My man and I checked out some Californians and New Zealands today. Thankfully I found a local breeder and the rabbits were in amazing condition. I’ll be picking them up next weekend since we’ll be building their hutch this weekend. ❤️ We have thought about colony style but hutch would be easier since we want to collect their poop for a worm compost bin to use the compost for the garden and produce extra worms not just for the soil but for fishing bait too. 😊
Great video! I keep NZ rabbits and a trio of egg chickens in suburbia. My chickens are on deep litter and my rabbits in hutches. I breed three times a year and my does typically have between 10-14 kits. A loss of one is usual, typically the runt. When my chickens pass, I will keep quail for eggs and meat. A lot quieter. You can dress out a quail for the table in 5 minutes and a bag of feed, if the quail are on grass will last a flock of 10 a year. Rabbits and quail will mean good variety. I’ve kept meat chickens with basic equipment, scalding in a bucket of water and hand plucking. I think they are expensive to raise and a bit gross. I’min South Eastern Australia, so heat is a real issue and I can only breed throughout the colour months. I have tried in the Summer, but I loose a third of the kits and it’s really tough on the kits and Does. Rabbits mean I keep a closed loop for my garden in fertiliser.
Rabbits do so much better when it's cold rather when it's hot. They weren't fazed a bit when it was 5 degrees -- but were very uncomfortable when it hit 95!
I want to do a garden for rabbits. When I look for videos on this, it’s just how to keep rabbits out of the garden. Do you have a list of plants that are okay for rabbits to eat? I would also like to be able to store some for winter. Any info would be awesome! Thank you in advance.
If you want to increase the size of your newborn rabbits, all you need to do is get a buck or a doe, a New Zealand or a Californian, and cross it with one of your Silver Foxes, that will produce a hybrid (F1), which will grow faster and bigger than any Silver Fox rabbit you have ever raised, and if it is strictly of meat, then you don't have to worry about it being a hybrid.
I completely agree. We used to raise chickens for meat, but we didn't enjoy the process very much. While the meat was good, dealing with the chickens was quite a headache. We've found that raising rabbits has been much better for us. Specifically, we raise American Chinchillas for meat and also make a good income from selling them. Additionally, we have excellent growouts. We do raise Muscovys for meat but they obviously take longer to get up to size to process but the meat is worth it.
We use dual purpose chickens for meat and its really as easy for me as rabbits. They also hatch their own babies and most of their diet is free range with some supplementation so our feed cost is not as much. Also this year we are not plucking but skinning and canning, so the processing part is just as easy as rabbits for me. I miss rabbits though and eventually will be getting back into them. The upside to rabbits is that they mature to butcher size faster than heritage dual purpose chickens, though. But for me, they are more maintenance than chickens lol. Good video and information! New subscriber here 😊
That is great, thank you for sharing! I'm glad chickens work out for you. I like that you raise the heritage dual purpose chickens. I can't stand the Cornish cross breed 🫣 That's interesting that you skin them, I never heard of that! Thanks for subscribing, I subscribed to your channel as well!
I love your videos!!!!! I love to see you talking about your rabbits. I can hear how you love your rabbits and taking care of them. I’ve already watched this video to the end and started it over.
Not too commom, but not exactly rare to eat rabbit in Brazil. I will start soon with rabbits. In rabbit trators. Here is hot all year, and lots of pasture and fruits in my property... In fact there are lots of them free in the woods around me. I regularly find some "nests" when cut the grass. Here they reproduce like... rabbits...
We raised some cx in our backyard. Never again. Those poor birds are not natural. They grew so fast they couldn't walk much. They struggled to breath during our Florida weather. Like you said they are fragile.
Ive watched some of your videos for a bit over a year now. Your really getting to be a pro. One thing you didnt mention was marketing the hides from your rabbits. I expect they would sell pretty good if processed properly. Of course you could use them in craft projects as well
Thanks, I appreciate your support! That's a great point, I didn't even think of that and I tan hides all the time. I haven't tried to sell them tho. Mostly just save them for craft projects.
