) Every couple weeks I have to refill the feed. They are free range.

Rabbits - we bought out a guy that was getting rid of his rabbits. Our rabbits are housed in 3 metal dog crates and 2 giant cages made from rubbermaid wire shelves. I have heard that can be a problem, but I added 1/4" hardware cloth on the bottom so I think that will solve the 'sore hock' possibility. I would definitely recommend the wire shelving as a quick and VERY secure way to build a hutch. We have tons of coyotes here, and there is always the possibility of a roaming pit bull, although I haven't seen one in this neighborhood. They can both go through hardware cloth, but they can't get through the wire shelving. We have a chain link fence with cover to keep them out, but I have been known to forget to close the gate

The feeders have to be filled, the water bottles (8) have to be taken down, filled & hung, hay boxes filled. I am slowly streamlining things - I now have water bottles that hold a gallon, so I shouldn't have to give water 2x a day. I cut branches, grass or bamboo for them. So, the rabbits DO take more time. BUT I LOVE hanging out with the rabbits. They have been our best investment. They are better than therapy! And not as mean as chickens LOL.

Also I have sold some babies, and they have brought some money to offset the feed costs. We have gotten literally thousands of eggs.

So, rabbits are more work and more $$ at this point, but well worth it - even though the chickens hate it when I say that!

What's it like having outside rabbits?

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

What's it like having outside rabbits?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean about outside rabbits. They are not free range. There are too many wild rabbits I'm afraid they would catch something. They are in hutches in a covered area. In Texas it does not get that cold in the winter usually although last year we had two weeks of 20° and snow.

They are in a roofed L-shaped area where two buildings meet. This gives them some protection from the strong and ever-present wind but still allows me to have a lot of ventilation when the weather is good. I have tarps on the other two sides. When it's not too cold and windy I raise the tarps all day. Conversely when it's cold and rainy I keep the tarps down all day.

Not sure if this was absolutely any help at all

Liz

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean about outside rabbits. They are not free range. There are too many wild rabbits I'm afraid they would catch something. They are in hutches in a covered area. In Texas it does not get that cold in the winter usually although last year we had two weeks of 20° and snow.

They are in a roofed L-shaped area where two buildings meet. This gives them some protection from the strong and ever-present wind but still allows me to have a lot of ventilation when the weather is good. I have tarps on the other two sides. When it's not too cold and windy I raise the tarps all day. Conversely when it's cold and rainy I keep the tarps down all day.

Not sure if this was absolutely any help at all

Liz

Ah, ok. I meant rabbits that don't live inside a house and they live in hutches/cages outside

 

[Murphy]

Big difference i see, is chooks give me eggs every day. A rabbit only feeds us once. And i can eat the chook once too. So chooks give more bang for your buck, if you are free ranging. Which i am.

Chooks can free range, so you only need a small coup. (I have dogs on my animals guarding them 24/7 very well).

Rabbits are easier to process, and grow out a lot faster than my heritage breed chooks.

 

[Murphy]

So, its possible to raise chickens on forage alone? What about winter months? I'm in western PA, cold, snow, ice, with intermittent thaws.

It certainly is! I dont feed mine cept in winter. But they are heritage breeds, hatch their own chicks too no incubaters req

 

[KelleyBee]

It certainly is! I dont feed mine cept in winter. But they are heritage breeds, hatch their own chicks too no incubaters req

that sounds amazing. what do you feed in winter?

 

[Zee-Man]

I once raised chickens, a flock of 40 or so. I think they were slightly more time intensive than my rabbits. Had to delouse them on occasion, rodents in the feed, muck out the coop every so often and annually digging out of the yard. I harvested wild forage for them on occaision too.

My rabbits poo is automatically collected. Haven't had a need to deal with lice or fleas. No rodents in the feed. All in all, chickens took more time, but not so much that it matters.

ll that being said. My AHJ will only allow chickens if all adjacent neighbors give written permission. For me, neighboring on a set of row homes, that would be 20 families. At least 3 will simply not respond and I lay that 3 would deny (specially if they knew I would eat them). Rabbits are surreptitious, need no permit, and have no smell (at least when you keep their excretions separate).

Now, if I had a farmette (or larger) I can't see why I wouldn't have both! I've a good friend who raises chickens for eggs and for meat. The egg layers have a coop and a yard, the meat birds live in a tractor. The egg layers get weeding from the garden as well as feed, the meat birds get feed and whatever they glean from the ground as they move each day. To add meat rabbits might add to the chore list, but I think I would definitely do it. It seems to be the same time for grow out.

Slaughter would be another consideration. Rabbits are easy to pop. Chickens are not so hard to behead. Skinning is quick with a rabbit. Chickens do take some time to boil water and pluck. Gutting is easier with rabbits than birds. Partsing is about the same I think.

