Back Yard Rabbits

[rdocr]

The booklet, Back Yard Rabbits, that many of you have gotten a free copy from our website, has a part 2 Sustainable Rabbit Raising, availabe now. Just ask for it from the website.

It is in keeping with our efforts to promote home grown rabbits as an independent meat source.

Contents:
Reasons for growing rabbits for food:
Chicken Wipeout
Beef, Pork, Lamb
Rabbits?
Refrigeration
The Butcher Shop In The City
Worms
Meat Supply
Sustainable Rabbit Raising
For Further Reading

Ralph

[Dasha]

Hi Ralph,

I've enjoyed the other books that I have that you wrote - they are very informative. We're still pondering keeping rabbits. I don't know how to find this Part 2 Sustainable Rabbit Raising on your website. Can you help please?

Dasha

[rdocr]

Hi Ralph,

I've enjoyed the other books that I have that you wrote - they are very informative. We're still pondering keeping rabbits. I don't know how to find this Part 2 Sustainable Rabbit Raising on your website. Can you help please?

Dasha

Glad you like our stuff
Go to the Service Page for all the free things

Opps !
Well, it will be there soon. Sorry about that.

As to rabbits. They may be your only meat supply if Matt's new article plays out, and I think it will.

Ralph

[DoomNymph]

Hey Ralph...  I haven't read your material yet, but I have a question.  I have a couple of house rabbits (NDs) that I have had for years.  Every morning I give them a nice handful of timothy hay - it helps clear their digestive tract.  My DH and I have considered raising Florida Whites for meat purposes.  My concern is that if the supply chain goes down, I won't be able to get hay for them and I do not have the growing space to grow my own.  Is there an alternative that I can grow in a relatively small space that will serve the same purpose?  I would like to keep my rabbits healthy.

[wordnerd]

I'm afraid I would starve to death bedore I could kill a rabbit   
I KNOW my life could depend on it - but I simply don't think I could do it

[DoomNymph]

I know, Wordy.  Rabbits are so cute and sweet (not to mention, very smart), that it's really hard to look at them as a food source.  We have already begun to mentally prep my SD.  She's going to have a very tough time with this, but we figure if we keep netherlands as pets and the florida whites for food, she'll learn the difference and, eventually, be okay with it.

[thomasl]

I need to build a hutch...want to get some rabbits soon..to go with the goats and chickens.

[ConcernedMomma]

What I need is some nice rabbit recipes ...other than stew 

[Dasha]

I just saw an ad in my local paper. It's a californian senior buck, a new zealand senior doe, junior new zealand cross californian rabbits, rabbit hutch and accessories for $99 OBO. The hutch looks really good.

We could tractor them all day in our unused chicken tractor so they would be happy rabbits. We could feed them food that we grew ourselves. And when the time came we could thank them very much for their lives, kill them oh so humanely, and try to feel very spiritual about it.

I have watched this video over and over, trying to imprint it into my subconscience.

http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/video/Rabbit%20Killing%20w:AD.mov

I know (really I KNOW) that raising a rabbit humanely and killing a rabbit humanely is so much better than eating a chicken or cow raised in misery.

Now I just have to do it.

[ConcernedMomma]

wow to that video ..and yes, I hear you about the ...'now I just have to do it part'.
I am book marking that for future. Much much better than other stuff I have seen/read about. Thanks.

[Dasha]

I was just talking up the rabbits idea with my soft-hearted 19 year old. She said if we raise rabbits for meat she's going to move out. I always knew that my daughters would be the biggest hurdle.

[periol]

I was just talking up the rabbits idea with my soft-hearted 19 year old. She said if we raise rabbits for meat she's going to move out. I always knew that my daughters would be the biggest hurdle.

is she vegan?  for moral reasons?
if not, it's a ridiculous stance.  take her to a meat factory, any will do.  that'll change her mind quick.

[Dasha]

I was just talking up the rabbits idea with my soft-hearted 19 year old. She said if we raise rabbits for meat she's going to move out. I always knew that my daughters would be the biggest hurdle.

is she vegan?  for moral reasons?
if not, it's a ridiculous stance.  take her to a meat factory, any will do.  that'll change her mind quick.

Lifelong vegetarian. When the rest of the family started to eat a little meat again a few years ago, she absolutely refused.

Yes, I gave her all the moral arguments. I figured we would start by feeding the rabbits to our dog, who right now eats raw chicken, turkey and beef - only some of which is humanely raised. I talked, I reasoned. Give the rabbits a really good life and just one bad day. It all makes sense to me.

Did I mention that she was a 19 year old girl? 'Nuff said.

[periol]

I was just talking up the rabbits idea with my soft-hearted 19 year old. She said if we raise rabbits for meat she's going to move out. I always knew that my daughters would be the biggest hurdle.

is she vegan?  for moral reasons?
if not, it's a ridiculous stance.  take her to a meat factory, any will do.  that'll change her mind quick.

Lifelong vegetarian. When the rest of the family started to eat a little meat again a few years ago, she absolutely refused.

Yes, I gave her all the moral arguments. I figured we would start by feeding the rabbits to our dog, who right now eats raw chicken, turkey and beef - only some of which is humanely raised. I talked, I reasoned. Give the rabbits a really good life and just one bad day. It all makes sense to me.

Did I mention that she was a 19 year old girl? 'Nuff said.

that sucks.  your home-grown rabbit is probably healthier than some of the factory farm veggies she eats.

oh well, necessity will trump all.

[rdocr]

Dasha, and all you others with this problem.

What is the difference between a cute little, cuddly piggy and a rabbit? Do you think of the piggy every time you bite a hot dog?  SOME  of them are still pork.

It is in the mind set. I try one time, then it's up to them to chasnge or---starve?

When we moved ouyt of suburbia and I was faced with kiling our own. It took some rethinking. Before we moved back into the city, I had a butcher come out , make the kill and haul away the entire steer or whatever. I helped, but he did the heavy work.

Once, we raied a Limousene steer. I called him Baby. He was over 1500 pounds. When he saw the butcher with a rifle, he bolted through the 2 X 12 corral fance and fled out to the farthest pasture corner- and stayed there.
The Vet said stick this needle in him and he will become docile. HEH. No way was I going to stick anything into this big critter. Well, he got hungry and I went out there with a bucket of grain- in his favorite bucket. I had squirted the tranquilizer into the grain.
He ate it and followed me back to the barn.
The butcher was waiting with his rifle under a blanket. Bang and it was over. I felt like a traitor, but we did it. We really didn't like the meat- I sold most of it. Not really a beef flavor.
The point is he was raised for meat- not anything else.

About rabbits. sure they are cute, but so are most animals.  Again, its the mind set. i have heard of some people doing this same kind of reasoning on any living thing. I never gave thought to killing a carrot when I pulled it from the earth. What do they eat?

Ralph