Chickens taste better and (for us) grow faster ... but ... can't ignore that processing time. We don't have a plucker so it takes 30-40 minutes to process one. I can do 6 Rabbit in that same amount of time. Better than Chicken are Muscovy and Geese. We dont even have to feed those guys. They hang with the native Canada & Mallard and forage/free-range 100٪.
I have better luck keeping chickens alive than I do rabbits. My grow-outs get poopy butt and die. Lost all but 2 of the last 12. However, I am attempting to produce my own chicks, and the hatch rate has been appalling!!
Do you ever sell your rabbits to help someone else get established? If I was close to you I would want to buy yours. But I live in Oklahoma. Also can you tell me about that machine you use to suck the air out of the package to freeze your meat?
Thank you, I take that as a compliment! I rarely sell them. In my opinion selling them is more of a headache than its worth, but that's just me. It's a food saver. I added the machine to my amazon link in the description so you can check it out!
Without watching - Rabbits are easy to sustain and breed like, well, rabbits. The downside is, if you hit hard times, you can give yourself protein poisoning if you relied solely on rabbits for food. It's too lean. You don't have that problem with chickens. If you're a prepper and doing this for a food source, be aware. If you're just supplementing your diet, great.
The protein poisoning from rabbits is such a misrepresentation that it’s almost a myth. Arctic explorers, lost trappers , ship wrecked whalers who relied on eating arctic hares because they ran out of food in the dead of winter starved because they ate starving rabbits. If you are concerned about getting enough fat from rabbits, just eat some of the fat in the rabbits. Most meat rabbits will get fatty once they hit 10+ weeks. Watch a video on rabbit processing, you’ll see a ton of fat around their kidneys and on the backs of their shoulders.
@@joearceneaux9854 Never had much on the ones I've been around. Obviously this applies more to the type, not all breeds of meat rabbits are identical. And it's hardly apples to apples using arctic hares as a comparison to a meat rabbit down south, nor were they likely doing so for years. It may or may not be a myth, but it would still be a terrible idea to rely on that as your only food source instead of having options.
The starving explorers ate only starving rabbits and snow.And.Nothing.Else. Well fed / non-starving rabbits, any type meat or wild, will put on fat as they mature.
@@joearceneaux9854 "Starving rabbits"? Were they brought along and caged the entire time? Because wild snow hares aren't starving or they wouldn't survive as a species. And are you seriously denying that different species have different levels of fat? We raised rabbits for years here in Florida and the fat was very minimal. Sorry sport, siting a half assed historical piece doesn't entirely prove your point.
@@Swearengen1980 No the rabbits, arctic hares, were not brought along in cages. The explorers ran out of food during a weeks long storm. Their bodies went into a state of ketosis. The local arctic hares were starving due to the same storms, and in a ketosis as well. Starving people eating starving animals in the midst of a blizzard after blizzard. Not enough calories to sustain themselves. They wrote in their journals, so we know what happened after the fact.
I'm sorry about the blur in the video. Trying to fix it!
My man and I checked out some Californians and New Zealands today. Thankfully I found a local breeder and the rabbits were in amazing condition. I’ll be picking them up next weekend since we’ll be building their hutch this weekend. ❤️ We have thought about colony style but hutch would be easier since we want to collect their poop for a worm compost bin to use the compost for the garden and produce extra worms not just for the soil but for fishing bait too. 😊
Great video! I keep NZ rabbits and a trio of egg chickens in suburbia. My chickens are on deep litter and my rabbits in hutches. I breed three times a year and my does typically have between 10-14 kits. A loss of one is usual, typically the runt. When my chickens pass, I will keep quail for eggs and meat. A lot quieter. You can dress out a quail for the table in 5 minutes and a bag of feed, if the quail are on grass will last a flock of 10 a year. Rabbits and quail will mean good variety. I’ve kept meat chickens with basic equipment, scalding in a bucket of water and hand plucking. I think they are expensive to raise and a bit gross. I’min South Eastern Australia, so heat is a real issue and I can only breed throughout the colour months. I have tried in the Summer, but I loose a third of the kits and it’s really tough on the kits and Does. Rabbits mean I keep a closed loop for my garden in fertiliser.
