One of our "investments"

As promised: Pictures.
The 7 investments after preparation:

The harvested meat:

And the carcasses, bones etc. - soon to be meaty broth:

The jars loaded:

And the soon to be stock and meat:

The pressure canner loaded:

And the end results:

Time for a tall cold one.

 

Well done, Falcon

Canned meat + canned heat....makes for a nice treat that's hard to beat!

it's one way of making productive use of waskilly wabbits.

 

ah, but you missed the mixed butter saute of hearts and livers. fresh, never frozen rabbit livers are so delicate in flavor they will amaze you. if you collect a bunch by freezing them first they are as strong flavor wise as chicken livers. fresh they are a delicious delite.

 

Livers, hearts, lungs, kidneys, belly flap meat, and any internal fat are saved in a freezer jar and ground into catfood. Cats love it, saves on buying dry.

 

how many times have you used your tattler lids and seals now. there are those here who are leery of them, and others have had seal failures. if you are really happy with them i can find the thread. your input either way would be helpful for making peoples minds up.

 

I use tattlers exclusively. I have 500 of each size - regular and wide, rings included. I have had 1 fail to seal out of all of the jars I have canned. It was a simple case of a dirty jar rim, I had not wiped it well enough.

 

Whats tattler? We just used some brand new Kerr lids I bought and had
3 fails so far

 

Thanks Clyde. I owe you a beer. Speaking of Clyde and beer, every time I read your name the words: "Right turn, Clyde" and the song : Every Which Way But Loose run through my head...No reflection upon you of course.

‪Every Which Way But Loose (Eddie Rabbit)‬‏ - YouTube

 

FYI a rabbit never comes in season. They ovulate after being breed. I forget what that is called but llamas are the same.

BWM

 

Hence the quotes. "Season", as I used it, was intended to indicate the period after the ovulation cycle that occurs, usually within 8 hours after being bred (we typically breed one doe 4 times to the same buck, morning and evening).They are opportunistic breeders.

 

Ok I guess I just misunderstood what you were saying.

BWM

 

Nice Job Falcon, Mine look just like yours. New Zealand whites. I have 5 does and two bucks. Im on my second round of adults meaning we have been breeding for several years. Most of my stock is young right now but I have one old gal with 4 babies Here are some pics of our rabbits.

 

They are kept in a small barn that we built for them. Keeps them warm in the winter and cool when its real hot out. The walls are made of 1/8th thick Plastic sheeting that came in a huge role. Floors are concrete with 4 coats of epoxy paint and sealed prior to painting. We put down dry red sand as a base and let the manure mix with it and the straw. This makes for great garden mix fertilizer. We power wash the walls once per year. They are due in October for washing. Rabbits love to pee on the damned walls. If I had to do it again I would go with block walls and dirt floors. However this is working fine. The walls are sealed well and we get no leaks to the wood. Here is what is in the other side of the barn.

 

Falcon,

Can we get a better overview of your setup? Pics and description, I guess, is what I am asking.

We are on the fence with rabbits.

 

I dont think my set up will be as nice a Falcons. His is probably a little cleaner.

 

I was talking to a man I went to school with this weekend at and auction. I asked him if he was going to buy the rabbit cages and he told me he had quite a few rabbits. So after a few mins i ordered some Californias from him due in 6 weeks. Well later that day he showed up with 1 California, 1 New Zealand and a couple mix breeds 7 rabbits in all. He wanted to move the mix breeds to make room for some of this purebred rabbits. I ended up with all 7 for $35 (all full grown). I am building a cage now for them and wanted to ask how many can i run per cage. Since they are in one big pen and i see them breeding whats the length of time the kits can stay with there mother before having to be isolated. So far i have almost 5 pens completed 24"x24".

Also has anyone tried making a self watering system? I have seen the bottles but wondered if you could make one out of PVC and the nipples water bottles have.

Thanks
Jason

 

Females are the aggressive ones. We have kept upwards of 6 rabbits in a 36x36x30 cage until they reach 12 weeks of age, at which time they get processed.

Females and males past 16 weeks of age need to be separated. The females will bite and fight. Kits should be kept with their doe until approximately 6 weeks of age, then separated. Again, we keep all of the kits together until processing time, at 12 weeks of age.

One rabbit per cage. Self watering devices are great as long as you can find the lick valves. I went the easy route and bough 1 liter water bottles for 2.95 each. Outside of ordering the valves from an online source, I cannot find the lick valves locally. I just did what works for me.

 

Sure thing. Let me get some pictures and post them.