Think i'm throwing in the towel....

[bowbuild]

I get around 16-20 a rabbit sounds good don't it?? I have done the math and have come to the conclusion it is not worth it even at that price after feed costs. I work darn hard with my herd, but feed prices just kill the small farmer! Feed goes for $14-18 a 50lbs bag, I figure it would have to be half that price to be worth it.


Bowbuild

 

[skysthelimit]

From all of my calculations, this definitely does not save me any money. I'm spending $110 a month easily plus hay and travel to get food for rabbits, which will never even impact my own dog feed bill, especially when chicken is $.33/lb with tripe at $9 for who knows how many # for a full grown cow. And the price per lb I would need to make any profit is well beyond what a raw feeder would pay.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

From all of my calculations, this definitely does not save me any money. I'm spending $110 a month easily plus hay and travel to get food for rabbits, which will never even impact my own dog feed bill, especially when chicken is $.33/lb with tripe at $9 for who knows how many # for a full grown cow. And the price per lb I would need to make any profit is well beyond what a raw feeder would pay.

Where are you getting chicken for only 33 cents a pound? It is 80 cents for a "bag of leg quarters" and 90 cents for a roaster. More if you want "organic". Hay ranges from $5-$8 a 2x2x3 bale here. And my pellet prices are about the same as stated (7.33 for 25 pounds) but no way I go through that much food in a month. Am I underfeeding my rabbits (they seem healthy enough), or is it because over half my rabbits are under 6 months? I have 7 full grown rabbits and 13 under 6 months (12 are 6-8 weeks). The grown ones and the 5 month old get a half cup of pellets each day, the weanlings get about a cup per day per growout pen, soooo a 1/3 cup each. They also each get a handful of hay every other day, and some other "treat" the off days. Definitely not making a profit, but as business start-ups go, rabbits are cheap, and as pets, they are also cheap. Next year I will be growing more of their food, so the costs shold come down.

 

[skysthelimit]

Chicken comes from a place called Gerbers, in Kidron, Ohio, Amish country.

I have about 40 rabbits, 34 are 6 mos or older. I go through 6 bags of food a month, at around $19 a bag. I have two fur breeds and one wool breed (tiny woolys though. Gotta feed that Rex fur. One rabbit eats 6oz (slightly lower for bucks and dry does, but not by much) of food per day, but I free feed juniors, so as soon as I get hose coveted litters the feed bill will jump. I don't think there feed conversion is that great, the SF live off of nothing. Only place for me to get hay is TSC at $10 a bale. Growing anything between October and April is near impossible this close to Lake Erie.

 

[trinityoaks]

I guess it depends on why you're raising rabbits. We raise them first for our own food and self-sufficiency. If we break even, I'm a happy camper.

It sounds, though, as though you're trying to make a profit from rabbits. I think you would have to have a pretty big operation to make very much money off of rabbits.

 

[Miss M]

We grow rabbits for our own freezer, and with pellets at $16/50lbs, and hay at $15/75lbs, I calculated a while back that we spend $1.25/lb of bone-in rabbit meat.

This is cheaper than all other kinds of meat around here, except for the occasional super-excellent sale, and except for the big bags of leg and thigh quarters.

I am working on cutting the cost of the meat further, by experimenting with feeding 14% protein quarter horse feed, and supplementing with alfalfa pellets to bring the protein up. I can get this feed for about $10/50lbs.

I am also about to seed my yard with livestock forage, so I will be producing some of my own hay. It won't be long hay, but they used to eat dried St. Augustine after the yard got mowed. This will be more nutritious than St. Augustine grass.

There are some commercial rabbitries on here of varying sizes... maybe you can find out who they are and pick their brains.

 

[Demamma]

I figure that my rabbit venture has paid off as a family joint venture. I have a 16 year old son who will go out and just talk to me and watch rabbits together. I can't put a price on that. I got tired of all the meat that did not taste right anymore. I figure rabbit will be healthier and cheaper than what the cost of meat is. I threw away half a ham the kids and i did not like. I do not look to making money off the rabbits but if I can get a little on the side to help with the feed that is a bonus. anything that does not sell will go to our meals.

