Rabbits

[LiveTrap]

This is the reason I picked the name "Livetrap". Scenario: SHTF and there is hardly any food left. I intend on taking my Havaheart live trap cage and catching wild rabbits, then confining them and raising them, just the way mankind domesticated wild animals 5000 years ago. When I was a kid, we raised some rabbits, and thought it was kind of cruel not to ever let them out of their cages, so we fenced in a part of the yard and lined the inside of the fence with corrugated roofing, buried into the ground about eight inches. This prevented them from tunneling out. We would let them run all day, catch them and put them back in their cages for the night. I would think such a confinement would work fine for wild rabbits and just skip the cages. We have access to unlimited amounts of corn from nearby grain elevators. Our local wild rabbits seem to love corn. They also love dandelions, which are easy to come by most of the year. So you just let rabbits do what rabbits do, and plink one with the .22 when you need a meal. Simple box shelters can be made and packed with straw to shelter them through the winter.

 

[lonewolf]

research rabbit "starvation".

 

[DrHenley]

Rabbit starvation is from not getting enough fat or oil in the diet if you only eat rabbit meat and don't get other sources of oil.

Country fried rabbit with gravy has plenty of oil

 

[lonewolf]

It's normally because rabbit is a lean meat, like a lot of other game animals, and one needs to add some extra fat to the mix, something like pork fat or that is what I have read.

 

[LiveTrap]

Yes, I've heard of this and figured someone would bring it up. A can of Spam split between two people once a week is more than enough grease to supplement. Or maybe a can of Rays' chilli. Yeeek! Speaking of grease, has anyone on here ever tried preserving cooked meat with boiling lard? My grandparents used to do this in a masonry crock. The lard doesn't spoil, and prevents any bacteria from reaching the meat. Anyone ever tried it? They claimed it would last for three months in a cool root cellar.

 

[GaRp58]

has anyone on here ever tried preserving cooked meat with boiling lard?

Yes, and it works well, if you have no access to lard, take some good quality butter, put it in a small pot, get it hot and stir occasionally. Eventually the milky curds will start to stick to the bottom of the pot and when it is done right, you have "clarified butter". It will last for months without cooling and can be used in the same way as lard. Boil your meat, pull it apart and stamp it into mushy goo. Put it into crock pots or glass, pack it together without any air bubbles and cover it with lard or clarified butter. If in a root cellar or even the fridge, it will last easily for 6 months. The taste of the meat if a bit funny, but if it is for a strong broth, used to flavor rice or beans and such, or spread on fresh bread, it will fill your tummy well...GP

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

This is the reason I picked the name "Livetrap". Scenario: SHTF and there is hardly any food left. I intend on taking my Havaheart live trap cage and catching wild rabbits, then confining them and raising them, just the way mankind domesticated wild animals 5000 years ago. When I was a kid, we raised some rabbits, and thought it was kind of cruel not to ever let them out of their cages, so we fenced in a part of the yard and lined the inside of the fence with corrugated roofing, buried into the ground about eight inches. This prevented them from tunneling out. We would let them run all day, catch them and put them back in their cages for the night. I would think such a confinement would work fine for wild rabbits and just skip the cages. We have access to unlimited amounts of corn from nearby grain elevators. Our local wild rabbits seem to love corn. They also love dandelions, which are easy to come by most of the year. So you just let rabbits do what rabbits do, and plink one with the .22 when you need a meal. Simple box shelters can be made and packed with straw to shelter them through the winter.

Hi LiveTrap,
Of course this is a great idea and would no doubt give you valuable meat in hard times, but if you really want to rely on rabbits, get some now. Wild rabbits don’t have nearly the meat on them as the tame meat brand rabbits. When I was young my grandparents had a large orchard and farm with a huge rabbit barn. So I grew up raising, processing and selling rabbit meat. They are as you say, easy to feed. And as others have pointed out, you need to add fat, but beyond that these are the BEST source of meat in any SHTF situation.

Rabbits are valuable because they are so quiet. A good pair will give you up to 550+ pounds of meat a year! And they require about half the feed of cows per pound of meat. Another big bonus is their poo is able to be used in your garden instantly! No waiting for it to compost. This is huge if the SHTF! Add these with chickens and you are doing pretty welll.

