Happy New Year from Virginia!

[ihatedarkroast]

Hallo. My husband and I have 6.5 acres out in the southern part of the state in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We have chickens, sometimes turkeys. I just added ducks. I'm not 100% sold on having rabbits, but my husband wants a small scale meat rabbit operation to keep our freezer stocked. We experimented keeping one chinchilla buck rabbit last year that someone gave away for free on Craigslist. But didn't have a really great setup. This time around, I would like to install more of a permanent rabbitry. So I'm here to learn. I've kinda been lurking a little bit here and there on the forums, but figured I should eventually come out and wave at folks.

 

[Nibbles]

That's a good size of property you got there. Glad that you have decided to raise meat rabbits.

This site is a tremendous resource. You'll learn a lot on here.

Welcome, and enjoy!

 

[kusanar314]

Welcome! I'm also in Virginia and also in the "research and learn" phase, I'm hoping to get rabbits in the next few years.

 

[ihatedarkroast]

Thank you guys!
Yes. I want to convert from a residence to a farm for tax purposes...and so we can use the income to help with upkeep of the land. I thought about a couple steer.but thats a much bigger investment. I had goats before and it was a lot of work trying to keep them healthy and inside the fence. Haha.
So small animals just seem a lot easier. Also planting ginseng in the woods and muscadine grapes in the field.

Hey, what part of Virginia? I'm in Henry County.

 

[kusanar314]

Thank you guys!
Yes. I want to convert from a residence to a farm for tax purposes...and so we can use the income to help with upkeep of the land. I thought about a couple steer.but thats a much bigger investment. I had goats before and it was a lot of work trying to keep them healthy and inside the fence. Haha.
So small animals just seem a lot easier. Also planting ginseng in the woods and muscadine grapes in the field.

Hey, what part of Virginia? I'm in Henry County.

I'm from the Roanoke area, my farm is in Bedford, but I am currently living near Lynchburg.

My ex husband works in Henry County so I'm familiar with the area to some degree.

 

[ihatedarkroast]

I'm from the Roanoke area, my farm is in Bedford, but I am currently living near Lynchburg.

My ex husband works in Henry County so I'm familiar with the area to some degree.

Oh yeah, Roanoke is only about an hour away. Bedford and Lynchburg are both very nice areas! We're practically neighbors.

 

[user 8990]

Welcome! Virginia is beautiful! Your property sounds idyllic and there’s so much potential... Meat rabbits are the way to go. So much less wear on the land.

 

[kusanar314]

Oh yeah, Roanoke is only about an hour away. Bedford and Lynchburg are both very nice areas! We're practically neighbors.

Yep. I currently have horses at my farm, once I get the cash together to put a house out there I'll be looking into a few Jacob sheep, meat rabbits and angoras, and a dairy cow.

 

[Secuono]

Welcome, from NOVA!

 

[ihatedarkroast]

Yep. I currently have horses at my farm, once I get the cash together to put a house out there I'll be looking into a few Jacob sheep, meat rabbits and angoras, and a dairy cow.

That sounds like a full time job. Let me know how it goes with the jacob sheep. They're so cute! I want the horns but nothing to do with the wool. XD

 

[kusanar314]

That sounds like a full time job. Let me know how it goes with the jacob sheep. They're so cute! I want the horns but nothing to do with the wool. XD

I spin wool into yarn, so a handful of sheep would keep me nicely busy.

Edit: if you just like spotty sheep with big horns (not more than 2 though) check out Painted Desert Sheep. They get some impressive horns and are hair sheep so they shed out in the spring like a goat.

 

[Secuono]

Wait, someone said sheep??

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Wait, someone said sheep??
View attachment 33550

Very pretty

 

[ihatedarkroast]

Wait, someone said sheep??
View attachment 33550

Omg looovee

 

[ihatedarkroast]

I spin wool into yarn, so a handful of sheep would keep me nicely busy.

