Great free ebook on raising rabbits in colonies

I got this great free ebook from www.raisingrabbitsformeat.com.  I bought their ebook & it's been great!
Tiffany recently released a free ebook about raising rabbits in colonies or tractors.  I didn't know anything about this & find it quite interesting.  I'm now considering switching to a colony method instead.  My main interest in it is how letting them go underground as they do in nature reduces the clean up, & helps them deal with winter & summer temperatures better.  I had some hassle trying to keep them cool last summer, & in a survival situation I wouldn't be able to use extra water to cool them, or frozen water if there was no power.  You can download the free ebook at rabbits in colonies ebook.

Raising rabbits free webinar

https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/952839023
Saturday April 14, 4 pm ET.  I have the ebook raising meat rabbits from this group & it's great!

Let the kids do the labor!

I know you're probably thinking, "I don't have time to do chickens, pick raspberries, dry fruit, can chicken, raise rabbits, etc".  That's what your kids are for!  And it's great for them too!  My son mows our lawn.  When we can chicken he puts the meat in the jars while I put the broth & lids (we can get 18 lbs in the canner in under 20 min).  He completely takes care of all our animals.  They're under his stewardship & he gets their food & water every day.  When we can or dry peaches he takes the peels off while I do other stuff.  He goes out & picks the raspberries & strawberries.  The work goes much faster than I could do by myself.  And imagine if I had more than 1 child!

Sure, you have to train them to help.  At first it might seem easier to do it yourself than hassle them into it.  But now my son is just used to helping as part of his daily routine.  (ok, he still complains sometimes about mowing the lawn, but he does it).  And he's only 8 years old.  Kids can usually do a lot more than we think.  He's been doing all the mowing since 7.  He started taking the peels off the peaches & tops off strawberries at 4.  Don't waste these great helpers you already have!  It's in their best interest too.  And they can take such pride in the peaches they helped can, fruit they helped dry, & "their" animals!

Unhappy rabbit surprise & a lesson

The first mistake when I bred the rabbits was not looking at the calendar first.  She was now probably going to give birth while we were on vacation.  Well, I had someone to feed them while we were gone, & it's not like you really do much for the babies.  I had the boy feeding the rabbits put some stuff in the nesting box.  And he'd been putting frozen water bottles out on hot days to keep the rabbits cool.
We got home from our trip in the evening & went out to check the rabbits.  Sure enough there were bunnies in the nesting box, but they were all dead!  Not a fun surprise!  My son got some gloves on to get them out, & as he lifted one out, it's head fell off & fell on his foot!  He was quite stoic about it, but I was glad I hadn't seen it.  After some research & questions to those with rabbits, my best guess it that it was too hot & they roasted to death.  The boy taking care of them said there weren't any bunnies the evening before, so they died during one day.  I looked online & apparently the babies can have trouble if it's over 80.  That is not very warm!  The solutions I saw were to give them shade (which we did with our next litter), & to run a sprinkler in front of the hutch to cool the air (which we did as well).   Right now I'm looking for a good mister, in hopes that will waste less water & not make such a big mud puddle!
So we'd had 3 litters out of our doe now.  The first litter froze to death.  The second litter we lost 2...not sure how, we found them out of the nesting box, in the hutch, dead.  Our friend's theory on that was they were nursing when the mom left & got dragged out.  And then this litter that roasted to death.  Three litters & only 5 rabbits!  I was getting discouraged, but I was also really glad to be learning all these lessons before we were hungry & counting on them for food.
The next litter however had 10 bunnies!  10 days later they were all alive, so maybe I was getting the hang of this!

Breeding the rabbits

Once you have baby rabbits, you can breed the parents again pretty soon.  If you really need meat, you can breed the doe within a few days of giving birth.  I'm doing it about a month apart while it's warm.  Gestation is about a month.
So you put the doe in with the buck.  Not the other way around, the doe is very territorial.  It doesn't take very long.  All my books said the male would squeal & fall over on his side afterwards.  Okaaay.
So I put her in.  He'd seem to get mostly done, & she'd kick him off.  I'm thinking how weird it is to be standing there, waiting for a rabbit to..."finish".   After about 10 min of this, I followed my books advice & took her out to try again another day.  The next time she wouldn't let him near her, she'd chase him away.  So I took her out & tried again 2 days later.  This time he seemed to get done, she didn't stop him, but there was no squeal or falling over.  hhhmmm.  So is she pregnant or not?  Apparently it's hard even for an expert to tell when a rabbit is expecting, so there was nothing to do but wait a month.  Some breeders do put her in again a few hours later to make sure.
My 8 year old watched, but really didn't understand what was going on.  I know farm kids see that stuff all the time, but it gave me pause.  But he seems unharmed!  So now we just had to wait.

