Raising Dutch Rabbits

 We have started raising rabbits for meat again. They are a huge asset here on our little homestead. The only other source of protein that we grow is chickens. Since we keep chickens for eggs, by the time we are ready to process the older layers, they are only usable for soups and broth. Having something that can be grilled or baked is nice for the variety. There are a lot of different breeds of rabbits and many are good for meat production. We did a little research and tried an assortment before we finally chose to raise Dutch exclusively. Their size, cost, ease of keeping and mothering abilities made them the perfect fit for us.

  Before we narrowed down our breed choice, we tried raising some larger rabbits. One of those fryers would make 3 to 4 meals and we got really tired of eating the leftovers. On average we get a 2 pound carcass when the Dutch are dressed at fryer age. The meat to bone ratio is really good. One fryer rabbit is plenty for a meal. At the stewing age a Dutch rabbit will also make 2-3 good dinners (such as rabbit stew, noodles, pot pie, etc...)  There is no need to continue to feed a grow-out past this point and I would much rather get an extra rabbit out of the freezer when we have the occasional dinner guest than deal with leftovers after every single meal.

 Due to their smaller size, Dutch rabbits don't need a lot of feed to grow or maintain. We buy a 50 pound bag of rabbit pellets about every 5-6 weeks but we never let the feed barrel go empty so I can't say exactly how much they eat. I also supplement with some yard goodies- clover, plantain, dandelion, etc... Occasional garden scraps and a couple bales of timothy hay round out their dietary needs. It's economical to supply that for the breeders (2 does, 1 buck) and the grow-outs.

 Dutch rabbits are fairly easy to raise. We don't treat our rabbits like pets but none of them have ever shown any signs of aggression. They do well in cages so we don't have to worry about parasites from the ground and unplanned breeding. 

  By the second breeding a Dutch doe has usually got the mothering thing down. Except for the occasional loss from nest box escape, ours have done a really good job of raising offspring to the weaning stage with no help from me.  Every doe we've raised has produced a good litter size. We expect to find 6-8 kits per breeding and have gotten as many as 12- but that is a rarer occurrence. By breeding 2 does 3 times per year, we can realistically count on putting 36-48 rabbits in the freezer per year. 

 Overall, Dutch rabbits are a perfect fit for our situation. The costs and benefits balance well which means we can feel secure in our decision to include them on our homestead.

Why We Raise Dutch Rabbits

There are a lot of different breeds of rabbits and many are good for meat production. We did a little research and tried an assortment before we finally chose to raise Dutch exclusively. Here's a look at what we found:

1. Dutch are the perfect size for our family of 2. 

  On average we get a 2 pound carcass when they are dressed at fryer age. The meat to bone ratio is really good. One fried rabbit is plenty for a meal. At this age a stewed rabbit will also make 2-3 good dinners (such as rabbit stew, noodles, pot pie, etc...) There is no need to continue to feed a grow-out past this point.

2. Dutch are cheap to feed.

  We buy a 50 pound bag of rabbit pellets about every 5-6 weeks but we never let the feed barrel go empty so I can't say exactly how much they eat. Every morning I grab a few hands full of hay left in the goat hay feeder (that would have ended up on the ground) and distribute it between the rabbit cages. I also supplement with some yard goodies- clover, plantain, dandelion, etc... This is all we need for the breeders (2 does, 1 buck) and the grow-outs.

3. Dutch are easy keepers

 By the second breeding a Dutch doe has usually got the mothering thing down. Except for the occasional loss from nest box escape, ours have done a really good job of raising offspring to the weaning stage with no help from me. We don't treat our rabbits like pets but none of the Dutch have ever shown any signs of aggression. 

Those are the main reasons we really like our Dutch rabbits. 

