I've just begun raising rabbits, and have lots of little bunnies getting bigger everyday. I've had several neighbors ask how much I would charge for a dressed out fryer, but I'm not sure what the going rate is. Can you tell me what you charge, so I can get a ballpark idea???

-- Cheryl McCoy (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), July 19, 2001

Answers

A good friend of mine charges $6.50 for one dressed out, here in Ohio...hope that helps!

-- Joe (threearrs@hotmail.com), July 19, 2001.

$7.00 for a dressed, goodly sized rabbit here in Connecticut.

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), July 19, 2001.

Check rabbit price in the frozen food section of your local food market chain store and price yours accordingly. James

-- James (jamesj1592@about.com), July 19, 2001.

$7.95 A POUND in my local grocery store, when (if) they have them.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 19, 2001.

$5.00 to $8.00 here in southern Indiana

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), July 19, 2001.

The last time I seen one in the grocery store, they was wanting almost $12.00 for the one fryer. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I thought to myself maybe I should be raising rabbits. But I wasn't sure if there was a big demand around here for them, and I really don't know of anybody that eats them. I have heard that Pel- freeze buys them for .95 cents a pound on the hoof.(claws)

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 19, 2001.

Figure out what it costs you to raise them. Don't forget to include housing and equipment costs amortized over how many bunnies will utilize the facilities during the useful life of said facilities. Then figure in your labor costs. Yes, your time is worth money. Don't fall into the trap of, "oh, I'd just be doing this anyway for me". It's much harder to recoup a cost like this later if your business grows than to include it right away. This will give you a starting point, then add in what you feel is an acceptable profit. Don't sell your time and effort short if this is to be a true money making effort, not just a subsidized hobby. You also might want to make a discreet inquiry to your local health dept. to find out what regulations cover you processing and selling meat.

-- ray s (mmoetc@yahoo.com), July 20, 2001.

It takes approximately 6 pounds of feed to get a 1 pound gain on a fryer.

Feed price / feed weight = X

X x feed weight per pound = Y

Y x weight of rabbit = your costs to raise 1 rabbit to butcher weight

Add in $1.25 - $1.50 for processing and supplies

My conversion ratio is 6lbs feed to one lb gain on the fryers....so since feed is 16 cents/lb, that's $0.96/lb in feed alone per lb of live weight. This comes out at $4/rabbit. Overhead is so very hard to calculate, cage, feeders, waterers and water; Butcher time and supplies is $1.25 -$1.50 each.

Costs will vary from place to place for price of feed as will feed conversion as the breed of rabbit needs to be taken into consideration as well as environmental conditions.

Ask a fair price but don't give your rabbits away either. Don't get into the habit of lowering the price of your rabbits. If a buyer catches on to this 'fault' they will use it all the time.

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), July 20, 2001.

Cheryl, If you are interested in Commercial Meat Rabbits, Dean Goforth has a weekly E-Mail Newsletter dedicated to this subject. The Newsleter subscription is $10.00 for 52 issues, worth every penny included in this price is access (password) to his website rabbitfarming.com

Dean is probaly one of the most sucsesful Meat Rabbit Farmers in the country, the name of his farm is Blue Chip Rabbit Farm. He also has a book avalible that is full of good infomation.

To find out more go to hoppingstart.net Good Luck!

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), July 20, 2001.

Something I noticed in the above replies. Russell Hays says Pel- freeze buys live rabbits for $.95 per pound. Westbrook says it takes $.96 of feed to produce a pound of liveweight. Less than breakeven if sold this way since it doesn't even cover the cost of feed, yet alone other associated costs.

If rabbits were raised as they do in Croatia (see thread under the Rabbits category)the cost of production would be greatly reduced. Might take longer to achieve processing weight, but the cost savings would seem to be there.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), July 20, 2001.

Ken,

You are right about the costs, but Cheryl is raising a few rabbits like me (I only have 53 does right now), and buys feed by the 50 pound bag..those are the costs. Now if I purchased feed by the ton and was a commerical rabbitry of course the costs would then be brought way down.

I feed an 18% protein feed which costs a little more but then I raise Satins, Rexes, New Zelands. The 16% protein is for my Jersey Woolies.

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), July 21, 2001.

This still doesn't make economic sense to me. If it takes six pounds of feed (at $.96 per pound) to raise a rabbit to six pounds, and then it is sold even for $7.00 dressed out, it seems like a negative income activity. Seems like you could buy them from someone else cheaper than you can raise them yourself.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), July 21, 2001.