Post by Stacy on Nov 21, 2012 2:00:19 GMT -5
We've seriously failed at raising meat rabbits in the past. Raised a mess of mini rexes, but those meat rabbits just didn't work for us.
Last spring I got some beautiful Calif. and NZ's. I kept the alive all summer by putting them on the ground in front of the house, covered with a tent, blown on by a fan and watered with cold water constantly. Then the neighbors dogs came and killed them ALL in Aug.
Since then I've accumulated a few more. Just recently I got FIVE free, purebred, reg. Calif. (one pair and three of their offspring, two bucks, one doe). I also picked up one nice, BIG NZ doe and then a few mixed rabbits. Something came and killed one doe recently.
Now I have three bucks too many. We're going to keep all four does. Three are old enough to breed and we're actually working on that now. One isn't. I want to keep the male we got last weekend and another that looks like a cross possibly between the NZ's and the Calif.'s. He's big! We plan on butchering the two young bucks we got for free and then giving away the extra older buck. We probably don't need two bucks, but we want to keep one extra "just in case".
Today, my husband built me a "thing" to keep the cages up 4' off the ground. It's got three sides and a roof. In the spring, I'm going to put an electric fence netting around the whole thing as well, to keep dogs and other critters away! My husband is going to add on to the structure so I have room for cages for the babies. He figures he's got a little bit of time, since the does were just bred today anyway.
I really have been wanting rabbit in the freezer for a long while now. Four does is probably excessive, but since two are young and inexperienced, we'll see how they do. If I have extra, I know the people at Mike's work will want to buy processed rabbit from us.
Also, since I'm going to be doing the fodder, it'll help economize the feed and hopefully, make for a healthier rabbit than we might have had in the past.
Just thought I'd put all this down... in theory, it "should" work. Now we'll just wait and see! Wish me luck. I'm tired of trying and being wrong!
Last spring I got some beautiful Calif. and NZ's. I kept the alive all summer by putting them on the ground in front of the house, covered with a tent, blown on by a fan and watered with cold water constantly. Then the neighbors dogs came and killed them ALL in Aug.
Since then I've accumulated a few more. Just recently I got FIVE free, purebred, reg. Calif. (one pair and three of their offspring, two bucks, one doe). I also picked up one nice, BIG NZ doe and then a few mixed rabbits. Something came and killed one doe recently.
Now I have three bucks too many. We're going to keep all four does. Three are old enough to breed and we're actually working on that now. One isn't. I want to keep the male we got last weekend and another that looks like a cross possibly between the NZ's and the Calif.'s. He's big! We plan on butchering the two young bucks we got for free and then giving away the extra older buck. We probably don't need two bucks, but we want to keep one extra "just in case".
Today, my husband built me a "thing" to keep the cages up 4' off the ground. It's got three sides and a roof. In the spring, I'm going to put an electric fence netting around the whole thing as well, to keep dogs and other critters away! My husband is going to add on to the structure so I have room for cages for the babies. He figures he's got a little bit of time, since the does were just bred today anyway.
I really have been wanting rabbit in the freezer for a long while now. Four does is probably excessive, but since two are young and inexperienced, we'll see how they do. If I have extra, I know the people at Mike's work will want to buy processed rabbit from us.
Also, since I'm going to be doing the fodder, it'll help economize the feed and hopefully, make for a healthier rabbit than we might have had in the past.
Just thought I'd put all this down... in theory, it "should" work. Now we'll just wait and see! Wish me luck. I'm tired of trying and being wrong!