I have read many posts and threads on INGO pertaining to Rabbits. I figure I will try to localize the info into one particular thread and hopefully it might get to be it’s own sticky..
First some back ground about my particular experience with raising rabbits. Up until recently my family, mainly my Father has raised rabbits most all of my life on our family farm. and before I was born as well.
There have been a few points where he would sell everything off and get rid of all of our rabbits and go a few months without any and then the bug would give him the itch and he would go buy 10 does and 2 bucks and start up again.
At the highest point I would guess that our rabbit herd was over the 800 mark, I was too young to help at that time. We used to sell most for meat, many for show and some for pets.
My Father has devoted an enormous amount of his life to learning about and raising rabbits. Some has indeed rubbed off on me. I probably know about 10% of what he does and neither of us consider ourselves experts but I do consider my Father an expert.
Presently the farm nor I have any rabbits. I give it until spring and the old man will go out and get a starter herd going.
Our production: We raised rabbits in hand made metal wire cages in an unheated and only slightly ventilated buildings. Never outswide or in hutches but at one point did have pens in a lean to that was along side of a barn. Always in wire cages we mostly built ourselves. It's cheaper.
We used to raise earth worms in the dung and made tons of money on them too. They help kep the smell down, not that rabbits have smelly dung but they are another income stream.
We hand fed and hand watered them, never using automatic watering and or feeding methods merely because of the cost of the equipment and upkeep and it also helped the rabbits stay used to our presence. they get spooked easy and we always had a radio playing for back ground noise to keep them used to noises and such. A spooked rabbit can run it's self to death in a cage. I have seen that first hand.
My father would not allow anyone except us into the rabbit barn as with most any large herd of animals a disease can annihilate a herd and is usually brought into the herd by an outsider.
We exclusively raised Californians which were from the Keller blood line. He got his start from a man who’s rabbits won ribbons all over and were widely known for their meat as well. The pellets we fed were from a recipe originally derived by Mr. Oren Reynolds. He is considered Mr. ARBA, that’s the American Rabbit Breeders Association. The “experts” of the rabbit world.
Anyway, my father kept meticulous hand written records on each rabbit. He used the Line Breeding Chart developed by Indianapolis native Dr. Fehr a widely known vet. The method of cross breeding to keep the gene pool clear of imperfections that ends up producing better rabbits every generation.
My Fathers rabbits have been shown and won many ribbons all over and before the "guberment" clamped down on the transporting of live animals he had shipped all over the world to breeders and meat producers.
Given the investment capitol and space my father has a business plan completed that would allow a single person to produce rabbits for meat, sold to a company called Pel-Freez from Arkansas I think and for less then 30 hours work a week can profit over 300k after the first year. Something I have seriously been considering as a business venture.
Rabbit is a very low cholesterol meat, even lower then chicken.
I will post more info on Rabbit production and making of pens and such when I get the chance. If anyone has input that will help others who are looking at or currently raising rabbits for meat or other use please comment here.
First some back ground about my particular experience with raising rabbits. Up until recently my family, mainly my Father has raised rabbits most all of my life on our family farm. and before I was born as well.
There have been a few points where he would sell everything off and get rid of all of our rabbits and go a few months without any and then the bug would give him the itch and he would go buy 10 does and 2 bucks and start up again.
At the highest point I would guess that our rabbit herd was over the 800 mark, I was too young to help at that time. We used to sell most for meat, many for show and some for pets.
My Father has devoted an enormous amount of his life to learning about and raising rabbits. Some has indeed rubbed off on me. I probably know about 10% of what he does and neither of us consider ourselves experts but I do consider my Father an expert.
Presently the farm nor I have any rabbits. I give it until spring and the old man will go out and get a starter herd going.
Our production: We raised rabbits in hand made metal wire cages in an unheated and only slightly ventilated buildings. Never outswide or in hutches but at one point did have pens in a lean to that was along side of a barn. Always in wire cages we mostly built ourselves. It's cheaper.
We used to raise earth worms in the dung and made tons of money on them too. They help kep the smell down, not that rabbits have smelly dung but they are another income stream.
We hand fed and hand watered them, never using automatic watering and or feeding methods merely because of the cost of the equipment and upkeep and it also helped the rabbits stay used to our presence. they get spooked easy and we always had a radio playing for back ground noise to keep them used to noises and such. A spooked rabbit can run it's self to death in a cage. I have seen that first hand.
My father would not allow anyone except us into the rabbit barn as with most any large herd of animals a disease can annihilate a herd and is usually brought into the herd by an outsider.
We exclusively raised Californians which were from the Keller blood line. He got his start from a man who’s rabbits won ribbons all over and were widely known for their meat as well. The pellets we fed were from a recipe originally derived by Mr. Oren Reynolds. He is considered Mr. ARBA, that’s the American Rabbit Breeders Association. The “experts” of the rabbit world.
Anyway, my father kept meticulous hand written records on each rabbit. He used the Line Breeding Chart developed by Indianapolis native Dr. Fehr a widely known vet. The method of cross breeding to keep the gene pool clear of imperfections that ends up producing better rabbits every generation.
My Fathers rabbits have been shown and won many ribbons all over and before the "guberment" clamped down on the transporting of live animals he had shipped all over the world to breeders and meat producers.
Given the investment capitol and space my father has a business plan completed that would allow a single person to produce rabbits for meat, sold to a company called Pel-Freez from Arkansas I think and for less then 30 hours work a week can profit over 300k after the first year. Something I have seriously been considering as a business venture.
Rabbit is a very low cholesterol meat, even lower then chicken.
I will post more info on Rabbit production and making of pens and such when I get the chance. If anyone has input that will help others who are looking at or currently raising rabbits for meat or other use please comment here.