 

[Bad Habit]

I make money. Not hand over fist, but I've made enough selling babies to keep the rabbits going, the dog fed, and the cell phone bill *mostly* paid. That's really all I ever wanted, anyway.

 

[3mina]

I am in no way anywhere close to breaking even yet let alone making money. Good thing I am doing this for meat for me and my dogs before anything else

 

[ottersatin]

I cannot even remember how many times I have decided to,
"toss in the towel"! I suppose that I would have a whole lot of time
to spend just messing around, and I wouldn't have to worry about
the cold and SNOW nor freezing wind and RAIN!
Come to think of it, What was I thinking when I got involved with this
"Rabbit thing"! The trouble is that Rabbits have a lot in common
with Potato Chips! You can't just have ONE! And once you get involved,
you can not get the taste for it to go away. Potato Chips and Rabbits
are too habit forming. One of these days, or is it years?
I will finally shake this "Rabbit Habit" and be free of it at last!
If any one of you can come up with a plan to wipe Rabbits completely
out of a "Rabbit Breeders system, please post the documentation
and the steps one must take to obtain complete eradification!
Ottersatin. :twilightzone:

 

[3mina]

I cannot even remember how many times I have decided to,
"toss in the towel"! I suppose that I would have a whole lot of time
to spend just messing around, and I wouldn't have to worry about
the cold and SNOW nor freezing wind and RAIN!
Come to think of it, What was I thinking when I got involved with this
"Rabbit thing"! The trouble is that Rabbits have a lot in common
with Potato Chips! You can't just have ONE! And once you get involved,
you can not get the taste for it to go away. Potato Chips and Rabbits
are too habit forming. One of these days, or is it years?
I will finally shake this "Rabbit Habit" and be free of it at last!
If any one of you can come up with a plan to wipe Rabbits completely
out of a "Rabbit Breeders system, please post the documentation
and the steps one must take to obtain complete eradification!
Ottersatin. :twilightzone:

Umm... Complete personality transplant? :shock:

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

I get around 16-20 a rabbit sounds good don't it?? I have done the math and have come to the conclusion it is not worth it even at that price after feed costs. I work darn hard with my herd, but feed prices just kill the small farmer! Feed goes for $14-18 a 50lbs bag, I figure it would have to be half that price to be worth it.


Bowbuild

Sounds like you are in it for the money... You can make money at it if you are big enough and dont buy your food in bags..I use to be a commercial rabbitry. I didnt like the stress of it. So i went a different route. I did make money at it. But in order to do so,It has to be your full time job.

I like my rabbits .. It isnt about the cost of feed. It is about the whole thing. You have to like what you are doing and enjoy haveing the rabbits to keep them around. I feed my dogs rabbit and i do sell the odd one. I kept there pelts. And not to mention the manure for the garden. That alone people have rabbits just for that reason alone. IF it starts to cost to much in food for you to handle. The best thing to do is downsize. Mine gets away on me and i have to look really hard and say i really dont need this many so i start putting notes on cages when i process next time who goes. Not only that. You know what it is eating if you are eating the meat that you raised .

 

[skysthelimit]

Definitely no money in this. It boils down to another expensive hobby, but less expensive than dog shows Price is more like $3.99/lb, which is still comparable to store bought rabbit.

Mary Ann is right. Anytime it's too much I start culling rabbits.

 

[SatinsRule]

I get around 16-20 a rabbit sounds good don't it?? I have done the math and have come to the conclusion it is not worth it even at that price after feed costs. I work darn hard with my herd, but feed prices just kill the small farmer! Feed goes for $14-18 a 50lbs bag, I figure it would have to be half that price to be worth it.
Bowbuild

You are also raising a food source which is better than most of the "organic" stuff you'd find in a market, too. You're not consuming meat which has been given growth hormones.

Also, small farmers suffer from it no leas than large ones do. With their size and raw numbers. they also have a great deal of costs included to run such an operation, and the only reason they got where they are today is because they didn't give up.

You're capable of making your own decisions better than anyone else, and who am I to tell you any different, but at the end of the day, look at different avenues. Take more expensive feeds for example. On the surface, it would be easy for any of us to sit here and say it would drive up costs, but only by assuming their consumption rates are the same or greater.

