Raising Rabbits is a Hare-raising Business

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A doe that's rebred shortly after her young are weaned will produce four litters a year. Many backyard rabbit growers schedule matings for six weeks after kindling, and commercial operations cut the period to three weeks or even two. Since female rabbits can be bred whether or not they're in heat, the timing is up to you. If you push your breeding stock too hard, though, you risk small litters, undersized young, and a shortening of the animals' useful life. 1 breed my does four times a year and get eight or ten healthy babies at a time.

After a female has produced for a good five-year span, it's advisable to replace her with younger stock. If she gives birth to only two or three young in two consecutive breeding's, s1l should go to the slaughter at once. You can't afford to fez nonproducers.

BUTCHERING

About killing and dressing: You may not relish this pa of the business, but you'll get used to it and after the first 100 or so the whole job won't take you more than minutes.

Take a good grip on the rabbit's hind legs with your left hand let the head drop downward, and hit the animal reasonably hard across the back of the skull with a stick, hammer handle or some such (or shoot downward at the same area with a .22 Cut the throat and hold the body in a head -downward position until the blood drains out maybe five minutes.

Place the rabbit on your butchering table. Pull the hide al the center of the back away from the carcass and insert a knit) to cut a three-inch gash in the skin. Insert the fingers of bona hands and pull hard until the hide is pushed down to the head and pads. (Note: This method of skinning-often used on wilt: rabbits is seldom recommended by homesteaders who wan; to save their rabbit pelts for mittens, comforts, etc. See any good manual on rabbit production for methods of skinning that produce a one-piece pelt suitable for tanning.- MOTHER.) With a knife and hammer, cut off the head, lower legs, anal tail. At this point you have a clean carcass which still cons the intestines.

Pull up the midline of the belly and slip your knife » carefully, so as not to cut the innards. Slide the blade forward and out at the neck cavity, and do the same toward the same to get the bowel out, break the hind legs away from the spine bending them backward. The carcass will then be completely open. Take out the lungs (light pink), heart, and kidneys and save them for pet food. Remove the liver carefully. That elongated small dark area on the back of the organ is the gall, which must be cut out and thrown away. Pull out the guts, dispose of them, and place the parts you're keeping in a bucket of cool water.

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