 

[GaRp58]

Greetings LiveTrap and GeorgiaPeachie: my father raised rabbits in OK near Bristow. LT, your idea of free running is great, I would save my .22 ammo for something else...A pellet gun or a BB gun, Bow and Arrow, slingshot, all work fine. Guns are too loud in the SHTF scenario and DRAW ATTENTION, not good.
My dad had rabbits in cages because of the coyotes. He set them up about 2 ft off the ground, had fine mesh wire underneath so if they peed, it would go to the ground. If they pooped, the little pellets would hit the fine mesh and either stay there or roll down into a kind of raingutter catcher. The fine mesh was set up in a 45 degree angle from high in the back to low in the front. The pellets would roll downhill into the raingutter and he would pick up the raingutter and dump the clean and dry pellets into a bushel basket for sale or self use as fertiliser like Georgie said. The best part was, the urine and pellets only stink when they mix. He also helped the females when they had babies. Instead of putting a breeding box in the cage and reducing the total available space, he cut a door in one side and hung the brooding box on the outside of the cage. Mama rabbit was big enough to get out of the box but her babies could not. She could take a much needed break so. He also strung plastic tubing through all the cages and connected little brass fittings with steel balls to the tubing and ran it all together into an old toilet tank. Each of the rabbit cages and a "drinking" brass fitting with a little steel ball and the rabbits could Lick/drink as much as they wanted or needed. The toilet tank was always connected to the water hose and kept the tubing always full. There was more water for the pregnant mothers and their babies, other rabbits used less, there was more room in the cages because of the lack of water bowls, you had less work to fill up all the water bowls AND there was no problem of the rabbits jumping around/spilling the water bowls and having to live without water till they were re-filled. He also saved lots of time in the feeding, he had cut a hole in the cage top, fitted a feeding pipe from the top into the cage which almost reached the feeding bowl which was wired down and could not be turned over just like the water bowls problem. He could walk by, scoop some dry food, pour it into the feeding pipe and fill it up with enough food to last several days. As the rabbits ate, more food would come down and keep the bowl full.
Very little work, little time, clean cages, re-cycling of pellets, always clean water, healthy rabbits and much food. He even sold the furs for good money since they were living in clean cages. (He also used Lysol in their ears to keep them clean and healthy from ear-lice!!) Gary

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

Greetings LiveTrap and GeorgiaPeachie: my father raised rabbits in OK near Bristow. LT, your idea of free running is great, I would save my .22 ammo for something else...A pellet gun or a BB gun, Bow and Arrow, slingshot, all work fine. Guns are too loud in the SHTF scenario and DRAW ATTENTION, not good.
My dad had rabbits in cages because of the coyotes. He set them up about 2 ft off the ground, had fine mesh wire underneath so if they peed, it would go to the ground. If they pooped, the little pellets would hit the fine mesh and either stay there or roll down into a kind of raingutter catcher. The fine mesh was set up in a 45 degree angle from high in the back to low in the front. The pellets would roll downhill into the raingutter and he would pick up the raingutter and dump the clean and dry pellets into a bushel basket for sale or self use as fertiliser like Georgie said. The best part was, the urine and pellets only stink when they mix. He also helped the females when they had babies. Instead of putting a breeding box in the cage and reducing the total available space, he cut a door in one side and hung the brooding box on the outside of the cage. Mama rabbit was big enough to get out of the box but her babies could not. She could take a much needed break so. He also strung plastic tubing through all the cages and connected little brass fittings with steel balls to the tubing and ran it all together into an old toilet tank. Each of the rabbit cages and a "drinking" brass fitting with a little steel ball and the rabbits could Lick/drink as much as they wanted or needed. The toilet tank was always connected to the water hose and kept the tubing always full. There was more water for the pregnant mothers and their babies, other rabbits used less, there was more room in the cages because of the lack of water bowls, you had less work to fill up all the water bowls AND there was no problem of the rabbits jumping around/spilling the water bowls and having to live without water till they were re-filled. He also saved lots of time in the feeding, he had cut a hole in the cage top, fitted a feeding pipe from the top into the cage which almost reached the feeding bowl which was wired down and could not be turned over just like the water bowls problem. He could walk by, scoop some dry food, pour it into the feeding pipe and fill it up with enough food to last several days. As the rabbits ate, more food would come down and keep the bowl full.
Very little work, little time, clean cages, re-cycling of pellets, always clean water, healthy rabbits and much food. He even sold the furs for good money since they were living in clean cages. (He also used Lysol in their ears to keep them clean and healthy from ear-lice!!) Gary

Gary,
You have had a very interesting life from the sounds of it! And you have soaked up a ton of knowledge that most don’t have. Your Dad had a great setup! My grandparents had a similar one. I guess when you have a few hundred rabbits to care for you look for quicker ways to keep them fed and healthy. Grandma put some type of oil in the bunny’s ears. I’ve used honey mixed with water. Oil of any kind does work.

The furs are beautiful, especially certain breeds.

 

[DrHenley]

Rabbits are easy to kill. I used to hunt them with #6 birdshot. A pump-up pellet rifle is more than enough to put one down.

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

Rabbits are easy to kill. I used to hunt them with #6 birdshot. A pump-up pellet rifle is more than enough to put one down.

