# Comparing rabbit raising to chicken raising



## Mrs. Mucket (Feb 25, 2011)

I have chickens but have never raised rabbits. If you have had both, can you give a general comparison about level of maintenance and processing? It looks to me like rabbits require less maintenance than chickens and experience fewer potential problems. Is the processing similar?


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 25, 2011)

I would say, a big question would be, " Do you prefer to eat rabbit all the time?" I have to say even though I have had my fair share of rabbit stew, smoked rabbit, fried rabbit, rabbit salad. I prefer cooking and eating chicken, Not that I mind a rabbit stew once and a while, but chicken is more versatile when cooking.


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## lovinglife (Feb 25, 2011)

I buy boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for 1.70 a pound and stock up.  Personally I love rabbit meat, tender and yummy, and they are way cuter than meat birds.  Cleaning is far easier than chickens and I think the meat is healthier also.  I will raise meat rabbits before I will raise meat chickens.  If you have never raised meat chickens you can always pick up a dozen and give it a go.  Track your food costs, animal costs and if you don't process yourself processing costs.  I can almost buy a whole fryer for the price of processing here, not a good investment for me, but that is just my opinion.    Guess you can tell I am voting for RABBITS!


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## Mrs. Mucket (Feb 25, 2011)

Actually we're thinking of raising both. I should have clarified...We'll keep raising chickens but some of my (adult) kids are interested in adding meat rabbits. Our meat chickens take 10-12 weeks to mature and rabbits are ready in what, a few weeks?

Also it would be easier for us to raise rabbits in the winter--chickens do take up more space. Right now with our setup we can only raise meat chickens from April through October. Our winter coop is maxed out with laying hens and our meatie breeders. 

We process our chickens and would do the rabbits too. No one in our family has eaten much rabbit but I remember it tasting similar to chicken, which we all eat a lot of. So we (extended family of 21 and counting) would eat both.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 25, 2011)

I liked it  when you said "kids" you clarified with "adults." My now 9 year old son started raising his own meat rabbits last summer. He is so interested in butchering, skinning, cooking, that we decided letting him raise rabbits would be easier than constantly trying to take him squirrel  hunting. 

My husband's family pretty much grew up on rabbit meat, my father n'law still raises lots of them, so it wasn't a big step for us to get our son going on it, and to ask grandpa to mentor him. He has just 2 does and a buck right now, I didn't want to wear out my welcome with asking for too much help from grandpa.   

My husband can butcher, very well, but refusses to. His dad used to make him butcher the rabbits when he was a boy and he hated killing them. So he has a bait of an attitude about it. But he has acknowleged with some pride recently how much interest his son has in the process. 

Raising meat rabbits is pretty easy, and my son can now almost do all the butchering by himself and does all the chores by himself.


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## hoodat (Feb 25, 2011)

If you have the space by all means keep both. If you have to choose, rabbits are not the escape artists chickens are and can be processed much easier and faster. Since they are confined to (hopefully) varmint proof cages you are also less likely to lose them to predators. Too bad they don't lay eggs or they'd be the perfect backyard animal.


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## rabbitman (Feb 25, 2011)

I have had them both. It is much easier to process chickens, rabbits you have to skin them, than gut them it is a long and gross process. And chickens you just have to chop their heads off and I boil the bodies in a heated barrel, that way the feathers come off much much easier. Personally I think rabbits taste better, if you are serving a fancy meal than defianlty use rabbits.


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## DianeS (Feb 25, 2011)

Wow, looks like you're getting a variety of opinions!

To me, chickens are much easier. Easier to house (one big house), easier to keep clean (use more shavings), easier to feed and water (one big bowl for each no matter how many chickens), and they provide food each day for me without me having to do anything to get it (eggs).

Rabbits on the other hand... Each one needs its own hutch (unless same sex and raised together from a young age), you need a sanitation system if you have more than just a couple rabbits (something to keep urine from soaking into the ground where it will stink), food and water must be put in each cage separately (time consuming), and in order for me to get food from them I have to butcher one. 

