How to skin a rabbit
First, trap, shoot or otherwise kill your rabbit.
Lay the rabbit on its back on a flat surface and pinch the skin at the loose part in lower belly. Cut a small hole in the skin with a sharp knife, being careful not to puncture the stomach lining.
Pull apart the skin and tear all the way around the rabbit. If you haven’t the strength, then cut right around. (If you’ve paunched the rabbit in the field, simply extend the opening you’ve already made.)
Using the loosened edges, grasp the halves of the skin firmly in the centre of the belly and pull the skin very hard both ways until the front and back legs are free of the skin. (It’s a bit like pulling off a very tight rubber glove.)
Cut off the head and snap the lower part of all four legs to remove the feet. Next, cut through the groin to remove the intestine and anus, then cut a ‘V’ into the flesh where tails joins to remove the tail.
Taking care not to cut the intestines, cut the stomach lining and remove the guts. Check the liver and other internal organs for signs of white patches or spots or, more unusually, growths. If you find any discard the rabbit.
Retain the liver, heart and kidneys, then discard the remainder of the innards. Rinse the insides out with clean, cold water and do a final check to ensure the rabbit is thoroughly clean inside.
To get the best flavour soak the rabbit in salted water with a little vinegar splashed in it for about six hours or overnight.
Then use your favourite recipe for rabbit…
Do you think that you could possibly include some images to help me understand the gutting process. That would help seeing as I haven’t gutted anything before myself and I believe my Mum is slightly rusty. Also maybe some tips on actually killing the rabbit in the first place would be useful too.
Thanks, Bob.
Next time I do a rabbit, I’ll take a few photos. The only problem is that we’ve eaten almost all the rabbits on our place!
:’-( sniff sniff sniff!!! sob sob sob!!!!
mr. not to be rude and immature about the situation but how could u hunt kill and eat such poor defenseless animals?? they need to eat too so i think thats why they went after you properly grown vegetables. what i think would have been a better solution was to barbwire or fense around your crops so that somthin like this would not have to be required. i have a feeling since your so good cutting and ploting(good with your hands) that you would have and can make a beautifully built guard around your crops so that nothing goes in unless it has aposable thumbs. please sir im juss asking that you come about this situation a diffrent way so that the rabbits can continue to live. Thank you for your time.
mallisa, obviously this was not written for you. While I don’t really like the idea of hunting or trapping bobcat/wolf, they are viable clothing material and their pelts fetch a nice price. There is a bag limit to prevent over harvest. Again, I would not trap or hunt such animals. Rabbit, beaver, woodchuck, muskrat are also good sources of fur and can be prepared as very tasty meals. Or do you prefer to buy your fake fur from china and only eat factory farmed products? Can’t have it all. Rabbits are abundant and breed similar to rodent. On another note – stonehead, if you cut down all the trees this year and burn them how will you heat your house next year? keep that in mind with the rabbit man.
we have to eat as well. and do you know how expensive it is to put up a fence, let alone one they wont just dig right under. its survival of the fittest, if they can’t last then that’s too bad for them. they don’t even have souls for crying out load.
I am using this info for survival purposes only. It’s good info to know so that if you do catch or kill a rabbit in the wild, you won’t get sick by eating the wrong parts like the guts.
hmmmm. . . several hundred dollars to protect your crops or a $3 bullet which also provides you with a meal ?
Thanks for the info stonehead – now living in the ulu in NZ and have taken up shooting to knock down the rabbit and possum population!
Amazing these new air rifles – I can take rabbits out at up to 70 metres – not like the pop guns of old!
Cheers
Hi Stonehead
Ive been looking around your site and i have got to say its excellent mate – I will now be a regular reader – long may it continue!
Regards
Mat
I Skin them the exact same way works great
That’s how we skinned the one we had.
It was killed by dog – we have a terrier.
A gourmand I know swears that rabbit liver is the tastiest treat of all, but you can’t buy it in Canada. Have you tried it?
This is gonna come in useful as our meat rabbits ought to be kindling any day soon.
Gamo shadow is a good air rifle i use it for hunting rabbits i got my frist kill and do you have any tips for skinning the fur if you do please help me
thank you
Alright Stonehead, could you tell me what the white patches or spots might mean and why should you not eat the rabbit? Thanks
I’ll try to find time to write a post about the different things white spots and growths mean, but for now it will have to suffice that it indicates disease or parasites.
I am going to bookmark this one. Thanks for posting it.
Dora Renee’ Wilkerson
Omg why did you have to do that to a rabbitt when it didnt even do anything to you!!
I totally agree with you!! Atleast theres one other person here with a heart.
How about you just get a life and leave this poor man alone! I don’t eat rabbit but I am ruffing it for a weekend so I need this guide! People must eat, when your done hugging your trees then reply. If you dont like seeing it DON’T READ IT!
Cheers Mate Excellent guide!
Karlos
Well, I was vegetarian but the rabbit ate my carrots and cabbage, so I figured the only way to eat my veg was to eat the rabbit…
Excellent answer.
Hey Stoney that’s only 2 of your 5 a day!
and
damn those Romans for introducing them in the first place!
Update no it might have been the Saxons who introduced them to feed their families fresh meat and the Romans decided they were a delicacy.
What is the best way to kill a rabbit that has been caught alive?
The best way that I did it was holding the rabbit by the hind two legs and wack down on the back of the head with a small wood baseball bat. make sure you hit the rabbit hard enough to knock a person out. As for skinning them, we hung them on two revered nails by the hind legs and cut around the legs and then slit down the inside to the tail. Cut out the tail and then proceeded to pull the skin down over the rabbit all the way to the head. This eliminates cutting belly area.
Wrong answer. Thats not funny at all. Go veg again. Seriously, its doing everyone and everything a favor. Unless your heartless, as you potrayed with this whole rabbit skinning thing. Your sick.
Kenzie, that rabbit deserved it. Rabbits are devilish animals that ought to be slain and eaten. I have a herd of cuy’s at home. We eat them alive. They do such funny noises when we do so
. Also I whink animals which cannot be eaten should be shot. All of them. You in the first place. And the vegetarians. And the republicans. And…
how rude. that poor bunny. How could you. The bunny has felling to you know! so not cool. I cant be live you did that.
Do you eat meat? Enjoy a KFC? Well how did they die? Open your eyes for pitys sake every meat we eat an animal has to die!
Karlos
Bob, people might take you a little more seriously if you were literate.
Stonehead,
That’s a very neat and easy way to do it. Although it took several attempts… rabbit no.3 turned out lovely!
Cheers,
yeah this site is what i been lookin for ya hur
Eating rabbit is pointless. They are generally such a small animal that hardly enough mean to justify a killing is consumed. It really sickens me that you would post pictures like this. I have two rabbits as pets and I love them more than my annoying pomeranian. They are peaceful and quiet animals. Please, if anything, state your response in an intelligent manner unlike the mocking manner in which you replied to Jenna and Cayla.
Thank god there’s someone else normal on this site.
Kenzie seriously get a life! or a job!
Karlos
Karlos, I’m a vegan for your info if you hadnt gotten that from my replies. And truthfully, I don’t have a job because I just turned 16. But although I am young, I do know a thing or two about life so back off.
You choose to exploit animals by keeping them as pets to satisfy your emotional needs. I choose to exploit rabbits by killing and eating them to satisfy my dietary needs. The rabbits I exploit roam free until the moment they’re killed, the ones you exploit are kept in some sort of confinement. Don’t pretend you’re somehow morally better simply because you choose a different form of exploitation.
