compare rabbits vs. chickens

From a value persepctive, which will bring a bigger profit, meatbirds or rabbits?

We know that rabbits out perform meatbirds in food conversion. Rabbits have lots of babies (so do chickens). But you can breed your own rabbits on site, but meatbirds are not easily reproduced at home and must be purchsed, which restricts shipping die to weather.

Can anyone pick this up and continue for me?

What about cost of housing? Cost of feed? Cost of having rabbits processed in a govt inspected facility, what does it cost. There is a limt on the number of meatbirds a family can raise in one year here in BC. Is there a limit on rabbits too? Is there any value in the hides? I'm sure there is lots I didn't think of.

For me the big issue with rabbits is they need to be individually caged and watered which can be an issue throughout the year. All my chickens are in one barn with a heted waterer.

Your market for chickens is larger, though rabbit is more expensive. Chickens are chaper to feed as they can range and you can get grain deals from local farmers. With rabbits you are pretty much stuck to pellets.

Rabbit is a healthier meat than chicken.

And then there are those eggs...

I would guess that market is the biggest issue. I have probably eaten thousands of chickens in my lifetime but have not eaten even one rabbit. Just saying.

I have never raised poultry or rabbits for meat production/profit, so I can't help here. I do agree with Dan that in North America there is only a small market to fill for rabbit meat. In Europe the market is larger and most people readily eat rabbit meat.
Feed costs for poultry and rabbits can be close to the same, I mix whole oats in the rabbit pellet and it lowers the overall feed cost. You can go 50/50 with oats/pellets and the gains are just as good. Don't feed barley to them, use oats.

Piet

I haven't found a place that wants hides. It is much cheaper to buy from China. I think last time I had a rabbit processed it was $4 wrapped. I got into rabbits because the rabbit processor was 30 minutes away and the chicken processor was 6 hours away. All that is changed now. This year I will look at raising the frankenchickens in larger quantities and the rabbits in fewer. I don't know of any limit on rabbits raised though depending on your land description there are sometimes limits on animal units.

Oh- I find chickens much less labor-intensive than rabbits, but that is probably my set-up.

Sue

Chicken eggs are very nutritious;


Macronutrients

One large chicken egg contains 72 calories. Fat content of an egg is 4.75 g, with 1.55 g of these saturated. Eggs contain just a trace amount of carbohydrates but are high in protein, with 6.28 g per serving. The egg white contains 3.47 g of this protein.
Other Nutrients

Eggs provide small amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium. They are also a source of most B vitamins, as well as vitamins E, K and A. According to the World's Healthiest Foods website, egg yolks are a good source of choline, a newer addition to the B vitamin group. Egg yolks are also a source of lutein, an antioxidant that helps with vision.


Rabbits, on the other hand, lay Cadbury Easter creme eggs;

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
1 egg (39.0 g)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 170
Calories from Fat 54
Total Fat 6.0g
Saturated Fat 3.5g
Cholesterol 5mg
Sodium 25mg
Total Carbohydrates 28.0g
Sugars 25.0g
Protein 2.0g
Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 4% • Iron 0%

ooo excellent point Fowler....

and then there are all those bunny raisenettes....

I changed the way my does run in the winter.
I let all my does loose in the old house that is here.
They have a small outside pen(12ft x 8 ft)as well.
One big water dish and auto feeder for pellets.
I do not breed in the winter and this has been awsome so far.
My bucks are in their pens and I have 6 NZ does in a pen untill I tattoo them.
Takes me min to look after them now .Used to take a hour to feed and water etc.

I might try a total colony in the spring.
Catch each doe and put in with the buck I want to breed them to and let them have babies in the old house.
Not sure how or if it will work?
I prefer the rabbits to chickens.
Rabbits are cleaner,and taste as good as chicken.
Takes min to put them in the freezer .
They dont lay eggs but the trade off is way less work and they are cute too boot

We raised rabbits years ago but mostly just ate them ourselves - didn't sell them. For several years we did really well with them. They ran together in a big pen with lots of hay in it. They would burrow down into the hay and have their babies and I don't remember any problems with several families of bunnies living together. Of course when the males got big enough, we separated them from the rest of the flock. I was quite young - teens - so probably do not remember all the details. I do remember that we bought rabbit feed but that they ate a lot of hay which we grew ourselves so that cut down on expense. We have free ranged them in the summer at times and one winter we had some living in the barn and they had a little hole where they could go out and play in the snow.

In the end, however, we got some kind of disease that put an end to our rabbit raising. Not sure what it was but the rabbits got diarehha and when you killed them, they had spots on their liver. There were a number of people raising rabbits then and shipping them for processing in PEI (from Nova Scotia). I think they had issues with disease too around that same time. Since that was back in the '70's, perhaps there is are better ways to deal with disease today.

If you are just doing it for profit and that's your main focus, then Rabbits for sure!! Hands down,no questions asked! Rabbits blow chickens away when it comes to pure profit.

tlc wrote:If you are just doing it for profit and that's your main focus, then Rabbits for sure!! Hands down,no questions asked! Rabbits blow chickens away when it comes to pure profit.

You must have buyers there, TLC! In many places in Canada there is little market for rabbit meat. People always want chickens, especially farm raised ones!

Sue