Just went for the evening feeding of the animals and discovered I have several more, my black doe kindled and I can see 6-8, minutes old babies. That puts me currently at 20 rabbits, I think?
Also my first hatch of quail are near six weeks old now and I have the hens separated to keep as egg layers, 22 of them all the roosters are in the big pen. Was time to butcher my spare roosters from my initial hatch since I have a pile (24?) now so 4 got the to see the inside of the fridge
After a quick warm water bath I rough plucked and the boys finished them up, then I taught them how to clean them prep for a meal. Was a proud dad moment for me teaching my boys where there food comes from
Do you always pluck the whole birds before you gut them? I donât have the patience for that. I skin them and spatchcock them (cut the backbone on both sides from neck to tail). I got it down to just under 3 minutes per bird on a production line from head off to cold water brine solution.
What is your favorite cooking method?
Interesting. Will try that next time. Guess since l usualy braise them skin doesent realy matter much. Occasionaly we fry them whole. These defenetly must have skin on.
Iv been just trying different things, the first few i skinned and spatchcock then just for speed efficiency, but I love them baked just like Cornish game hens so I like having the skin on. It is very labor intensive to pluck them by hand, these last couple I blanched in 150f water for 20 seconds and it cut time in half if not more, but I intend to build a plucking machine hopefully. Intention with those birds is to fill them with stuffing and baked thanksgiving style, Iâm just trying as many recipes as I can just trying to find what ways the family likes them
Just sold a whole hatch of 2 week old birds to the local feed store I buy all my feed from, 58 chicks at 2$ each. Covered my feed cost for all the rest of the flock and the rabbits for this month and thatâs my only goal with the farm animals is cover my cost while having plenty to feed my own family
Iâm calling that a big win since I havenât even started selling eggs yet but I did just get a shipment of egg cartons that are made for the jumbo line that lays a little bigger egg then a standard quail, so now to make a flyer I can post around town to advertise fresh quail eggs for sale
You should talk to a pet store. where you work seems like it has more people and might have one. According to AI, they are fed to cats, dogs and reptiles for their nutrition. It might give you a place you can drop off a bunch of eggs at a time.
Nice build Marcus, you may want to install some wooden strips they can stand on while you move it. I think there are videos of the ones Joel Salatin built.
I was going to use the slats like he did but it added about another 30$ in lumber cost and when I got to the lumber store they were out of the 1x2 so I did a wire floor instead
Rabbit tractor number 2 built this weekend, all power tools were powered by the new free generator cause why not? Has some really old gas in it that needs to be used up, I had it running for about 8 hours yesterday and works great. Didnât have enough jam to run my air compressor but I didnât expect it would and thatâs fine runs all the saws and charges makita batteries nicely
So to my knowledge raising rabbits on pasture is highly contested amongst rabbit keepers, youâre either all for it or completely against it, I wonât get into the nuanced argument of it but just my experience so far
At 8 weeks a rabbit harvested is considered a âfryerâ it has tender meat but the hide is worthless, itâs under developed. Iâm not in it for the hides but for meat so that point is moot to me. At 12 weeks harvested they are called a âroasterâ the hide is good but the meat is more tough, but that is the prime age for maximum weight before the meat begins to get very tough. I intended to harvest most my rabbits at the 8 week mark but Iâm starting with a experiment in that I put my spare does on pasture and finished the bucks on pellet
Yesterday was the 12 week mark, so quickly here Iâll need to harvest them so I did a side by side weight comparison. My bucks finished on pellet are averaging 6lbs on the hoof, the does are averaging 5 and a half. Thatâs 4 weeks or close to on pasture, which has been about a 40% reduction in pellet consumed using the tractor. There is still a feeder in the tractor that is kept full of pellet, but they are gaining the vast majority of their diet on the wild grasses in my yard
So at 6oz behind the bucks and eating less then half the feed Iâm going to keep the does on pasture until they hit a full 6lbs and cook them appropriately. I do think the bucks will have a little more fat on them but not enough that I think the tractors donât work exceptionally well at reducing overall feed cost of the herd
The people i know that raise rabbits. They show them and sell them. (they have several different breeds and travel across the country showing them). They make their own pellets. They have a hammermill and a pellet press. They also have enough space for an alfalfa field which I know you donât have. It would still be cheaper to buy it by the bale. The equipment is the expensive part. You have enough fab skills and creativity to make at least something that works. Especially when there are examples all over the place like youtube and such.
I should add the best rabbit I ever had was actually farm raised rabbit in a stew. I have had wild rabbit a ton of different ways.
I used to 100% free range but had real low fertility, does made nests in bad ares, rats eating the brains out of babies⌠but l had litle to no disease, wich was the main problem when l had them in cages.
I noticed the best way is to have the parrents confined but have a hole in the does apartment that is not big enaugh for the doe to escape, but the young ones can. Its opened once they are big enaugh to eat. They will gradualy leave the nest to free range on the property, its also good because oftentimes its the stress of weaning that causes them to get sick. Here there is no stress.
What you sayd about age is true and now l crave a deep fryed rabbit but do not worry about eating mature rabbit. Its just as good, if not better (tastyer) if done right. I make goulash out of it, l can send recepie if you like, or even just a plain stew is great.
but do not worry about eating mature rabbit. Its just as good, if not better (tastyer) if done right. I make goulash out of it, l can send recepie if you like, or even just a plain stew is great.