[chriso]

I would think if you are already processing other food stuff for sale you might be able to add rabbit a bit easier. Perhaps it would be better if you made and sold it as rabbit pie/curry or other dish you might have a wider market. I have never done it, just ideas. 

[Hopewell]

A friend wanted some of our rabbit recently and wanted to pay for them. I did an internet search and found 1.25kg fresh english rabbit at £7.25 per dressed rabbit, plus postage. I hadn't expected it to be quite as much as that.

[princesspiggy]

1.25kg fresh english rabbit at £7.25 per dressed rabbit, plus postage.

english - as in nationality or breed?
we had rabbit curry the other day, it was ashamably good! it (she..arghh) was an english at 8 mth, suprising amount of meat too.

[Hopewell]

english - as in nationality or breed?

As in country of production.
Most rabbit meat is imported fresh from other european countries or china. If it is fresh and in a supermarket it will be from France or elsewhere in Europe, if it is frozen it will probably be from china. As has been the case with other livestock production the welfare standards across Europe differ and it is not a level playing field.

[loosey]

None of the rabbit meat you buy in restaurants here will be imported ... it;s simply not worth doing if you're only paying £1 for a full carcass.

If only for your own consumption, you'd be better off getting a firearm license and a rifle and taking out some of the wild population!

[Hopewell]

None of the rabbit meat you buy in restaurants here will be imported ... it;s simply not worth doing if you're only paying £1 for a full carcass.

If only for your own consumption, you'd be better off getting a firearm license and a rifle and taking out some of the wild population!

You are obviously referring to wild rabbit which is a different product to farmed rabbit. And of course wild rabbit carcases fetch less than a farmed rabbit.

[Frieslandfilly]

There must be a big demand for rabbit somewhere, heard a discussion on the radio the other day about 3 planning aplications in various parts of the country for 'battery rabbit farming'. Animal welfare were in on the disscussion as they wanted 'free range rabbit farms'!! I cant quite understand it as we have plenty here and all for free!

[Plantoid]

There must be a big demand for rabbit somewhere, heard a discussion on the radio the other day about 3 planning aplications in various parts of the country for 'battery rabbit farming'. Animal welfare were in on the disscussion as they wanted 'free range rabbit farms'!! I cant quite understand it as we have plenty here and all for free!

 Unless there is a processor close by I doubt it will be for meat rabbits due to the transport and care of stock regs. even the driver of a collection lorry or delivery vehicle has to have some sort of NVQ  or city and guilds qual to say he is qualified to move and carefor that animal ( rabbits ) unless it is with in a very short distance. the humane despatch of the rabbits and taking the carcases in a chiller is also rather expensive

  It could be for the pet market , research etc. and also be a cost effective way to get "  difficult " planning permission granted on agri land ...once the number of animals reach certain figures or the application has big numbers of proposed animals it is a lot easier to apply & get PP for building a massive mansion ..run the enterprise at a loss for three years sell the stock off as pet food or maggot meat  then close it down .. leaving you with a very saleable / rentable property in agri land .

[Frieslandfilly]

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/873540/battery_rabbit_farm_proposals_could_see_return_of_fur_farming_to_uk.html, this is from the Ecologist on the 5th May, its probably the report that lead to the discussion on the radio.

[Plantoid]

whats the rules about slaughter ect for domestic rabbit.

Don't make is suffer...
We found this method given in the old ministry of agricultural  publications ...
when havin g to cull any of our the herd was to hold rabbit by rear legs , lay an 20 inch long half inch tick  steel bar across its neck  just behind the ears , quickly stand with legs astride on the bar and pull . usually just standing on the bar is enough to sevrer the spinal cord and stop the brain wworking  but the pull is the clincher.
 It is over in less than 1/3 of a second . The animal shows no distress at being inverted or having the bar laid on it and you don't get scratched half as much as when you try the over the knee neck stretch to break the spinal cord..
 Don't even think of trying to give it a " Rabbit punch " with your hand or a steel  bar etc ..  it is difficult and can be a failure , leaving the creature in immense distress and pain , not to mention yourself if you misss the rabbit & hit yourself with an steel bar.

[Plantoid]

whats the rules about slaughter ect for domestic rabbit.

