Meat producers - how to you do "the deed"?

TroutRiver · #1 03/26/12, 10:01 AM

There seems to be a great market for rabbit around here, and I love the idea of small meat animals. I have had a few angora rabbits in the past, but have never raised them commercially for meat.

Forgive my lack of experience, but I have only ever butchered 2 rabbits - one was a wild rabbit that was caught in a live trap in my garden. The other was one of my angoras after being attacked by a dog and paralyzed.

I have butchered lots of other animals before, and rabbits have been by far the hardest for me. I don't know why, they are just so darn cute I don't want to do it! I am wondering what slaughter methods you folks use who raise meat rabbits? I am hoping to start up a small farmstead business toward the end of this year and raise some meat animals for market, and would love it if rabbits could be a part of my operation (I'm talking very small scale here, with possibility for future growth). But I need to find a way to overcome my queeziness about slaughtering them. Was hoping to find some tips and techniques here. Thanks!

bowbuild · #2 03/26/12, 11:16 AM

akane · #3 03/26/12, 12:19 PM

Pellet gun. Aim between the ears and down from behind, *pop*, no more rabbit and they never saw it coming or had to be held in an uncomfortable position. They can sit there eating grass. Depending exactly where you aim and how much brain you take out they kick a varying amount but the front half is floppy with unresponsive eyes so you know immediately that the brain is no longer getting signals or working. I've had one go wrong out of hundreds and I haven't always aimed at the same spot.

boundarybunnyco · #4 03/26/12, 01:28 PM

I found that once you've done it one time, it isn't hard the next.

SCRancher · #5 03/26/12, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowbuild

How to butcher rabbit video_0001.wmv - YouTube

This method is how my dad would kill our rabbits when I was growing up.

He missed once it was not a pleasant experience but all the other kills were instant.

I don't have rabbits - I expect I will one day.

**mygoat** · #6 03/26/12, 02:05 PM

I put bunnies in show carriers, usually fit 8 per carrier on butcher day. I like the carriers with 1"x2" bars in the top. It's a little crowded but it's only for a handful of minutes.

With the animal still in the carrier, I aim right between the ears and shoot. I usually don't latch the cage so I take out the rabbit by it's ears quickly (it can't feel anymore anyways) and set it on it's side on the ground, using my foot to keep it on it's side but NOT applying enough pressure to bruise it. I quickly slit the throat, then grab a back leg and let it dangle to bleed out. I use a knife to cut between the hock tendon and the bone, and hang the rabbit by this from hooks we have in our tree in the backyard.I then cut off the head, and to keep from dulling your knife cut around the head using the hole you made from slitting the throat. Cut through musculature, twis the head, and pull it off.

I use anvil trimmers to do most of the bone cutting with my rabbits. They work absolutely great for cutting off the front feet, which I do right after I take off the head.

I poke in through the skin on the belly, avoiding going into the body cavity. I make a cut down the belly part way,, then up each leg and around each hock. Most of the skinning doesn't involve cutting, but pulling. Pull the skin down the legs, cut through anus/tail, and then grab the hide and zip it off. If the head and front feet are off already, it'll come right off.

I open the body down the front, then cut up between the legs with the anvil trimmer to easily remove bladder and intestine without contaminating the meat. The guts can be removed leaving the heart, liver, and kidneys in place , which is what I do.

GBov · #7 03/26/12, 02:27 PM

I built a table top dispacher after I got tired of the time it was taking me to shoot them in the head. It has a long bar that is hinged on one end and fits into a grove so when I put the rabbit under it and press firmly down on the bar it breaks the neck neatly. With the rabbit on a solid surface it doesnt stress out and just looks around so no trying to hold it in odd angles or needing three hands.

There is a bit of blood staining around the neck meat but that doesnt bother me.