This is my blog and I choose to share some of what I do with like-minded or interested people. If what I post sickens you, then go somewhere else. (Did you not read the disclaimer?)
I shall also choose to state my reply in whatever manner I choose, in this case pointing out that it is not possible to mock without possessing a reasonable degree of intelligence. On the other hand, it does not require a reasonable degree of intelligence to come out with an unintended oxymoron such as yours.
This was really great. I’d love to see a video of the process on youtube. Can you make one?
how dare u kill that bunny! =C
:S why does it stomach look like that? Kinda reminds me of the movie Alien, Its some what disturbing. Do you make keychains out of the little feet?
Hey thanks for a great site . I have hunted for many years and never skinned a rabbit. My youngest son and I hunted and cleaned our first rabbit. Please keep up the great work .
Hey, when you get to the point where you want to get rid of the stomach – how do you go about that? You want to try and not get the stomach all over the meat right? do you hold it up and slice the lining so everything falls out? I’m a rook and need your help!
If you’re going to eat the rabbit and the offal, why waste the pelt? They’re easy to tan, and valuable in the right market. Only you have to skin the rabbit so the skin is whole.
As always, there are just two of us working the croft, one full-time and one helping out as and when. It means we cannot possibly do all the things that everyone thinks we should be doing, whether it’s tanning rabbit skins, keeping a house cow, making our own paint brushes from pig bristle, keeping the place totally weed free, making our own soap, or dancing the fandango on the rooftoop every hour on the hour while playing the bagpipes. We have to decide and adjust our priorities constantly to ensure we get the important things done first, and making rabbit skin slippers is a long, long, long way down the list of things we need to do. If you have different priorities to us and want to tan rabbit skins in preference to something else, then go ahead and do it. But it’s not something we choose to fit in for now.
Tony, there’s a link to the paunching post above, but here it is again:
http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2005/06/15/first-catch-your-rabbit/
I like your site,informative,inspiring.
Your intelligent responses to the likes of chanel,priceless,some people think hunters must be un-sophisticated brutish people.thanks for representing us.
gonna get me some twizel rabbit meat next week and try your skinning technique.
cheers
Wow. Since murdering things that are living, and breathing is so “inspiring.” Your sick.
Thanks for the feedback, and it’s good to hear from someone new to the blog.
i think your sick. that rabbit was alive once and you have murdered it. rabbits are pets and have feelings just like you if you have any…
Thanks for an excellent how-to. I’ve been fortunate that the rabbits leave my veggies alone but they manage to turn the dogs into very loud maniacs. If I need to take them out at least now I know how to make good use of them.
How cruel to try and keep a wild rabbit as a pet…it’s a wild animal not a cute fluffy bunnikins to cuddle and keep locked in a cage.
The Saxons and the Romans introduced Rabbits to Britain as they kept them as fresh meat, but some escaped and bred.
Oh, and ending their lives and murdering them is so much better. Wow. Your too kind.
all you vegitarians on this site…. if your so disgusted by killing animals why did you got to this blog? and wild rabbits can be quite dangerous. you have pet rabbits correct? well, thats just as bad. never keep a wild animal
You have a very interesting blog. Not sure if I could skin a rabbit…but found it interesting…Nice site
Once again, congrats on the great ‘how to’ post. As it happens, I’m presently looking for rabbits for breeding purposes (for meat) and not having much luck here in British Columbia. Do you raise them or hunt them?
On another note, you sure have generated the discussion with this post! In light of my ‘Year in Provisions’ project (see: http://howlingduckranch.wordpress. com) I totally sympathize with your comment about not being able to do everything:
“We cannot possibly do all the things that everyone thinks we should be doing, whether it’s tanning rabbit skins, keeping a house cow, making our own paint brushes from pig bristle, keeping the place totally weed free, making our own soap, or dancing the fandango on the rooftoop every hour on the hour while playing the bagpipes.”
That, made me laugh out loud in both sympathy and recognition! I might just have to quote you on my site…I wish we were neighbours.
That’s pretty much how we used to clean rabbits too. Easier than cleaning chickens. We don’t have any significant population of wild rabbits around here, but one day perhaps we’ll raise the domestic variety for meat.
In a comment above, Chanel said, in part:
I have two rabbits as pets and I love them more than my annoying pomeranian.
Stoney, do you have any tips on how to skin an annoying pomerain?
(And how much does she have to love her pet bunnies to love them more than her annoying pomeranian does?)
((And shouldn’t the both of us be capitalizing “Pomeranian”?))
What I really meant to comment on was your great response to “Why don’t you tan the rabbit pelts, too?”
I love it, and you managed to be much less pithy than the response that sprang into my mind:
“Because saving up the rancid urine we’d need to make our own tanning compound turned out to be, well, uh, aromatically inconvenient.”
(And, because you have so effectively explained your sense of prioritization, I know much better than to suggest that your hourly rooftop bagpipe-playing dance really ought to something more rooted in Scots tradition than the Fandango.)
(An eightsome reel, perhaps?)
Your a jerk. You have to mock people? Learn some manners.
Dancing a reel would be far too easy in some people’s books, I need something more challenging, such as playing one tune while dancing to a completely different one. Otherwise I’m just a fraudulent hobbyist dabbler.
You dont HAVE to kill the rabbit for food, considering they give off what- 5 ounces of meat? Your teaching your child that it is ok to end another beings life, just to be selfish. Humans dont HAVE to eat meat to survive. Its a choice. And I hope your children realize that someday. What you did here was perposterous. Hope thats not to big of a word for you redneck people to understand.
Its disgusting that your showing others how to mutilate a poor defenseless animal. Animals were not put on earth to eat. They have just as many rights to live as we do, so think about that. The pain and suffering they go through when you just feel like having some father-son time. Pick up a game. Not a gun.
[Edited to delete expletives.]
In future, leave the expletives and profanities out or your comments will not appear.
why do the anti meat eat brigade always have to try and put their point across using bad language and threats? You would carry more weight to your arguments if your point where made intelligently without the use of bad language.
As for animals not put on the earth to eat well that is a preposterous miss conception. Every animal or plant is part of the food chain. If Stoney doesn’t take a few rabbits for his pot they will eat his crops. Similarly if he does not fence his chickens at night the local predators will take them, ie fox, birds of prey.
Expletives? What are those? I didnt even curse at you in that post.
Hey Kenzie, where do you get the idea that a rabbit will only produce 5 ounces of meat. The last three rabbits (home grown and specifically to feed my family) dressed out at over 1 kilo each (that’s about 2 and a half pounds in your weight system).
Hi Stonehead,
I have just finished skinning and gutting a few rabbits,using the technique shown here,and it seems to be a solid one ,I used my new shotgun however and found the guts in some of them quite punctured,and a bit messy.in your opinion will his effect the meat ?I was quick and washed the inside well straight away.Maybe I should reserve the .22 for the table rabbits?Its just so darn easy night shooting with the shotgun,one shot,thats it,no misses.
Cheers
I love your website. I just skinned my first rabbit the other day, and as it turns out, used a method that was much like yours. I learned very quickly that having a GOOD knife is quite key to the process. Any suggestions on brands or styles? I have a good sharpening stone, but they knife is so old, it doesn’t seem to be cutting it anymore. (huh….accidental pun!)
thanks again for the very informative site! I’ll be checking in!
u are just stupid i have a rabbit at home and its a real friend to me how dear u even put that stuff on a web site u are sick!
Cough…if it sickens you that much, why did you read it?