So how did the rabbit taste?

After I had the rabbit skinned & the innards out, I put it in boiling water for 2 1/2 hours.  After that the meat just fell off the bone, & it was really easy to get it all off.  Trying not to picture a rabbit in my mind, I tried a piece.  Pretty much tastes like chicken.  Reminded me a bit of a cornish game hen.  But you could give anyone a piece & they probably wouldn't know it wasn't chicken.  What a relief!  There was always that worry in the back of my mind that what if after all this, it didn't taste good!  Now I know I can breed, raise, butcher & cook rabbits to feed my son.  AWESOME!

Time to butcher

After about 3 months, our rabbits were big.  Feed was getting expensive, & it was time to get rid of some.  I sold a few, but since this is about raising rabbits for meat, I really needed to try my hand at butchering them.  When I bought ours, Wendie had shown me how to butcher.  It was really slick, with hardly any blood.  They are obviously made to be used for meat.  But it had been 6 months by then.  I had my notes, my memory, & my dad who'd butchered deer & elk, so I was hoping I could figure it out.
I'd read lots of killing methods involving brooms & clubs.  Yipes!  I decided on Wendie's method.  She used a hollow point pellet in a BB gun to the back of the head.  It was quick & painless & easy.  I didn't want to club it & not finish it off!
We got the rabbit out of the pen, & wrapped it in an old shirt & put it in a plastic tub.  We petted it & got it all calmed down.  If they're all scared the meat doesn't taste good.  I petted it's head for a bit.  Now grown the rabbits aren't quite as cute as the babies, but they're still rabbits.  I was not wanting to do this!  I picked up the BB gun, put it to the back of the head, said "I do NOT want to do this" & then pulled the trigger.  Then came the death throes.  They lasted longer than I thought, & I was a bit worried I hadn't really finished it off.  But I had.  My New Zealand rabbits have red eyes, but when they die the eyes turn blue.  I have no idea why!
After it was dead & no longer twitching, we hung it up by it's back legs.  I first clipped off the front paws with something like garden clippers.  That was easy.  Then I cut through the neck all the way around to the bone.  I must have done something different from Wendie, because there was a lot more blood than the one little squirt she had!  I had a garbage bag below but it went on the grass too, & dripped on the wood we had it hanging from, & a couple drops even on my feet.  I used the clippers again to cut off the head through the bone.  So far so good.
Next I cut the fur around the back legs it was hanging from, & started cutting the fur away from the legs.  Once Wendie had that part done, she's been able to pull hard & pull the entire fur down & off like removing a sock.  I attempted to do this as well.  The back part came off easily, but I must have done something wrong on the front.  As I pulled the fur down the entrails started pouring out.  Oof!  Everyone watching kind of went "ew!".
Maybe I should mention that I had 3 adults & 3 kids watching.  I was not excited at having all these friends watch my first attempt...I would have much preferred they come after I'd gotten the hang of it!  But they wanted to come!  Maybe it was a help in some ways though; I was so focused on figuring out how to do it, & didn't want to look wussy in front of people, so maybe it went better.
Anyway, after the fur was off (with more struggle than Wendie had), I scooped out the entrails with my hand. (I was wearing gloves).  That was pretty easy too.  The hardest part was getting the anus out.  It was covered in bone on both sides.  Unfortunately, I had no visual recollection of seeing Wendie do that part.  My father finally helped me a bit, & we got it.  Whew!
Once I had the entrails out & fur off, it just looked like chicken meat.  Not nasty at all.  We tossed all the nasty stuff, & started the tanning going on the hide.  I'll post instructions on the butchering & tanning on another post.
So how did I feel about the whole thing in the end?  First, I'm really really glad to know I can do it.  While my first attempt wasn't pretty, I still got the job done.  I definitely don't enjoy killing rabbits.  I'd sure like to get more skilled.  Afterwards I thought it was a bit sad that one was dead.  But I was also very proud that I plowed right in, & did it without getting sick, or being hesitant about it.  As I was doing it I didn't really have time to be grossed out, I was too busy trying to do it.  I think after doing it a few times, it's something that won't even be a big deal anymore.   It's something our ancestors wouldn't have thought twice about doing, but it was an accomplishment for me!  After talking myself into it for 18 months, I did it!!  I can feed my son & I can butcher my own meat.  That's something to be proud of.  And remember, I'm nothing special.  If I can do it, you can too!

