Rabbits

[12Bravo]

Anyone on here raise rabbits either for meat or to sell?

I am interested in speaking with someone about an up coming project I am planning. I am in the research stage and plan to pull the trigger on this in the coming months, after I get my saw mill and build a shed for them. So about 3-4 months from now, if all goes well.

 

[Bird]

I raised over 300 New Zealand Whites, but it's been a long time ago. In fact, I bought my first buck and two does on 11/28/95, built a 4 section hutch, but later changed to wire cages from Tractor Supply, eventually had 15 cages, and raised over 300 before selling everything and getting out of that on 7/2/98, so a little less than 3 years. There was a lot more to learn than I expected.

 

[EddieWalker]

Back in CA I knew a guy who inherited a very a large rabbit business from his dad. They started out raising them for fun and selling what they could, then in the 70's some companies and Universities started using rabbit eyes for research into contact lenses. Their eyes are very similar to ours. He would provide them with thousands and thousands of rabbits, and over the years, made a small fortune. Eventually the demand died off and he no longer needed all the land to raise the rabbits. He made another fortune selling the land. The last I heard he was going broke trying to flip houses.

 

[Bird]

Finding a demand for rabbits can be a real problem, and one I don't really understand. Our grocery stores have beef, pork, chicken, and lamb, but why is it so hard to find goat and rabbit meat in the stores. I grew up eating every cottontail, jack rabbit, and swamp rabbit we could find, and I still like rabbit. During the short time I was raising them, I found I could sell every young one I had around Easter, but the rest of the year, mighty slim market.