Rabbit Central

[looch]

Here's the deal:

Neighbors just separated last week. She went to live with a friend until she gets a place of her own. He just left for two weeks to sort things out. She stayed home most of the time and, in order to keep herself occupied, bought some laying hens and some rabbits. Some friends of theirs (and ours) picked up the chickens the day after she left. They didn't want the rabbits. He didn't want them either, so the day before he left on his "retreat" he let them loose on his property (I've been able to count six).

This causes some concerns for me:
First, I think it's pretty cruel to force a domesticated animal to fend for itself like that - even if in the end you were raising them for meat.
Second, I'm worried about letting my dogs out (german shorthairs) for fear that they will chase them - across the highway. Luckily, they haven't spotted (got a whiff of) them yet.
Third, they've already massacred the neighbors' garden (that we were sharing).
Finally, I have now witnessed first hand the accuracy of the expression "(#$(%* like rabbits." (Sorry about the ." MarkC, I can still hear my grade 4 teacher's voice/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif) With a 27 day gestation period, how long before I'm overrun?

So, I see two solutions. Since they "abandoned" them, I consider them to be (and pardon the pun) fair game. I can break out the .22, whack them and stick them in my freezer. Or, I could catch them (somehow) and raise them myself.

I guess the question I would like to have an answer for is: Are rabbits worth raising? Are they a pain? I should inform you that I was going to start raising capons next year anyway, it's just that these things are "available" now.

Thanks,

 

[DarinRay]

Paul,

I will give you my .02. First I guess it all depends on what kind of rabbits you are talking about. But if they are just normal short hair & sized rabbits then they are not a pain at all to raise. You can use their droppings for your garden instead of them eating it/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif As far as worth raising I can say this that when I was a youngster I raised rabbbits (gives a youngin some responsibility) for food and for show and would also sell some to pay for themselves. If you have proper shelter and all you have to then do is water and feed and clean them regularly. And like you said if you ever get into a low population all you have to do is introduce the opposite sex to each other and blamo. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif At one point in my childhood I had about 75 rabbits until I found out that I shoudl seperate them earlier. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I have now for the last 3 years been kicking around the idea of raising them again but maybe this time just for pets. I am not sure what exactly capons are so I don't know which would be easier and more cost effective. Well except these rabbits are free so I would go for it and if all else fails you can get rid of them later.

Darin

 

[jimmoore]

Paul, I used to raise white rabbits. I had 4 does and 2 bucks. Everyone around wanted the manure for their gardens. I sold the offspring to a man who had a special truck to haul them, he would have everyone with rabbit for sale to meet him at a certain place and he would buy the rabbits. 5 pound white rabbits brought $0.80 per pound. called fryers. over 5 pounds called roasters brought 0.60 a pound. colored rabbits brought less. I don' remember just how much less. this man took them to a slaughter house in sothern mo. They processed them for sale in supermarkets. The reason the white rabbits brought more money is because the used the fur and white fur could be dyed any color. I WOULD GROW OFF ABOUT 25 AT A TIME. 5 POUND RABBIT @0.80= $4.00 A HEADx25=$100.00. You can't make a lot of money at that but you can more than break even. Growing rabs eat feed like there was no tomorrow. Takes about 10 weeks to to reach the 5 pound weight. A lot of work every morning feeding and watering. I had just retired and needed something to do with my time. I have since got out of the rabbits and starting doing a small flock of chickens for a hobby.

jim

 

[Bird]

Paul, I got rid of all my rabbits (and the cages) three years ago. I started with a buck and 3 does (New Zealand whites) and very quickly went to two bucks and 10 does. We ate a lot of rabbits and the manure is the best fertilizer I know of; however, I sure didn't make any money with them. I could sell everything I had in the month or so before Easter, but otherwise it was just selling one or two occasionally to other people for meat. There's no commercial slaughterhouse, like Jimmoore mentioned, in this area. The other problem I had, that many others wouldn't, is the heat in the summer. I just didn't have a proper facility for keeping them cool enough in the summer. (I wasn't going to let them die from the heat, but that meant that my wife and I spent far too much time out there in the barn to make sure fans were cleaned and working, spraying a fine mist of water, etc.)