 

[Bad Habit]

Oh, I didn't realize this is in the meat rabbit section. I feel I should clarify. I only have 3 or 4 "full time rabbits" at any point, the rest are babies, and I sell them as pets, for 30$ each. As long as I sell 1 rabbit a month, I break even - this last month I was at an all time high(4 adults and 20 babies), and went through a 25kg bag of food in a month, plus half a bale of hay, and a bag of stove pellets - 29$.

Sorry if my post was misleading!!

 

[Dood]

You do need to look at the whole picture.

If I sell one bunny a month for $20 that covers my feed costs and that is all I ask.

I have a well so water is free, I already had a barn so housing was free but the renovation cost $135 for wire, wood and nails. My papered American Chinchillas were $90 for the 4 of them and the lops were free. My cages were free and I sold some for $130 so I am only behind by $ $95. I have horses and buy woodchips by the truck load so bedding costs are negligible and found hay for $4 / 40lb bale. I did all my own construction and repair and built my own nest boxes from scrap wood. I feed my dog raw and the bunnies pay for themselves in this regard alone since I won't support factory farming and will not buy the cheap meat from spent laying hens or old dairy cows. I don't factor in my time as I consider this a hobby and the joy of watching my little herd of bunnies come and greet me IS priceless and worth every penny.

 

[a7736100]

I figure it costs me about $10 to produce an 8 week kit. Problem is I get attached and cannot butcher them at 8 weeks so I now have a bunch of old rabbits. At least I've gotten over the breeding kick and can sell some kits to the pet shop for more than cost. I've also found it cheaper to give away kits than to just continue feeding them for years till old age. It takes me $40/week in feed and gas to keep my herd of over 50 of various breeds. Much of the gas cost is from dumpster diving for greens at MOM's (local area organic grocer.)

I think if I only had one breed of REW's I would have less problem with attachment. I cannot make myself give away the older rabbits but can fairly easily give away newly weaned kits.

 

[skysthelimit]

I feed my dog raw and the bunnies pay for themselves in this regard alone since I won't support factory farming and will not buy the cheap meat from spent laying hens or old dairy cows.

??

I'm hardly feeding old hens or meat from old dairy cows. I've butchered older hens and I know the difference. The chicken is fresh from Amish county, bought by 1000lbs bulk, from commercial meat raisers/the amish, and you can't really get much fresher than that unless you raise it yourself. I doubt the Amish are injecting their chickens with growth hormones either. The tripe is from people who are raising cows for themselves or beef cattle, and after they are processed, we get whatever is left. With a store markup the .33 would probably be more like $.59. There is a market for that here, whereas there is not a market for rabbit. You really have to know your market when you decide you are going to sell anything, for food, pet or show. If you had a big enough market, you probably could make this work despite rising cost. I know where I am at, raising rabbits for profit meat or pets is a waste of time. Raising my own food period cannot compare with the lower cost of driving half a mile to the farmers market to get fresh food. I have never saved any money gardening either.

Sometimes you just have to realize that your hobbies are just hobbies, and they are not necessarily profitable ventures.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

Sometimes you just have to realize that your hobbies are just hobbies, and they are not necessarily profitable ventures.

AMEN SKY.

When it is time to process the males i am doing the chinchilla as well. I am just going with the one breed. So i dont have to keep as many. The champagnes does the meat and beautiful thick fur better than the chins. So i thinking of putting them in the freezer with the next butchering comes around which is next month.

 

[bowbuild]

I was not in it for the money at first, but rather in it because I can't eat poultry. I thought to myself...if you are raising X amount of rabbits, why not increase and sekll a few commercially?? I run 2 businesses besides raising rabbits, and my time is limited. I don't mind working hard, on the other hand I like what I consider to be fair compensation. It really comes down to feeling like I am putting more work out on the animals, and working to keep the feed company in business than keeping myself in business. All this is above board with taxes, and the paper work that goes with that. If prices were $9 a bag I would continue, but not at these prices. I will continue to raise for myself, and get back to my REW American chin line which I have worrked on for over 4 yrs.

Marry ann, how much of a break do commercial rabbitries get buying in bulk on average?

Bowbuild

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