Problem Solving Rabbit Area

The yard should dry out enough to mow today! We've had some downpours lately that have put us into flash flood watches which I don't remember happening very often in August. Normally I try to get the mowing done on Thursday or Friday but this is the first day I've had the time while it's dry enough to do it in two weeks. But first I have to wait for the morning dew to dry up and that won't happen til 10am or after. So while I'm sitting around waiting for the grass to dry, I'm trying to problem solve a problem under the rabbit hutches.

I use a leaf rake to "sweep" the ground under the hutches to collect up the "raisins" into a shovel that I can dump into the wheel barrow. Always before I would put straw down to hold everything in place until Saturday cleaning day. But after a few losses of rabbits to predators (roaming dogs), we moved the hutches into the chicken run for protection. That plan worked and the fence has kept our rabbits safe ever since. But the chickens went straight for the straw to scratch away under the hutches. So I stopped putting it down there. The chickens still like to scratch for worms under the hutches and now the ground is starting to erode away from being cleaned and scratched up. It didn't seem like a big deal at first but soon the "raisins" started filling up the little dips and valleys. Each cleaning would require more aggressive raking and scratching the dirt to get it all.

This is what it looks in one spot after the first initial sweep of the rake. Not good!

Not only does that increase the amount of time it takes to clean, it's almost impossible to get it clean enough to keep the flies away. 

So I'm going to be searching for under hutch manure containment DIY projects today. I'm not a handy/dandy carpenter type of girl so I'll have to find plans with lots of pictures and step by step directions. And hopefully I'll be able to rig something up with materials we already have on hand. Trips for hardware supplies seldom go well for me. (For some odd reason salesmen in those stores expect you to know the proper name for the materials you're looking for!)  I'll keep ya posted.

Three's Company

My calendar says the latest batch of buns are 6 weeks old today. Time sure does fly with rabbits! Their cage is sure crowded right now, also. There are 7 in the litter so it will take me around 3 days to get them all transferred to the grow out cages. I like to move 2 or 3 at a time to give them all (and their momma) a chance to adjust. I try to pick out the biggest ones first in case she is still nursing even though it is very unlikely. I'm fortunate to have a very good momma doe. I've never had to worry about nesting, milk supply, eaten babies, etc.. with her.

I reserved one of her daughters out of the last batch she raised and she is just now old enough to breed. She will get her first date this week and then I'll be keeping a watchful eye on her to see how she does with pregnancy. 

Since we will have two breeder does I've decided it's time to give them names in order to make record keeping easier. The old experienced doe will be called Janet and the younger one is going to be named Chrissy. The buck has got to have a name, too. So we're calling him Mr. Roper. Ha!

Name That Weed

I'm not going to bore you with pictures of weeds-yet. But I have been playing detective in the back yard this spring. I love, love, LOVE being able to forage rabbit food. I know that most of our yard is rabbit friendly because I flush out wild rabbits all the time. They are never in the same place, they're everywhere, and I've had plenty of opportunities to watch them munching on my green stuff. But I still need to make sure that whatever I forage is rabbit safe.

Last year my rabbits got a varied diet of dandelion, wild violets, white and red clover, lamb's quarters, and broad leaf plantain. Of course I supplemented with commercial pellets and hay but I saved a lot of money by finding most of their food in the back yard.

This year I've been able to add hen's bit and mulberry to the mix. And there are a lot more weeds  plants that I haven't identified yet. So I've downloaded an app to help with that and I've taken to trying to find weeds on the internet. Who says being a homesteader is boring? You wouldn't believe the things that can pop up on your screen when you google a word like "weed!"

New Litter of Kits

Yesterday evening I found a small amount of fur that mama rabbit had pulled in the nesting box. I knew then she would be kindling soon.

Sure enough, this morning there was a lot more fur in the box. 

I gently shifted the fur aside and discovered the litter of kits! There are eight, I think, the same number she's had the last 3 times.

I'm so impressed with the way this doe handles pregnancy, kindling, and raising her young that I've saved back a doe from her last litter in the hopes that she will also be a good mama.