 

[Olbunny]

As I have both and have processed both here is some information.
Short answer Rabbit is way easier all around and much more healthier.

We started with chickens because I could free range which meant less cost in feed. Hindsight is 20/20. It has been Way more costly to raise chickens. I breed my own too. But building costs, bedding costs and predator losses really put up price of those cute little $3 chicks. Unless you are doing a meat breed x then you will have to breed up hatchery stock to get a good carcass. Chickens don't grow fast at all so that takes more time. Meat breeds do if you feed them all the time. But that meat because of feed is not very flavorful. If you do a meat x you must buy every year. If you breed your own you can hatch out all year. You have more control of number with hatching if you don't want to process 50 birds at one time. Downside you need more holding pens. Which will need repairs and or being moved if in tractors. Chicken are a on ground livestock and are noisy which attracts predators from places unknown. We have been hit over the years with fox, hawk, rat, snake and Bear and raccoon. Bear almost made me buy all new stock as he hit every other night for over a week. He thought to come back following Spring but ran into our dog. I heard everything and bear was smart and moved on away from people.

We now have rabbit specifically Silver Fox. I do still have small flock of chickens for eggs now also. But no more processing them. Not worth the work at all. It takes longer to process a chicken than a rabbit because of the feathers. No matter if you skin or not. Chickens cost less as a Chick but that's it. With rabbits their meat is Way more nutritious. Look that up you will be shocked do a search on meat nutrition comparisons. I found list that cover all the livestock animals from cows to rabbits. Nutrition wise rabbit topped the list as the most beneficial and nutritious.
There easier to keep. Less messy and take less space. Price of feed is same. Price of animal is not. Chicks are $3 each rabbit ranges from $25+. I bought my first trio at $65. Had to buy a replacement buck for same price as one with trio came out sterile. In my breed right now cost is up per animal for good stock. Good stock means a breeder that breed towards Standard of Perfection and might or might not show. But harvest based on SOP so most of litter goes in freezer. I process my own rabbits at 12 weeks. A litter is anywhere from 1 to 14 average is usually 8. You can rebreed right after birth or wait a couple of weeks. I usually rebreed 4 weeks after birth. Kits are with mom 6 weeks then moved to growout pen till 12 weeks.
Cost for setup right now is less than chickens. Price on wood and fencing is up. Buying cages is less costly if a trio but you will need to add more. As I said I started with 3 now have 7. One growout pen we built but will be replaced with cages. Wood and rabbits don't mix well. The chew it and there pee erodes it faster. Full wire galvanized after weld is best and last years. Rabbit math is a real thing. 2 does can produce 64 kits with 4 breedings each if all goes right. That is 8 kits each litter and all survive. Which just doesn't happen anymore than it does with chicken where you loose a few at hatch many times. But with rabbits you don't need special grow out feed. They nurse off doe until they start eating her feed too. So one less cost there. They stay with mom for 6 weeks till put into their growout cage. You can do a rabbit tractor with them too if you choose. A big plus their poop can be used immediately does not need to be composted. You can sell it to gardeners too by the bag if you so choose. There is no real noise with rabbits either. Clean up is easy since they poop pellet balls. You can use fur too if you tan it. Or you can do what I do and slice it roll it freeze it for or dogs. Makes great cold treats in summer. Meat wise is almost the same in weights. I 12 week old feeds 3 adults here for 2 meals plus some leftover for dogs. Dogs love raw rabbit or cooked rabbit. Can't say same with chicken for my 4. Versatility is same in cooking, anything you do with chicken can be done to rabbit. To me rabbit tastes better so I buy chicken from store now or only eat in restaurants. Hubby is not a chicken fan but loves rabbit. For weight loss it's the better meat once again. So rabbit is a major win win here and I wish I started sooner.

Good comments

 

[Murphy]

that sounds amazing. what do you feed in winter?

Greens, herbs, ACV, Protein: i have a bucket hanging, that if they tap the button, releases maggots. Plus frogs n mice they catch/eat. Fermented then sprouted grain, hay, flies in the cow poop. Hay, seeds off pasture etc etc. Fruit n veg scraps. Bowl of porrige to start the day.

 

[Ablebreeze]

I realize this thread has been dormant a while, but not too long. It came up in a search, I thought I'd chime in.

Where we live in Florida, free-ranging isn't really an option. There are too many parasites and predators. We've done rabbits, chickens, ducks, quail, geese, guinea hens, and peacocks, and some others.

Chickens are fun and basically the equivalent of backyard fish (throw food at them, collect eggs, make sure they have water, done. But we pretty much only eat the eggs and not the birds and it's more expensive than just buying eggs (of course there's a quality difference).

We'll eat the rabbits, and they grow and multiply so fast, they're worth it in our opinion.