And doing rabbits is MUCH easier if you start with one that has hurt you or sprayed pee all over you lol.

akane · #8 03/26/12, 04:31 PM

My first rabbit butchered was nicknamed "demon rabbit" and you can find threads and blog posts about her on rabbittalk. She was completely insane. Attacked me from the ground a few times and tore through a pair of leather gloves. I tried to let her have a litter to see what would happen but she then developped mastitis and not looking to spend $60-$100 at the vet or 3 weeks that everyone quoted dosing her with antibiotics from the feedstore for something that had tried to kill me she got the first bullet. She was such a beautiful rabbit too and I was so happy the day I brought her home until she turned 4 months old and went off the deep end.

We got our meat rabbits going after that and with champagne d'argent everything was black so butchering a bunch of black rabbits with some silver when they got to be adults wasn't too hard. They were all pretty much identical. Now we just have so many it doesn't phase me. I pick out the best one and happily keep it while putting down the other dozen or 2 from that round of litters. Every now and then someone has an extra nice pelt or color that I feel sorry for since we've moved in to mutts and have every color under the sun but can't keep them all. I'm on the fence about this potential astrex castor doe. She was just bred so I might keep her through a litter and see what she produces.

EnnisLakeFarm · #9 03/26/12, 06:19 PM

I use the Rabbit Wringer and it works pretty good for me.

**mygoat** · #10 03/26/12, 07:54 PM

I wanna see this tabletop neck cruncher. Sounds like a good idea IMO! I can do the broomstick method well, but I imagine for newbies such an invention would be very helpful.

akane · #11 03/26/12, 08:21 PM

Sounds about how I do quail and smaller chickens. I have a device about like a pair of shears with a bone notch. There's a loop at the base that their neck fits in and you can close them with one hand (chickens sometimes my hands aren't big enough since I wear kid size gloves and I have to use 2) so the top piece which is a dull blade crushes the neck. Then you can slide it down out of the notch to the blade part so it slits the throat all in one. Found it at a local hunting shop next to the standard gamebird shears.

2doordad · #12 03/26/12, 08:51 PM

I use a steel pipe to give a quick blow to the back of the head, then slit the throat so they bleed all the way out.

GBov · #13 03/26/12, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mygoat

I wanna see this tabletop neck cruncher. Sounds like a good idea IMO! I can do the broomstick method well, but I imagine for newbies such an invention would be very helpful.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/rab...149-works.html

My wonderful hubby posted the pickies for me. Its the proto type but I used it today to teach a girl at 4h to process her own rabbits. It even worked on the carbon steel bunny. WOW was he hard to skin! But it broke his neck just lovely!

TroutRiver · #14 03/28/12, 10:57 AM

Thanks for the responses everyone. Will probably go the .22 route, that's how I've done all of my goats and I've never had one that wasn't dead instantly. I guess I always assumed rabbits were too small for that, not sure why...

the guillotine table is a great idea, BTW!

Oakshire_Farm · #15 03/28/12, 11:56 AM

I have so far only butchered one rabbit. I am just getting into raising rabbits for meat. I am not sure I could do the broom stick??? The whack with the pipe looked to cruel, to easy for things to go wrong....... So I used the .22, I took away his food 24 hours before doing the deed. Then put a pile of clean sawdust on the ground, gave the bunny a dish of food, he dove in, gave me plenty of time to make sure I had good placement. And with a quick pull of the trigger it was over! Fast clean and DONE.

akane · #16 03/28/12, 05:52 PM

Aim from the back unlike big livestock. Put it between the ears from behind and so long as you are straight (even if you aren't straight an eye usually just blows out and they still die) and don't point down too sharp you'll kill them. The bullet then goes through the head. If you shoot the other way with their compressed bodies you have to hunt down a bullet that just keeps going. I always wondered why people shot rabbits from behind until I had to pull a pellet out of a ribcage cause I shot twice and did the 2nd one from the front at the x between ears and eyes to make sure.

GBov · #17 03/28/12, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TroutRiver

Thanks for the responses everyone. Will probably go the .22 route, that's how I've done all of my goats and I've never had one that wasn't dead instantly. I guess I always assumed rabbits were too small for that, not sure why...

the guillotine table is a great idea, BTW!

Thanks! I like it anyway