Farmed Rabbits

[GaryD]

Hi Jacomish,

Welcome aboard....and thanks for your contribution.

I envy you for the fact that you live somewhere where you can breed and rear meat rabbits.

Ammonia would certainly harm rabbits (like any other creature) in the right concentrations. I suggest that deaths due to ammonia poisoning in a rabbitry would suggest a management problem.

I agree with you about the lettuce.....I found that any quantity of lettuce would make rabbits scour.

Keep us posted as your self-sufficiency program unfolds.

GaryD

[Murray]

Here is an idea I came across the other day. A Rabbit tractor !!!
Evidently the rabbit moves the device along all by itself keeping the family lawn cut to perfection.
If the rabbit desires to have a sleep or to get out of the hot sun he/she gets into the plastic drum which has both ends cut out of it to allow it to move along with the tractor. It (the plastic drum) is suspended on the axle.
What a neat idea !!!

Great use for old bicycle wheels. Evidently you remove groups of spokes from the two middle bike wheels, to allow the rabbit to travel sideways along the device.

[Jacomish]

Hi All,

Thanks for the welcome. The creativity of people never fails to amaze me, hope they don't have any dog problems..

Gary, I agree that deaths from ammonia is a management problem. But 15 years ago, rabbit farming was very new and information was hard to come by for a beginner. The only people doing it were the French, and I think I skipped those classes..

The problem was by the time we humans can smell it, it is too late the damage has been done.

I have to agree with you on the culinary delight of a well prepared rabbit dish with farmed rabbit compared to gamy old bush rabbit.....I used to cook chicken recipes and see if people noticed the difference.......no-one ever picked it unless they were involved in the cooking, the rabbit meat had no fat when you cooked it compared to chicken.

I found your article on Japanese Quail very interesting and will be trying them out in the IBFP system. I always thought I was the only person interested in a self sufficient backyard food production system.....I shall be reading future posts with interest.

Richard.

[Jonathan Dyer]

There is a simple trick to make wild rabbit taste excellent and lose all the association of that ‘gamey’ flavor they have. Once skinned and gutted store the rabbit in the deep freezer for around 3 months (it needs to be three months too) slowly defrost it in the refrigerator and cook to your hearts content. I have a few up the paddock that need the attention of my freezer just have to catch the quick little buggers here comes the 22.
I have never tasted true farmed meat rabbit as of yet but with out a doubt they will taste superb and make a nice soft hat too not that I wear Akubra hats. How do they handle the weather heat/cold?

[GaryD]

Hi Jonathon,

Thanks for that tip......I wish I'd had that information when I was a kid and had to eat wild rabbits on a regular basis.

Farmed rabbits will cope well with the cold weather but less so really hot weather. Since they have to be housed to prevent myxamatosis, it's probably a good idea to have the growing sheds climate-controlled.

Gary

[inzane]

Ha Ha, go on Gary laugh at me, Ha, Ha, you have full permission! I made a snidy response to you suggesting farming rabbits a couple of days ago...remember. Well I just bought 2 rabbits. Not I might add of my own free will but regardless, I know have two in the garden. My daughter saw them and fell in love...what can I say. As they are there I guess I'll have a go with them, but I'm sure the little buggers will tunnel out their enclosure!

Heres a good link for basic info on raising rabbits in different climates. The saharan model should be of some interest to those of you in the warmer parts of OZ!

http://193.43.36.103/AG/AGAInfo/them...s/contents.htm

The begining is interesting if you like development issuses if not scroll down to backyard small species and you'll find the section on rabbits there. Its funny you should say rabbit farming was new 15 yrs ago! Its amazing how we forget knowledge so quickly. Rabbit farming came to the UK in 1066, in fact if you know anyone with the surname Warren, their ancestors were rabbit farmers. When I lived in france and germany, everyone farmed rabbits. At the yearly town festivals everyone got dressed up in rabbit skin coats and trousers, like a cross between an eskimo and a barbarian! It was quite shocking to see how many rabbits went into each dress!!!!

I just read a bit further in about the rabbits as I skipped it last time (I was interested in the guinea pigs) and it seems to be very relavent for you aussies. In sub saharan africa the spread of rabbit farming for self suff has been slow cause NGO's have used european methods, which bring a lot of problems in hot climates where rabbits are exposed to ambient temperatures above 30 degrees. Whereas in North Africa they have been farmed forever, but are not kept in cages, but encouraged to dig their own burrows, this way they are protected form the heat. Here a ripped gif of a setup from the Sahara!

[Hamish]

...with out a doubt they will taste superb and make a nice soft hat too not that I wear Akubra hats. How do they handle the weather heat/cold?

Is it possible to dye the hats purple?

[GaryD]

Hi Inzane,

.....rabbit farming was new 15 yrs ago.....

As you've discovered rabbit farming has been happening for hundreds of years. It was particularly big in Britain during World War 2.....to the point where rabbit-keepers had (in the face of rationing for virtually everything) a special dispensation to buy bran for use in rabbit rations.

Backyard food production (as part of the Victory Gardens program) was seen to be vital given that much of what the British needed would otherwise have had to be imported.

Gary

[inzane]

I didnt know they were part of the victoy gardens campaign. I had assumed rabbit farming kinda died out as the wild population reached plague proportions! I have never known anyone farm rabbits in the uk...

[GaryD]

Hi,

I don't know that they were a formal part of the Victory Gardens campaign....but many British people grew them in order to expand their diet.

I have never known anyone farm rabbits in the uk...

Well, there you go. Some of the best literature that exists on raising rabbits comes from Britain. My favourite book is "The Domestic Rabbit" by J.C. Sandford.

Rabbits are farmed extensively in France, Spain, Belgium and America.

Gary