Taking On Livestock, Part I
(Page 7 of 8)
March/April 1987
By John Vivian
Your cages must provide protection from the elements-especially direct summer sun-and from dogs and wild animals. Caged rabbits are easy prey. The old-style, free-standing, roofed wooden hutches take time to build properly, rot fairly quickly from the strong urine, and can leave the rabbits vulnerable to predators. But don't try keeping rabbits in the cellar unless you're prepared to clean up after them frequently. The urine is strong smelling and copious. In other words, rabbit cages are best located in a barn or shed.
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To start with rabbits, you need only a young buck, a pair of does, and six months' time. For meat, get New Zealand whites (Fig. 11). They're the most common variety, kindle (give birth to) large litters easily, and can interbreed forever with no problems. For pet stock, take your choice: Floppy-eared French lops are current hot sellers as in-town pets. You can litterbox train them like cats. Angoras are a good bet if you'd like to try a mini-fleece operation-perhaps as a trial before taking on sheep. A good breedable New Zealand white should cost you about $20; a good Angora, or any show-quality animal, can cost $50 or more.
Buy your feed by the hundredweight sack-about $12 apiece. A 10-pound adult will consume about 120 pounds of pellets a year (not including an additional 24 to 30 pounds per pregnancy), and a litter of eight will go through 65 to 100 pounds. The net result is, raised on pellets alone, your rabbit meat will cost 50¢ to a dollar a pound. So, just as with chickens (and really, any home livestock), plan to raise as much feed as you can. Rabbits love root crops, green vegetables, and hay.
Breeding is a matter of taking a doe to the buck's cage and letting rabbits do what they are noted for. (Does actually ovulate after they are bred.) Some does produce more young than others, but even the best give out after a year or two. However, old rabbit eats as good as young.
Drawbacks? Rabbits do take more time to care for than poultry. Each one needs at least a daily check. They must have a constant supply of fresh water; a doe and her litter will consume a gallon of water a day! And you have to be more careful about feeding them properly. They can't free-range for bugs and won't recycle spoiled milk or fish scraps, so you have to give them enough pellet feed to meet their essential protein needs. But you can't put the adults on self-feeders, as you can chickens: Obesity causes infertility. (You can let young rabbits eat all they want.)
The biggest drawback to keeping rabbits is butchering them. Oh, the job itself is easy. Just hold one by its head and feet, stretch it over your hip, and snap its neck (Fig. 12). They are easier to eviscerate than poultry and shuck right out of their hides (which can be tanned into warm, if short-lived, pelts). The whole procedure takes but five minutes.
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