They feel about the same amount of work to process to me. 

As far as maintenance: I have had one chicken die, but never had any other issues with the chickens. Rabbits on the other hand - I've had one with an infected eye, one that wouldn't breed, one that got stolen, one that wouldn't mother her kits and in fact did not even have milk, one with splay leg, and so on. 

That said, rabbits are still worth it. They're "more" work than chickens, but not "too much" work, for me.


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## norcal (Feb 25, 2011)

I'm not too experienced, but since I have both I will chime in.  

To me rabbits are WAY easier to process.  Plucking chickens is painstaking, unless you have the equipment to do it.   

Rabbits take more room, but you don't, generally have the same social issues.   I've had MEGA problems w/ my chickens pulling each others feathers - to the point of complete exasperation on my part.

I don't like home-grown chicken unless it's young.

I will say that our franken-chicken grew to eating weight by 6 weeks, we slaughtered at 8.   He was huge - at the BYCs sight they said they just call them meaties.   Got him at TSC.

The eggs are great, but I thought we were talking meat....


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## dewey (Feb 25, 2011)

After many years of having both I can say that my poultry processing days are pretty much over unless by special request.  And I love chickens and chicken meat.  I'd rather process 20 rabbits than 1 bird.  Rabbits are so very much easier, quicker, and cleaner to process than chickens, and I've processed probably hundreds of each over the years.    

They have the lowest feed to meat conversion ratio pound for pound of any livestock.  That's if _quality meat stock_ has been invested in to begin with, and carefully managed so they can be processed at around 8-10 weeks, 12 wks on the very outside, because after that the feed cost invested is not worth any potential weight gain and the grower will realizes a loss, plus the meat quality will be inferior.

Rabbits can provide much more meat than even cattle can for a large family, if managed properly, but like everything else they require good husbandry skills and management.


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## Jamie Dog Trainer (Feb 26, 2011)

I have had rabbits and chickens.  I have raised chickens for meat, rabbits were intended meat but never butchered any.  So, the comparison for food I can't do.  But I have a lot of experience with the maintiance of both and I would say, hands down, chickens are far more work than rabbits.


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## PattySh (Feb 26, 2011)

I have both also. My rabbits have never been sick (several years) and chickens have been. So I think that is luck of the draw.  Rabbits way nicer  and faster to process. I hate plucking chickens although you can skin them also. We just had rabbit meat burritos so my family enjoys rabbit just like chicken and I think they are pretty much interchangeable.


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## dottysfarm (Mar 8, 2011)

idk how much help this will be but hopefully a little... i plan to let my rabbits range like my chickens do, they will be able to go in and out of their house and keep only the breeding stock separate from the meat stock. From what i know of butchering chickens vs any fur bearing creature is that I would MUCH rather butcher a fur bearing creature than deal with chicken feathers. Just my thoughts. I see raising both as being quite simple. the rabbit I have now and the chickens i have now require little work from me and tons of enjoyment.


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## dottysfarm (Mar 8, 2011)

OH, and it would be great to do a rotating pasture with the rabbits, let them fertilize your soil for a whole summer and then the next year move them and use their previous spot to till for the garden  just a thought.


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## hoodat (Mar 8, 2011)

I'd look into making a rabbit tractor (same principle as a chicken tractor) and move it around. If you keep rabbits in an enclosure be sure to have a wire bottom. They dig like badgers. If they once get established in burrows they can be dickenses to catch.


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## MsPony (Mar 8, 2011)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> I liked it  when you said "kids" you clarified with "adults." My now 9 year old son started raising his own meat rabbits last summer. He is so interested in butchering, skinning, cooking, that we decided letting him raise rabbits would be easier than constantly trying to take him squirrel  hunting.
> 
> My husband's family pretty much grew up on rabbit meat, my father n'law still raises lots of them, so it wasn't a big step for us to get our son going on it, and to ask grandpa to mentor him. He has just 2 does and a buck right now, I didn't want to wear out my welcome with asking for too much help from grandpa.
> 
> ...