Its called animal rights. Look it up.
I haven’t skinned a rabbit in 35 years.But then again I’m still married. Guilty pleasures when I go home to Newfoundland. We(father & g-father) hung them.
Looking at your pics I think that hanging is a better method. If you do pierce the anus or intestine the application of water and gravity should remedy the problem.
You’re asking why I am here.
Dozens of rabbits eating all our fresh veggies. She who must be obeyed (aka Rumpole) has given permission to trap. The good news.
She doesn’t know a trap from a snare. Got to go and check my sna err traps
Claude
you guys are disgusting! leave them alone!!!!
Here in the central South Island of New Zealand our rabbits get rather large.So I am in the habit of keeping only the back legs,of which 5 pair would feed a family.We were lucky last week and got a Hare,which was much larger still,could’nt believe the difference in meat and flavour.both yummy
I can’t believe how sick and twisted this post is. I’m having to explain to my teenage granddaughter that there are evil, nasty men who do this sort of thing to poor, innocent, defenceless animals. Why do you have to kill and torture such loveable little creatures? Does it make you feel big and strong? Why can’t you eat sausages, burgers and chicken like other normal people? I’d phone the RSPCA if I knew where you lived. It’s really, really sick what you’re doing.
Ah well he will be good company tonight then it being Halloween
Oh dear, I feel very sorry for your granddaughter, Mary.
I’ll answer a couple of your remarks in full posts later, but here are a couple of answers for you—although I suspect you may not find them to your liking or satisfaction.
First, the definition of torture is “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person…” Note, person, not animal. Also, it is not possible to inflict torture after death.
The rabbit, which was quite clearly not a person, was killed with a single shot to the head and died instantaneously. It was skinned and gutted after death. At no point, therefore, could it nor was it tortured.
Do I feel big and strong? Well, relatively so but I attribute that more to a lifelong spinach habit than to eating rabbit, although there is obviously some nutritional contribution.
By all means phone the RSPCA, or more correctly the SSPCA. Their helpline is 03000 999 999 and you can tell them we’re just outside Insch, in Aberdeenshire. They actually know where we live as we’ve had an inspector visit in the past and he had no problems with what we do.
You could also call the Aberdeenshire Council Animal Welfare Officers on 08456 081203. One of their officers has visited us on three occasions and has had no problems aside from paperwork errors.
Or telephone the Animal Health officers at Inverurie on 01467 626610. One of their officers has visited as well, and found no problems.
I’m afraid I’ll have to leave it there as I have other things to do now, but I’ll finish my replies later.
Enjoy your chicken dinner—and make sure you don’t think too hard about how it reached your plate.
Animals have the same rights as humans. Their living breathing things. They were NOT put on earth to eat. Just as we were not put on earth to be eaten. A society’s morals aer judged on how they treat the most helpless forms of life. Animals.
Mary said: “Why can’t you eat sausages, burgers and chicken like other normal people”
…..Erm….Sorry?….Would they be pig sausages and cow burgers and chicken chickens, by any chance?…. Or do they all grow on cabbage stalks?
That will also be the chicken that is caged up 12 of them in a tiny cage. Perhaps those who are so outrage by Stoney eating rabbit also believe he should gorge himself on battery hen eggs too!
Examine your own diet.
Do you know where your food comes from?
Stoney does and he also knows that the welfare of the animals he eats is the best he can provide where he is the owner of the animal.
Where is the difference between killing, and eating, a rabbit and killing and chucking away a mouse or a rat. They are all vermin in the country side and not just because the yokel wants to eat the rabbit either.
I know Stoney well enough that if his boys were to have pet rabbit he would not decide one day to bump it off in a blood thirsty fit of rage. He shoots and eats wild ones. Ones destroying his families food for the next 12 months. But unlike ‘townies’ he completes the process by eating it after and only kills what he will eat.
Lesley there is a rumour that commercial burgers and sausages contain meat from dead animals but it’s an exaggeration and what they actually contain is chemical ridden slopes fit for the bin that even the dog would not eat, just look at the chicken nugget contents unveiled by Jamie Oliver.:)
Yes, MLA, now I remember why I buy organic free range chicken from my local butcher to teach my three nine-year-old grandchildren how to prepare and cook chicken goujons and / or nuggets for themselves (using a free range egg and home made bread crumbs from home made bread, of course). And I buy beef and watch it being minced to make their own beefburgers, and they see the butcher making sausages for them.
They all reassure me by telling me they are all much nicer that M….somebodys (thank goodness!)
…..”even the dog would not eat”…. clearly our dog is a gourmand as she turns her nose up at commercial dog food and prefers home cooked stuff . I’ve made a rod for my own back, I suppose, but at least I know that only real food is going into her, too!
Me thinks this lady needs to stay on the meds.
I agree.
Please tell me Mary’s comment was supposed to be funny… Where does she think sausages come from, the sausage tree?
Don’t let these bleeding heart nitwits bug you (though it doesn’t seem that they are). I can guarantee that all of them eat meat on a regular basis, yet they’re not deranged, evil heartless murderers like us, who get off knowing we just extinguished the life out of a poor defenseless cute fuzzy creature. If only I was quick enough to catch them and choke the life out of them with my own hands… please don’t miss the sarcasm there. Any of those bleeding hearts would have not batted an eye to a blog about gutting a fish or cooking a lobster, because those animals are slimy and ugly.
Bleeding hearts: Please, in the future if you decide to try to insult us with your ‘holier than thou’ attitudes, make sure you have absolved yourselves from utilizing any animal derived product whatsoever. This includes any and all meats, fishes, eggs. This includes any and all milks and their products (cheese, yogurt). This inludes the elmers glue that Mary’s granddaughter uses at school that’s made of crushed up cow hooves. This includes most cosmetic products. Hope you don’t have anything made of leather. Like jello? Forget it. You have dogs that you need to feed? So long, cute lovable horsies. And only god knows how many field mice and insects were slaughtered by the combines used to harvest your grains. Get over yourselves.
Hey Marek, don’t forget the soy bean fields when you speak of the wild animal killings: deer, rabbits, birds, and as you so rightly pointed out, mice and insects. Nor the environmental damage caused by the oil industry which brings us our so called animal friendly leather, wool and fir alternative clothing such as gortex and fleece…and so on, etc, and such like.
Mary (el al who think along her lines), please take a look at the Humane Farming Association’s website and learn about the factory farmed animals that are on your dinner plate before condemning those of us who are hand raising, humanely killing, and conscientiously eating our food animals: https://hfa.org/about/index.html
Then tell me how you feel about the sausage (and the lovely little curious pig, chicken, cow, turkey, etc) that spent it’s life (if you can call it that) in hideous conditions and then lost it’s life in an atrocious, unconscious, uncelebrated, disrespectful manner, to get on your plate. Please inform yourselves and then re-join this discussion.
Perhaps then we can make some significant headway as a society who cares about its animals, including the ones that we eat not just the ones we pet.
All in all, the overall torture animals go through to be put on your plate, on your back, or in your house is wrong. They get murdered for the selfishness of people. Remember that. Everyone who reads this.
For those of you who are interested, please see my site on butchering turkeys, kosher style.
But please, only come if you are interested in learning the butchering process. My post is a graphic photo documentary meant to educate others who are wanting to learn how to be self-sufficient and conscientiously feed themselves.
http://howlingduckranch.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/butchering-day-turkeys-warning-graphic-photo-documentary/
I wanted a quick look on the internet before bed. I have now been on this site for an hour. Damn you.