We've found courtinix (jumbo) quail are better than chickens. They grow fast, like the rabbits. They're small but crazy producers. Chickens don't lay when it's too hot or too cold, but the quail don't mind the heat and lay pretty much year round. (1 chicken eqq=3 quail eggs. Quail mature 6 weeks after hatching)

 

[eco2pia]

quail do not lay year round in the north, unless you use lights, in my experience. also rats are a predation problem with quail and less with larger chickens in my experience. I did love having them though! I will try again when I have figured out the rat proofing to a fort knox level.

 

[Jujubear29]

I realize this thread has been dormant a while, but not too long. It came up in a search, I thought I'd chime in.

Where we live in Florida, free-ranging isn't really an option. There are too many parasites and predators. We've done rabbits, chickens, ducks, quail, geese, guinea hens, and peacocks, and some others.

Chickens are fun and basically the equivalent of backyard fish (throw food at them, collect eggs, make sure they have water, done. But we pretty much only eat the eggs and not the birds and it's more expensive than just buying eggs (of course there's a quality difference).

We'll eat the rabbits, and they grow and multiply so fast, they're worth it in our opinion.

We've found courtinix (jumbo) quail are better than chickens. They grow fast, like the rabbits. They're small but crazy producers. Chickens don't lay when it's too hot or too cold, but the quail don't mind the heat and lay pretty much year round. (1 chicken eqq=3 quail eggs. Quail mature 6 weeks after hatching)

I’m in central florida. Do you live nearby? Abs are you interested in selling rabbits? I want to start back up in the fall. I’m curious about the quail also.

 

[Cindy in SD]

We have long winters here, so feeding chickens can be pricey. I don't really like them free-ranging often, b/c despite the fact we have 12, woodsy and grassy fenced acres, they love to "forage" (and poop, of course ) on our deck— That's when they're not killing the grass near our house. I can easily feed my rabbits primarily weeds and pulled grass all summer, so they're free to keep for however long that lasts.

Also, chickens, esp heritage breeds, are more time-consuming to process, at least for me. I do like the eggs, so I'll continue to keep them, but if I had to choose one, so far the rabbits are ahead.

Just from the vids I've watched, processing rabbits is a lot quicker. I've done it with wild rabbits and squirrels, but that's been a while ago. Incidentally, I bought a "hopper popper", but not the branded one. They don't have them and didn't have them on their website when I looked months ago.

This one I got is a copy made by some guy in (I think) NH. Anyway, here's the link to their store in case it might help someone: RabbitatHomestead - Etsy

 

[dlynn]

I realize this thread has been dormant a while, but not too long. It came up in a search, I thought I'd chime in.

Where we live in Florida, free-ranging isn't really an option. There are too many parasites and predators. We've done rabbits, chickens, ducks, quail, geese, guinea hens, and peacocks, and some others.

Chickens are fun and basically the equivalent of backyard fish (throw food at them, collect eggs, make sure they have water, done. But we pretty much only eat the eggs and not the birds and it's more expensive than just buying eggs (of course there's a quality difference).

We'll eat the rabbits, and they grow and multiply so fast, they're worth it in our opinion.

We've found courtinix (jumbo) quail are better than chickens. They grow fast, like the rabbits. They're small but crazy producers. Chickens don't lay when it's too hot or too cold, but the quail don't mind the heat and lay pretty much year round. (1 chicken eqq=3 quail eggs. Quail mature 6 weeks after hatching)

Yes! We too love the combo of rabbits and quail. Mine were laying eggs at 7 weeks. We also harvest for meat. Fertilizer for the garden is another value. Rabbits are awesome, poo can be used fresh without composting. They eat my weeds and kitchen scraps
the bags of questionable manure I no longer buy covers much of the cost of pellets and hay. i love healthy rabbit meat, it can be used so many ways. They are entertaining. we spend happy hours watching them play in their yard. They even entertain each other. My aviary is in the rabbit yard. I often see the quail lined up at the window watching the rabbits. And rabbits sitting watching the birds. Quail poo is safer than chicken. More important to me, they tolerate cold, need little space, (just 1 square foot) in fact seem to like being close, are quiet, can be kept many places where chickens are prohibited. Deep litter compost and a 40 watt halogen light bulb was enough to get them thru a -20* winter in a small aviary. (3x8) had eggs everyday, hatched chicks all year( in incubator) that I rotated into flock harvesting some of the older birds for meat.

 

[hotzcatz]

This thread was started in January of 2021, so it's been awhile! Well, around here the rabbits lasted longer than the chickens. The free range chickens eventually all got picked off by the neighbor's dog. Those were good chickens, they laid eggs in an open hole of the rabbit hutch so we had eggs and didn't have to feed chickens. Then the neighbor's dog ran away when the neigbhor wasn't home for a couple months (he works in film production and is away when they're filming on a different island).