Awesome information thank you. Now I just need to learn how to raise rabbits in a cold environment.
Rabbits do so much better when it's cold rather when it's hot. They weren't fazed a bit when it was 5 degrees -- but were very uncomfortable when it hit 95!
Agreed!
I am convinced, time to learn how to raise rabbits!
I want to do a garden for rabbits. When I look for videos on this, it’s just how to keep rabbits out of the garden. Do you have a list of plants that are okay for rabbits to eat? I would also like to be able to store some for winter. Any info would be awesome! Thank you in advance.
You could try quail instead of chickens. The Coturnix quailcan lay up to 300 egged a year. You can hatch them out or just eat the eggs.
Just a thought
Yes, I am currently raising coturnix quail.
If you want to increase the size of your newborn rabbits, all you need to do is get a buck or a doe, a New Zealand or a Californian, and cross it with one of your Silver Foxes, that will produce a hybrid (F1), which will grow faster and bigger than any Silver Fox rabbit you have ever raised, and if it is strictly of meat, then you don't have to worry about it being a hybrid.
I completely agree. We used to raise chickens for meat, but we didn't enjoy the process very much. While the meat was good, dealing with the chickens was quite a headache. We've found that raising rabbits has been much better for us. Specifically, we raise American Chinchillas for meat and also make a good income from selling them. Additionally, we have excellent growouts.
We do raise Muscovys for meat but they obviously take longer to get up to size to process but the meat is worth it.
Thank you for sharing! I am glad you agree and it sounds like you have a good system going with your rabbits!
We use dual purpose chickens for meat and its really as easy for me as rabbits. They also hatch their own babies and most of their diet is free range with some supplementation so our feed cost is not as much. Also this year we are not plucking but skinning and canning, so the processing part is just as easy as rabbits for me. I miss rabbits though and eventually will be getting back into them. The upside to rabbits is that they mature to butcher size faster than heritage dual purpose chickens, though. But for me, they are more maintenance than chickens lol. Good video and information! New subscriber here 😊
That is great, thank you for sharing! I'm glad chickens work out for you. I like that you raise the heritage dual purpose chickens. I can't stand the Cornish cross breed 🫣
That's interesting that you skin them, I never heard of that! Thanks for subscribing, I subscribed to your channel as well!
I love your videos!!!!! I love to see you talking about your rabbits. I can hear how you love your rabbits and taking care of them. I’ve already watched this video to the end and started it over.
Thank you so much!
Not too commom, but not exactly rare to eat rabbit in Brazil. I will start soon with rabbits. In rabbit trators. Here is hot all year, and lots of pasture and fruits in my property... In fact there are lots of them free in the woods around me. I regularly find some "nests" when cut the grass. Here they reproduce like... rabbits...
So much good info. Thanks for sharing.
We raised some cx in our backyard. Never again. Those poor birds are not natural. They grew so fast they couldn't walk much. They struggled to breath during our Florida weather. Like you said they are fragile.
Just at the point of choosing between rabbits and meat chickens, so your video caught my attention.
Ive watched some of your videos for a bit over a year now. Your really getting to be a pro.
One thing you didnt mention was marketing the hides from your rabbits. I expect they would sell pretty good if processed properly.
Of course you could use them in craft projects as well
Thanks, I appreciate your support!
That's a great point, I didn't even think of that and I tan hides all the time. I haven't tried to sell them tho. Mostly just save them for craft projects.
I finally got a Dutch buck and a beautiful black Mini-Rex doe! I'm so excited! And scratched .....
Outstanding video! Thank you!
