Raising Rabbits for Meat or Fiber or Both

This is not a super happy, everything wonderful post about raising rabbits for meat or raising angora rabbits for fiber.

It is more about me trying to make something work that wouldn't and why. But they may work for you! When we started out I always found reading homestead articles about what didn't work for a fellow homesteader actually helped me better than reading about why something worked wonderfully sometimes. So here is my homesteaders' journey with rabbits. Trying to raise rabbits for meat, then raising rabbits for both and raising rabbits for fiber. 

Much like the goats, for four years we tried to make meat rabbits work out and we would have just enough success in between the failures to keep us going. Although, not enough pros for us to keep at it.

One of the major problems we had with raising meat rabbits was...well, we just didn't like them... 

The meat was good and has a pretty good nutritional profile, But it was not good enough to put up with all the trouble of raising them! Here's a look at the meat from a nutritional standpoint Nutrition in Rabbit Meat

Reasons we didn't like raising rabbits for meat

The meat rabbits breeds we tried weren't enjoyable to take care of for us. Some were downright mean and would attack my hand if I reached in the cage!

We had problems with mothers not being good mothers! A major issue since unlike a goat I can't easily bottle feed a baby rabbit with much success! We had problems with mothers killing babies.

We had problems collecting the manure... the manure is great for the garden,, but its the urine that's stinky and really makes for lots of work if you're using trays or shoveling up urine soaked manure. The urine will burn plants so it couldn't be directly added either.

Also, we felt like they ate too much for the return on investment! They really go through the pellets and good rabbit pellets aren't cheap! They have very sensitive digestive systems and can be picky eaters. Which makes foraging and growing their food tricky. Though I did go that route for a while honestly I do not have time to devote an hour a day to gathering and growing rabbit food. That didn't make sense to me. I can simply take that hour and grow or gather food to be eaten directly for us.

Slaughtering them wasn't as easy as the youtube videos make it out to be! They kick, scratch and can fight fairly hard. They scream. It was pretty terrible and made me want to be a vegetarian! 

Anyone who's says raising rabbits is easy or cheap to raise has clearly not done the numbers or maybe has no other livestock to compare them too. They are high input, though the right rabbits can also be high output if you have good breeders. Which apparently we never did!

I'm not saying they aren't useful livestock to many people!! They just were not the best choice for us and our personal needs on our homestead.

We don't give up easily and in those four years we tried 4 different breeds of meat rabbits... none lived up to the 'hype' of all we had read in those pretty glossy magazines.

Maybe if we had tried to raise them in tractors on the ground like this homesteader The Elliot Homestead that would have cut the feed cost although then I'd have to worry about moving the heavy tractors all the time so I don't know..

We tend to like animals that can be more independent like Meishan Pigs or Donkeys

New Plan for Raising Rabbits for Fiber or Both!

Then I tried Angora Rabbits! In 2013, I got into farm fiber production (raising it and spinning yarn) with the addition of the dairy sheep I tried (huge fail I might add,, but I was bitten by the fiber bug)

Fiber animals are as much work as a dairy animal and then some really!! For many many reasons, sheep didn't work out here. And neither did cashmere goats or angora goats...nor did alpacas work or llamas! I think the good Lord was trying to tell me something here ❓ Could be...

But late 2013 I got Angora Rabbits. Angora is probably my favorite fibers to crochet and wear.

After much research, I decided I would go for a dual purpose rabbit, French Angora. Raising rabbits for both meat and fiber sounded great! If this worked I wouldn't need to keep the American Blue or NZW or any of the other meat rabbits we had tried and didn't like! It would be perfect,, right!!!?? Right??? Oh... It's always so perfect in my head! 🤣

Angora Rabbits aren't really popular where I live so My very first rabbit was a French/English cross... It was love at first sight!!! I adored this guy. He was so sweet and SOFT! 

I should have just accepted his wonderfulness,, got another English cross and been done... but...

The French Angora is said to be the nicest for fiber and meat.

So when I found some I went wild and bought several! (ok,, I bought way too many!)

 however, they weren't quite as soft as my cross boy and really lacked the sweet temperament of my cross rabbit, which made harvesting the fiber not fun! You will often read how 'relaxing' people find grooming an angora rabbit is, well, it can be... if the rabbit is willing!!!! If the rabbit is not willing I promise its NOT a relaxing experience!!!

...and their ability to be 'plucked' made my life miserable with them! 

You see 'pluckable' angora is considered the 'best' because its supposed to spin easier, shed less...so it brings more $ if you're selling it raw to other spinners...sounds nice right?

Problem: when its ready to be plucked you must pluck!.. if you're not there to pluck it for the next couple of days it all falls out and ends up in the stinky urine soaked manure! Not practical for this busy farm girl that has a huge priority for the gardens and other animals to tend too!

So for me, this was NOT the best type of rabbit!

This frustration was totally un-necessary for me to deal with.

