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Episode-1977- Meat Rabbit Management with Tiffany VanderBie

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Happy Rabbits at Vanderbie Farms

Tiffany is an owner/operator of VanderBie Farms with her husband Jesse. They have been raising meat rabbits (among goats, chickens, quail, and bees) on their farm for about 3 years now.  They take pride in their work and always strive to produce the best that they can.

Today Tiffany joins us to discuss how they manage their rabbitry.  Why they got into rabbits in the fist place.  Selecting animal for breeding, processing meat animals and deciding when to cull or pass on breeders.

We also discuss some awesome recipes for cooking rabbit meat.  We also talk about some new plans that Tiffany has for her homestead along with the importance of moving slowly when starting out and fully nailing down one form of livestock before adding another.

Today We Answer Questions Like…

  • How Tiffany’s rabbitry is set up
  • How to choose your rabbits (either buying or keepers)
  • The way to cull and process your rabbits
  • How to properly breed rabbits
  • How long gestation, kindling, and weaning take
  • How to market rabbits for sale
  • Some good recipes for rabbit meat
  • How to keep track of the rabbits? (Records, tattoos, etc.)

Resources for today’s show…

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Comments

Episode-1977- Meat Rabbit Management with Tiffany VanderBie — 12 Comments

  2. I’m getting my first meat rabbits TOMORROW! So this couldn’t be more timely for me. Can’t wait to listen on the drive home tonight. Thanks Jack!

  3. You make a great little farmer Tiffany!!! Wishing you continued success!!

  4. Looking forward to listening to this one. I got into raising meat rabbits this year, although I went for the free-range-in-the-yard model. Meat, manure, great with the kids, easy, and no more lawn mowing!

    • I thought it would be the one by David Allen Coe. (Don’t google “David Allen Coe Anita Bryant” if you have ever been offended by anything, ever. This song is not suitable for anyone of any age.)

  6. It has been around fifty years since I was involved with raising rabbits. It seemed so much easier when I was twelve. Around four years later we tried chickens. Chickens are harder in my opinion.
    Glad to know about old rabbits being harder to skin. My dogs go bonkers over rabbit.

  7. My doe just kindled a litter of 10. All are active and seem healthy except for size. The biggest ones are twice the size of the smallest. I was thinking about removing a couple of the bigger ones for a night to ensure the smaller ones get a good meal and repeat again after a few days. Does this make since or should I just leave it up to nature? They are being raised for meat.

    • I’ve only been doing it a year, but I’ve learned the hard way that it’s pretty tough to interfere and save struggling kits – it seems to make it worse every time. The reason they produce so many kits is because they’re so vulnerable (only about 30% survive in nature), so I think you just need to get used to the fact that some will die (competition for milk, being a “runt”, etc.). Like I said though, I’m still only a year into this and could be wrong. One thing to think about doing is timing two does to get pregnant at a time so that if the litters are out of balance one mother can foster excess from the other batch.

  8. Removing kits isn’t a good idea unless you have another doe to foster them to. It’s tough but let nature take its course, odds are most of them will survive. You can also supplement your does milk production by giving her 1 tbsp of black oiled sunflower seed every day.

  9. Ditto on skinning those old rabbits. I’ll generally go ahead and process them quickly and then boil them down as a special treat for the dogs. Those old boys can get husky and put on a surprising amount over time.

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