Might Be Getting The Hang Of This Meat Rabbit Thing

[Bad Habit]

Have my first 4 completely home grown rabbits growing. DOB Feb 5th, so 11wks old yesterday and averaging about 3.9lbs. Not great weights, but they're growing in leaps and bounds right now - they had a hard start, because I was breeding in the winter, and they were outside.

Thinking I'll be able to butcher them in 2 or so weeks, if they keep growing how they're growing - there was a 2 week period where they didn't really grow much at all, shortly after I split them up into smaller groups.

I have a litter in the nest, it's 2 weeks old now. These babies are MASSIVE. Giant chunks. Doe's being a great momma, doing really well.

Holding off on breeding too much more, I have one NZW doe who is due here soon, but the other 2 does are open, and I like that breathing room. I have to pull all the cages out of the shed, though, so I can insulate and rehang them - I will be able to get at least 4 more cages in there, giving me a bit more room for grow outs.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

That's great, Bad Habit!

Grumpy mentioned in a thread somewhere that he prefers butchering at about 4 to 4-1/2lbs., I think. He says the meat is more tender than the 5 pounders... so maybe you don't have to wait as long as you thought!

 

[JulieCunicole]

Yay!

I have three litters that are all about 8 weeks old now - 26 to butcher! Oof! There are actually 27, but we're "babysitting" the parents and we'll keep a baby for breeding once the big 'uns go home.

Good thing we have a chest freezer...

 

[Zass]

I feel my buns grow faster if they are separated by gender. No way to prove it. But the current batch is between 4.8 and 5.8 lbs at 9 weeks. Ready for a butchering demo this weekend Now..once you get the hang of that, it can be one more way to help them pay for themselves. LOTS of people just getting into meat buns right now and and willing to pay to see it all done.

 

[grumpy]

That's great, Bad Habit!

Grumpy mentioned in a thread somewhere that he prefers butchering at about 4 to 4-1/2lbs., I think. He says the meat is more tender than the 5 pounders... so maybe you don't have to wait as long as you thought!

Amen to that: LOL.

Zass have you watched the processing video. Most folks feel it's a big help.
If you're butchering for your own family, there's no hard and fast rule that
says the fryers have to be 5+ pounds.

As MSD stated, I've said all along that a younger, lighter weight youngster
is much more tender. A 4#4oz fryer will dress out a little over two pounds.
Which is a full meal for two folks.

Good luck, have fun.

grumpy.

 

[Zass]

Zass have you watched the processing video. Most folks feel it's a big help.
If you're butchering for your own family, there's no hard and fast rule that
says the fryers have to be 5+ pounds.

I've seen your video. Grumpy, it's a nice one.
And I do agree with you about fryers not needing to be 5+ lbs too.
A nice bodied smaller rabbit can make an excellent meal.

What I was trying to say was that I was going to be the one that is going to be giving the demo for someone else...and was offered a good sum of money for it too!

 

[DogCatMom]

I feel my buns grow faster if they are separated by gender. No way to prove it. But the current batch is between 4.8 and 5.8 lbs at 9 weeks. Ready for a butchering demo this weekend Now..once you get the hang of that, it can be one more way to help them pay for themselves. LOTS of people just getting into meat buns right now and and willing to pay to see it all done.

As to proof: maybe keep a list of total weight at different ages (maybe every 2 weeks?) of boys vs. girls, separated vs. not separated?

As to possible reasons: maybe the lack of hormonal tension btw the girls and the boys? If single-sex classrooms help middle-school kids, maybe such separation helps young rabbits, too? I know I'm extrapolating from one species to another without very much data, but the separation may help the young rabbits "focus" (even more...) on food!

 

[Bad Habit]

These kits I didn't really keep a record on, because I had sold the momma to make room for the massive NZW does I picked up ($10 each and just gone 6mths!!). I think that might be part of my reason they had periods of low growth, because I wasn't weighing them regularly - some of the numbers that are just 2 or 3 points different might be that I weighed them late one week then on time the next, who knows.

I am going to have better weight records on Stella's litter, because I hope to keep back the biggest doe to grow out, to replace Oreo. Stella and Oreo are just mixed breed mutts, presumably sisters. Oreo had to be put down due to massive abscesses, so my shed is on lock down right now, but no one else has any lumpy-bumps or sneezing or symptoms of any sort. It's been a week at least at this point.

My brother just offered to help, and I have people coming out of the woodwork wanting to buy rabbit meat. The problem comes when I can't legally sell the rabbits because I've processed them myself. To get around this, because they are people I know and generally trust, I am selling them the live rabbit, then processing it for them. I'm not making a whole ton of money doing it - I'm asking $15, which is just under a bag of feed - but every penny into the Rabbitry bucket helps!!

I don't need the cage space just yet - these guys have 2 weeks left today until I'll need their cages to start weaning Stella's babies.

When I do do them... oh joy, oh bliss, I get to have my brother help me. Not entirely sure how that one's going to go. I'm assuming it will go as well as when I was working on my mom's laptop - she had no idea how to do what needed doing, but she was SURE I was doing it wrong.