The one thing French Angoras did well was making money! Their babies sold easily for high prices, unlike the meat rabbits. Of all the animals we've raised here, they were one of the top for making a profitable cash flow. I'll add I had pedigreed French Angoras and they brought the most and sold the fastest. They are not easy to care for and very time consuming but I did average an extra $200 to $600 a month with them. Nice side homestead hustle money. There are a lot of devils in the details to how I did it but it can be done for someone who enjoys raising and grooming angora rabbits. I know breeders of English Angoras who make a lot more. Pedigreed Angoras can be very profitable on many levels.

 I also brought in German Angoras to see if they would work better They not pluckable and they give the most fiber of all the angora rabbits... they still grow fast enough to be an ok meat rabbit.. sounds perfect! Right?

Major problem... their fiber isn't as soft as the French or English Angoras, to me, it's downright itchy!

 Plus again, they lacked a sweet temperament I wanted so I can groom and harvest the fiber with minimum drama! And honestly, at well over $100 plus for a rabbit, I was going to have a hard time culling them for meat! 

So they were out... and in my disappointment and being in the middle of the overwhelming spring garden season I sold all my angoras to a nice lady in Gatlinburg. 

We tried one more stab at meat rabbits (colored NZ) then gave them all up and turned their cages into brooders for baby poultry and for raising quail which did work better for us and you can read about that here Why Raise Quail?

What doesn't work for us might still work for you!

It can be hard when something fails you've worked so hard at especially when your dream homestead is so overwhelming at first! But take heart!! We are living proof many things do work out! True, they weren't the things we thought would work out but we feel so blessed and happier with the things that have worked!

So believe me when I say, this was not meant to be a discouraging post but one to make you think about it from a different perspective. So hopefully you'll be able to make the most informed decision possible and be saved of the frustrations we had!

For us, we've had alot of success (so far!) with Meishan pigs, Donkeys (to guard and for milk), four season gardens, and working miniature horses (for work, enjoyment, and milk(soon I hope)) I'll also add that my gardens never had enough fertilizer until I brought in equine! That is a major win since gardens are my main focus here!

 If other livestock had been successful I would have never found my true love for equine or enough compost! yay! Win/Win 😄

Many other animals have actually worked here (geese, ducks, quail, which I loved) but we had to prioritize as our gardens have got more important so have my equine, and my husbands Meishan pig business took off. Homesteading simply just comes with hard choices sometimes.

Need more homesteader ideas to check out of Pinterest boards here Homestead and Horse Pinterest Boards

Like all other homestead plans, it's all, so perfect in my head.... ohhhh, and so perfect in the article where it does work out for others and in all the pretty magazines where sometimes the article is wrote by someone who doesn't even own that animal!

 Not so perfect in my real homestead farmers life...

And that's ok,,, after all this is the Homesteaders Journey! 

A Little More of our Journey

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I mentioned Meishan pigs above so for those who don't know here's a video about if they are a right fit for your farm since we have been on the subject of 'what's right for your homestead?'

Wool Farming: Homestead Business

'Sheep the Shawl' that sounds so cool doesn't it? Much like the farm to table movement, people like to know their food comes from well cared for animals.

Well, fiber artist like me, want to know their fiber comes from well cared for animals too!
Farming wool can be such an enjoyable thing if you enjoy the extra work fiber animals will bring to your farm.
Enjoyable work really isn't really a bad thing though, is it?

Multi-purpose fiber animals like these dairy sheep can bring more income to the farm

Multipurpose Livestock 

Most fiber livestock is Multipurpose. The more you can get out of your livestock the better! Multi-purpose livestock is nothing new for small farmers. It used to be the most prized animals were the ones who gave you more than one product or provided more than one job. Like my Working Horses and Donkeys! They provide me with a lot of valuable things I need.  
Here is a post I did on Multipurpose livestock and homesteading business Selling Livestock as a Business

Wool farming can be rewarding and profitable with the right animal for your farm.

Picking the RIGHT Fiber animal 

I know many people that get into farming look to fiber as a way to make a profit. To have that dream homestead become a reality we can't go broke trying to achieve it! A fiber business, with the right fiber animal, can really be very profitable, especially if the animal is multipurpose like I mentioned above. 

The producer does need to understand the fiber and be prepared to make a big commitment to producing some great stuff though! Fiber artists can be a very picky bunch and raising fiber animals isn't the easiest way to go for most brand new farms. Here is a good article on Wool grades for sheep Grades of Wool

Most sheep, cashmere goats, alpacas, llamas, yaks, and camels only give 1 fiber harvest a year.

 A few breeds of sheep and angora goats can give two harvests a year. Angora rabbits give around four! Which animal you decide to farm for wool will depend on your own farm resources and what works best for you personally! Check out this post I did on Multipurpose rabbits Raising Rabbits for Meat or Fiber or both!  It's no small thing to grow an amazing fleece on a fiber animal!! 

