Garden Affairs

It's one of those rare days when rain went missing in the month of August, the sun shining so bright, the sky so clear and the weather is warm.

 

Lucky day for the rabbits!

 

I am taking them out into the garden for some refreshing air, fresh grass and herbs. But that's not the only reason I am bringing them out... they will also mate, am 100% sure of that, especially when the garden is a neutral ground.

 

A neutral ground is where neither the male or the female has a marked territory. It is not always necessary to have them in a neutral ground for mating to take place. Except in rare cases where the doe (female) is aggressive even when she is placed in the bucks' (male) territory. Another suitable option would be artificial insemination.

 

On this particular day, the doe had all of the buck... + had a really good time in the garden.

 

If both does were not pregnant, I could still use the garden method to have them both conceive. Another way is to take the does separately to the buck on scheduled dates.

 

Artificial insemination would have been more precise but much more expensive and harder. Besides, the rabbits will want it natural I am sure. 

 

By 9:56am I placed both rabbits in the garden. A rabbit tractor was on stand by incase they were destructive.

By 10:06am the buck had done it twice and was still attempting to mount the doe the third time. Now that's precisely what I wanted. That buck rocks!

 

The second doe should have been in the garden too if the palpation on her was negative.

The butcher table

After just a few weeks, it took me no time in setting up a functional mini meat factory in my apartment. And here I am rolling out a time table for meat production/processing for the year 2018.

Here is the meat production time table:

The butcher table:

The two does will be mated in the month of January and between 28-31 days later the kits are born and the number is recorded. One or two may be lost between the period of birth and weaning. The kits are weaned at 3 months. Fattened for 1 month and slaughtered at 4 months. The number of kits weaned, their total live weight, number butchered and dressed weight are also recorded.

 

The first set of litter will be butchered in May when they are 4 months old.

 

In February, the two does will not mate and will only nurture the January kits and be mated in March. The January kits are then fattened from April to May. At the end of May, the January litter will be butchered and all the necessary figures/data are recorded in the tables above.

 

The circle will be repeated from March to July and from May to September and from July to November i.e. Mating to slaughter. Each of which will take five months.

 

That's just about it! The tables are ready to be filled...

 

Meat on the table

In todays short post I will highlight what three rabbits are capable of putting on the table.

Their basic needs are:

- Pellets 50kg [annual consumption] at N8000
- Hay grass 70kg [annual consumption] at N6000
- Feed supplements [annual] at N2000
- Misc. [annual] at N3000

Their reproductive circle is as follows:
A male and two females, with gestation period of 30 days and a litter size of 5-10 kits per birth.



From birth to wean age is 4 months.
Dressed weight of each weaned is approximately 1kg
Total dressed meat per year = 150kg

Meat prices:

Chicken 1kg = N1,250.00                                                       
Beef 1kg = N1,820.00                                                       
Turkey 1kg = N 1,600.00                                                                                                          
Goat per kg = N2,300.00                                                       
Veal 1kg = N1,400.00
Sources: easy shop easy cook, Numbeo, Jumia


Unlike myself, I don't know the quantity and quality of meat you consume annually. If you consume above 100kg, here is a possible estimate of your annual expenditure
Chicken 100kg x N1,250.00 = N125000.00
Beef 100kg x N1,820.00 = N182000.00
Turkey 100kg x N 1,600.00  = N160000.00
Goat 100kg x N2,300.00 = N230000.00
Veal 100kg x N1,400.00 = N140000.00

What the rabbits are offering:

Approximately 150kg dressed white meat devoid of cholesterol and rich in easily digestible protein annually

At what cost?

N19000 annually

Time consumed: 30hrs monthly

Almost too many analysis already. However, these are my targets:

• Cut down cholesterol and fat levels
• Cut down feeding cost
• Cut down belly fat
• Live a happier and healthy life
• Get more meat protein by eating more and more meat

What more?

You can easily increase the number of breeding females and multiply the meat yield since they reproduce fast and mature early.

Always remember that there are consequences to the artificial introduction of any chemical into processed foods that nature has not designed.

Don't miss the next episode...


 

The Rabbits Next Door Episode III

How fetish it might sound I don't know. One thing I believe is that you are like the kind of animal you like or keep.
Once, I had this turkey in the backyard. The turkey made me believe that turkey is the dumbest animal on earth.

