Raising Rabbits for Meat... Is It Worth It? (Pantry Chat with Daniel Salatin)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- Raising rabbits for meat has gained popularity in recent years. Mostly because of their relatively low maintenance compared to other livestock. Daniel Salatin is sharing the ease and practicality of raising rabbits for meat, covering everything from their benefits to practical considerations like daily care, feeding, processing, and breed selection.
For links and resources, visit the blog post here: homesteadingfamily.com/raisin...
Time Stamps:
0:00 - Intro/Chit Chat
7:53 - Raising Meat Rabbits
14:45 - Taste
16:00 - Butchering
17:00 - Cooking
19:53 - Feeding
30:23 - Minerals
32:55 - Butchering/Processing
38:14 - Housing
44:31 - Breeding Trio
49:13 - Breeding to Butcher Time
51:26 - Breeds
55:43 - Startup Cost
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#meatrabbits #raisingmeatrabbits
We've been raising rabbits since 2020 (right before 💩 hit the fan), and we love it! Our kids love it! I get a call or an email weekly of people reaching out to get into meat rabbits! So wonderful!
To buy the meat .. 🍖 or buy the live rabbit 🐇?
The live rabbit. If you want to talk about the meat you say, "rabbit meat", not "meat rabbits". :)
@@bettinaripperger4159 to buy live buns for breeding their own stock.
I've been raising meat rabbits, for nearly 40 years. Will continue to do so. We don't sell ours, only for family & friends.
Senior citizens here..been raising American Blues...since 2020. Thanks for this video!❤❤❤❤
Been raising rabbits for a few years now, this is a nice topic to see.
Been busy with rabbits for several years. I enjoyed the interview and it was spot on for the beginning homesteader . The biggest thing is the simplicity of the operation and the lack of equipment you need for putting meat in the freezer.
Thanks for the interview God bless you all
I started breeding Silver Fox Rabbits about 2 years ago and just love them! I use the droppings in my garden for fertilizer. This summer we will butcher for the first time. I am in zone 6, (Northern California) this breed works perfectly in that zone. They get straw stuffed nest boxes in our cold winters (single digits and negative nights) and I give them little ice blocks (Tupperware size) when it is 90 degrees or hotter - they lick them and lay on them. Thanks for this video! Some very useful tips!
*Rabbits also don't make any noise, so they are great for backyards in the suburbs... Neighbors won't even know they are in the yard, compared to chickens who sing the egg laying song everyday LOL*
Rabbits are so easy to raise. they are cute. They are also very easy to process. Low cost start up also makes them an easy backyard self sustaining item to have.
We started raising rabbits 2 years ago. We are retirement age and rabbits are easy to care for. One of the grandchildren helps with butchering. We have 3 batches of baby rabbits about 2 weeks between the broods. Constant supply! 😊
Leviticus 11. Old Testament dietary laws still apply. "6 The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. 7 And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you." God gave us laws for a reason.
@SB-uw1cr Read Acts.
I’ve raised meat rabbits for five years, and am enjoying both the rabbits and the meat. The droppings go to the garden, and the urine is used to keep pests away.
Added: definitely get rabbits acclimated to your area. We live in Florida, and we use TAMUK, Californian and white New Zealand because they handle the heat better.
Urine? Can you expand on that?
Thanks Josh and Daniel! This was very informative. We are leaning more and more toward getting a breeding trio. We are empty-nesters and that is all we would need. Great video!
My mom raised meat rabbits in California, Central valley and took them to the farmers market in San Francisco to sell, dressed out. I don't remember what she charged for them, it's been a number of years ago but she set up her cages with a shelter around them and underneath she prepared a worm bed so all the droppings fell into a bed underneath, inside that housing and then the worms fed off of the rabbit waste, coffee grounds and some kitchen scraps and made excellent soil fertilizer for the garden and the fruit trees and whatever else you needed and then she'd sell worms also
We have several grocery stores here in middle Georgia, but only one carries rabbit. It's $5/pound. Most of our rabbits are 6-8 pounds each, so that's a lot of money.
Smart!
You need to check on more than once in HOT weather. For the masses in heat we need to add frozen tiles to help them keep cool- cant afford to keep them in AC building
I do that, too. Frozen ceramic tiles are great for cooling.
I've also heard frozen water bottles. I'm in AZ at some elevation, but it still gets over 100 with lows of 80--90 overnight in summer.
We lost our rabbit when we had a weird heat wave while we were camping! He was fine when we left and the weather was nice. Felt so bad!
Don't breed them in the summer. Give them a break it will help them survive.
Great video! I been researching rabbits for my mini homestead for months. Good information
Eating wise, they fall under the "everything tastes better with real butter" rule.