In fact, I'm never sure what I think is harder...

Milking and the care of a dairy animal or the care and growing of great fiber on an animal! Both take a lot of involvement, commitment and are no small expense!

I admit I've personally not been very good at growing most fiber animals on my farm so far. I've had some successes depending on the animal but not as much as I would like! Honestly not enough to continue it unless I give up some other commitments. My humid climate here in the southeast and the brambles that line my pastures make it hard to grow good fiber. So I've given up on making many fiber animals work here. Then there's dirt, hay, wool eating pest, good fiber growing nutrition to take into consideration. Then there is my fierce commitment to my gardens and working equine that takes the majority of my time! 

It's no wonder good fiber is expensive and worth every penny! If you have the extra time, the right climate and the right resources, the right fiber animals could be a game changer for your farm!

Above all do research and find an animal that works for your needs, your land, and your climate. An animal that fits your personality is no small thing either! Example: all goats, even mild angoras drive me crazy!🤣
Some animals need more feed than others so cost is a factor in the bottom line too. Check out this post- Save on the Feed Bill!

Wool Farming and added value products

Many times I enjoy the product I craft but not the entire process of crafting it! For example, I love quilts but I hated the process of making them so I leave that to my mom!

But producing a product from the raw fiber off the animal is more like a journey to me! A very interesting journey I never get tired of because every fleece is unique. 

If you get past all that can go wrong and find yourself with some gorgeous fleece then it has to be shorn with special blades and a powerful tool called a shearing machine. Please don't try to use clippers 🙈🙈 I promise you they will not work!

If you're lucky maybe there will be a professional shearer in your area. Be prepared to help if needed though!

Once the fleece is off, Shake it out, skirt it, shake it out and roll it up! Store it properly. Better like the smell of sheep because you're going to be covered in it! I personally love that lanolin wool smell ❤️

You can sell it raw or put a little effort into it and wash it for extra money. Depending on how dirty it is I wash and soak a fleece 2 or 3 times. Then spread out on a screen to dry for a day.

I love to watch the dirty wool transform into gorgeous clean fluff! Just washing the wool adds value!

You can also dye the fiber for an added value. I find dying fiber to be extremely fun! I use nontoxic food colors with excellent results and no harm or worry! My customers have always loved the fiber dyed with them! Here is an article on dyeing yarn with Kool-aid. It works on all animal fibers beautifully! Dyed in Wool

One of my most popular colorways! Lock Spun art yarn dyed with Kool-aid named 'Happy' 

If you spin, making yarn is a great way to add more profit to your fiber business! There are so many options for making Handspun yarns. I found that the art yarns were easiest and fastest for me to make as well as bring the most money.

A drum carder isn't always necessary for art yarns either!

You can see how time-consuming this is right? So far we have, for most breeds of sheep, A year growing it, A day shearing and storing, a day washing and drying, maybe a day to dye and dry, a day to prepare and blend And then finally I'm ready to spin it into yarn!!! It's a fun journey though!

The Yarn!

After it is spun then it can be plyed or used a single. I Set overnight. Then unwind on the skein winder.

Next, I soak the yarn in hot water and hang dry for a day to 'set' again.

Then it's ready to wind up into a ball!

More Added Value to Wool Farming

After all this... if I want It's ready for me to crochet into the final desired product! Processing raw wool into yarn and then crocheting or knitting or weaving can bring more income to your niche farm business too!

It can take me anywhere from 20 minutes for a simple hat or a couple of hours for a scarf.
If you crochet you can get my 20-minute Chunky crochet hat pattern here!
 Easy 20 minute Chunky Crochet hat pattern

Many Possibilities and Opportunities!

With fiber the possibilities are many!! Crocheting is probably my favorite thing to do with it but there's Felting, wet or needle! 

Knitting, rug hooking, rug braiding and then there's weaving! The fiber arts have something for everyone. Fibers are suited for different things. Find the right fiber animal that gives the kind of fiber you would like for a finished product can be a good way to pick out a fiber animal for your farm!

If you like crafting and learning there's a chance you will like some part of the fiber arts. If you love raising multi-purpose animals and fiber then perhaps a fiber farm is in your future!

Fiber animals aren't the easiest way to go for a homestead business but if you are enjoying the process you are less likely to get burn-out. No matter if its the process of selling raw wool or finished products like woven scarves!
Already a fiber artist? To help keep up with projects and be more productive I have this nice Fiber Artist Journal Planner! Having a planner was key to me completely well over 100's items last year for my shop, myself and gifts! Planning makes good business sense no matter what the business is!
This planner is available on Etsy for only $2.50!

 Fiber Artist Journal Planner

I've raised a lot of fiber animals over the years trying to find one that worked for my farm, time and personality. If you have any questions I'd be happy to help and go over the pros and cons of the animals I've tried and you are welcome to email me.

Until next time! Happy Successful Homesteading!!!!

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