At what age do you process rabbits for the table?

Just wondering, when raising chickens we process at 6 to 8 weeks for fryers, 12 weeks for baking, and stewing when they quit laying steadily after about 4 years of age.

So does anyone raise rabbits for baking? Seems everyone just raises for fryers mostly.

 

While we don't specifically and intentionally raise a larger rabbit to
process, sometimes it happens. My buyer pays me less money for NZ
rabbits over 5 3/4 pounds and only buys every two weeks. Sometimes
I will have an overweight in a group of fryers. I normally keep
those. As they are usually bucks, they are baked instead of using
for nuggets or as a southern fried dish. Normally these overweight
"fryers" will be at least 9 weeks old.

My mother also uses them for making dumplings. Yummy!

 

As far as I know, anything over the age of about 12 weeks is considered a roaster and anything that has reproduced is a stewer. Personally, I like the flavor of a roaster or stewer more than a fryer. Fryers are more tender, but they just don't have the rich, mature flavor of the older animals. As far as cooking them, rabbits seem to do well for us cooked with low, moist heat (i.e. throw in the crockpot, cover with water and simmer several hours), so the slight toughness of the older rabbits doesn't matter anyway.

Hannah

 

This fall at our NewOkiePioneers gathering, I had the opportunity to process a castrated year-old buck raised by Thumper. The joint structure and toughness was that of an older rabbit, but the meat cut like butter. Unfortunately, we threw him in the stewpot with the younger rabbits (where he was delicious), but my suspicion is that he would have been superb baked. He was rolling in fat. "Caponized" rabbit is something I definately want to experiment with, since I'm often late in getting around to butchering.

 

basicly its like everyone else said, over 9 weeks they are roasters, and once breeding age they are stewers,
if you raise rabbits for any length of time, eventually you will try all ages, and frankly, i agree, anything except a fryer is best treated to a dunk in the crockpot
i like fryers, well, fried , or cooked in the outdoor fire
but you can do whatever you want with any age, just remember its a lot like home raised birds, you will not have the tenderness of a younger animal

personally i dont mind having to chew my meat a little bit
old does when culled from breeding are good when crockpotted all day , old bucks, we they tend to be allowed to get a lot
older, so they generally are used as BARF food for the dogs

the ral reason noone raises rabbits for baing is that the feed to meat ratio plummets after about 9-10 weeks
up till that time they are putting on nearly an ounce a day , after that they are simply going from about 5 lbs to 10 lbs over a 6 month period, but thier feed needs keep increasing , so per pound the meat gets mroe expensive .
now that being said , that doesnt mean i burcher all my excess rabbits all at once, usually, if the buyer doesnt take them , i will follow the same plan i am now, i will advertise locally , and try to find buyers, recoup my expenses,
and then if i cant i will re examine the litter , if any of the does look promising, i will retain them for future breeding, if needed, if not i will call other breeders see if they need does, if not ,then i will butcher a couple at a time, i really dont worry too much at that point cause i know they are going for my table,
i dont ever process a whole bunch , maybe 3 or so ,one for that days eating and 2 for the freezer
i just prefer the fresh meat for whenever possible
Beth