Breeding wise : i´d go more towards a spiral mating system like some use for chickens. I.e. best boy(s) (that is son of the breeding buck for that doeline) moves to next line, girls stay in their mothers breeding group. You can easily slot in a new buck, doe or even add a new bloodline in such a system. All claims aside, unless you can breed pretty much most offspring to prove breeding health and cull hard, starting with more genetic variety gives more resilliance then starting with pretty much breeding family members. You can decide to breed closer either for meat and checking for problems from recessive genes (that is the hidden stuff both parents need to pass on to become visible) or in case of emergency. Breeding yourself into a corner from the start is asking for trouble when finding new breeding stock is impossible.
Personally i raise 4ish pound rex dwarf for meat. They fit my hands, pot, freezer, cages and i will still be able to handle them at 80+. Not an option for me with the big supposed meat breeds. Any rabbit breed can be eaten, just right build makes for more meat. Small, just like big has its limitations, but with small 2 in the pot is a solution. Now i only need to feed me and sometimes a visitor (or 2) and i prefer a closed breeding herd due to finding right colors (broken X broken = possible megacolon so no to those) size (smaller is the trend) and normal ears (lop = possible infections and mini ears bodytemp problems, since they need ears for cooling of, rabbits don't sweat). I don't breed for max production, due to cage and freezer space along with not breeding through summer heat (although growing season = cheap feed to supplement the extra mouths with). So mostly it is spring and fall/winter breeding, i.e. a litter per doe every 4-6 months. Starting at 6 months old and for your bigger breeds up to 9 for first litter, one retired doe gave me 2 7 and 1 5 kits litters at 7-8 years old. Longevity has its value as a health indicator for your breeding stock, but yes it requires going more gently on your breeding schedules then every 6-8 weeks. On that note also, feed your does the same diet from breeding to weaning. Milk + cecotropes are what determine what the kits can digest and what they learn is food. And wean at 8 weeks or over (although remove boys before 12 weeks, or they may breed mom). lot of weaning entritis deaths are from weaning early. Slow down a bit and have less worry about them living long enough to eat. Also on that note, rabbit has 6 to 8 teats, so be critical of big litters, they may not all get enough time on the teat. Have say 11 and loose 3 or have 8 and loose none is same result in the pot, but the latter is easier on the doe and you.
We've been discussing getting rabbits for a few years. Excellent interview, thank you, Josh.
We've found that hair sheep are easy and could be the next step for animals after bunnies... Easy to handle, easy to feed on not perfect pasture... Just watch the Rams
Build bunny tractors with wire bottoms, move them often, keep water clean, supplement with garden scraps, give a little pellets and get the kids involved
Would be good to see a video on sheep
Do you keep your grass short? Ours gets quite long and I would expect that using a wire bottom would just flatten all the grass each time you move the tractor
This needs to be an STS class. Like the brid raising classes.
Thank, good info starting out with 5 acres.
Thank you Daniel and Josh. Much appreciated.
We started raising rabbits and we prefer it to meat chickens. So much easier to process, space, ease of finding feed for them because we don't have pasture. We can easily feed certain weeds during the summer so its free.
Just want to say that if you live in an area that will not allow chickens you can have rabbits
I raised meat rabbits when I was a kid. Made some good money. I’m old now and my grandkids have two rabbits at my house. No one would eat the meat now😝
Expenses of setting up is a bit more expensive than stated. Wire has gone up tremendously and it’s actually comparable to buy them ready made. My start up was around $700 from bare ground. Still cheaper than my chickens and larger animals.
agreed - the wire is very expensive - I came here to say that. It may vary locally. I had to set up a roof to cover my rabbits so I was probably 1k to get going (in central FL). Still worth it. Also I would advise people - go for the fancy j-clip tool it makes putting cages together soooo much easier.
Don't need a sculder, plucker exc for rabbits.
My first batch is 4 weeks away from butchering!
Support from Los Angeles👌🇺🇸💛🖤🙏
Really, great show. I am actually getting delivered 2 trios of New Zeeland's and Rex breeds. I see much more of a benefit for the Doller than a large chicken flock. Which, sure pop out the eggs. But, cost a good penny to maintain. So, I am cutting back on poultry to breed rabbits for pelts and meat.
I got chickens and can’t even butcher the extra roo 🤣🤦🏼♀️ idk how ima butcher bunnies
That was incredibly wonderful very very informative after all these years to know about rabbit thank you I’ve always wanted to do that but everything he said put it in. It was excellent.
Great information. This is exactly what I was looking for years ago, before I started my backyard meat rabbits.
Is rabbit meat really good for you? No. God said don't eat it for a reason. Leviticus 11 6 The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. 7 And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
I grew up on afarm in West Virginia and my dad raised meat rabbits. He also raised cows, pigs and chickens. The rabbits are a wonderful, delicious meat. Just as long as the children realize the baby rabbits are not pets.