I almost choked laughing at the replies to the idiots that believe all food comes in plastic with a picture of Bernard Matthews on the front.
I have recently acquired an allotment and air rifle let the good life commence……
Great article Stoney – very useful. I’m surprised at some of the comments though. I’m not sure about Scotland, but certainly in England and Wales it is a legal requirement that the landowner keeps the rabbits under control, and yes, shooting is one of the recommended methods. Better than snares etc, and great that you get a meal out of it too.
I’ve had a couple of people post comments filled with obscenities. First time will see your comment deleted, second time will see your details go into the spam bin. If you can’t communicate without using obscenities, then I suggest keeping your mouth shut and your keyboard still.
Stonehead,
Well said.
I came by your site via The Suburban Bushwacker, and have enjoyed it, and this post in particular, immensely.
I am looking forward to perusing your archives and seeing the progress and adventures you all are having.
Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch
http://trochronicles.blogspot.com/
Stonehead,
I’m actually surprised that you leave such ignorant posts on your wall. Mary O’Houlihan and ali clearly need to censor their online endeavours. If they had any idea what kind of environmental damage the introduction of rabbits caused to Australia and New Zealand, they’d keep quiet.
Keep up the good work, and fight off the ignorant people that simply want to complain. I still can’t get over the fact that eating a chicken, cow or pig is less offensive than any other animal. Give me a break.
All this coming from a vegetarian, who has a pet rabbit. He’s Dutch, his name is Jasper, and I love him.
That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be delicious.
How do u make keychains from the feet? anyone know???
I read this post a few weeks ago and recommended it on my blog. Re reading it – it just gets funnier!
SBW
SBW, I have had a look at your blog but can’t leave comments other than anonymously. I always get “Duplicate action error. The action associated with this page has already been performed. You may want to try going back one page in your browser and retrying.”
I came to your site via a link in a forum I frequent, http://www.Lifestyleblock.co.nz when someone posted a comment about not being able to believe that someone thinks pork can come from pigs without killing them
a bit of following the links brings me here.
I have dozens of rabbits, all for meat, with a number due to be put in the freezer in the next few days. Reading the comments to this post makes me suspect the genus Homo must be split into Homo Sapiens and Homo Sub-Sapeins var Vegetarious
hey this help me skin my first rabbit
Amazing, just how these people are going to survive when the current economic situation puts their favourite supermarkets out of business.
They’ll need to start growing their own veggies and meat products which we all know come from that well known tree, you know the one, the pork chop tree that grows well alongside the money tree.
I’ve only read a couple of your postings so far , more time being devoted to the idiots that post comments (excluding those of our persuasion), you just have to wonder how they’d survive should the breakdown of society occur.
I’m glad that we’ve moved away from the cities to our own plot of land, we’ve got our ‘dirt covered’ vegetables growing, our daily egg supply along with freezers full of chicken and turkey. All of which of course have been slaughtered and dressed by ourselves.
Ah, life is good.
Thanks for the awesome read! These replies were hilarious. Thanks so much for posting this with pics. Too often these things just have words, and while there is no substitute for hands on experience, pics make it that little bit easier to visualise.
For all those who want to bag vegetarians for some of the opinions expressed, please dont. I dont eat meat unless I’ve killed/helped kill it myself, which living in the city basically makes one a vego.
I just wanted to comment on your site. I came about it by google search. Although our family does not use Rabbit for meat, instead, we use them as show animals and pets, I want to say that your blog is truly genuine and quite informative. I’ve eaten rabbit meat before and it is a good source of protein. I do not have any problems with people humanely killing an animal and eating it. I do; however, have an issue of prolonged pain to the animal.
I truly enjoyed your site and am glad someone takes the time to show us how to properly skin a rabbit and prepare for eating. This type of preparation takes me back to my childhood years when we used to live at a Farm. I remember assisting my family in preparing the chickens and pigs for eating. I do hope to skin a rabbit once again to eat, but right now, my sons don’t want to eat rabbit.
Overall, you have a great site and I enjoyed it, especially the replies from ignorant few and your own postings to them. I like your “in your face” attitude.
Regards
Ricardo
Thanks a lot for these very useful tips!
BUT JUST SO EVERYBODY KNOW THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A “BUNNY”
That term was brought to American slang, when the quite so popular show came out -”bugs Bunny” – before then they were always referred to as rabbits!
Thanks again for the wonderful site!
This is truly disgusting. I can’t believe you would do this to a helpless animal, minding its own business, and doing nothing of harm to you. Especially making children (who are so easily influenced) torture animals in this manner. It leaves them with a lack of respect for lives in general (be it humans, animals). Contrary to what you might believe, this is not making them better human beings. This is demoralizing and desensitizing them.
By this point you have probably assumed I am some sort of tree-huging, animal loving, vegetarian- but I am not. I have no problem with hunting- for food that is. However, hunting for mere “pleasure” is sick and unneccesary. This TINY, likely BABY rabbit will not feed your family. You have killed and mutilated this small animal purely for your enjoyment, and in my books- that is NOT okay.
Hunting for recreation is sick and twisted. If you get enjoyment from the suffering of living things, you have issues. Humans are compassionate by nature, therefore killing should NOT be enjoyable. In fact, it should be the completely opposite. If you have managed to overwrite this natural instinct, you will have major problems in life.
Oh yes I have to agree hunting for recreation is sick and wasteful, however Stonehead is not hunting nor is he doing it for ‘fun’. In fact from what I know of him he would see off the hunters on his land with a pitch fork!
The rabbit, which incidentally which is certainly not a tiny little ‘ittle baby but a fully grown adult, was doing damage as it was eating Stoneheads vegetables.
Stonehead also kills off rabbits that are suffering from disease, puts them out of their misery!
As for his boys not gaining respect for life and becoming complacent, well that a load of tripe! His boys have gained a very healthy respect for all life and know if you are going to shoot it you are also going to eat it. To kill and not eat it is wasteful and immoral!
Oi Pro Freedom……. You have nothing to interesting to say and you’re saying it far to loudly……..
What do you expect to find on a crofters website how to make dandelion stew??? (Even though stoney could probably knock one up for you.)
You have you’re opinions i have mine the difference between us is I’m not telling you that I think you are everything that is wrong with this PC, tree hugging, force an opinion on everyone country that we live in (Whoops i suppose I just did!!!!!!) You have had you’re tuppence worth now………….
Stoney is here promoting an alternative lifestyle in a modern society where some adults let alone children do not know where their food comes from.
I shoot rabbits and pigeons regularly and i’m teaching my daughter the importance of understanding where and how her food ends up on her plate.
Can I just remind everyone that death threats and obscenity laden invective will see your comments deleted. For repeat offenders, your IP address and email will be added to the blog’s blacklist. The most serious offenders will have their messages archived and the details passed to the police.
Oh, and if someone is genuinely an anti-killing animal lover, how do they justify threatening to kill humans? We’re animals, too.
Isn’t it curious the the animal rights people tend to focus on the cute little bunny rabbit, while skipping on past our pigs and chickens?
Chickens:
How to prepare a chicken dinner
Killing chickens
All in a Sunday’s work
Pigs
From this…
Different look, different flavour
Halfpint’s time is up
The reality is that if we didn’t eat these animals, then we wouldn’t keeping them.
If we weren’t keeping them there’d be 40 less Scots Greys in the UK (there are only 250 or so breeding female left) and 10-20 fewer Berkshire pigs (there are only 300 breeding female left).
