Rabbits as side Income?

Hello, I am opperating a small organic farm which only has one real market outlet that has been flooded by other farms the past year.  So we are trying to venture out into other fields for our own interest and economical value. 

I am curious if anyone has any information about growing rabbits for food purposes.  I have a good half acre of gated off open woodlands that i would like to throw some flemish giants into, it would be a great place tow alk through knowing i'll be greeted by my happy teddybear dinners.

I've read that flemish giants have issues with breeding due to their size, and does/bucks can get rashes/sores due to how big they are and dragging.
Maybe I should go for austrialians? I don't really enjoy the sight of a white blackeyed bunny, but I guess aesthetics should be 2nd place.

Any ideas as to the size of a fence I need to keep them in to prevent weazles, and coyotes from entering?  It's link fenced inside of a electric deer fence, so double duty, but I do find lots of coyote tracks in our fields still.

I also have already planted lespedeza for the quails and alfalfa for future small animal feed, so they are set with protein sources, but are there arnt recommended plants for good diversely healthy rabbits?

I've also through about getting two types of rabbits to create hybrid meats.

I hear that you can't breed certain types togehter though, like a chinchilla doe won't be able to support flemish giant litters.  Makes sense, so does anyone know a good dual selection?

I have only raised rabbits in hutchs in the past. I have read Joel Salitan's experience of raising them in slat bottom pens that he moves across pasture. I do know that rabbits have a tendency to dig their way out of pens or dig into gardens under fences.
kent

oooh slat bottom pens is what i like to hear, i keep my chickens in skid shacks with skid lay boxes seperate. it would be nice to put rabbits on skids so i don't have to clean their pen as much.

How do some breeds do in winter? i live in Zone 8b so it get -9 f last year. can they handle that in a well vented home with enough bedding?

I heard it's only about a bale of hay per rabbit to last through the winter. that's NOTHING i grow 10x that as an alfalfa hobby.

I have only read about it and do not have personal experience. I have really liked reading joel Salitans books and articals. You may want to look at his farms web site: http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ ; and he has some good articals at acres magazine's online archives. You may recognize him from the movie Fresh, freshthemovie.com
kent

Ruso wrote:a chinchilla doe won't be able to support flemish giant litters

Chincillas are a new-world species, not really related to rabbits that closely.

Ruso wrote:How do some breeds do in winter? i live in Zone 8b so it get -9 f last year. can they handle that in a well vented home with enough bedding?

Someone elsewhere on this forum mentioned giving rabbits a straw bale or two to burrow into. It's a very well-insulated and reasonably well-ventilated burrow, lets them fulfill that instinct, and can just be composted in the Spring. That poster reported that rabbits don't bother to burrow in the ground, if they have a straw bale.

Really the key is having an outlet market for the products (meat, live rabbits, fur, fertilizer, anything else?).  Rabbits can be very cheap to raise if you grow their food on site and breed your own.

Are there restaurants in your area that want rabbit meat?  Are there individual consumers who do?  What sort of regulations do you fall under for butchering and sale?  etc etc.

Joel, there are chinchillas, that you mentioned, but there is also a breed of rabbit called Chinchilla, because their fur resembles that of the real chinchillas. 

Kathleen

machinemaker wrote:
I have only raised rabbits in hutchs in the past. I have read Joel Salitan's experience of raising them in slat bottom pens that he moves across pasture. I do know that rabbits have a tendency to dig their way out of pens or dig into gardens under fences.
kent

If I recall correctly now they have set it up so the rabbits are housed above the chickens in the same portable housing. Everything from the rabbits falls down to the chickens, the chickens peck and scratch it up into the ground. Polyface is very good at stacking functions which is important for both profitability and ease of labor. Also I think it further reduces the need for extra food for the chickens and increases the fertility of the soil.

Jeff

There are great sections of Homesteading today dedicated to raising rabbits.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14

A good number of posts on colony style (no cage, but more of a pen where the rabbits can burrow) culture, as well.  tons of info on raising natural feed rather than pellets.

I haven't heard of a pen quite that size, but if you could keep the predators out, it may work well.  I'd suggest starting with a smaller section and then release some of the younglings out in the larger area.  might hedge your bets on the investment.

Californians and NZ's are great meat rabbits to start with.  Easy to work with and easy to find stock.

I raise rabbits for meat and side income in a colony setting.

Basically, set up a barn or shed for them first.  We separate the males from the females so that we can control and track breeding, so give each male a pen, and then the females can share a large pen.  You will need a fairly large pen for growing out the babies (6 weeks weaning to 8-12 weeks kill).

Our setup gives everyone a huge outdoor paddock.  We basically used chicken wire (5 feet tall) for the fence, and buried it about a foot into the ground.  We drug a trench first, then stretched the wire, then filled the trench with rocks.

But the key for making this work is to start them off in the shed or bard first.  Leave them in there at least a month, and they will establish that as the home warren, and do most of their digging in there.

Our barn has about18 inches of straw on top of a dirt floor.  In between the dirt and straw, we played wire mesh, to prevent them from digging further down.  We change this straw bedding every 6 months or so, depending on how it does.  If you keep it dry, you can continually add more, like the chicken deep bedding method.

I also suggest litter training the rabbits, especially your does, and it makes cleaning the pen much easier.

We keep records on all of them, which I think is essential.  Weigh your babies at weaning time, then at 10 weeks old, and then at 12 weeks or killing time.  Select the fastest growers for breeding stock.

Our rabbits are all muts, but they perform really well, especially in the colony setting.  We feed them non-medicated pellets, plus alfalfa hay, as much as they want in a self-serve feeder. 

