What to do with the carcasses?

[MacNobody]

My wife is concerned about the number of carcasses we will have to dispose of after butchering our first litter. I never thought about it until she brought it up. We live in the city, so the last thing we want is to have a news crew on our doorstep :lol:

My thought was to till some of it into our garden beds and put the rest into a trash bag tied up and in our normal trash. I want to try my hand at tanning the hides both as a source of income and to make further use of the rabbit's sacrifice.

What do you do with the non-edible parts?

 

[Wheels]

dig a hole and bury it on the back side of our property - mostly the heads as we use a .22 for dispatch and the dogs get the rest.

Some people wrap it all up in plastic sacks and then freeze it until garbage day

 

[Frecs]

Heads and feet are buried because Mother does not want to see them while the dogs work on them (dogs like to let such things "age" for best flavor or so I'm told by the doggies). I try to let the chickens have the entrails but they are slackers so again, for Mother's sake, they mostly get buried (in the garden for good fertilizer. Catch the blood, dilute with water, and spray that on the garden as well.)

The actual carcass is either pressure cooked or slow cooked for the making of broth. Cook until the bones literally turn to mush in your hands. Then, we take the bones and bits of meat and blend that with a bit of broth and that gets fed to the dogs, cat, and chickens. The broth is pressure canned for later use.

 

[Zass]

I try to let the chickens have the entrails but they are slackers so again, for Mother's sake, they mostly get buried (in the garden for good fertilizer. Catch the blood, dilute with water, and spray that on the garden as well.)

The actual carcass is either pressure cooked or slow cooked for the making of broth. Cook until the bones literally turn to mush in your hands. Then, we take the bones and bits of meat and blend that with a bit of broth and that gets fed to the dogs, cat, and chickens. The broth is pressure canned for later use.

:yeahthat:

I have big dogs, who make heads and feet vanish quick, other than that, I do exactly the same.

 

[DarayTala]

We keep the meat, liver, heart, and kidneys for us. The ears are dried for the dogs. Feet, tail, lungs, and any little scraps of fat go to the dogs immediately. Sometimes they or the chickens are interested in eating the intestines as well, when they aren't those get buried. I would suggest burying the intestines and packaging the more edible bits you don't want, like feet, head, etc, and selling it to raw feeders if you don't have dogs.

 

[Secuono]

I give them to the dogs, some will age a whole carcass, but if given in sections, they gobble it up.
Can make stock out of them and then simply bag and toss into the trash.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

When I butcher, I have a circle of six dogs and who knows how many cats seated politely watching me. Well, not so much the cats, but a squirt with the hose keeps them off of my work table at least. :roll:

I hand the feet and heads to individual dogs, and they have a communal gut bowl as well. The cats usually get some of the organs as well. Like Frecs, I partially fill a bucket with water and bleed the rabbits out into that and then water the garden with it. If you don't add water first, the blood will start to congeal before you are finished.

In your situation, I think I would dig a trench in the garden and bury the offal. There really wont be that much if you are butchering fryers.

 

[Miss M]

We don't have a dog, so feet, heads, and skins that are not kept for tanning go into a trash bag and get frozen for trash day.

We save the livers, hearts, and kidneys for us.

Other innards go into a trash bag and get frozen for trash day.

Bones, raw or roasted, get frozen to make broth. After making broth, they are discarded in the kitchen trash. If the rabbit is cooked in a broth or gravy, the bones are already spent, and not saved for broth.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Start a compost pile with some of your rabbit manure and bury the parts you don't use in the compost pile.

 

[caroline]

We don't have ANY leftovers. Our dogs eat EVERY part of the rabbit [or duck, or beef, or lamb, or goat, or fish

 

[Doug51]

I second the composting, the heart liver and kidneys go to my dog the hides I don't keep along with the heads and feet go to the compost pile

 

[Ramjet]

I second the composting, the heart liver and kidneys go to my dog the hides I don't keep along with the heads and feet go to the compost pile

I do this with fish as well .... makes for some very rich soil.


Im in the city as well and don't have a whole lot of space , most of my (conventional) garden is in very large containers that range cubes (cattle feed) come in , I get them from my grandfather , they are about 40 gallons or so. Make for great patio plant containers.
I usually have a container or two not in use and just stuff the waste from fish or rabbits Ive cleaned / butchered in those pots along with other organic matter (lawn clippings & the like) , cover them up and let them decompose.

There is no smell as long as you cover the organic material with plenty of dirt and don't disturb it before its decomposed. If you disturb it before its decomposed ... its gonna smell rank!!!

Makes for some very hardy and productive plants during growing the growing season.

 

[skysthelimit]

Got a neighbor/friend with dogs?

 

[Morning Star]

I'm a taxidermist and bone cleaner on top of a rabbit-raiser so, after culling, hides get turned into taxidermy-quality pelts, meat gets used for human/animal ( dogs, ferrets, snakes if it's DOA pinkies ) consumption, skulls get cleaned, and whatever's left over in terms of bones gets cleaned in a maceration tank ( bone cleaning method ) same as the skulls and the sludge that results from the bone cleaning gets recycled back into the garden to fertilize more greens for more bunnies. Not a thing gets wasted! Plus, I sell the hides, skulls, bones and whatever meat ( sold for animals not for people since the certification is a pain in the butt lol ) the household can't eat or keep frozen for a little extra money on the side.

Basically, I really really don't like waste LOL :lol:

 

[Ramjet]

I sell the hides, skulls, bones

What use do people buy the skull / bones for ?!

 

[Morning Star]

I sell the hides, skulls, bones

What use do people buy the skull / bones for ?!

Some people like to collect skulls, other people like using the bones for gothic or spiritual jewelry. Some people just like collecting them too!

Also, another good thing to do with the carcasses is compost like others have said. Burying them also works and results in MEGA rich dirt and bunches of worms.