There’d also be 50-60 more people consuming more intensively reared pork (these are the people that buy 80-90 weaners from us each year and 10-20 butchered pigs.)
And before an animal rights activist starts trumpeting their vegan credentials, remember that soy production leads to deforestration, combining cereals involves the deaths of thousands of small animals, and so on. All food production has an impact on animals.
Each to his own! As a boy I learned to hunt and shoot rabbits for meals (very tasty too with mum’s cooking); this involved all the necessary skinning, gutting, salting etc to prepare them for the pot. I also experienced helping my dad kill and pluck chooks for the Christmas table. You see there was none of this “going to the freezer” for reconstituted/packaged meats in those days, why we did not even have a refrigerator for a long time.
Our vegetables were usually own and our meat was fresh from the local butcher. In 1949, during the long coal strike in NSW, we even cooked outside in an reused kerosene tin or similar on an open wood fire and mum made her usual delicious meals without problems. Those were exciting times of my childhood.
I am somewhat older than Stoney but I have managed to eat meat all through my life without detriment. This includes eating beef, chicken, pork and lamb with enjoyment as part of my meal regime.
I now also enjoy a good chuckle when I see the rubbish put out by some of the idiots on this blog and elsewhere about food (and life) in general.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=itiq1MVugeA
aussie rabbit chappies naughty naughty
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YJHlddxRxns&feature=related
a nice bunny grazing in a field
I loved the information on this site and had spent several hours trying to find this exact information. I laugh as well at the anti-killing animal freaks. and wonder how long they will survive if and when the people from elite parts of the world start relying on their own survival skills in view of most probable famines, drought and disease. I guarantee, the thought of properly fresh killed and prepared meat is much preferable to attempting to claim meat from the maggots or eating those maggots. Also, what a lot of vegans don’t realize is that not everyone has or will have access to protein from bean or nut sources and unfortunately, by the time it gets to that level, I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to run to the internet and get the information we so desperately need. I also wonder what those who are “anti-killing animals for food” are doing reading this site. If I came across a site I considered horrific or repulsive (I wouldn‘t try to find them in the first place), I wouldn’t read it through and give comments on my opinions. I would immediately exit the repulsive site and keep my comments and blogging on the sites I am in more inclined to be in interested and in agreement with. IMHO, this information a teaching site in order that those interested might be more prepared. Thank you so much for providing this needed information.
WHAT ARE YOU GUYS, STUPID? WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM? THEY’RE CUTE LITTLE INNOCENT BUNNY THAT DOES NOT DO HARM. THEY ARE THE CUTEST LITTLE THING EVER! WHY WOULD ANYONE, I MEAN ANYONE!, WOULD EAT A BUNNY. IT’S LIKE EATING DOGS OR CATS. JUST EAT VEGETABLES OR FRUITS.
Er, food perhaps? Maybe people are skinning the rabbit that ignorant hunters left to rot. have you ever considered zoos? Most zoos hire hunters to get real rabbit, deer, squirrel, etc. meat. Plus, why killed the vegi or fruit?
Have you forgotten? People in China used to breed the Chow Chow dog specifically for food.
They still eat cats I believe too.
I know I’ve seen pictures and shows with restaurants over there that had dogs and cats in teeny tiny little cages, ready to be butchered for human consumption.
I’d rather eat rabbits than factory-farmed meats.
OMG NEWSFLASH I’ve had pet rabbits! Gasp! THREE of them!
AND I’ve eaten rabbit! Tasty. :9
AND I have chickens! I eat chicken! And I have ducks! I eat duck! I also eat their eggs! AND they’re my pets too!
It’s the only way I’d like to have it. I know they’ve had healthy happy lives running around in the grass and flying around, with lots of time in their pool (for the ducks) with lots of time fluffing up in the sand and roosting on things (for the chickens), and they even get to raise their own young on occasion – how many factory-farms let their birds do something so natural as this?. How many factory-farms have you been to where they have sunlight, pasture (GRASSY pasture, no less), fresh straw, dirt, dust, water and roosts all the time for them? My animals are all named. Including ones to be eaten. I LOVE them, treat them with respect like living things all deserve, and they nourish me and love me in return.
Does not do harm? (translation; is not doing any harm)
Rabbits if not controlled would eat all those vegetables and fruit you would like us to eat, and they are prolific breeders so natural selection will not ‘weed out’ this problem. Stoney does not pick or kill anything unless he eats or composts it…he wastes nothing.
Oh Stoney and his OH think their pigs are ‘cute’, I think my chickens are ‘cute’ but because they are not covered in fluffy fur they, as Stoney has already remarked on, are not considered to be in the ‘diddums, cutey wutey’ category.
I’m rather disturbed at the term ‘Rabbit Lover’…isn’t this a form of animal abuse?
Re: Prohunter’s comment from Dec. 24th – anyone with a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary handy would see, if they cared to look, that “bunny” as a term for “rabbit” has been around at least since 1690. Say what you will about Disney, but he didn’t invent the bunny. Actually, in my opinion, Bugs Bunny is so annoying that it wouldn’t be a bad thing if he were caught and eaten.
Great blog, BTW. I always enjoy coming here.
Didn’t Warner Bros. invent Buggs Bunny?
Yes it is in the dictionary
‘child’s name for rabbit’
Absolutely brilliant pictures – thanks! If my sausage tree stops producing due to our drought, I’ll fall back on your pictures.
Must dash – my pork chop rock is just shoving out another one.
my kids raise and show animals for 4-h, we also hunt alot of different animals. being in the area im in rabbits are plentiful. iv used this site along with my experience, to teach my girls and nieses and nephews to clean what they kill. i also feel its important to teach the young people these skills.
Yo Stoney –
I’ve just been watching the latest episode of ‘Victorian Farm’ in which they used some ‘traditional’ methods (i.e. nets, dog, ferret & bare hands) to dispatch several brace of coneys (sorry, ‘rabbit’ for the purists) – & even showed on camera, one rabbit being intercepted by the waiting beagle; plus another (caught in one of the nets) swiftly & efficiently killed by the trapper, with a swift snap of the neck.
Unfortunately whilst the programme showed their resultant three brace hung on the branch of a tree, it did not demonstrate the subsequent skinning & gutting technique; instead illustrating the finished product being jointed & cooked into a suet pudding (perhaps they’d got the hint from your Blog that they might get a few ARAs coming after them if they did show the Full Monty…?!).
Anyway – it’ll be very interesting to see how many & what sort of comments the programme gets, as a result of this (gawd help ‘em when they slaughter those pretty-little-firstborn lambs, in whose birth they intervened; or the poultry, pigs, cattle etc…..) interesting times ahead, methinks.
Excellent – step by step photos.
Nothing cruel about it – its food preparation. Like a cookery book.
Just like preparing trout (or any other fish) or any animal for eating. Totally natural, hygenic, and admirable to kill what you eat – instead of buying it in little plastic boxes in supermarkets to make yourself believe you are a kind person.
If you cant kill and prepare your own food before you eat it then you should not be eating any kind of meat. By buying your meat from a supermarket and critising self suffient people – you merely display your hypocritical ignorance. Does the word fool ring any bells?
Supporting mass slaughter of animals kept in poor conditions does not make you a good person any more than keeping pets. Your pet would far rather be free than forced to endure you every single day, forced to live in a cage and trapped its whole life, totall dependant on your care, even if you dont look after it properly.
By being a self sufficient crofter or small holder one generally raises animals to live free range i.e. living a natural free life – not keeping pets in cages far too small for them.
