Rabbits?

[engteach64]

Does anyone raise rabbits for sale around here? We used to buy rabbits from the Amish in Missouri, but haven't found anyone around here. I like them killed and dressed and ready to freeze. Anyone know of a place, and how much they cost? Thanks.

[Spartan]

I am not aware of any local growers but you might inquire at the Copperas Cove Rabbit Fest office.

You may want to consider raising your own in your backyard. As a youth I raised them for the local Safeway and had twenty does and four bucks. If your goal is to produce enough rabbits so that your family might consume two fryers per week the year-round you would only need four breeding females and one breeding male. Rabbits are quiet, odorless and docile. They can go unnoticed by neighbors but if you live within the city limits you might want to inquire about possible restrictions concerning the keeping of rabbits by contacting your county health department.

Besides nutritious and wholesome meat, your operation will yield rich manure for gardening or flower beds.

Rabbit raising can be an enjoyable and family focused activity. The time or labor required to raise rabbits is about ten hours per breeding doe in a year, less than 10 minutes per day, but you may enjoy spending more time than this with your rabbits.

As I mentioned previously, the manure from rabbits makes excellent compost, rich in organic matter and nutrients, that can produce remarkable garden and flowering results. Commercial redworms or African nitecrawlers grown in rabbit manure produce a superb and fairly odorless organic material that resembles peat moss. If you enjoy fishing, you will have a regular supply of bait worms.

[engteach64]

Woah Spartan...I am a city girl to the core. Yes, I come from farm folk, but I am not one. I like other people to do the work. When I was a kid my parents raised rabbits, and the mothers were eating their own babies before we even got to them. Then there is butchering...Dad would always send us girls to the basement so we wouldn't see when he butchered them. Now I have no problem with killing for food, I just like it when other people do it. I don't even like to weed a garden. I'd have a garden if someone would take care of it and I could just pick the crops. :) I'm such a city girl.