Rabbit Hides...

There are many things that we do now that I would never imagine myself doing a few years ago.  Rabbits are definitely one of those things.  We decided on rabbits almost entirely out of exhaustion.  My oldest daughter had begged and begged for bunnies until I didn't want to hear another word about them.  I had never had positive experiences with rabbits and really didn't see a purpose for them on the homestead.  That all changed when we were in the Czech Republic two summers ago.  My in-laws there have one the coolest farms I have ever been to and on that farm they had rabbits.

My husband told me of his experience eating rabbit.  I had never been so adventurous.  He also told me of using the furs to line his clothing.  This was sounding better and better.

As fate would have it, Amanda Hall at Rockin' H Farm was looking to sell some breeding pairs of silver fox rabbits.  These are large meat rabbits known for gorgeous furs.  We were gifted with two rabbit hutches from two different friends and I knew this must be a sign.  Off we go to pick up a breeding pair.  To my surprise, a breeding pair is two females and a male.  Amanda graciously walked us through basic rabbitry skills including holding, feeding, and sexing rabbits.  We didn't have them two hours when I was scratched to the point of bleeding and was ready to get rid of them all together.  Luckily, my very persistent daughter was not so easily deterred.  She went out daily and took them out to play with them and cuddle.  In a few months, they were tame enough for me to handle.

We began successfully breeding them and eventually got an American Blue pair, too.  There can be as many as 40 rabbits at my house any given day.  We have sold several really tame rabbits as pets.  We have also learned to process them ourselves and I have been working on recipes that really showcase the gorgeous flavor of rabbit meat.  Vasek has just tried tanning his first set of hides.  I think they are really beautiful.  I hope you'll consider rabbit the next time you're at our farm.  

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