It's such a relief when you can rely on your brood doe. We've especially learned that this year as our mamas (chicken, goat, and rabbit) are aging and we are preparing their successors. Being on a small property and furnishing meat, milk, and eggs for only two people, adds an extra desire to not waste too much time or money on anything that might not be productive in its job.

Rabbit Adventure

Our old buck rabbit passed away last summer during the hottest part of the season. He was the only buck we had so we didn't get any fall babies to put in the freezer for winter. Instead I spent the entire winter searching for a new buck- on Craigslist and through all the rabbit and small animal Facebook groups I could find. I asked over and over and never got a reply. Not once.  Breeding time rolled back around and I had no buck

So in the middle of our hectic Easter weekend we made plans to go to the Friday night Amish auction and look for a rabbit. I'm not fond of buying rabbits there because I can't inspect the animal up close beforehand and have purchased ones that were "oops" the wrong sex before. But I was desperate so off to the auction we went. No big deal.

EXCEPT!- we had done a lot of hard work earlier that day and the auction was going to be standing room only and if we did get a seat it would be on a hard wooden bleacher and I wasn't going to be driving anyway and my back was killing me so taking one little pain pill wouldn't hurt. Oops!

So we went. And we stood. For over 2 hours with no room to turn around we watched them auction off the big chickens and the little peeps, the peacocks and the quail, the turkeys and the egg cartons, the feeders and the cages, the baby bunnies wrapped in Easter baskets and the hatching eggs of every sort, the bottle baby goats and the bottle baby sheep, the pheasants, and the hutches, the pet pigs and the ducklings, the geese and.... all the while we could see two Dutch rabbits, off to the side, waiting their turn. And all the while that pain pill was working, easing the pain in my back and making me just a little bit, er, um, happy. Oops!

As the 3rd hour of standing approached a cage came up for auction that was not getting a lot of interest. It needed some work but was sturdy so DH grabbed it up for a cheap $5. Because of the crowd he decided to go ahead and take it to the truck but before he left the building, he made sure I had the bidder number in case one of the rabbits we were interested in came up. And of course, as soon as he walked out- one did. Oops!

Well, one did with 3 other rabbits  of different breeds, in the cage with it. And the auctioneer didn't have any info on any of them- age, sex, breed, nothing. Needless to say the bids weren't high on them. So I (in my slightly wobbly state of mind) decided I was tired of waiting and tired of standing and tired of not having rabbits in the freezer. So I bought them. Oops!

By the time DH returned to the building, I was the embarrassed proud owner of 4 new rabbits. It was too dark to sex them in the parking lot so we came home and put them in temporary cages and crashed for the night.

The next morning I was delighted to discover that the Dutch rabbit was a buck! In fact they all were bucks. The other 3 are all friendly little guys who will make great pet quality babies to sell or maybe I'll just resell them. Either way for less than what I had been prepared to pay for one rabbit, I got four with a chance to recoup some of that for profit!

But the best deal of the night was that I got a reminder of what an understanding guy my DH can be. He never even blinked an eye when he found out what I'd done. He just turned around and went back to the truck to get a carrier for the new rabbits. No sighing or eye rolling or lectures, nope! He didn't even complain when he had to spend most of his Saturday assembling permanent cages for our new additions. But I bet he will think twice before he takes me to an auction after I'm medicated again! Oops!

Bored Bunny Bombs

When our bunnies get bored they tend to do destructive things, like chewing up the things in their cage. Recently they totally ruined the bracket that holds one of their feeders.

It was my fault, I hadn't provided enough stimulation for them during the chaos around here this week. But I'm back on track now! One of the things I provide actually tackles another problem at the same time- wasted hay.

If I toss hay into the cage, most of it just ends up on the ground underneath. AND I needed a way to use up all the hay crumbles that are left after I feed the goats their share, YOU KNOW-the tasty hay morsels that are so small they just sift through the cracks in the hay feeder, the bits that are left after you've scooped and swept.

