We've only done one goat, and it was slaughtered way earlier than intended due to an accidental death - so I can't
answer on that one...
For rabbits, ducks, and chickens, we tend to let them reach what appears to be their full grown size (or as close as it appears they'll get, since it varies with the rabbits) and then we slaughter. We haven't done this as a hard and fast rule, since we are just 2 people slaughtering, and sometimes it's hard to kill too many bunnies or any animal at once, but as the guy at the animal auction says, "They don't eat any feed in the freezer." So that seems to always be a good general rule.
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
-Henry David Thoreau
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