Does anyone???

[dndylfe]

keep bees or rabbits?

Just interested in what you think about them if you do.

Thanks

[Kimberlina]

I don't but I had both as a child.

The rabbit was just a pet, though- nothing more. He was pretty easy to take care of. We gave him a nice big pen, raised off the ground, and he has a little enclosed area for sleeping and just generally getting away from people. Then there was an area that had chicken wire (just a small area, mind you, so it wouldn't hurt his feet too much) so that he could do his business there and keep his cage clean.

The bees, well, I have been thinking about keeping bees again. I am going to have to work with a bee keeper first, though, so I can decide if I really want to. My Dad got attacked by ours when I was a kid and that was the end of the bee keeping experiment- I'd say we had them a couple seasons.

[mrschris]

We had rabbits one year. We were already doing chickens and our own beef by that point, but thought we'd add rabbits into the mix, as well. We decided not to do it again. There are a lot of people who have done really well with them. We just had an absolutely awful time killing them! Chickens smell so awful and by the time they're 7-8 weeks old (we raise ours to roaster size), they're ugly and you're just sick of them. It doesn't bother us to kill them. Similarly, with steers, by the time they are 18 months old, they're big and scary and smelly and we're just ready to send them to the butcher. But the rabbits...cute little cuddly rabbits...it was really hard for us to kill them. And we really did not like the meat much.

That was our experience. Rabbits are a fantastic way to raise your own meat cheaply and especially in small spaces. Even most city dwellers can get away with rabbits. It just didn't work for us.

[dndylfe]

Thank you.

I checked out a book from the library about them, and they just seemed a lot more work than we originally thought. Plus, they seemed fairly susceptible to changes in weather and dirty conditions. I think we'll try finding a local rabbitry to buy eating ones from.

[Hollyhandi]

I raise them but only as pets.
Yes they need a lot of care are to cute to kill

[Laurie in Bradenton]

We used to have 2 rabbits which we raised more as fertizler factories than anything eles. Their "intelligence berries" worked wonders for our crappy soil and when each passed of natural causes because we couldn't kill them either they went on to be great starting material for new rose bushes.

Laurie in Bradenton

[patches]

I used to keep rabbits a couple of decades ago.

Fairly easy. They need shade because they become over heated easily.

They are not difficult to take care of, but you do need to remember to keep them in water in the summer. They go through a lot of water.

Their meat is very lean. So remember that when it comes time to cook them. You have to add fat or they will be tough when frying them.

They are great for boiling as in rabbit and gravy, rabbit and dumplings, rabbit stew, and they make a great replacement for chicken.

For the purposes of butchering don't get a miniature rabbit. They aren't worth the feed that it would take to raise them, nor the trouble to butcher them.

New Zealands are considered the best meat rabbits along with most of the other white breeds.

They reproduce quickly and are the easiest to raise during a depression when feed gets expensive because they thrive on grasses and whatever else you can find growing wild.

So, as far as survival food goes, rabbits are an easy choice.

I'm planning on getting some this spring. I was blessed with a couple of free rabbit hutches and unlike raising pork, I can butcher these myself.

[crdurham]

My dad has had bees for years. They can quite a bit of honey and keep some for theirselves and sell the rest. I think they get $8.00 a jar for it.

I don't think they are very expensive to keep but if you live in a populated area the neighbors will probably be skidish. I have lots of great memories of eating the honey fresh out of the bee house and my dad had a bee house that you could open the back and watch them work (under glass..lol.). It was really neat.