Cruelty is in the eye of the beholder. Keeping a pet, as hard as it may be for you to realise this, is unfortunatley far more cruel and long term torture than eating a free animal living a good, natural life.
A quick, sharp death is natural. Getting upset over preparing dead food is like like protesting at chopping up carrots because…….. AH shame they never did nothing to ya and they are so cute……… and orange……… how could you!
A bit of logic and again if you don’t like it don’t look. Food preparation is food preparation……….. not cruel or torture, just food preparation. Just the same as Turkey, chicken, beef, pork, fish. Get over yourself.
By the way where did you say they sold those pork chop trees.
looks to me skinning a rabbit is about like skinning a grey squirrel im going rabbit hunting in the morning wish me luck everbody!
Hey i had a quick look down the posts and didn’t see any reference to the way i skin bunnies, I could be wrong lol… I just pinch the nape of the neck and nick it with a knife enough to get 2 fingers in, the just hold the head and pull the skin downwards by stickin my fingers into the hole, it just peels off but will get stuck on the front legs but you just peel the skin off like you are taking off a jumper, easy as that then just remove the head and gut as described in the top of this page. to remove the skin takes al of 20 seconds..
I’m not sure I understand why people check out your blog if they are so against farming for goodness sake. While it is perhaps unpleasant to see a cow without its skin, they line up for the hamburger at the grocery all the time. Thank you for doing this post. I hope the people that don’t like it simply tune out, and I hope they aren’t so hypocritical to eat any living creature.
Some people have no idea these days, rabbits are a threat to agriculture (farms) the same farms that deliver your fruit and veg to your local woolworths, tesco, wal-mart what ever country you live in.
And if your not a vegetarian just someone who keeps rabbits in cages and says they love them, your more of hypocrit because you will happily buy meat from your local store, but then when you have to face the reality that at some point meat comes from a slaughtered animal then you have some serious thinking to do about the world, get out fo the city and seriously think about what it means to be human.
Australian animals, little truely defenceless marsupials that do not exist any where else in the world have had their food sources desimated by feral rabbits. Thats animals extinct, wiped off the face of the earth. by your so called innocent animal. Rabbits no matter how many we eat are not going anywhere, it is greener to kill a rabbit in australia than it is to let it ruin the food chain, any conservationist can tell you that.
Well I’ve finally had my first ‘You’re going straight to hell’ comment (about my turkey butchering page http://howlingduckranch.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/butchering-day-turkeys-warning-graphic-photo-documentary/#comment-513).
Like some weird right of passage, I guess I am now part of your ‘team’.
cheers,
HDR
Just wanted to say thanks for this post. I’m strongly considering raising some meat rabbits this year. I would second the request for yet more detailed photos. I think I would also try to skin the rabbit so that, at least potentially, I could do something with the whole skin. I get the sense that curing the pelts would be a lot of work, but how cool (read: warm) would it be to have a handmade, homeraised rabbit skin hat with ear flaps?!?
I think Mary’s comment was just a piece of typographical performance art, meant to be ironic. How else are we to interpret such blatant ignorance?
I’ll be digging back through your blog eagerly, now that I’ve found it.
I do it different, and feel (of course) that my way is superior.
I cut the feet and head off first, then split the skin up from the legs towards the center, and from the neck down the breastbone. It’s easier to tease the skin from the muscle, and more blood is released early on to prevent gaminess. (gamyness….gameyness?)
But then, there’s more than one way to skin a….rabbit.
dear stoney-
on behalf of my fellow vegetarians, i would like to apologize for the invective you’ve been receiving. one of the main problems in our society today is the removal of the general public from the process of preparing food. i am mostly veggie because i don’t believe in eating things i couldn’t kill myself, or animals that are mistreated. since i live in an urban area, this is most things.
however, i grew up on a farm, and know that i can kill things. i also have a healthy respect for killing things. it’s not something i enjoy, but if i need to do it, i can. as long as the animals undergo no undue suffering, and as long as they are not wasted, i can find no problem with eating animals for food. however, this is almost universally untrue of the major food producers.
likewise, if more people grew up in the country and knew the way animals can be in the wild, there would be fewer “fuzzy bunny” comments. we have this problem in the states with deer- yes, they’re fuzzy, and they have those big brown eyes, but when there are enough of them that you hit one with your car and the hooves go through the windshield and brain you, then maybe it’s time to do a little selective culling…
in any case, i think your blog is excellent, and i hope you won’t let the crazies influence your opinion of all of us.
oh, btw, have you ever tried moose? moose liver is delicious- you should get a canadian reader to mail you some frozen some time.
I love RABBIT. I can’t KILL them.
I can use another skin. NOT FROM THE CUTE RABBIT!!
“rabbit” yet another pathetic human being…notice how they never respond to any of the logic put forward to them by the pro hunters…just silly out bursts…can never formulate a decent argument as they are totally emotionally driven….i am no facsist but I put forward to Stonehead that he blanket censor all anti-hunting comments…oh and hey I have dispatched nearly 500 rabbits so far this year…oh,and i wonder what “other” skins rabbit would recommend???!!
I should like to add here that I am not pro hunting, in fact anti hunting for sport. But what Stoney does in eating meat, including rabbits, sits with me just fine.
As for the rest of your comment donovan I totally aggree.
I hunt for meat.
and I hunt to control pest populations….as for sport…I play rugby.
To be anti hunting on one level ,yet agree with the killing ,processing,and eating of wild game,to me is a bit of a paradox…where is your line drawn?
If hunting for sport means that i enjoy it,while also enjoying the benefits of eating it ,then i guess its sport…..you tell me…I’m confused little angel.
My line is drawn at killing for killing sake. Stoney kills the rabbits as they are a pest however he does not kill for killing sake he will eat them as well. Killing for sport is killing something then not eating them, and killing in descrimantely.
However I have wish to bandy words about who is more ethical in their opinions.
Does little angel know someone who kills for killings sake?
I mix with a large hunting circle and do not believe I have met many who would.
I could not physically process all rabbits and hare killed in one night…and i doubt our beloved stoney would gnaw on all rabbits he managed to kill.
New Zealand has a massive introduced animal problem,as with other countries,so alot of people have alot of guns and shoot alot of animals…to control numbers..plain and simple.there is alot of remote country here,with many species to hunt….so what i am saying here is while it is easy to jump upon the moral stallion,and relate the world to what they see in their own back yard…not every one lives in the same eco-system…and plays by the same set of rules or standards.
The basics of pest control IS killing indiscriminantly,so long as we wack the pests and not the native animals.
If a person can turn an important task into a “sport” then i say good on them!!
Didn’t we turn walking into a sport!!
Stoney,
Thank you for the tips on how to skin a rabbit. We recently moved to Nevada, US, and are over ran with jack rabbits and cotton tails. Well today my husband finally shot his first rabbit here, and of course I told him that if he gets one I will cook it. So we are going to try and skin the rabbit using your techniques, I will right later to let you know how it goes. Thanks for the great post.
Oh and for everyone that is sitting there saying ‘poor little rabbits’, have you ever seen how they kill the cow for your meat, I have, and it is a lot worse then this. And before stores came to how do you think people put food on the table. I really wish some people were not so ignorant.
Thanks for the quality information about skinning rabbits. The pictures helped greatly. I have only skinned a few, and you would laugh if you saw my method. I like yours much better.
thanks again .