Chickens taste better and (for us) grow faster ... but ... can't ignore that processing time. We don't have a plucker so it takes 30-40 minutes to process one. I can do 6 Rabbit in that same amount of time.
Better than Chicken are Muscovy and Geese. We dont even have to feed those guys. They hang with the native Canada & Mallard and forage/free-range 100٪.
I have better luck keeping chickens alive than I do rabbits. My grow-outs get poopy butt and die. Lost all but 2 of the last 12.
However, I am attempting to produce my own chicks, and the hatch rate has been appalling!!
Cut out greens and “wet” feed. Grow out rabbits do well on pellets & DRY hay.
@@joearceneaux9854 Which completely negates the feed them for free, scenario. $5lb for meat raised on pellets is ridiculous.
@@HeatherNaturaly where does the “free feed” issue come from? I didn’t make that claim. My advice was intended to address the problem of”poopy butt”
@@HeatherNaturaly $5/lb seems high. Look at bulk feed purchases. We get 40bags for under $1k
Do you ever sell your rabbits to help someone else get established? If I was close to you I would want to buy yours. But I live in Oklahoma. Also can you tell me about that machine you use to suck the air out of the package to freeze your meat?
Thank you, I take that as a compliment! I rarely sell them. In my opinion selling them is more of a headache than its worth, but that's just me. It's a food saver. I added the machine to my amazon link in the description so you can check it out!
Do you have a plan for your hatch ?
I’m adding them to my current quail flock for eggs.
Do you make pets of all of them or just your breeding does?
Just my breeders
nutrition. Fat is not a bad thing, in fact you will die without it.... so best to keep that clear.
Absolutely, I should have been more clear about that.
Cornish cross chickens have a high mortality rate. There I just saved you 10 minutes at the end of the video.
Oh wow, thank you so much for saving us the time! ☺️
Lower fat is a way in which rabbits are less nutritious than chickens
Wild rabbit has less fat than domestic rabbits. Also just store some coconut oil and meat fats canned to have if SHTF.
Without watching - Rabbits are easy to sustain and breed like, well, rabbits. The downside is, if you hit hard times, you can give yourself protein poisoning if you relied solely on rabbits for food. It's too lean. You don't have that problem with chickens. If you're a prepper and doing this for a food source, be aware. If you're just supplementing your diet, great.
The protein poisoning from rabbits is such a misrepresentation that it’s almost a myth.
Arctic explorers, lost trappers , ship wrecked whalers who relied on eating arctic hares because they ran out of food in the dead of winter starved because they ate starving rabbits.
If you are concerned about getting enough fat from rabbits, just eat some of the fat in the rabbits. Most meat rabbits will get fatty once they hit 10+ weeks. Watch a video on rabbit processing, you’ll see a ton of fat around their kidneys and on the backs of their shoulders.
@@joearceneaux9854 Never had much on the ones I've been around. Obviously this applies more to the type, not all breeds of meat rabbits are identical. And it's hardly apples to apples using arctic hares as a comparison to a meat rabbit down south, nor were they likely doing so for years. It may or may not be a myth, but it would still be a terrible idea to rely on that as your only food source instead of having options.
The starving explorers ate only starving rabbits and snow.And.Nothing.Else.
Well fed / non-starving rabbits, any type meat or wild, will put on fat as they mature.
@@joearceneaux9854 "Starving rabbits"? Were they brought along and caged the entire time? Because wild snow hares aren't starving or they wouldn't survive as a species. And are you seriously denying that different species have different levels of fat? We raised rabbits for years here in Florida and the fat was very minimal. Sorry sport, siting a half assed historical piece doesn't entirely prove your point.
@@Swearengen1980 No the rabbits, arctic hares, were not brought along in cages. The explorers ran out of food during a weeks long storm. Their bodies went into a state of ketosis. The local arctic hares were starving due to the same storms, and in a ketosis as well. Starving people eating starving animals in the midst of a blizzard after blizzard. Not enough calories to sustain themselves. They wrote in their journals, so we know what happened after the fact.