So here's my solution-homemade "Bored Bunny Bombs!"

Yep, I just fill up stuff and cram empty toilet paper rolls with that hay. Now the bunnies are actually doing some work for their dinner, keeping busy, and dropping less hay!

 Of course, a person could go to a pet store and buy some of these already made. But since I'm raising these for meat, I'm trying to be as frugal as possible. And I'm putting less paper products back into the environment- unless you count the awesome fertilizer these guys are providing, because my garden is producing more than I have time to harvest thanks to my bunny poo! 

 Happy rabbits, happy gardener, happy life!

P.S. My DH was impressed the first time I showed him this little trick. But wives, if you try this, be warned that just because a DH is impressed doesn't mean he will actually change an empty tp roll. (YMMV)

Multiplying Like Rabbits

Our rabbit venture has been an ongoing puzzle to find something that works. Try this, do that, don't even think about doing the other.... Haha, our brains have been on a merry-go-round. Every time we thought we had it figured out- up popped another obstacle.

 The first hurdle was deciding if we even wanted to raise rabbits. Seriously, even though we told ourselves (with every livestock start-up) that we didn't have to stick with it if it wasn't "our thing," once the money is invested...the trap is set. With rabbits came the purchase of cages, water bottles, and feeders, not to mention the feed and actual stock. But the only way to know for sure, is to jump in and try it. Turns out, we loved it! They are easy to process, not too expensive to feed, take care of their own young, make wonderful fertilizer  and are oh. so. tasty.

 Once we decided to keep raising rabbits, the second hurdle promptly popped up- predators. It's hard to say what got our rabbits the first, second, or third time. Once there was an odd smell, once there were large canine tracks, twice the wire cages were completely shredded...probably multiple species were coming to the rabbit buffet at our place. It was so discouraging to lose our healthy, well fed, rabbits. And don't think we didn't try to protect them. We did! When they knocked our cages down, we chained them together so it wouldn't happen again. When they knocked out the feeders to chase the rabbits through the feeder holes, we  started feeding inside the cages. We even tried placing them in a predator proof dog pen. Unfortunately that setup was extremely hard to keep sanitary with more than a couple rabbits-not an option.

After the last rabbit was killed, we had pretty much given up on our desire to raise them anymore. It's so disheartening to go through that. But at the auction last week, my DH surprised me and bid on a large, multi-cage hutch that would fit inside our new chicken enclosure- and won! So we are trying this one more time! We also purchased some rabbits. We got a Dutch doe and buck. Or so we thought (they were sold as a pair, we didn't check their sex at the auction.) And since we didn't know their ages or history, we also got 6 NZ bunnies to grow out and process if the pair don't successfully breed right away.

We were pleasantly surprised on the first day to find one of the pair pulling hair. We immediately gave her a nesting box and had babies the second day! We were back in the rabbit growing business!

But imagine my surprise when I went out to feed this morning to find babies in the cage with the "buck!" We had just assumed that being sold as a buck and a doe the one that didn't have babies would be the buck. Oops. No bucks in this pair. Hopefully one of the NZ bunnies is a buck so we can continue our rabbit raising. But for now, I have rabbits galore!

Getting Stuff Done

DH got an unexpected weekend off so we crammed it full! We didn't have time for planning, we were in "shoot first, ask questions later" mode! Here's a rundown:

  Friday evening I went to the Amish auction and got 8 baby Dutch rabbits to grow out before winter. We still had 2 of the last batch of rabbits and they couldn't be kept in the same cage so the new ones got to have a big slumber party until DH had time to free up some space.

  Saturday DH finished working on his truck brakes. Then we harvested the sunflowers. It was the first time I had grown them and I was very pleased with the results! I would have liked to finish them out on the stalks but they were in the middle of the garden so we decided to cut them down.

Then I took a picture of the disaster our summer garden had become. Yikes! I am almost too embarrassed to share it but I've heard other horror stories and I don't want those people to think they were alone. Besides, I want to have a "before" and "after" show. 

