Life on the Ranch

31 for 21 - R is for Rabbit    We have been raising rabbits for about 9 years. When we started, we did not know hardly anything about them. We picked up a bunch of mutt type rabbits that we were going to raise for meat production. As it turned out, those rabbits were Mini Lop. My oldest daughter took an interest in them and began doing some research. Soon, we were into raising Mini Lops for show. She also took an interest in the color genetics of the Mini Lop rabbits . Her knowledge and rabbitry increased. Soon she was bringing rabbits in from WA, Canada and other far away states. We also began to transport and ship rabbits to other states and eventually even another country (Yes, she had a lady come from Finland for some of her stock!). You can go to my daughter's website to read more about the Mini Lops - Hoppin Herd of Hares  .       Now, you may be wondering what my part in the rabbits is - well, my daughter and I have contemplated raisin...

We brought in a few Californian does just the other day. One came with the name Silver Spur - here she is: And, this is Cali: Here is what our small meat rabbitry is looking like right now:

We have been slowly getting into raising meat rabbits for our family. At this point, we have one Production White doe (Ms. Merritt), one 7 week old doe, one young Champagne doe, and a Production White buck.        Ms. Merritt had a litter of 9 a little over a week ago. There were 6 living and 3 dead (could have been from the intense heat we have been experiencing here in Oklahoma). We lost 2 more over the week and now have 4 in the nestbox. I am hoping, Lord willing, to expand the rabbitry to house more does. My goal is to have enough meat for our family to not have to buy any at the store anymore. I'll keep you updated on the progress of this experiment especially since I am researching what plants to grow to raise the rabbits on (hence, lower the rabbit pellet cost) and also looking into running the fryers in "hare tractors"!

Ahhhh, yet another thing to enter the ranch . . . a Production White meat rabbit. On and  off over the years I have thought about raising rabbits for meat. In recent months, I have met a few folks that actually raise them and all of them say that it is a profitable adventure. Well, it just happened to work out that one of our hay customers (Loretta Merritt in Tahlequah, OK - thanks Loretta!!) raises these great meat rabbits. So, we worked a little deal out and now we have the doe pictured below and a buck named K-bar (pictures of him to come).          When Loretta was here the other day, she brought us a gift of 3 fryer rabbits all dressed out and ready for cooking. A few of the girls hopped on it (no pun intended!!) and made some green sauce rabbit enchiladas. Everyone who ate them said they were delicious. There was enough meat to fill enough trays to feed about 25 people and, there was even meat left over!         Obviously, I ...