# Looking to purchase meat rabbits in Raleigh, NC area



## The Biss (May 31, 2006)

The wife and I have 30 acres of property 25 miles NW of Charlotte, but have not homesteaded it yet. Instead we are cutting our teeth in our backyard in Wake Forest, right outside of Raleigh... growing, canning, best practices, etc. 

I just finished building a rabbit hutch to grow our own meat supply, but am having the dangest time finding ANYONE in the Wake, Franklin, Johnston, Vance, Granville, Chatham, Orange or Durham county areas who raises and sells rabbits suitable for meat production.

If anyone knows of a place where I could purchase a buck and two does, I would be greatly obliged.


----------



## Tucker (Jan 4, 2005)

Hi ,, You might want to visit either the yahoo group meatrabbits ;

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Meatrabbits/

or the yahoo group The Rabbit Market that group is mostly NC / SC / Ga closeby rabbit people ..

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Rabbit_Market/

you might find someone at those groups who have stock you could buy ,, 

any particular breed you want ,, a white breed or colored ?? are you wanting young stock .. 10 - 12 weeks old and willing to wait a few months to start breeding ,, or are you wanting breeding age stock ,, $$$

Check and see when the next rabbit show is coming near you ,, I'm sure they have rabbit shows at the state fair agraculture area for 4H and show breeders ,, they have rabbit show's at the Shelby fair area near where I live several different times during the year ,,


Good Luck

:angel:


----------



## Tucker (Jan 4, 2005)

The Biss said:


> I just finished building a rabbit hutch to grow our own meat supply, .



... Just wondering what size 'hutch' did you build ,, 1 big hutch or 3 indivual holes ,, :nerd: plus you need to be thinking ahead in time and be planning on having 'at least' 2 or 3 large growout cages ,,

.. 'if' you breed both does together and 'both' have and 'raise' 8 - 10 babies ,,

(all of you that have had problems getting 'any' live babies ,, quit rolling on the floor laughing  it's possible ) .. I 'have' had 1st time NZ does have 12 babies and rasie 11 (and I fostered the 12th kit to another doe that had 10 and she raised all of hers too  ) ,, it can happen ..

new rabbit raisers have to remember that when the time comes to wean the young fryers from mom ,, say between 6 - 8 weeks of age ,, they 'should' be weaned into sexed growout cages ,, just in case there is emergencies :grump: and you don't get to butcher them between the 10 - 12+ week age they 'normally' get butchered at ... 

...... don't want a early maturing buck impregnating every early maturing doe in the cage ,, 'if' you get delayed butchering till the 3 - 4 months age you don't want to find babies born on the wire from miracle breedings or 'finding' that the fryers you are in the middle of butchering were a few weeks along .. :Bawling: 

(my hub will delay at the drop of a hat .. me > :flame: last Saturday he did 4 - 15 week old does he wanted to 'let' get bigger so their carcasses would be bigger) ..so I was extremely careful sexing those 4 when we butchered the other 12 at 10 weeks of age ,,


..... boys in 1 cage , girls in the other ,, 

if there is say .. 16+ live fryers at 7 weeks .. 'probabilities' are the sexes won't be equal :shrug: ,, 'if' you were to get 8 each sex ,, you'd need growout cages big enough to hold 8 fryers till butchering time ,, 

if there is get say 5-6 1 sex ,, 9-10 other sex ,,, you'd 'need' 3 cages ,, 1 to hold the 1 small numbers sex , 2 to divide the other large numbers sex into ,, most everyone will say that if the fryers are too 'crowded' they won't gain as well ,, as when they have 'room' to grow ..

so the size of your growout cages will depend on how many fryers you want to put in each cage till you butcher ,, and I've seen it reccomended to have 2 bottles / nipples if auto watering ,, and 2 feeders in growout cages to reduce squabbling over food ,,


Lord I'll hush now 

:angel:


----------



## The Biss (May 31, 2006)

Tammy, thanks for the nfo. My hutch is divided into three holes, each measuring a little over 2x3'. I also have another 2x3' overflow cage.

As far as breeds are concerned, I'm not picky at all. Considering that difficulty I've been having finding stock, I'm not going to be choosy at this point. I would like something in the 10-12 lbs range.

Also, I noticed you were in Lincoln Co. Our 30 acres is in the corner of Catawba and Lincoln near Killians Crossing (Hwys 150 & 16).


----------



## Gill (Jun 6, 2006)

Hi, there is a rabbit breeder near Sanford, he has been very helpfull, been raising New Zealands and Californians for 18 years now. I am meeting him on Thurs to get mine as well as buy a 3 hole rabbit line. His name is Kelvin, you can send him an email at [email protected] . He seems to know what he is doing and had them for sale now. $20 each or trio for $50. Not sure how good a price this is, but as like you it is real hard to find meat rabbits round here. Jammbas ranch in Fayetteville, has rabbits, but no telling where they are from. He has some New Zealands coming in tomorrow morning though and they are only $6.00 each. That is all I've found so far!
Let me know if you find some others though,
Cristina


----------



## Tucker (Jan 4, 2005)

The Biss said:


> Tammy, thanks for the nfo. My hutch is divided into three holes, each measuring a little over 2x3'. I also have another 2x3' overflow cage.
> 
> As far as breeds are concerned, I'm not picky at all. Considering that difficulty I've been having finding stock, I'm not going to be choosy at this point. I would like something in the 10-12 lbs range.
> 
> Also, I noticed you were in Lincoln Co. Our 30 acres is in the corner of Catawba and Lincoln near Killians Crossing (Hwys 150 & 16).