An adventure for our bunnies

We would let the bunnies out of their cages if we were in the backyard so they could get some exercise.  Either mom & the babies, or the daddy rabbit.  Once they were a bit older we'd have to separate them by genders & then only let them out in groups.  One day my son forgot to put them back in when they kids decided to go play at a neighbors house.  Oops!  There was a big storm that night.  Neither of us had any idea the rabbits were out. In the morning, I went to the basement to get something.  Imagine my surprise, when in the window well, I saw baby bunnies!  I dragged my son out of bed to climb down & get them, worrying all the time, thinking about the storm.  They had all survived & seemed totally fine.  Whew!  Although they had eaten all the leaves off the pepper plants in the garden during their free evening.

Finally, baby bunnies!

Ok so we weren't sure if our doe was expecting.  But they had gotten over the barrier, so I made a guess on when she might have babies.  We put some wood chips in the nesting box.  The next day she pulled out a bunch of her tummy fur & added it to the chips.  This is what they do shortly before giving birth.  And a few hours later, there were baby bunnies!  They are not cute when they're born.  They're bald, & their eyes are closed, & they just lay there in a pile in the nesting box.  But we were excited!  There were 7 bunnies & they were all alive!
About a week later, we found 2 out of the nesting box, back in the hutch, dead.  We emailed & asked around, & the best guess was that they were still nursing when the mother left the box, & they got dragged out & died without the warm nest.  Bummer!  So once again my stoic son disposed of dead baby rabbits.  But we still had 5!
Eventually their eyes opened & they got fur.  Now I'm not all that into "cute" animals, but DANG!  Those little tiny bunnies hopping around on the grass were adorable!!   Again people were questioning me about if I was really going to be able to butcher them.  Wendie assured me that by the time they were big enough to butcher, the cuteness factor would have gone way down.  And that we'd be sick of taking care of that many & be glad to get rid of a few.  I hoped she was right.  In the meantime we had a steady stream of kids coming by to see the baby bunnies & chase them around the lawn.  It was worth having bunnies just for how much fun that was!

Brand new bunny

In nesting box

A surprise from the rabbits!

The rabbits we got were supposedly not old enough to breed yet.  My son was convinced that the girl was pregnant.  I kept telling him she wasn't old enough, besides you can't really tell they're expecting.  Even experts can be fooled.    But about 2 1/2 weeks after we got them, there were baby bunnies in the nesting box!  Unfortunately, they were dead baby bunnies.  Now it's not uncommon for the first litter of a doe to be born dead.  But it's also possible that they froze to death since we didn't have the nesting box ready, having had no idea any bunnies were coming!
I emailed Wendie, & she'd had the same unpleasant surprise, except her chickens had partly eaten the dead babies before they found them.  Ew!  Apparently, unbeknownst to Wendie, her son had bred the rabbits.  She was very apologetic.  "Well", I thought, "lets try to be tough about this".  My kind son was very stoic about it!  He got some disposable gloves on, a plastic grocery sack, & got all the dead bunnies of the nesting box for me & threw them away.  What a trooper!  It gave me hope that we could do this, between he & I!
I also realized that they were old enough to mate, & I needed to get them out of the same cage.  I tried various "dividers" in their cage, while I was trying to find a good deal on a hutch.  But nothing worked.  The wood they nibbled off the top until there was a big enough space to jump over.  I tried wire on a frame, & they pushed & pushed on that until it came loose.  Finally, I found a hutch I could afford (someone sold me a really good one for $30, & gave me one that needed some repairs for free!), & moved the boy out.  But by then she was expecting again!  Too late for us to have bunnies for Easter, but still expecting!