 Doing it for your self or the pot..very little.
Doing it for retail horrendous .

 For youself.. it used to be common & allowed  to obtain a 20 inch long steel bar of 1/2 inch dia . Hold the rabbit by the back legs , gently lay it head down to the floor , put the bar across its neck just behind its skull ,quickly & evenly step in the bar at the ends with a foot either side of the head  and pull the legs at the same time to ensure almost instantaneous  severance of the spinal cord and kill the brain in about 1/3 of a second or less.
Dont even think of trying to hold its back legs and give it a " rabbit punch 2 or strike it behing the ears with the bar etc . for you may fail to get it right and leave the creature in immense distress and pain. it's also a bit of a bugger if you miss the rabbit and wallop yourself with the steel bar.

[colliewoman]

Hi all, if you wanna make money from selling rabbit meat, please don't be insulted by my suggestion but check out raw feeding groups (ie people that feed their dogs/cats/ferrets a raw meaty bone diet). I could never find enough affordable meat when I lived in normality.
Try UKRMB (uk raw meaty bones).

People will pay through the nose to avoid pedigree scum, I know I used to!
And as an added bonus if you write 'not for human consumption' on the label you don't have to jump through any legal hoops either.

[beau]

hi here in France there is a market for rabbit its eaten a lot  as other meat are expensive, i moved form London five years ago  i eat rabbit about twice a week and sell to friends as i have the large Flemish rabbits have nine breeding females and two bucks  and at present have five litter born ranging from 7 to 11 in the litter  this keeps me in meat all year round , I'm a chef  here in France and have a small holding which i have goats chicken ducks , pigs and rabbits  life here in France  is great  but hard work

[MAK]

Sure is here - whole rabbits ( skinned but with heads on) are stacked in every supermarket - I think the last time I looked they were about 10-12 Euros each in the chilled units and a bout 8 euro a kg on the butchers counter.
Also sold on the markets.
all you need is a Brit who is already selling their own meat or other food stuffs on a market ( we have met a few) - then ship them over to France !!!!
We can get all sorts delivered here by people who make a living bringing stuff over from the UK . For example we can get Tesco food - Argos - ( well anything you can order on line) carpets - paint etc etc).
A few hundred rabbits in the back of a massive lorry would not cost much assuming you have someone waiting here to collect them from a designated lay by.

[Plantoid]

You'd have to comply with live animal transport regs and various other very expensive to comply with legislation not to mention som squeemie queering your pitch about animal rights etc.
 doing it as dead carcases  is also very expensive .
 
When I had my rabbit farm we got shafted time and time again by the processor who had signed contracts for slaughtered French rabbits .. we were just used as a pond to keep his supply up and once he had enough people were apparently being eaten out of house and home by unsaleable animals .
 I took steps to rectify things and met with great success but was booted out the british commercial rabbit association because I trod on many twisted toes to end up selling all the rabbits i could produce where as most othere sat on their butts bitching .
 
Look up Woldsway foods lincolnshire ..it may still be a going concern but beware of the no signed contracts and having all your eggs in one basket ..


caution ...The weight loss from collection time to being weighed in the plant was horrific as the rabbits seemed to have dehydrated or burnt off around 4 ounches per rabbit if collected within 25 mile and over 6 ounces if colected over 120 mikes and left alive overnight then weighed the next day ... dress out weightes were far less than myself or any of my aquaintances had expected or had in our own  meat production experiences had.

 I've tried the butchers route a couple of tines  with shot , snared or ferreted wild rabbits .. most of them are snowed under with them and their suppliers have them by the freezer full to ensure  a stable supply to the butchers.
 The rising number of Eastern Europeanshelped a bit but as most are only too willing to go out to shoot ,d snare or ferret for the wild rabbits themselves leaglly or otherwise the whole scene has now slowed right down .

Some of my pals on a forum elsewhere are still only getting 40 to 50 p a rabbit which doesn't cover fuel or cartridges etc. plus they should have a game dealers & shooting licence etc. to stay within the law.
 Most are just rabbiting because they enjoy being out & about doing it or as part of a pest control contract .

They usually only feed the carcass to the ferrets or their hunting dogs , any surplus's sometimes get sent to the local hunt hounds or occasionally for raptor increase/protection programmes by the land owner.