Hi Bliss ,,,  Your land is about 12 miles from me as the crow flies ,, I live over on hwy 73 between the airport and East Lincoln Middle school ,,

If you join the 2 groups I mentioned ,, I know there are breeders of NZ's near you ,,, the only NC rabbit processor I know of is in Siler City ,, so there are a few breeders in your area ,,

Check into it and see if there will be any shows near you ,, if you are just raiseing for home use its fun to have some color in the hutches ,, Rex rabbits have beautiful fur & colors ,, New Zealands come in more than just white lol ,, Harliquins have a meat rabbit type body + colors ..

Good Luck


----------



## Thatch (Jun 25, 2002)

Gill said:


> Hi, there is a rabbit breeder near Sanford...


That's who I got my rabbits through. Kelvin is a good guy with good genetics. I wouldn't hesitate to buy through him. He'll meet you part way as well so you could knock of some of the miles between you and Sanford. At least he did that for me running up there from Fayetteville.

Good luck,

J


----------



## Tucker (Jan 4, 2005)

LOL My husband thought I was nuts when I told him I was driving down to Columbia SC (250+miles roundtrip) ,,, to buy a purebred trio from Hotel Californian ,,, Larry Cobel has some very nice Californians and a nice setup too ,,


Tim Bowman ,, lives in Taylorsville has very nice WNZ's and Californians ,, he shows (wins too  ) and sells his excess to the processor ,, he has a very nice setup ,,

I know of 1 lady who lives in Marshville who raises and sells but I can't think of the names of the ones who live near Raleigh ,,

 if you were really desperate I could pursuade hub to let me breed my 2 does ,, but he would want me to sell 'all' of the offspring ,, he's went on strike as a butcher and the freezer has plenty ,,

:angel: 

with the heat we've been having I would expect buddy to be shooting blanks anyhow ,, murphy's law ....


----------



## Gill (Jun 6, 2006)

I just picked up my rabbits from Kelvin last night, they are beautiful, if your still looking I would definately check into his. He has been working towards large litters, with all 8-10 kits living. Good mothering instincts. He was very helpful, Good luck. 
Cristina


----------



## Tucker (Jan 4, 2005)

The Biss said:


> Tammy, thanks for the nfo. My hutch is divided into three holes, each measuring a little over 2x3'. I also have another 2x3' overflow cage. .





Hi Bliss ,, Since you will be breeding just for home use , you will have to have a 'relaxed' breed back schedule if you only have the 1 extra cage for growouts ,,

,, you 'can' (most of the time  ) accurately sex young fryers by around 5-6 weeks of age ,, you'd need to wean all the young bucks into your growout cage , leaving the doe kits with their moms around that age/time,,

then you plan 2 butchering dates ,, 

,, so at the 8/9/10/11 week age [that will depend on age/weight 'you' decide to do the deed] .. butcher the bucks in the 1 growout pen ,,, emptying it for the does still with their moms ,, or butcher all the does that were left with their moms ....

My hub dosen't like to butcher much more than 7-8 fryers on the same day/morning :grump: ,, he also hates :flame: the 'thought' of butchering fryers 2 saturdays in a row (ruining his weekends  ) ,, 'he' also has a 'thing' about butchering them too 'young' ,,, so numbers play a part in how many gets butchered on our 2 butchering days ,,,  
hub has me wait to rebreed my 2 does till after the current litters are in the freezer ,, he freaks at the thought of new babies in the nest when he still hasn't butchered the previous bunch ,,

 lord I can ramble :nono: 

soo ,,You would then count back and 2/3 weeks before the 1 st butchering date ,, that date is when you would breed back the moms ,, that way the does will have 1/2 'free' weeks before giving birth again ,,

your second butchering date will be when you want to empty the spare cage ,, 

if your holes are 2ftx3ft thats plenty of room for a buck ,, and a doe with kits 6/8 till the kits are about 5 - 7 weeks ,, it will start getting crowded as the kits grow bigger ,,,, a doe with 9 - 11+ kits will be waay too crowded soon after the kits start coming out of the nestbox in that size cage,,,


You should get a I-wanna and check for used cages for sale ,, I got a used hanging wire cage 15ft long run , 5 holes 2ftx3ftx18in high babysaver wire sides for $45/$8 a 'hole' ,, brought home - sterilized ,, hung under shed roof (if I'd had the 'hanging' room I would've bought more) guy had bought out another breeder & had extra cages ,, had auto watering pipe already on & feeders ,, I thought was a great deal  

you can find deals sometimes and you could expand your growout cage space without a lot of investment ,, 



I'l shut up now 

:angel:


----------



## cantwait (Jan 23, 2012)

If your willing to drive about an hour west, I have 18 kits available in a few weeks.


----------



## BoldViolet (Feb 5, 2009)

I would hope that in 6 years, they found SOMEthing.


----------



## cantwait (Jan 23, 2012)

BoldViolet said:


> I would hope that in 6 years, they found SOMEthing.


oPPS! :smack


----------