Water is through nipples on a rain catchment system off their shed, so it is fairly self-contained.

We feed them grass and weed cuttings daily, and that helps provide some treats and also extra bedding.

We have never had a rabbit dig out, and they don't even really dig outside.  They have extensive tunnels inside the barn.

For more information, check out:
http://velacreations.blogspot.com/search/label/rabbits
http://velacreations.blogspot.com/search/label/bees.%20rabbits

thank you thank you for all the feedback,
I think I am sold on the outdoor doe operation. I am gonig to make skid shacks with half woodbottom, half grated for retaining the hay, letting loose poop fall, and being able to use the shack as transport when and if i want to move them to a different field at some point.

I have looked into fencing, and I think it is going to be the major factor in gaining back money spent.  it's like 15 bucks for 25 feet, and I'll need maybe 60 bucks or more worth.  I am not sure if I have the energy to dig holes and put fencing in, i'd rather see giant rabbits roaming around freely here and there, to find their holes and fill with rocks that we pick up from the garden.  these rabbits will be in a fence inside a giant electrical fence, so hopefully if they find a way out they wont be in to much danger.  All of my animals are handleable, I have roosters that will perch on me because im a good animal guy, so my concern over cuddly big teddybear like meat rabbits is no threat.

so that's about it, alfalfa, weeds, hay, water catchment/cement holding pond (maybe), and possibly some seaberry leaves, i read they make animals shine + nutrients.  I need to research into potty training does though, because I think i am going to bring them into the greenhouse during the winters since theirbabies will be brought into the freezer/belly.  two rabbits arnt hard to manage on a daily basis when there's nothing to do but stoke fires and dream.

now i just need to find some locals with rabbits

Ruso, one caution -- I think you have some false ideas about rabbits based on their cuddly *appearance*.  Rabbits that are handled daily may be cuddly, but even with them, you'll have to be a bit cautious.  Rabbits that aren't handled regularly are usually not too enthusiastic about it.  I have one brown buck, a NZ cross with quite a bit of Sable in him, who happily lets me pet him; all my other rabbits are extremely skittish and hate being handled (seems to be pretty characteristic of NZ Whites).  Even the relatively tame one doesn't like to be picked up.  Learn to handle your rabbits correctly, and wear long sleeves when you do have to pick them up, because they can give you some NASTY deep scratches.  I have numerous scars on my arms from the rabbits. 

Rabbits are cute, but IMO, unless you handle them enough to make pets out of them (and I don't make pets out of meat animals -- it makes it too hard at butchering time), they aren't usually very cuddly.

Kathleen

If you DO decide to raise rabbits, for any reason, there is a good article in Farm Show magazine vol. 34, no. 4 about raising rabbits in mobile hutches.  This makes it easy to clean under the cages and many other ideas to help make things easier. 

is there a way to get a digital version of that article? that's something I really want to learn,  we are starting vermiculture bins which would be great to to feed rabbit shit.

You want to leave your rabbits free to roam and you have coyotes?  Keep dreaming.  Even raccoons will find a way to eat all those rabbits before you know it.  Hutches exist for a reason.  In fact, when I was a kid I had a white rabbit (an Easter present) who lived in a hutch outside year-round (zone 5-6), and one day my bunny was "gone."  My mother told me I had left the hutch open and it ran away.  Years later she confessed that she woke up one morning and there were rabbit parts all over the yard - my dog (a Husky) got her and my mother frantically cleaned up all the evidence and lied to me.

You definitely need some sort of predator protection.  We use electric fencing around the rabbit paddocks.

Rabbits in hutches are more vulnerable to predators, because they are literally sitting ducks.  I have yet to see a hutch that a determined dog or coyote couldn't crush or tear apart.

But, in big rabbits paddocks, the rabbits have burrows, hiding places, and plenty of room to run.  Sure, a dog could get in there, but the rabbits will have plenty of time to get under something.

We have never lost a rabbit to dogs and/or coyotes, and we have both around us.  We have 2 guard dogs, an electric fence around the rabbit area (2 hot wires near the ground), and then 5 ft fencing around the rabbit paddock areas.  The paddocks are not big, maybe 2,000 square feet or so, but they have tons of burrows and hiding places (we put in a lot of "furniture").

How do you stop your rabbits from burrowing under the fence and out the other side?

I bury the fence 18" in rock all around the perimeter.  I also give them an excellent warren area (18" thick straw, 100 square feet) before allowing them outside.

Once they establish a good warren, they don't tend dig out.

We raised rabbits for years for our own meat. They're a great 'package'. I did not find much commercial market for them but I have since spoken with several people who did or do raise and sell rabbit meat on a moderate scale, enough to generate significant monthly income.

-Walter
in Vermont

anyone wanting to grow rabbits for profit should check out pel-freez company in n.w arkansas. they pay good and are nice to deal with

Just read a nice article in Farm show, vol 34, no 4 on raising rabbits in mobile hutches. Besides some points you all have covered already, she reported that heat was an issue with them. She said she has baby bunnies in Sept, Dec and April to avoid the summer months. Also, to avoid their water freezing in the winter, sh connected the pens to an auto water system of a large water tank, fountain pump, and stock water heater.

we raised our rabbits in cages inside a metal building. i bred the does 14 days after having babies and weaned them at 30 days. we has 58 does and six bucks. and made good money selling them to pel-frez. there is a lot of work on the manure cleanup. feeding isn't bad and we used automatic water.when a doe messed up 2 times i replaced her.we averaged 8 for each doe and sold them at 4.75 to 5,75 lbs. at 1.45 a pound.we started with two rabbits and never bought anymore. if you get a good pair you are set.