MyHouseIsAZoo2's SS Journal

[Myhouseisazoo2]

Heehee thats ones a camera hog for sure. I'm not sure what's different about these ones but their much friendlier and less frightened than my first batch of chicks.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

Well... I culled my first rooster today... And it was both a wonderful and horrifying experience.
Wonderful because now I sort of know what the hell to do.
Horrifying because I've come to realize I can't kill my roosters currently (Twinnie did the actual killing and we split the cleaning) we did one rooster with really ****ty knives and managed to keep the breast and both legs but besides the feathers we couldn't keep much more...
Went out an bought new knives and a knife sharpener to make it easier and we couldn't kill our second one.
Hopefully rabbits are easier

 

[Britesea]

DH says that after he and his brother had been running their rabbit project for a couple of years, they could kill, skin, and gut a rabbit and the heart would still be beating...

 

[creativetwinszoo]

Whoa they got fast!

 

[Denim Deb]

I can do the butchering, but I don't enjoy it. And, I don't know if I could do a rabbit. I've had a pet rabbit for most of my life-have one now. I think if I'm going to raise rabbits for meat, they'll have to be New Zealand whites. They don't appeal to me like other rabbits do.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

@Britesea dang! They move fast!

I want rabbits for meat and fur (keeping fur after culling for meat) my mom says she'll see if dad can come help us and that its easier to cull mammals than birds. She says it infinetly easier to clean the insides out as well! I'm hoping its true!

 

[Britesea]

Yes, it is easier; it's really fast to skin them compared to plucking a bird, and you just need to make one cut down the belly and the innards are all there in one scoop.

And those boys did a LOT of rabbits. That was the main cash crop on their farm and they had dozens of rabbits (over a hundred). Then Australia started exporting rabbit to the US at very low prices and the bottom dropped out of the rabbit industry in the US. (Once they had driven the US rabbitrys out of business, they raised their prices)
Rather than sell their rabbits at a loss, the family chose to eat them- they had rabbit nearly every day for over a year. It's only now, nearly 40 years later, that DH can face the idea of rabbit for dinner again.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

I haven't had it in a long time but we used to eat it a lot when I was a little kid (when we lived in Michigan)

Its a very low fat lean meat so its good for you and I hear/read a relatively cheap meat to produce at home. Plus I'd really like to use the furs to make blankets and such. I can't justify using store furs as I don't know if the whole critter was used but raising and doing it at home I know it was all used.

 

[Britesea]

DH won't hear of us raising rabbit because we would need to build a shelter for them (he swears they won't be able to handle our cold mountain winters), so we are dependent on finding someone that sells rabbit meat, and so far everyone I've found expects nearly as much money as it costs in the stores.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

Well got someone who's interested in the roosters but I'm feeling kind of eh about it, Twinnie talked to him via phone and it sounds like his English isn't too great, guess he kept asking about eggs but the ad we put up mentions eggs NOwhere in it. The few other people that had answered asked about eggs to so it has me concerned that people are misreading the ad