Hi Stonehead,I would like to say that you have a great and very informative website.I have also been reading all the comments and you always reply in a very professional manner even when under attack from some very narrow minded people.I would also like to add that killing and eating wild rabbits in my opinion is very acceptable and is probably one of the only true forms of free-range food.I am personaly going to purchase an air rifle for shooting wild rabbits[to eat]and I was wondering if you could recomend a rifle?I am willing to spend up to £800 or so on a rifle.I have been browsing on the Blackpool Air Rifles[BAR]website but they have a huge range and for a newbie like me its a bit overwhelming.I am also hoping to get an allotment for growing my own veggies[I just dont trust the crap they pass off as food in the supermarkets today].Any recomendation from you would really help.Thanks and keep up the good work.P.S I also live in Aberdeenshire,Peterhead to be precise.C ya.
I have a Gamo CFX Royal, with wooden stock, in .22. It’s nicely weighted for me, is very accurate, and shoots very consistent groups. I’ve written about it before.
Ugh, Personally I had people who kill animals for fun. And leave the bodies to rot. But! If you’re eating them what’s the problem? They multiply like crazy anyways. This blog was quite helpful : 3 I just tried gutting one myself hm, two hours ago. But appearently the shooter shot him three time…. … Ruined the bunny. Shot it in the heart.
Sighs. It’s quite sad when your brother is the one with plastic baggies on his hands. And your watching him struggle to skin it. “Girly” me I had to take over, Lol. And after I cleaned the rabbit and took out the organs. Ah, But what I’d really like to see images of is what the bad/unhealthy rabbits look like. Can the meat go bad if you take too long to skin it?
The pictures were great help! ^^”"
Ps; Sorry if there’s grammar and spelling errors. I’m to lazy to re-read it right now.
Hello Stonehead,
Your croft looks pretty good! I would imagine that the Scottish winters would be a far cry to the Australian. Did it take you long to acclimatise?
I noticed you received a lot of flack about killing a rabbit. I think it was unjustified. Could you please enlighten the Scots and the English what the rabbit did to our country.
Best wishes with sustainable living.
John
Rabbits do a lot of damage here, too. I was talking to a bloke a couple of weeks back who, working with a team on a 1,500-acre Scottish estate, had killed 6,000 rabbits in a fortnight.
Have to say the guy who told you that was telling storys!! if not I have the whole of the Scottish Spaniel team who know all the hot spots for rabbits willing to pay top money to gain access to ground with 6000 Rabbits.
Andy
Well, we have at least 50 rabbits on our six acres at the moment—despite shooting the buggers constantly throughout the year and getting it down to about 10 in mid-winter. Scale that up to a neglected 1,500 acre estate and you’re looking at a lot of rabbits.
I’ve also heard of a team who cleared a 1,500-acre farm down in the Borders, where their biggest haul was 870 rabbits in one day. I guess they’re talking rubbish, too.
Our neighbours get together and shoot rabbits on their combined properties, over 2,500 acres and they often bag 200 in one night. Wish I had a gun so I could join them.
Hey Stonehead. I love it. I was just skinning a rabbit ’cause my dog killed it in my backyard (A jack Rustle Terrier…I found him eating it). He ate everything below the ribs but the ‘guts’ to I went ahead and skinned it. Now I have two mor elucky rabbit feet and rabbit ears. Yay! I used this way as best as I could with it all rubbished up, and it worked fine. Thanks!
I’ve never killed a rabbit before, but I went specifically looking for how to prepare it should I need to. Been trying to learn how to be more self-sustaining.
I grew up in a rural area and for farmers/ranchers/hunting but now I live in a bigger city.
How do you know when a rabbit is a decent size to kill (based for how much meat mass is on it). And I’m still confused how to remove the stomach/intestines once the skin is removed… do you just pull everything out at once so you don’t get a big mess?
And how do you kill it when you “catch it with your hands” snap the neck?
Not sure I could do that… Then again, I’d only be killing to eat.
Well stoney I must say that this page was perfeectly informative and the pictures were exactly what I needed the other night after I shot and killed the rabbit that had been in the backyard eating our flowers and veggies…. course now I got to eat him
… this then inspired me and my roomate to take a hit on the local pest population and between you post and a livestock and game preperation book I borrowed from my neighbor, a bowhunter, we were able to quite effeciently skin, gut, clean and cut into sections for soaking overnight the 8 rabbit we brought in just last night…. mmm mmm bunny bbq goin on for lunch today.
Hi Stonehead,
Great blog! It’s sad people don’t know where their food comes from.
About rabbits overtaking crops, here in North Carolina we have a problem with deer. I understand farmers can get permits and shoot deer at night, but have to bury them. Can’t be used for anything like feeding the poor or needy. It’s not uncommon to see 20 or 30 deer at night in a field eating crops.
Also I just wanted to comment on some were wanting to know about knives. There is a sharpener out that I saw at a gun show that blew me away. I haven’t got one yet but I will. Look at warthogsharps.com
Thanks
I like your style Stoney. We farm conventionally quite near to you. From memory whilst doing an Agri degree we were taught that 6 rabbits grazed the same amount of grass as 1 sheep; ie not an insignificant amount. As for the bunny lovers well they can have ‘ours’ if they want.
Now I’m wondering who you are.
When I was making breakfast this morning, I looked out the window and spotted six young rabbits eating the grass inside the steading. I promptly shot one and will get the others as they reappear. When the Wee ‘Un was having a look at the dead one, he said “just as well, if we have three pairs of rabbits, that’s 18 babies they can have, and then they can have babies, and then we’ll have hundreds of rabbits”.
And that’s just one small part of the croft.
It’s interesting that youngsters can get it, but so-called adults can’t.
Hi Stoney,
I suppose the definition of “quite near” is open to debate. We farm near the Fjord (15 mins away), a conventional mixed arable farm that’s been in the family for 4 generations. A friend of mine lived at Oyne then Dunnydeer Circle before moving back to run the family farm, so I ken Insch. We’re doing up our farmhouse at the mo so nae time for rabbit control, not that they are too bad or at least they aren’t bothering the field crops and we’ve no garden crops there yet. However we’ve or well I’ve got a yearning to minimise bought in food so when we move there, veggies here we come. The OH likes the idea of pigs so your gilts on the NEEPS site were of interest (weren’t you also a Turra Show once?); I didn’t think OH would go for extra livestock as we’ve got more than enough to keep us busy. One step at a time; first a place to live in then veggies then pigs. We will be “rabbit proofing”- yeah right!, the garden area but persistent offenders will be eaten. I worked on a farm in Wales once where the men on the farm went lamping one night and brought back about 100 rabbits which I and the farmers wife spent all of the next day preparing, most of which went to the local Reverend and other local worthies. We were left with some and it tasted really fine, much better than the flacid watery farmed rabbit available out of Safeways some years ago. Anyway it’s silage time so no time for such fripperies as contributing to this excellent site. See ya when it rains.
You’re over Fisherford way, then? When we started with pigs we bought some Tamworths from over there. Nice pigs but Berkshires suit us better.
We’ve successfully rabbit proofed the veg patch, while electric netting keeps them off the field veg most of the time. And at this time of year I go out and sit under the trees for an hour or two several nights a week to pop the unwise ones.
If you want to drop in and see the pigs, feel free. I’m here most of the time. Or use the contact form to email me about a time.
As for work, yes, the sunny weather does tend to increase the to-do list. I’ve spent the morning hoeing tatties so I’m doubly enjoying a roast pork and rhubarb chutney sarnie at the moment.
Just wanted to add to this my position being one of breeding our own rabbits for the table. These are very well looked after (I can attest to this solely by the amount of time my OH spends cleaning and caring for them), we’ve now had two litters and the first was eaten last night.
