Rabbits meats, fur, wool, show/pet trade

[qtkitty]

I am interested in becoming a rabbit farmer, i can read all the information on the internet i want, but i know it does not equal talking to people who are out there caring for their rabbits every day. I also plan on visiting a large rabbit farm before i get into buying a farm, i have seen a small scale rabbit farm at the college i went to ( really wish i would have went into farm management instead of math science now *lol* hind sight is 20/20) 4 rows of 10 i believe.

Shockingly from the information i have gathered it seems very profitable IF you are close enough to a processor who has a demand and also with minimal labor if set up correctly. When i talked to my fiance he was actually excited about it .. and called our local Ag. Extension office to ask around. Of course he found that this area has no market for rabbits ( which i alrady knew). So that would mean moving which neither of us have a problem with. Although if you have a processor with a high demand will it keep a farm above water to just farm rabbits and their "sub crops" of worms and compost?

I would also like to do angora wool( eventually getting a spinner and producing yarn as well) .. i would have to start that small .. i do know of a market of people who would be interested off the internet. Some which are hand spinners and some who would love the quality of the spun wool to make their own garments. I have read that if selling direct you can expect to sell fibers for $4/ Oz. ($2 /oz for middle men) and a rabbit per year can produce anywhere from 8oz to 3 lb of wool or more depending on the breed. However they are more difficult to care for and take much more time per animal.

Show/pet quality bunnies .. Easter would be the #1 time .. but if you sell to wholesalers or petstores you Must abide by Animal Welfare Act and be inspected( if you do over $500 in sales), the question there would be would they also be inspecting the meat rabbits as well, which would increase them finding something one day to fine for?

I know there are some problems with raising rabbits like diseases, but is there anything that i am missing that i should look at while pondering?

[Bird]

When I started raising rabbits, I bought one book from The American Rabbit Breeders Association and one at Tractor Supply Company. I first built a 4-plex rabbit cage and used bowls for food and water, but soon changed to cages, water bottles, and feeders from Tractor Supply Co. Of course I only used 15 cages, and if you go into it on any large scale, you'll need an automatic watering system. I did not get into the worm business at all, although I know a local rabbit breeder who was in that business also. And I did not sell any fertilizer, although I'm convinced that there is no better fertilizer anywhere than rabbit manure. I had chutes under the cages to funnel it into 5 gallon buckets. Composting is really unnecessary; you can just add it to a vegetable garden as is, although I did let a lot of the pellets dry good, then ran them through a little 5hp Craftsman chipper/shredder so I could store it and spread it easily.

And finally, I'd like to be in the rabbit raising business myself, but doubt that you can make a living at it.

[qtkitty]

OMG you did set your self up for a LOT of work in the begining. We have 7 rabbits right now 2 netherland Dwarfs, a Holland Lop( i bought him for $8 because his front foot has been broken and healed and no one wanted him and he wasnt little and cute any more), and 4 baby Netherland/Holland lop mixes. It is the most agrivating work in the world to have them in those "pet store" critter cages. I wish the pet store where we got the bunnies from had had a tray type cage. I tried the bowls the bunnies just knock them over or go to the bathroom in them. Not to mention they get gunky and nasty really fast.

In one of the books i want to get there are plans on how to actually make wire cages yourself. I would like to do this because all of the cages i see at tractor supply and southern states are all to small.

My fiance has worked with insulation and metal covering for 14 years he says he could make a wire cage if he had the right supplies. I do not doubt it because he going into hyper drive when working with wire and metal.

I have seen the watering system and set up in a small rabbit farm simulation at college. They had a farm management department ( i so wish i would have taken that instead of Math/Science) where they raised different livestock to give the classes first hand experience. They used a bucket and pipe system where they had to fill the buckets every day, instead of having it hooked up to a steady supply of water force. Their reasoning was that they were less likely to blow any piping and end up with a HUGE mess. However, they did not have the pipes protected from freezing.

They also chose to muck under the rabbit cages daily instead of doing your bucket method or composting under the cages. It did not smell and all of the rabbits looked healthy.

I think if set up properly it could be made to work for you instead of you laboring to get anything done with the rabbits and not suceeding. My pet rabbits like to have a schedual. Of course since the babies are going to be pets i have picked them up everyday since they were born .. touching their ears feet tummies tails and checking their teeth.. why .. because if they grow up knowing that stuff like that is going to happen.. then they are less likely to be bitey later on. Sort of like training dogs when they are young .. a lot of trainers like to start as soon as possible with touch so their dogs are comfortable with it... i know that really has nothing to do with meat rabbits, except for the breeders, because they have to have that schedual to feel comfortable with what is going on so they will have optimum potential.

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
all of the cages i see at tractor supply and southern states are all to small.

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course, it's been a few years ago, but the cages I bought at Tractor Supply were 30" x 36". Of course they had to be assembled, but that wasn't difficult. For a really large operation, you might build them yourself cheaper, but at the time, when I priced material, I decided I could just buy the cages cheaper. The folks I bought my first rabbits from had a 55 gallon plastic barrel instead of a bucket for their water, and then tubing running to all the cages. Of course the barrel was on a pretty high stand to provide the gravity flow. The other advantage of the barrel or bucket system is the ability to add medication to the water and get it to all the rabbits in the same dosage.

[qtkitty]

YUppers .. because if one is sick then they would all get sick as well..