This page about self sufficient living focuses on the benefits of raising rabbits sustainably:
We hear from folks all over America that have begun raising rabbits for self-sufficiency. These are the reasons they most often mention:
1) “Rabbit meat is healthy.”
2) "Have you priced rabbit meat lately? $30/pound?!? Heck, for that price I'll raise my own meat!"
3) “Rabbits have a minimal carbon footprint. I can butcher a few rabbits when I need the meat and don’t need refrigeration if I use what I butcher right away.”
4) “Rabbits are an ideal renewable resource. They multiply rapidly and don’t bark or crow at 5 a.m.”
5) “Butchering our own rabbits means I know my animals have been treated kindly through their lives and dispatched humanely and painlessly.”
6) “I don’t like the idea of being dependent on the grocery store nowadays. Self sufficient living is important to me.”
7) “Rabbit manure provides excellent fertilizer. Between the rabbits and the garden, we can provide for ourselves sustainably.”
While a few pet rabbit owners might be horrified at the idea of eating rabbits, our long-running rabbit survey has shown us that the vast majority of all rabbit owners, including pet rabbit owners, have no problem with the idea of eating livestock rabbits. The good news is that it only takes a few rabbits and minimal space to provide for the needs of an entire family. The urban dweller can easily raise a few rabbits on a covered patio or in the back yard.
The services now provided by the farmer, butcher, and grocer will fall to you. If you’re considering the idea of raising meat rabbits, here are some important considerations:
A single healthy doe can provide 6-10 live rabbits per litter, and sometimes more. That translates to up to 30 pounds of butchered meat per litter. Multiply 30 pounds times 7 litters per year, and you will have stored away or eaten up to 210 pounds of lapin, per doe, per year. Multiply THAT by the number of does, and…wow, it adds up fast.
But that is not all!
Besides a freezer full of fryers, rabbits provide:
Below: Crookneck squash growing crazy in rabbit manure, showing interdependency of species. The rabbits eat the plants and then fertilize the garden. Humans nurture both the rabbits and the garden, and also eat from both the herd and the plants.
http://www.peninsulanewsreview.com/news/167912285.html - This news article features a Sidney BC, Canada, resident who manages to provide nearly all the vegetables his family needs in the back yard of his city lot, at least in part with the waste/manure of a pet rabbit. Yes, it is apparently possible to nearly achieve self sufficient living on a city lot, especially with the help of animal-based fertilizer.
After all, convenience was the mother of all those clean and tidy, bloodless, shrink-wrapped square pieces of meat on grocery shelves today. Thus, convenience robbed us of self sufficient living.
If you’re willing to keep gambling on the stability of your employment and the global economy in exchange for the more familiar convenience, great!
But you now know where to come (Raising-Rabbits.com) should self sufficient living become a greater (voluntary or involuntary) priority.
For more info related to self-sufficient living: Rabbit Farming
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