Not only that, but a spot light at night freezes them..

 

[Brent S]

I raised rabbits for a while, and did a thread in it here showing what I learned as I went. I would be still raising them but decided I don’t like rabbit meat. What I advise to everyone is to try it out firsthand. You can read how to raise and clean your own meat, but doing it in the real world helps you work out the bugs in your system. Right now you can call it a hobby, and if something doesn’t work and all your rabbits, or chickens or whatever, die then you can learn from it and go get some more to try again. So many people think they will just start doing these things if shtf. I assure you, and not just with the learning but with having access to hardware stores and supplies, doing it after shtf when resources would be limited will be ten times harder.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I use a box trap to catch rabbits in my barn. When I have hay stacked outside I'll sit in a comfy chair with a few brews, a .22 and shoot the bunnies around the stack.
I also use snares and foot traps to catch bunnies to use for bait when trapping coyotes and bobcat.

 

[LiveTrap]

Well, I live in town, so I won't be raising rabbits unless something bad happens. Brent S is right though, and things you don't expect happen. What ended our rabbit hobby was completely unexpected. We kept the rabbits about a quarter mile from the house to avoid the poop smell, plus, there was a nice big oak tree there that shaded their pens in the summer. One night, a pack of 5 or 6 ferrule dogs ripped open the cages and ate most of them, and ran the rest off. One survived under a shed, but was so tramitized that we could never handle it again. Before that, they were quite tame. Friends and neighbors spotted the dogs at a distance, but we could never track them down. You wouldn't think that dogs could actually rip open quarter inch galvanized hardware cloth with their teeth, but they sure did. Some was ripped clear off the hutches past dozens of bent over nails that secured it to the 2 by 4s.

 

[GaRp58]

you have soaked up a ton of knowledge that most don’t have

Most people I meet will not survive being around me the first 2-3 weeks.They don't think I am real and normal. God gave me a great memory and yes I have had a very interesting life. I have worked in over 20 different occupations to learn to do everything for myself. Left home at 17, backpacked and survived 8 months or so from California to southern TX. Learned from the Indians, Military, other survival persons and my own experiences. My dad had 5 occupations and was a mechanical genius. I read lots, google lots and never stop learning. 4 languages. Cooking, baking, trapping, bow-hunting. Writing a book for my kids to keep some of it in the family. The only things I cannot do at the time, which I would like, is flying and the most important thing in the world: having children. That makes you as a woman more important than me as a man. I tip my hat to all women. Gary

 

[GeorgiaPeachie]

Most people I meet will not survive being around me the first 2-3 weeks.They don't think I am real and normal. God gave me a great memory and yes I have had a very interesting life. I have worked in over 20 different occupations to learn to do everything for myself. Left home at 17, backpacked and survived 8 months or so from California to southern TX. Learned from the Indians, Military, other survival persons and my own experiences. My dad had 5 occupations and was a mechanical genius. I read lots, google lots and never stop learning. 4 languages. Cooking, baking, trapping, bow-hunting. Writing a book for my kids to keep some of it in the family. The only things I cannot do at the time, which I would like, is flying and the most important thing in the world: having children. That makes you as a woman more important than me as a man. I tip my hat to all women. Gary

There is no doubt I would enjoy being around you and learn a lot! Like you, I strongly feel that life is for learning until your last breath! Took up the bow as a young person, but never got that good. I am a quarter Cherokee, but don’t look it. My oldest son however is all Cherokee in looks. There isn’t anything he doesn’t hunt, trap, or hook. LOL. He cooks or preserves it all. Like your dad, I've had more than a few careers, as I get bored easily.

Don’t know if having children makes me more important than you, but well raised children and grandchildren are our most valuable contribution we leave behind. Leaving a book with all your knowledge is probably one of the most valuable things you will ever do!

 

[Brent S]

Well, I live in town, so I won't be raising rabbits unless something bad happens. Brent S is right though, and things you don't expect happen. What ended our rabbit hobby was completely unexpected. We kept the rabbits about a quarter mile from the house to avoid the poop smell, plus, there was a nice big oak tree there that shaded their pens in the summer. One night, a pack of 5 or 6 ferrule dogs ripped open the cages and ate most of them, and ran the rest off. One survived under a shed, but was so tramitized that we could never handle it again. Before that, they were quite tame. Friends and neighbors spotted the dogs at a distance, but we could never track them down. You wouldn't think that dogs could actually rip open quarter inch galvanized hardware cloth with their teeth, but they sure did. Some was ripped clear off the hutches past dozens of bent over nails that secured it to the 2 by 4s.

One of my dogs got three of the mature females once. I had to go to a fenced enclosure with the cages in that. Damn dog is lucky I really like him....