Knowing how well the animals lived, how well fed they were, how safely exercised they were made for a really good tasting meat.
It was in my opinion the best rabbit that I have tasted, it was bred and brought up, killed and dressed by our own hands so I know that it had a good life.
I mean how many people let a portion of their land go to wild grass so that I can go out with my hand-scythe and harvest food for a rabbit. That shows that they’re well looked after. We even go so far as to grow and harvest our own hay for bedding.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Stonehead,
Just one question. skinning a rabbit your way is the skins salable on the commeercial markets?
I’m looking for food sorce and pelt sales for the Philippines.
It will be a hard sale but think it can be done.
Thanks for this opportunity to read your stuff.
Dale
No, the skins are not useable. As I explained earlier, I have neither the time nor the inclination to cure rabbit skins at this time, which means I simply use fast and efficient method of skinning them without worrying about keeping the skin intact.
Yikes.
Read this thread and fell about. Ending up as dinner is part of the essential nature of being a rabbit, whether the diner is canine, mustelid or human.
By the way I loved your reality check on the transitionculture.org discussion on food production without oil-powered machinery.
Thanks. I thought I’d chip in with a bit of reality as far too many of the Transitioners and Enders haven’t a clue as to the amount of physical work involved in food production with little or no fossil-fuelled input.
For those who are wondering what we’re talking about:
http://transitionculture.org/2009/02/23/a-farm-for-the-future-essential-viewing/
hi love your tips i’v been a rabbit eater since i was 3 im now 27 they have almost hit rediculous numbers near my home i live 10 min from the center of adelaide people don’t understand what they do to our enviroment my choice of trap is the snare method easy and efective i’m catching 20+ per night with only 8 traps my family and all friends enjoy rabbit weekly as do i and will continue to do till im old and gray there is a food chain and i’m on top !
yum
yum
yum
yum
=
I have to say, I used to be of the sort that thought everything was a pet, but since keeping ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys, and actually butchering them, I’ve come to realize that it’s a terrible, terrible thing to buy the stuff from the supermarket.
I can control what my pets/food eat, I can choose to medicate or not, I can ensure they have a happy existence feeding on grass and running around on pasture and can kill them in an efficient and humane manner. I KNOW what went into them, that makes the task of raising for meat that much healthier. The reason I say pets/food, is simply because they are like pets. I hold them, pet them and make sure they’re well fed and as happy as possible. It’s only because I love animals I can kill them at all – if I didn’t care, I’d buy the stuff hanging out in the cooler at the local grocery store.
Raising animals for meat is surprisingly easy, you just have to make sure it’s done right to prevent any suffering on both of your parts.
P.S. – Why is it any better to kill a cow than a rabbit? Both have the same feelings that all animals have; not as in depth as humans, but they do have them. Rabbits and cows both chew their cud, just because something is small does not give it any more right to live than a large animal.
Wonderful post stonehead!
I read this whole page & found some ridiculous comments…
One woman (mary) said that you should eat suasages, burgers etc.. but not rabbits. :/
In other words you’re suggesting that we should kill a pig and/or a cow but not a rabbit, why is that?
Is it because a rabbit looks cuter? Rabbits, cows & pigs are all wild animals.
I think that you’re that kind of woman that loves to eat meat but at the same time you hate to see the process to get that meat. And that’s very ridiculous if you ask me…
If you think that animals should not be killed for food, then you should STOP all your meat intake immediately!
And one last thing… Don’t picture me as a heartless cruel dude… because I’m NOT. I always focus to deliver the most quick and painless death to a certain animal… I abosultely HATE any kind of torture…
Anyway, there’s absolutely nothing wrong in killing a WILD animal for food & you know it. We humans did this ever since we existed…
Is it best to skin the rabbit warm or cold ?
We have also been trapping the rabbits – so if its best to skin then warm – so we have the option. The ones I’ve shot and left over night – I plan chuck um on the fire to warm them up a bit – I had better tie their lags up first in case they don’t like the heat ! Will I a live rabbit shout “its a bit f_ _ king hot on here”. Seriously though – is it best to skin it warm or cold ?
Rabbits should be paunched as quickly as possible to avoid the meat spoiling. However, I’ve never found much difference between skinning a warm rabbit and a cold one. Well, except that a cold rabbit feels slightly “ick” and a warm one doesn’t.
PS Pheasants should be hung up for a few hours and the blood inside will help tenderise the meat – anything like this for our furry freinds ?
Also if anyone has any good recipeis, I would appreciate.
“All creatures, great and small, Lord God made us to eat them all”
I soak paunched and skinned older rabbits overnight in clean water to which I add a good dash of white vinegar and a pinch of salt. It helps tenderise the meat and improves the flavour. I don’t find it necessary with younger rabbits.
There are a few rabbit recipes scattered through the blog. Use the “Select Category” drop down menu, selecting Recipes–>Rabbit.
I had problems under stading the gutting area and the groin part
will it work with a possum
I think this is a great thread and I keep popping back to it to have a read along with the replys.
….and for all the tree huggers and anti`s on here why is it that every week we have people asking my son when he is next going out with his ferrets and if he has a spare rabbit or two could they possibly have one off him. It seems the demand for fresh wild rabbit is growing every week by people living in my non rural metropolitan area.
I think some people are are just stupid! Stop freaking over reacting!
I’m sure wherever this person is from there is an abundance of rabbits (oh and for the people with the stupid ‘SAVE YOUR CARROTS AND CABBAGE BY PUTTING A FENCE AROUND IT’ err, are you stupid? anyone hear the story of peter rabbit?! HE WENT UNDER THE FENCE.
I’m a vegan, for my own reasons, and I don’t think I could skin a rabbit myself, but because I feed a raw diet for my dogs, I have been interested on how to actually skin a rabbit, and i’ve been thinking of trying it. Yeah I’ll probably hurl, but I know how the food chain works.
Thanks for this great blog!
Wow. Thanks for a great site! Very well written, and very Informative! I’ve been hunting all my Life, and recently my boyfriend asked me if I could teach him how to hunt/dress/cook game. I wanted to prepare him before hand, just to make sure he really wanted to, and also, to make sure he could stomach the process. Because I decided to start small, with Rabbits, Your site was perfect!
He still wants to, so I’ll make a Hunter out of my City Boy yet!
On a side note, in response to Melissa, Why the hell would you come to a hunting site if you’re against the idea? Just to bitch and whine?? If it bothers you, don’t click on it. Like it or not, humans are Omnivorous. This isn’t opinion, this is fact. Deal with it. Rabbits are a wonderful species for hunting and consumption. Get over it. They are also pests of an epidemic proportion in some areas of the world. All Hunters must do their part in preventing overpopulation and maintaining a healthy environment. Did you know Hunters provide most of the funds to upkeep natural parks and preserves? What do you think the hunting licensing fees go towards, my dear? Without that income, most states would not have the money to maintain/Keep Healthy/Protect it’s parks and nature reserves.
Think of that next time you feel the need to complain.
As a female who Hunts and catches Flack for it (You know, the usual rant, just like Melissa “Oh my god IT’S SO CUTE AND CUDDLY HOW COULD YOU?! WAAAAAAH!”), I just want to state that We hunt because we enjoy it. We respect the animals we kill, and we don’t just do it for shits and giggles. It’s a way of life!
Eep. Sorry that turned into such a rant! Sheesh! Anyway, getting off my soapbox now….. But Thank You for such a great site!