The Sheep Shape Shire….A journey of sorts….

[Mini Horses]

"Busy" doesn't begin to describe that list! Wow.

 

[Ridgetop]

100 holes (cages) of breeding does is completely doable. Since you would have them on a rotation schedule of breeding and kindling, you would have groups of rabbits ready for sale at manageable times. I do think you should check into the traveling rabbit production buyer that picks up live fryers by the lb. I believe that your profit margin would be higher than if you were paying someone to butcher. Also, you would not have the huge amount of offal and skins to dispose of. Selling live fryers in bulk would not prevent you from having several private clients to whom you could supply dressed rabbits.

In SoCal we can't sell dressed meat carcasses without a license, however, you can get around that by selling the fryers live and dressing them out as a "favor" to your customers. DH did that and the additional benefit is that we were able to keep the livers and hearts for our own freezer.

Easy Rabbit Liver Dinner
1 lb. bacon - strips cut in 4 pieces
1 onion chopped or sliced thin
6 rabbit livers (these are large double livers so you can divide them in half) & hearts
Flour and seasoning to taste
1 can cream mushroom soup (or make your own tye of gravy)

Fry bacon and add onions. Saute onions then remove bacon strips and bacon from grease. Dredge livers & hearts in seasoned flower to coat. Saute in oil till lightly browned. Remove livers and add to bacon and onions. Use rest of dredging flour to make a roux. Add can of mushroom soup to roux and add half a can of water to make gravy. Add more or less water to gravy for desired consistency. Once gravy is simmering add the livers, bacon, and onions. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

 

[Legamin]

100 holes (cages) of breeding does is completely doable. Since you would have them on a rotation schedule of breeding and kindling, you would have groups of rabbits ready for sale at manageable times. I do think you should check into the traveling rabbit production buyer that picks up live fryers by the lb. I believe that your profit margin would be higher than if you were paying someone to butcher. Also, you would not have the huge amount of offal and skins to dispose of. Selling live fryers in bulk would not prevent you from having several private clients to whom you could supply dressed rabbits.

In SoCal we can't sell dressed meat carcasses without a license, however, you can get around that by selling the fryers live and dressing them out as a "favor" to your customers. DH did that and the additional benefit is that we were able to keep the livers and hearts for our own freezer.

Easy Rabbit Liver Dinner
1 lb. bacon - strips cut in 4 pieces
1 onion chopped or sliced thin
6 rabbit livers (these are large double livers so you can divide them in half) & hearts
Flour and seasoning to taste
1 can cream mushroom soup (or make your own tye of gravy)

Fry bacon and add onions. Saute onions then remove bacon strips and bacon from grease. Dredge livers & hearts in seasoned flower to coat. Saute in oil till lightly browned. Remove livers and add to bacon and onions. Use rest of dredging flour to make a roux. Add can of mushroom soup to roux and add half a can of water to make gravy. Add more or less water to gravy for desired consistency. Once gravy is simmering add the livers, bacon, and onions. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

That does sound much easier if there is a “traveling rabbit production buyer” in our area. I in an outlying area from the city (700,000 pop.) and closer to several small towns of 25,000 or less. Many of them have only a one local non-fast food restaurant. Currently there is no rabbit for sale in the outer area and is difficult to find in the city. My goal is to fill the need for the outlying areas which could easily consume 100-200 per month. I do need to find a certified butcher as there are only a few restaurant owners who would buy live and let an unlicensed butcher dress ‘as a favor’. Currently we are in critical shortage of butchers in our area and getting an appointment for slaughter/dressing is a wait of 1-3 YEARS. It is not ideal….so there are some people willing to work outside the system just to have meat of any kind at a fair price. I will probably have to work towards this rather than just ‘set up shop’ but I’d like to see it operational within a year.
Thanks for the recipe! looks great! I definitely screen shot it and saved! For a start I already have about 40 people who will privately purchase one to three ’live’ bunnies per month so the basis of the operation is moving forward. By the time I make all the arrangements and get the health license I will have enough customers to justify full production.