Edit: if you just like spotty sheep with big horns (not more than 2 though) check out Painted Desert Sheep. They get some impressive horns and are hair sheep so they shed out in the spring like a goat.

Yeah they are gorgeous! Maybe some day

 

[Scooter1A]

Hallo. My husband and I have 6.5 acres out in the southern part of the state in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We have chickens, sometimes turkeys. I just added ducks. I'm not 100% sold on having rabbits, but my husband wants a3 small scale meat rabbit operation to keep our freezer stocked. We experimented keeping one chinchilla buck rabbit last year that someone gave away for free on Craigslist. But didn't have a really great setup. This time around, I would like to install more of a permanent rabbitry. So I'm here to learn. I've kinda been lurking a little bit here and there on the forums, but figured I should eventually come out and wave at folks.

Hello and welcome. I like raised hutches. wire floors, all pine wood. I used 4x4 posts, 2x4x8 boards, OSB board roof with shingles, 30" wide cage wire for their floors. It cost but it will be there forever. I just started in April and cooked my first rabbit today. Awesome, goodbye chicken meat. Have fun, I love my bunnies.

 

[ihatedarkroast]

Hello and welcome. I like raised hutches. wire floors, all pine wood. I used 4x4 posts, 2x4x8 boards, OSB board roof with shingles, 30" wide cage wire for their floors. It cost but it will be there forever. I just started in April and cooked my first rabbit today. Awesome, goodbye chicken meat. Have fun, I love my bunnies.

Sounds like a really good setup. Really sturdy. I got some hardware cloth and also rabbit wire to put on the floors of tractors but only one has been wired on the bottom so far.

Right now I have a rabbit tractor, an xl dog kennel, and a M dog kennel. I also have a chicken coop that I could convert and fence in. The medium kennel I use more for transporting or isolating animals or raising chicks or whatever. The XL kennel is 48" I have a divider I can put in it or just use it for one doe. But as I just have the one junior buck right now, he's in the medium kennel in the house where the kids can take him out and play with him a lot.

The rabbit tractor I have is this one. More cute than practical. But it was so adorable I had to have it as soon as I saw it!

Coop is this one. It's 60" x 32". I weatherproofed it, reinforced the roof and put on a wire bottom already. But It needs new roof hinges on the nesting box as the existing ones are too small and keep popping out. I guess if I use it for rabbits instead of a chicken brooder I will have to line the interior walls with wire as well, won't I.

 

[MeadeFamilyFarm]

Nice to meet you! we're not too far south of you. I am thinking of letting my chickens go and just keeping my ducks. I developed an adult egg allergy and since they're different species most people with a chicken egg allergy can still eat duck eggs it turns out. I raise meat rabbits too. We have a few different commercial breeds including silver fox and rex

 

[ladysown]

Before you add your rabbits, make sure you build an area that secure against all sorts of predators... big and small. with the variety of poultry you have... feed spilled will attract rats. Rats and rabbits do not do well together.

 

[ihatedarkroast]

Nice to meet you! we're not too far south of you. I am thinking of letting my chickens go and just keeping my ducks. I developed an adult egg allergy and since they're different species most people with a chicken egg allergy can still eat duck eggs it turns out. I raise meat rabbits too. We have a few different commercial breeds including silver fox and rex

Hello! What part of Carolina are you in? I like these ducks a lot. We got our first eggs today. They were delicious. :3

@ladysown Unfortunately, we have wolf rats in our tractor shed and wood pile that we have been waging war against since we moved here. We have tried poison and all sorts of traps, with only the have a heart live type trap actually working. But it's not enough. They dug a new tunnel into the chicken coop today during the rain. I keep plugging the holes. But I think we are going to have to muck out the entire coop + run and cover the entire bottom with wire. We had buried wire a foot around the perimeter, but the rodents pulled it up and bent it out of the way. I think next month my husband is getting a pellet gun for his birthday, since our other firearms are a bit overpowered for rat dispatching. XD I really hate those varmints. They are mean and will scream at me and lunge across my feet sometimes when I open the coop door.