This reminds me of a funny story.

My hubby grew up with meat rabbits too, raised, butchered and ate the. When we met I had two little pet does that were raised outside. One night I asked for his help getting them in the hutch, he grabbed my precious doe by the ears and threw her in the hutch. I shrieked and asked him what he was thinking, he said that's how he was taught to grab the meat rabbits.  I taught him how to pick up pet rabbits after that.


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 8, 2011)

MsPony said:
			
		

> 20kidsonhill said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Love it : I was trying to keep a couple rabbits tamer for the kids to play with( breeding does), but my husband insists on grabbing them by the backs of the necks, which is fine for meat rabbits, but makes a tame rabbit really nervous. We have argued about this for years and he still refusses to scoop them up so they don't go into flight mood from being grabbed from behind.   KNow I will have to just be thankful he didn't grab them by the ears.


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## TigerLilly (Mar 8, 2011)

Having raised chickens and rabbits at different times, I can tell you that the maintenance of the rabbits is more time consuming. You can't just fill a 5 gal bucket feeder for the rabbits...well, you could, but they'd only get really fat AND chew up the bucket. And unless you have an automatic water system hooked up, filling the water bottles takes some time as well.
I am going to be getting back into raising rabbits soon, for meat this time (before it was pets & show). Love both chicken & rabbit, so it'll be nice to have the choice!


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## Mitransplant (Mar 8, 2011)

Does anyone know what a   SELF   rabbit is?   There is a woman here in town who said they are going to be born next week and in six weeks I could buy some.  Didn't want to be dumb and ask her if I didn't have to. She raises Dwarf Hotot's and another dwarf something.  I tried googling but couldn't find a picture. ANYONE????

THANKS,

A newby to this


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## TigerLilly (Mar 9, 2011)

Self group: solid color in black, blue, lilac, blue eyed white, and ruby eyed white.


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## Mitransplant (Mar 9, 2011)

Thanks for answering my question. I was at a loss as to what a self was, do remember her saying something about black. Guess now I can act like I know what she was talking about. Appreciate it a lot.


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## TigerLilly (Mar 9, 2011)

No problem! I had to refresh my memory though...been a while since I even worried about colors.


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## horsechick (Mar 28, 2011)

Hi,
We have both, as far as taking care of, I would say rabbits are easier, cleaner, and take up MUCH less space. 
Both are great to eat.


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## Sama_Lama (Mar 28, 2011)

I have both but I've had chickens longer. I would say it probably really depends on how you keep them but mine live together in the same coop. In my situation the chickens are far easier, make less of a mess and provide quite a few eggs but I don't keep chickens for meat, I'm sure that would require quite a bit more work. The bunnies are kept in hanging cages over the chickens but they are pooping machines! Even with both it's not a lot of extra work for me, but I'm sure if they weren't in hanging wire cages it would add 10 fold to my choir load.  
I haven't processed bunnies yet but I have heard they are quite easy, again, I think it's just whatever you are use to.


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## Citylife (Apr 2, 2011)

I would rather butcher a rabbit all day long over a chicken.  I find that to be a process.  Rabbits are quick and easy. And of course, any butchering is easier if you have an area set up to do it.
I find we can only eat 4-5 ounces of rabbit meat as it is more filling and still light. I have both chickens and rabbits but my chickens are for eggs as I only have 3 and am in the city.
I dont know what your set up is like but you can check my page...  my set up is quite easy to care for.  
And for fly control, christmas tree shaped car fresheners in VANILLA spaced out 4-5 feet do wonders!  I use them every summer now.

the lady with 4 dogs, 3 city chickens, 6 meat rabbits, their kits and a lizard


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## gocrow77 (Apr 15, 2011)

I am also in the group that would rather butcher a rabbit than a chicken.  However, chickens provide you with both meat and eggs - rabbits just give you meat.  I tend not to butcher too many chickens at once, but will butcher and remove and trouble making extra roos or unproductive hens one or sometimes a few at a time.  Rabbit meat is one the the most dense and nutritious meats available - we love it!


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