"Before"

         and 6 hours of hard work later

"After"

 Of course the birds came out to help us finish up. I think they were checking to see if any pesky worms had been tilled up!  We left the green bean, pepper, and tomato plants because they are still blooming. And that evening I made a turnip seed tape to plant along with some leftover onion sets and a new pack of sweet peas. All that stuff will go in the ground today!

 Sunday we went to a great morning worship service at our church, hit a local Chinese buffet with a couple of DSs for lunch, mowed MIL's yard, butchered the last of the New Zealand rabbits, and still had time to take in a movie in town! Whew!

This morning I shipped DH off to St. Louis and, as promised, I am going to share about Peach Butter. This was the first time I've made it and I didn't follow one specific recipe. I just searched for lots of recipes and then played it by ear.
 I peeled and pitted, then pureed the peaches in my food processor. I didn't count or weigh them, just kept the process going until my crockpot was almost full. Then I added the sweetener and spices (4 cups of sugar, 3 Tablespoons of Cinnamon, 1 Tablespoon of Ground Cloves, and 2 teaspoons of All Spice.) I stirred all that real well and then set the crockpot on low with the lid propped open to vent steam. My goal was to just let it cook on low until it reached the thickness I like but 16 hours later I just got tired of waiting (patience isn't one of my virtues) so I turned it up to high for the next 2 hours. I also took the lid completely off. Then I processed it in half pint jars in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. It turned out sooo yummy!

Matthew 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Rabbits

 A girl can get a lot done when her DH  is home! For instance, we found the part of the garden that had disappeared under the tomatoes and weeds. The parsley was nothing much to look at and the rosemary was on it's last leg. I cut off all the rosemary that was still green and trimmed the plants back to almost bare. We'll wait and see what some cooler fall temps will do for them. As for the sage, well it had exploded. I guess it liked being under the tomato canopy! I cut off as much as I could use and decided to just let it go.


 Saturday DH butchered the first set of rabbits we have managed to save from predators. They had been in lockdown in  an old dog kennel from day 1! It was the first time I had witnessed rabbit butchering so I watched from a distance until the chickens decided to get in on the action. So I stepped up for guard duty until all 4 rabbits were finished-Hoosier Girl to the rescue! We put them in our garage fridge to age and will grill one this evening. The rest will go in the freezer!
 I made a marinade of rosemary, sea salt, pepper, and oil for the one that will be grilled.

Then I got to work preserving the rest of the sage I had picked today. I am not a fan of dried herbs unless I don't have a choice so I chopped it up and placed it in some more of those "handy" KFC reusable containers. I topped it off with some chicken broth and put it in the freezer for when cooler weather comes (hopefully soon!)









I still had a little bit left so I chopped it up and scattered it over some bread crumbs that are drying for homemade dressing. That should make a nice little side dish with the grilled rabbit this evening!

New rabbits again

 This time I picked New Zealand rabbits. They aren't too common at the Amish auction so I had to wait a couple of hours for them to come up for bidding....with a baby goat on my lap. Luckily there was a nice lady sitting nearby to run for napkins at the concession stand! Wonder how many washings it takes to get baby goat poop out of blue jeans? Ha! I love it!
 The new rabbitt setup is coming along. We put it inside the dog kennel with the goat and I think its about as predator proof as possible. We still need to find a way to weather-proof it but for now it works with a strip of plastic sheeting over top as a rain guard.
 Since we have such a coyote problem, later today, DH is going to teach me how to shoot a shot gun. I've never held any kind of weapon before so this could be interesting.

Still All About the Bunnies

Pictures!

Nesting box with bunnies hidden

I didn't even know the babies were born. The box has looked like that for a few days. There was no evidence a kindling had taken place. So imagine my surprise when I poked around and found this:

Babies!

There are 5 squirming critters in there. Now I just have to grow them up without getting attached. I think I'm up to the challenge....