Bird

 

[looch]

Bird, I don't think I have your heat problem. It can get up to 100 degrees here but usually not for more than a couple of days at a time.

Darin, I see by your bio that you are from New York. What about winter? It can get pretty nasty up here, -25 at times and occasionally as low as -40. Do you need heat lamps? Obviously you have to keep their water from freezing - what sort of device for that? As for the type of rabbit, I know nothing about this. There are 3 really big white ones and one with brown patches- about the size of a fat house cat, and 2 smaller ones that are all brown.

Capons are sterilized roosters, like the steer of the chicken family. No worries about wintering - usually slaughter the lot around September and buy new chicks the following year.

Maybe I'll pick up a book at Amazon.

Any ideas on how to round them up? They allow you to approach fairly close, but take off if you reach out to them.

 

[jimmoore]

Paul, I bought a Large dip net with a loong handle, I can catch about anything with it.

jim

 

[DarinRay]

Paul,

As far as winter practices I would actually just do the same things I did in the summer except that I woudl have to break the ice out of their dishes. Being winter they, I think this is true, didn't or don't drink as much anyway. My schedule was feeding and watering 3 times a day but mostly was watering because of the feed hoppers and it was winter that you actually had to mess with the water. Summer you use the water bottles that they use in hamster cages and then in winter you (I) went to dishes so they wouldn't break the bottles when they freeze. To be honest, not saying that I had the best setup, I didn't have any heat lamps or heat for them for that matter. I woudl tarp the front to keep the wind and snow out but didnt' have actually heat. In their cages where beds, enclosed boxes with just a small openingin it,that I you keep hay or straw in it for their comfort and warmth.

As Bird mentioned in teh summer even in New York are terrible to watch them cope with the heat panting like dogs and just plain miserable. But here that was only a couple times a year really.

If I were you like you said I would buy a book on them to really find out what you are after. Boy talking about them sure makes me want to get me a couple. Shoot maybe I will buy a book on them and go from there too. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Darin

 

[Bird]

I used the plastic water bottles on all my cages; keeps the water cleaner and only had to feed and water once a day. If you've never raised rabbits, you soon learn that if you overfeed them, they get fat and won't breed. I had a couple of small propane heaters that I used when it was below freezing and there were babies in a nest box, and I also had several days one winter when I went out first thing in the morning, got all the frozen water bottles, brought them in the house, thawed them out, refilled them, etc. Never had a problem with the plastic bottles breaking. I bought my water bottles, feeders, and even some of the cages at Tractor Supply Co.

Bird

 

[ERNIEB]

I did raise rabbits for awhile. At one point I had about 100 does, and a number of bucks. I used a watering system, that had lines runing to the cages. All I had to do was keep a five gallon bucket full at the end of a line of cages. In this area cold was not a problem, but heat sure was. I had a chest freezer that I would fill with gallon jugs of water. During the heat of the day I would put the frozen jugs in the cages. Bucks especially will become sterile if they get to hot.
Most of my fryers went to a processing plant. I dressed a few myself. I could have sold more that way, and they did bring better money. One day I slaughtered 35, and decided I didn't care for that route.
I made a little money at it. I bought feed in bulk from a mill. You have to keep good records. If a doe did not produce, or produced fryers that took longer than 6 weeks, she went in the crock pot. You have to have good rabbits to make a profit. I had mostly New Zealands, and a few Californians.
I gave it up because I just got tired of it. Bored with it really. Rabbits aren't all that interesting, and I was tied down. They had to be feed and checked twice a day, seven days a week.

Ernie

 

[Bird]

Ernie, you did have a lot of rabbits. I only had 15 cages and I used half gallon plastic jugs in the freezer instead of gallon jugs./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I also put burlap bags on top of the wire cages, kept them damp and had fans running. Unfortunately, no processing plants in this area (and I've even heard that the one in San Antonio had closed up).

Bird