Getting the rabbits

Finally, after about a YEAR of working myself up to it, I looked online for some rabbits.  I couldn't find any close to by.  I was sort of relieved, but worried too.  Would I not be able to get some after all this convincing?!  So I posted to my homeschool groups to see if anyone knew of a source.  That's how I found Wendie.  She raised meat rabbits, lived about 10 min from my house, & would not only sell me a pair just about old enough to breed, but would also demonstrate how to butcher them for me.  The timing was also perfect; she knows all sorts of outstanding preparedness things, & I was able to take a few classes from her before she moved an hour away.  A real blessing!
 Wendie raises New Zealand rabbits.  I looked those up in my book:  The number one meat rabbit in the US.  Large muscular bodies.  Also friendly & good about being handled.  "Great rabbits to get started with".  Could I have been any more blessed?
So anyway, I made an appointment in a few weeks to go get the rabbits & learn to butcher them.  I had 4 or 5 people who wanted to come & see it too.  But the cold March day came & no one ended up going but my son & I.
My son was having a great time playing with all her rabbits.  He glanced over a few times during the butchering, but didn't want to watch in detail.  That's ok, he's only 8!
Wendie tells me she has a husband, but even though her husband likes to eat rabbit, he refuses to have anything to do with the butchering.  She has to do it all herself.  Well there goes that excuse for me!  And maybe having a husband wouldn't get me out of it anyway!
The thing that amazed me was how easy it was.  I'd read multiple methods, & they all seemed pretty complicated.  Wendie had found the easiest way.  (I'll post more exact instructions when I post about me butchering).  But this was easy!  There was hardly any blood.  After making a few cuts, she was able to pull the hide down & off the whole rabbit, just like pulling off a sock!  A few more cuts, she grabbed out the entrails in one handful, & it was done.  My book had said when you get fast you can do it all in about 5 min.  I believed that now!  And once the hide was off, it looked just like chicken meat, & wasn't gross at all.  I was quite relieved, this is something I can do!  I may not like doing it, but I CAN do it.  She also taught me easy ways to do the pelts (I'll post instructions on that too).  Wendie was a treasure!
So we took our boy & girl bunnies, & headed home.  My son was of course in love with the bunnies!  I had decided not to let him name the rabbits we'd be butchering, but thought we could name the breeding pair.  We picked Hocus & Pocus because my son loves magic.  So now we just had to keep them alive until they were old enough to breed!

If you're wanting to read more about rabbits, check out www.raisingrabbitsformeat.com
I bought their ebook & it had the perfect amount of info.  It also came with a free rabbit recipe book.  And once when I emailed them with a question, she answered me back right away & was very helpful.

Meat rabbits- arguing with myself

One day out of the blue, someone mentioned that someone they know raises rabbits for meat.  What a chain reaction that set off!  "Really?!" I thought.  Hhhmmm. " I wonder how that works."   "But I don't want to go that far!  I'll forget about that". But it kept weighing on my mind.  I'd think about it a bit, & then dismiss it.  Up the thought would pop again a day or two later!  I'd research it a bit, & then try to forget about it.  No such luck!  "But I have canned chicken" I thought.  "But eventually that would run out", my brain replied.   I started learning amazing things about rabbits. Rabbit meat is just about the most nutritious meat there is.  hhhhmmmm.  One rabbit female can produce over 300 pounds of meat a year.  HHHHMMMMMMM.   You can feed your rabbits weeds & they give you fertilizer.   You don't have to age the droppings like other animals.  Dang!  You can use their pelts for a variety of purposes.  You could make things to help keep warm in the winter or for trade.   In the depression people fed their rabbits on grass clippings.  They're low maintenance & quiet.  Don't take up much space.  They're meal sized so you can butcher as needed if there's no way to preserve meat.  Rabbits produce 6 lbs of meat on the same amount of feed & water as it takes for a cow to produce 1 lb of meat.  Wow.  If I'm really interested in self sufficiency, that's hard to argue with!  An almost free, easy, endless supply of meat!
But what does it taste like?  I talked to a few people who raise rabbits.  They all claimed if it's cooked correctly, you can't tell it's not chicken.  So there goes that objection.
Now here comes my biggest objection.  I don't have a husband to butcher the rabbits for me! Clearly that's a man's job!  I just don't want to butcher rabbits!  I'm off the hook because a woman shouldn't have to butcher! (nevermind that many women for centuries would go butcher a chicken or rabbit from the yard for dinner).

I kept thinking, I bought a book on raising meat rabbits.  After about 6 months I picked up a hutch I saw a good deal on.  My mind crept closer & closer to acceptance of this idea.  Pretty much a slow, reluctant drag, with my protests getting weaker & weaker.
I mention this because people when they hear I have meat rabbits, look at me as though I'm blood thirsty or that I WANT to kill bunnies.  Not at all.  But the more I learned about it, the more of a no brainer having rabbits became.  And I reasoned that I could sell the bunnies until I REALLY needed the meat.
The next post will tell about the next step in our rabbit adventures!