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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Producing adequate livestock feed on site. ProjectHeiffer.

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  • From: "John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Producing adequate livestock feed on site. ProjectHeiffer.
  • Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:26:37 +0100


At the risk of being thought too pessimistic I would like to mention our experience with rabits.
Rabbits were always a survival food in Flanders were I originate from. It was the only source of meat for many people for many war years. And we had several rabbit breeders in the wider family so naturally we ourselves bred rabbits for many years.
We were most succesful in a suburban setting in Belgium. But then in 1987 my family moved to Ireland and more specifically to the wilds of rural West Cork.
All went well for a number of years and there were quite a few people here keeping rabbits. From about 1992 things went downhill fast. A cat dragged in a wild rabbit with mixomatosis and that decimated our herd. Then it seems the forestry service here brought in another virus (from China?) to cull wild rabbits in forestry areas and upon that all the people we knew to have had rabbits ran into very severe problems and gave up on them completely if they did not die out under their own steam. Litter sizes dropped and young rabbits died before reaching maturity.
About five years ago one of my daughters took up rabbit breeding again and things did not go too badly with diseases but she has serious trouble with predators and especially mink. Mink was released here in the 80's when mink fur farms were no longer profitable and they have overrun the native fauna. This year they trapped two mink and one stoat so far after loosing a dozen rabbits to these predators.
I miss the rabbits.
John


-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:38:00 -0400
From: Bill Daugherty

I've just started to raise heritage rabbits for meat, and believe that I
can raise them with all feed being raised here on our farm.
I remember my father telling me how, during the depression, he and his
siblings raised meat rabbits, in town, and collected grass, clover,
branches, etc. every evening for feed. So, it would seem that this could
also be accomplished in some urban areas and certainly in suburban areas.

Project Heiffer provides breeding pairs of chickens, rabbits, guinea
pigs, etc. to families in underdeveloped countries. This same concept
should certainly be applicable here.

Bill

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