Animal myths

I believe goat and sheep are stubborn noisy and persistent animals. snail is soft and slow, cattle is large and patient, snake is thin and poisonous, dog is lovely and intelligent, pig is dirty and fatty, duck is noisy and intelligent, chicken is cute, weak and noisy.

Did I just reveal something that could be true or are these just myths

However, this particular turkey was so dumb a turkey. Made too much noise, poo-pooed with very wicked smell and was just too skittish.

One morning I had had it all, that was all I could take. I know the turkey is just an animal with its own special attributes, but... Trust me, I used it to prepare a pot of stew and had a treat later in the evening.

After that evening I began to worry if the meat can make me dumb and skittish... "No! The meat is already down, along with it a glass of good wine and it felt so good." However, that was the last time I stayed close to a turkey.

And now, three rabbits are staying next door...

Everything these rabbits do - in future episodes. Don't miss!

The rabbits next door II

It's Friday. Me and boss having a late afternoon chat and I was expressing dismay at the way abattoirs in town operate.

 

It's the start of the weekend, I had earlier contemplated going to the abattoir to get me beef. The last time I was there is not something I wish to remember this long. However, what I saw there always triggers a reaction that makes me not to forget. I guess it is some sort of inbuilt safety check for health's sake.

 

I continued narrating to boss how scary the meat market has become and how desperate meat vendors are for profit at the expense of our health. "In this country, person will use his money to buy what will kill him" I sighed.

 

My boss had a laugh, then narrated his experience, how large farms with infected birds go ahead to slaughter, treat, package and preserve these birds with chemical substances like:
1. Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Proprionate and Benzoic Acid (preservatives). Causes severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria
2.  Asthma-Like Drugs - Ractopamine (growth booster). Causes elevated heart rates and heart-pounding sensations in humans.
3. Nitrites/Nitrates (inhibit the growth of bacteria and enhance meat color). Causes cancer.
4. Antibiotics (growth booster and prevent disease outbreaks). Causes fatalities in human.  Excessive levels are also found of risky antibiotics like tilmicosin, whose label tells the farmer, “Not for human use. Injection of this drug in humans has been associated with fatalities.
5. Sulphites (preservatives in food to maintain food colour and prolong shelf-life). Could pose a hazard of unpredictable severity to asthmatics and others who are sensitive to them.
6. Carbon Monoxide (treat meat and prevent spoilage in modified atmospheric packaging (MAP)). CO is toxic because it sticks to hemoglobin, a molecule in blood that usually carries oxygen, even better than oxygen can. When people are exposed to higher levels of CO, the gas takes the place of oxygen in the bloodstream and wreaks havoc. Milder exposures mean headaches, confusion, and tiredness. Higher exposures mean unconsciousness and death, and even those who survive CO poisoning can suffer serious long-term neurological consequences.
7. Heavy Metals (for weight gain and feed efficiency, to control parasites and to improve “pigmentation.”). Ingestion of large amounts can lead to gastrointestinal symptoms such as severe vomiting, disturbances of the blood and circulation, damage to the nervous system, and eventually death. When not deadly, such large doses may reduce blood cell production, break up red blood cells in the circulation, enlarge the liver, color the skin, produce tingling and loss of sensation in the limbs, and cause brain damage.
8. Viral Sprays (a mixture of different special viruses called bacteriophages — viruses that infect only bacteria, not people, animals or plants). The bacteriophages might also get into battle with the friendly bacteria in the digestive system, making it harder for the body to digest food.
9. Meat Glue (Meat glue is thrombin, a coagulation protein which together with the fibrous protein fibrin can be used to develop a “meat glue” enzyme that can be used for sticking together different pieces of meat. It can be made from blood taken from either cows or pigs).
10. Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria.

 

Many argue that nitrates, nitrites, sulphites and bacteria are naturally occurring substances, and that they are essential for health, however they also react with other compounds in your body to form cancer-causing substances. In nature, antioxidants prevent this process, especially in fruits and vegetables which counteract it, but you are not getting these protective substances from factory farmed meat. The high concentrations of chemicals injected into processed meats are far from natural and their ingestion is far from natural. Many damage blood vessels, making your arteries more likely to harden and narrow and affect the way your body uses sugar.

 

All of the above chemicals have a negative effect on metabolic processes and although many are occurring in nature in other foods, they are not naturally occurring in meat in the high levels being introduced as preservatives.

 

I got a shiver when the boss told me how donkey meat was sold as beef to him. Wo! wo!... A couple of munities later I decided not going to the abattoir this weekend and probably the next!

 

I got three rabbits in the next episode.