Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Don't know , don't care to find out . Couldn't eat that many rabbits in a sitting.That would take some stamina I would think.
That's the beauty of slaughtering small animals in small lots. They come in small packages.

I don't really understand what you are refering to. Time taken vs meat yeild Depend on the animal , our N.Z Whites x Flemish Giants dressed at over a kilo in under 2 minutes . Your beast would have to be done in less than a day by yourself with a knife and a meataxe and 300+kgs of waste to deal with to compare. Not very convienient

Cheers

When we had Rabbits at the shop I think I got it down to about 2 minutes for memory, and that's only after doing perhaps a dozen all up in my whole life.. Once you get a system going it's pretty quick.

From what I've read, a blow to the back of the head is the preferred and legal method.
The couple who were made somewhat famous for raising them used a shifting spanner to stun/dispatch them before bleeding them out by cutting the throat.
Pretty sure by law it's required to stun them first, the RSPCA has no problems with their method at least.
I know I wouldn't be too keen on slitting the throat of a conscious GP and I'm not particularly squeamish.
If they are accustomed to being handled it would not stress them at all, wouldn't know what hit 'em.
It's similar to the method that some people who raise rabbits for food use. Hold them by the back legs, (head down) and strike the back of the head.
A skinning board for the bleeding/dressing would be helpful too. I've never used one on wild rabbits but have seen articles by home breeders who use them. Basically two appropriately spaced nails that the rabbits are hung from by their hocks/Achilles tendons. Makes the skinning and cleaning easier apparently.

Someone said earlier that small animals where less work.

I was making the point that they were more work per kg.



To a certain extent we are comparing apples and oranges (seems to be a theme today). The "waste" is a lot less than 300kg depending on what you deem to be waste. When we have done pigs we have used everything except the hair and the gut and intestine contents*.

A cow or even a pig is much less work for two than one but I have the knives and the axe I've also got a freezer to store what I don't eat fresh. Right now I don't have the land for larger animals so if I wanted to do some red meat it would have to be GPs or rabbits. That is certainly what my daughter is pressuring me to do. I think I would rather stick with the fish for the moment.


* we used the gut and intestines just not what was in them. For food that is. The contents of the gut and intestines went into the compost heap.

I'm with you Stuart, just fish for now I think!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It really doesn't matter if the time spent dressing an equal amount of meat is equal between the species.
Might as well ask why people don't just catch a shark every couple of months because cleaning a 50kg shark is less time intensive than 100 perch?
Or suggest growing an Emu instead of dozens of chooks a year.
Or hell, why not just drive to the shops for food?
That's quicker and easier too...
Microlivestock raised and dressed ethically at home is the way to go in my opinion.
(and apologies if I am ranting a bit. Today sucked big time and I suspect it shows. )

Go easy guys. I didn't say that raising small livestock was a bad idea I was just saying that its more effort for a meal. Whether that effort is well spent depends on what you want.

Personally I like steak.

And Bacon.

Lamb roasts are really hard to beat.

Rabbit pie is great.

Never had a GP though.

Yeah, sorry Stuart...
Had a real bad day and don't disagree with what you're saying. Just a grumpy bugger atm.
If I still had property access I'd fill the freezer two or three times a year and have no need to buy red meat at all.
But sadly I'm a domesticated omnivore for the time being.

On the killing subject - i would lop thier head off, preferably with some sort of guillotine with some sort of cute little basket to catch the head, to make it a more enjoyable experience for all involved.

I have to agree with what bodgy said, i didnt think it came off as harsh at all.

If i am processing food for myself, i would certainly prefer to kill a smaller animal before the meal i want to eat rather than have 100kg of meat in a freezer getting freeze dried and eating older poorer quality meat, not to mention that i think spending a whole day to process one animal kind of feels like more work than spending 5min processing an animal before each meal, even if i was to eat 1 animal every day - after all, that only ends up being 30hrs, so 2 days work per year for fresher meat and less stress and no power wastage for freezers.

Been thinking.. Ive shot thousands of roo's in my time (which usually requires disposing of small joeys) but I dont think I could kill a GP by hand, mind you I still dont know if Ill be able to kill a chook by hand yet. I must be getting softer and its kinda playing head games with me. Maybe its just a case of getting that first one out of the way? I do remember feeling similar with the first joey.

It feel like more work but in terms of the number of hours it is less. Before modern conveniences you had to work all day. One of the reasons I like preparing my own meat is that it reveals just how much work is involved in producing our food and gives us a glimpse of how much better we have things in the modern world compared to our ancestors and how people still live in the developing world. Harvest starting late summer was a massive amount of work until early winter. One of the last jobs to be done was the slaughter of the pigs and preserving the meat.

Kudapucat and I can butcher a pig in about an hour. If its a big pig (100kg+) it takes a little longer if its a bit smaller it takes a little less but the tasks of eviscerating, halving, jointing, etc. take about the same amount of time mostly independent of size.

Washing intestines for salami and sausages takes about another hour for a good enough job where as preparing them to a commercial standard by hand takes ALL FRICKIN DAY. So now we just wash them out and leave it at that not as attractive but just as tasty.

Then making the sausages, salamis, prosciutto, hams and other goodies is the real work.