So, to replace the chickens, we got a few eggs from a friend and put them in the incubator. Hatched out three, two roosters and a hen. Sigh! Well, Red & Stripes were the roosters and Brownie is the hen. They'd just started crowing and no eggs yet when we left on a three month vacation. Apparently, while we were gone, Red got relocated by the neighbors (with our permission) since he crowed too near their window. Stripes had more of a gurgle than a crow so he was still with Brownie. Then some feral rooster chased off Stripes and hung out with Brownie so when she set, he was the father of the chicks. A hen will lay according to who her daddy is, so all the chicks are half feral and the hens will lay like a feral. Feral hens will lay a few eggs then set on them and don't lay as many or for as long as a domestic hen. They also roost in trees and lay eggs where we can't find them.

Brownie hatched out fourteen chicks while we were on vacation, she kept eleven of them and they're all still running around the neighborhood and the roos are about ready to crow. Guess I'll have to figure out how to catch them and make soup. Chicken soup is guaranteed to cure crowing. Probably catch the hens as well and give them to my friend who wants some hens. In the meantime, Brownie hatched out eleven more chicks two weeks ago. I caught four of them and stuck them in with the three Bresse chicks I'd bought about three weeks ago. Probably one of them will be a feral hen and I'll keep her so she can hatch out Bresse eggs since Bresse don't generally set. So there's seven chicks for our next flock.

The Bresse will start out living in a coop, once they're thoroughly used to the coop, I may let them out to free range, depends on how many of the feral chickens are still around. Don't want any Bresse hens fraternizing with feral roosters or worse yet, running off with them. I may buy an adult breeding pair of Bresse since the local person who hatches them out is going to go to college and quit with chickens for awhile. This is an island, so we get things when we get them and importing things special is expensive so we try to keep it local when possible. If I can get the Bresse laying eggs and hatch them out in an incubator, then chicks can be sold for about $8 to $10 each, so that will pay for chicken feed. She has been selling purebred Bresse hatching eggs for $40 a dozen, so maybe selling eggs as well?

As for the rabbits, they're still here and there's still a waiting list for baby bunnies. They also still produce fiber for Hula Bunny Yarn and yarn sales have been really exceptional for the past few months. We usually use 'bunny money' to pay for our vacations and the last vacation was a three month cruise through the South Pacific. The sales of baby bunnies pays for the feed and upkeep of the bunny herd, it's the English angora bunny fluff made into yarn that makes the income. I've got a place I can sell yarn as well as knit items directly to tourists at an only 15% commission, so that lets the vacation money rack up. A lot of galleries and such have up to a 60% commission, so 15% is really great.

We eat the occasional buck, but most of them get sold instead of eaten.

 

[alzeal]

Nice, thread. Anyway I have Chickens, Quails, and rabbits. Nothing too big, just a little backyard operation on the side of the house. 6 hens, 20 quails, and 4 breeder rabbits. Perfect number IMHO for our family of 4. All of my water systems are automatic, daily chores usually take a few minutes in the morning to feed the quails and rabbits. Chickens have a big container I fill once every couple of weeks. I clean all the poop from everybody once a week, which takes me only 10mins at most.

For our chickens we mainly use them for daily eggs and eating our kitchen scraps. They are pretty much self sufficient, I only need to clean their coop every so often and collect the eggs. I clean up their run every few months but not a big deal.

Quails we use the eggs for cooking, we're filipino and we love quail eggs. We have a lot of dishes that use quail eggs. Quail are easy to reproduce and grow fast. They are also a lot more quiet then the chickens, and we can have roos. Only downfall is they poop alot. I live in suburbia and unfortunately I don't have the space to compost. They also can eat a lot of feeds, a group of 100+ birds can kill a feed bag in no time. I recently cut back my breeders so its not soo bad anymore.

Lastly are our rabbits. In my opinion compared to the others, I find them cheaper to feed and rearing the young is a breeze, we're lucky we have good mommy bunnies. One bale of grass lasts my bunnies are really long time. As for pellets we ration them and a 50lb bag lasts a real long time as well. Also their manure is a plus as we dump it directly on our plants and garden. Also they love headscratches in the morning so that's a plus.

So among the 3 each has their pros and cons, for strictly meat I'd have to say rabbits, being they're super quiet, reproduce like crazy and don't need incubation/heat/electricity, at least for me are cheaper to feed, and manure can be used right away.

 

[eco2pia]

View attachment 35454

I really like this idea for a quail set up. I have been incredibly unhappy with my last attempt, and I need something that will keep them very safe! this box inside a box design is fantastic!!

 

[alzeal]

I really like this idea for a quail set up. I have been incredibly unhappy with my last attempt, and I need something that will keep them very safe! this box inside a box design is fantastic!!

Yes I love it, never had an issue with predators. Of course this was made specifically with hatching time cages in mind. I'm able to have my brooders, growouts, and layer cages in the same cabinet. I also hooked a wifi LED strip with built in timer.