Advertising to sell rabbits

[TaylorBug]

Hey all! I’ve been raising rabbits for my fair stock for a few years and this spring I really got into raising for meat. One problem I’m running into is that I’m having trouble advertising and getting people to buy from me. Does anyone have any recommendations?
**I have heard that Facebook is good for selling but I do not have Facebook.

 

[Ridgetop]

Try selling to people that you or your spouse work with first. Some areas won't let you sell butchered animals, so you have to sell live, Then you can butcher as a "favor". Depending on how many PETA members there are around you, I would only advertise at the feed store, etc. at first.

If you have any ethnic markets that sell meat, particularly Asian markets that sell live poultry, you can see if they would buy from you. We used to sell a lot of our rabbits to a Chinese market downtown. Then the woman who owned the store started breeding her own rabbits. Not as nice as ours because my husband was showing his rabbits and we were selling the culls which were still excellent specimens, Hers were not nice.

The problem will be finding a store to take them that can butcher. They have to mainly be USDA to butcher.

 

[Duckfarmerpa1]

I would recommend getting on FB jus5 to sell rabbits. I had quit FB for a long time. Then decided to start a farm page. Since then my farm stuff sells like crazy...and, yes, I can’t keep up with the bunny business..and, I’ve got a lot of rabbits!. Craigslist..you have to deal with those dumb scammers, plus the rabbits don’t sell fast...and you just have to feed them longer. I don’t do meat breeds...so, I don’t mind feeding them...but, you might?

 

[Tale of Tails Rabbitry]

Facebook not only has a policy against selling any animal, they have aggressively been closing down people's accounts and groups for doing it. You can ask a "networking" question as in are there any breeders around my area, or anyone in my area looking for a mentor, and then the conversation needs to go to a private messaging. Avoid sales and in-search-of type of posts. FB breeders there all get the meaning.

 

[Ridgetop]

I think Craigslist also has a policy against sell for slaughter. Not sure, but when I tried to post rabbits, lambs etc. for meat, I was not allowed to post. Maybe just my location - Los Angeles County - doesn't allow it. I don't do Facebook either. I also don't want a lot of people coming to the farm with the LGDs. When I used to sell Holland Lops for pets, some people would come and treat it like a petting zoo for their little kids. They would run through the rabbitry and poke fingers into the cages. I also sold cage for a package deal. I made money, and had lot of repeat sales when the idiots did not follow directions, "accidently" killed their new bunnies, and returned for another unfortunate. I would breed for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, and Easter. Then I would breed again 2 weeks later for the replacement bunnies they would need when they killed the first ones. It was a money maker selling my show culls, but in the end I couldn't face selling those bunnies to certain slow death. I much prefer selling for meat. At least it's quick. And I still have repeat business.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

FB you have to be creative in the wording as they don't allow sales like the previous poster said. The rabbit is "up for discussion" or "looking for a new zip code". At least that wording works for now and doesn't get flagged by the bots. If a member reports your post it would probably get taken down and it's hard to get the original post back, so would probably just need to make a new post.

Craigslist does allow sales of livestock in the 'Farm and Garden' category, BUT there are jerks who routinely flag posts so they get taken down. I dunno if they are die hard vegan animal lovers or just trying to get rid of the competition. You also need to be clear in the wording or the bots might take down the ad. I don't think that Craigslist allows pet sales anymore, but might allow "rehoming fee", so you'd have to do some research to see what kind of ads are showing up and possibly do something similar.

I know in the CA rabbit show FB group I'm in, there's at least one person who goes to the rabbit shows just to buy culls, but I don't know what kind of pricing they give. You might look into that as well.

 

[Niele da Kine]

I maintain a personal farm website, http://hillsidefarmhawaii.com , so I can advertise there and just put a link on FB but most, actually lately, all the rabbits have been selling via the webpage without any outside advertising. Craigslist lets folks sell 'livestock' and as angora 'micro-sheep' the rabbits here are livestock. They also sell for enough that shipping them is practical, with a meat rabbit, you don't need to access anyone further away than they'd be willing to drive to pick up dinner.

If any of your grocery stores have any bulletin boards, a post there may be productive. Our local Tractor Supply has a bulletin board. The more rural type of bulletin boards would be less likely to run afoul of PETA folks.

Also, as meat rabbits, once you get a clientele, they should be repeat customers so once word gets around it should be easier.

 

[Nao57]

Cal Ranch has a bulletin board. But sometimes it gets taken down.

I would think people don't like paying 10 dollars a pound for ground beef and other meats. This is what its going to be at soon. So if people aren't stupid, sooner or later they might think... "Hm... store is selling ground beef for $8 bucks a pound. This guy is selling rabbit meat for a lot less... which costs less?"

Yes I exaggerated on the ground beef price, but it really is headed that way due to monopolies by corporations, etc, and shortages. The proof of the gouging happening is how they've already tossed the middle class.

You may need to educate people a little bit.