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Wanted

Chickens: Wheaten/Blue Wheaten and Buff Ameraucanas, Dominiques, and Dorkings

Ducks: Welsh Harlequins, Saxonies, and Buff Orpingtons

Geese: American Buffs and Pilgrims

Gamebirds: Jumbo Coturnix Quail, French Pearl Guineas

Pigeons: Texan Pioneers, French Modenas, Utility Kings.

Rabbits: Satins, Standard Rex, New Zealands.

Turkeys: SQ Royal Palms

Few small animals on a farm are as versitile as rabbits, providing a wealth of benefits to anyone with an interest in becoming more self sufficient and living a healthier lifestyle.

Some of the benefits include the following:

  • Rabbit meat is extremely healthy, with a mild chicken taste. Out of all of the meats we have located, it has the least amount of fat and cholesterol. This is a great way of keeping meat in your diet without worrying about packing on the pounds.
  • All breeds can be skinned for their fur or to dehair for leather. The soft furs have a wide array of both colors and textures. Solid white pelts are the most common, but spots, stripes, and unusual colors ranging from a "salt and pepper" chinchilla grey to a brilliant red or chocolate are also available. Fur textures range from crushed velvet all the way up to a long-haired breed named after the animal whose fur it resembles: the Silver Fox.
  • The hair that is scrapped off of de-haired leather can be mixed with duck and goose down and stuffed inside quilts and jackets for extra insulation and padding.
  • For those who want to a steady source of wool without the hassle of dealing with sheep, there are a number of Angora varieties available that can be live harvested for their wool and butchered for their meat and tanned hides. Angoras can be sheared like sheep or brushed out to collect the long hairs.
  • The manure is some of the best out there and isn't hot, keeping your plants safe even if used fresh.
  • They can be kept in mobile pens to fertilize your garden, irrigate the soil, and devour all plants in the area, and can even be used as miniature lawn mowers without the hassle of having noticable piles of droppings everywhere. Four does and a buck can produce the same amount of meat in a year as butchering a single cow.
  • A single pair can provide you with 50 or more offspring in a year, averaging around 250lbs of fryers per doe. All of this can be done in minimal space (a cage for the buck, another for the doe, and one grow out pen for the fryers).
  • Rabbits can be raised in the city limits as well as indoors and don't require a license.

    Currently we are working on a grass fed diet that can be used year-round to make rabbit as inexpensive to eat as a nice grass fed goose. More information will show up on this site as we find things that do and do not work.

    Our Breeds

    Since we are working on breeds that can be used for meat and fur production, as well as be gentle enough for pets with the proper conformation for the show room, all of our current rabbits are being developed as large commercial strains. In the end, we hope to have a hardy, resilient herd where the fryers can be kept in a large ground pen and fattened on a variety of hays to make raising rabbits more economical for small growers, while also allowing young rabbits to live in a free-range environment off of the wire.

    New Zealands: These are the most popular breed for meat and is being raised for its soft white coat and the interest people have in keeping it as a first-time commercial breed. They are the least expensive rabbit we raise and come from solid lines with large litter sizes and fast growth. The snow white pelts can be dyed a variety of colors and patterns. We are keeping back the largest fryers out of the largest litters that have a coat that "snaps back" for the best pelts available.

    Standard Rex: Of all the breeds we keep, the Rex seems to be the most intelligent, always thinking through what they do and extremely playful. They make great pets, have a solid body for meat production, and a fantastic coat of crushed velvet. Large Rexes are difficult to come by and our lines include some fantastic purebreds, along with New Zealand crosses that have the proper coat and conformation in order to aquire the proper size. The Rex and Silver Fox coats seem to stand up to every day use better than normal fur.

    Satins: With a beautiful pearl sheen to their coats, Satins are fantastic to keep for fur production. They have an excellent dress-out ratio, equal to the Standard Rex and only a fraction less than the New Zealand. Satins are extremely popular in shows and come in a wide array of colors, making them one of the least difficult breeds we raise to find quality stock.

    Silver Fox: Critically rare and absolutely beautiful, the Silver Fox is unique in that it has a medium length coat that doesn't "snap back" that feels and looks identic to silver fox fur. This incredible, frosted black fur is not only great to use, but the Silver Fox is the first breed to dress out at 65% its live weight - something New Zealands had to be bred for generations to pull off. With an equal dress out ratio to the New Zealand, equal rapid growth, and a luxurious coat, they rival their more popular bretheren as an all-purpose breed. We have acquired a small herd of Silver Fox and will be traveling across country to expand our gene pool with the hope of re-introducing them to this area and encouraging people to support them before the breed dies out forever.