Very cool. Been wanting to see this video for a while...
This is a great chat! Thanks Daniel & Josh
Excellent advice! I've had rabbits for 5 years now, scaled my operation up and down. It was hard to find a manageable way to feed my family with them. Making mince from rabbit was a lot of work. I will try cooking them whole and shredding them with the added bonus of stock, great tip on cooking.
They are easy going and their fertilizer is great in the garden
My husband and I have been raising rabbits for over 15 years and we love it. The meat is wonderful. I use rabbit meat instead of chicken.
That was fantastic information!!!
I'm 69 years old, when I was 4 years old my father raised rabbits to sell the meat, but eventually he had to stop and just raised for our family to eat. My parents would butcher at night when us kids slept. Then when they cooked the rabbits they told us it was chicken (lol) I remember asking my mother why the leg looked different.
We adore our TAMUKS. They are technically my 8 year old’s operation but we much prefer them to broilers! And if we want some chicken for soups or casseroles we still have the old laying hens or extra roosters for that. Rabbits are much easier to raise and process than broilers. And their manure easily collected for the gardens and orchards.
Great Video, thank you🐇
Best way to raise rabbits. Let an acre go wild, and put out a trap.
Kinda sorta joking. But we had a tonne of wild rabbits in my neighborhood til the lawn chmicals started taking out the clover and dandelions Crazy how short sighted people truly are.
Do you know what kind of rabbits those were that were shown in Daniel's pictures?
You also don't need to feed rabbit Tractor supply Gill Bates farm supplied Roundup GMO feed and get glyphosate poisoning . Glyphosate isn't a problem because it's just on the outside of the plant .Roundup goes inside the plant .
Volume isn't very good on Daniel's end
Would love to hear what breed of meat rabbits do best in Upstate NY if anyone has experience!
Can you boil the carcass like a chicken carcass to make broth? If so, does it taste good in soup?
Yes, you can. It has a great flavor like other broth when veggies and seasonings are added to it.
Yes, and I can rabbit too.
check out the American Blue!
Obviously, they are not in an area with RHD with the tracror idea.
We are just getting into Rabbits and I wish $500 was a realistic start up cost 😬
Rabbits are too cute. We tried raising them but I kept having nightmares about it because my cats are just too soft and fluffy and I didn't want to skin another soft and fluffy bunny. Hunting wild ones would be much different.
Eons ago people bought "bunny spools"
AWARENESS: If you have a friend who doesn't eat pork, verify with them if they eat rabbit. It is on the list of biblical unclean
I've eaten plenty of both.
No more.
Unclean according to the Biblical food laws.
@jakebredthauer5100 that is Old Testament laws. When Jesus Christ died on the cross that ee may have salvation, we recieved a new covenant.
@@mmharris11
What about eating ham?
What do you have to say about that? Ham has pork in it.
The Bible says don't eat pork.
Do you think eating pork is okay?
@@jakebredthauer5100 Mark 7: 18-19 in the New Testimate, Jesus declared all foods clean.
Mark 7:18-20 KJV
[18] And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; [19] because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? [20] And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
@@mmharris11
Jesus disagreed with the Pharisees about their traditions concerning (clean) meat that had been sacrificed to idols and then sold on the market. Jesus was not talking about ham and he was not talking about Old Testament law. You are guilty of taking scripture out of context.. Peter continued to believe in unclean animals, Acts chapter 10, which is evidence against your theory about unclean animals being sanctified by Jesus blood. The hog was equally unfit to eat after the crucification.
Jesus lived under the old covenant anyway, right? That should help you identify what he was referring to. Acts was new covenant.
Trump 2024 or bust
According to the bible, there are qualifiers as to which animals and creatures are food. Rabbit (and so many land, sea and air) creatures ARE NOT FOOD. Readers are encouraged to study and research what the Creator made as food for mankind. There is nothing wrong with not knowing (to some degree) but when the opportunity first crosses one's path, that is the time to not let it go. Blessings to one and all.
No, it's not worth it. God put rabbits on the do not eat list. Along with pork, which is also horrible for you. And shellfish. They are nature's janitors.
That's awful!! My mom was doing that I made her feel guilty!! She raised chickens, when my mom killed them I couldn't eat them!!! STOP EATING THE POOR RABBIT!!!!! I grew up with hunters!!! Stop bragging about killing RABBITs its heartless!!!!!!!😢😢😢
How horrible that you made your mother feel guilty for providing her family food.... 😒
My son won't eat deer (Bambi) but loves rabbit. Everyone has different tastes. He can't handle butchering any animals. My mom's the same way. 😊
When times get tough, you will be at your neighbors home begging for food. You will learn that most animals are here to be eaten by the ones who are smart enough to grow what can be fed from the land. Stores are not forever nor is money to buy with. I just hope you don't have children to feed.