Comparing rabbit raising to chicken raising

[Jamie Dog Trainer]

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.

 

[PattySh]

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.

 

[dottysfarm]

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.

 

[dottysfarm]

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.

 

[hoodat]

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.

 

[MsPony]

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.

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.

 

[20kidsonhill]

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.

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.

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.

 

[TigerLilly]

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!

 

[Mitransplant]

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

 

[TigerLilly]

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