Rabbits for ritches?

[fiiish1987]

I wnt down to a local pub (The Cove Inn on Portland) and discovered that on there menu they had fresh local rabbit stew for £10 . I've also seen on the net that you can buy rabbit furs for between £4-£6 per pelt! So technically we could be making £16 from each rabbit we shoot . Isn't it worth getting the correct health and hygene certs so we can sell our rabbits as i'm sure that there must be money to be had from such a wonderful source of food! Even if you only sold a few you could use the funds from the rabbits to cover the costs of your hunting trips (pellets, fuel, general maintainance etc)

[andystone]

I wnt down to a local pub (The Cove Inn on Portland) and discovered that on there menu they had fresh local rabbit stew for £10 . I've also seen on the net that you can buy rabbit furs for between £4-£6 per pelt! So technically we could be making £16 from each rabbit we shoot . Isn't it worth getting the correct health and hygene certs so we can sell our rabbits as i'm sure that there must be money to be had from such a wonderful source of food! Even if you only sold a few you could use the funds from the rabbits to cover the costs of your hunting trips (pellets, fuel, general maintainance etc)

 

 

are there many bunnies on portland? and places to shoot?

[fiiish1987]

There's rabbit droppings all over portland however getting permission from whoever owns the quarries could be fun. there are plenty of farms etc around wemouth and dorchester that are potential areas for shooting though.

[wolf]

It’s a good idea! I’v been down this road before. I obtained an intermediate food hygiene and preparation certificate from the local college (3 day course).

Spent 2 days with a local butcher friend of mine to correctly skin and prepare rabbits for public consumption. With knowledge and certificate in hand went out to find the fattest pot bunnies I could find. After 2 hours got 8 good quality foodies (that’s what we call em up here). Left them to hang in cold storage for 2 days as per butcher instructions, carefully skinned and prepared them for selling. Toddled off to local pubs and eating houses I knew sold rabbit dishes. My prepared meat was received very well but it was then I began to realise the actual value of a bunny, I was informed that to make a decent stew to serve say 4 people 6 bunnies were required (me and the mrs only need 2) and then to cost it out to the customer as a finished meal at say £6.50 per head I would only get 50p per head of rabbit. All in all a good experience but in terms of time spent to profit not worth it. However I now receive 20p per head from a land owner who has given me shooting permission on his land, buying his own bunnies off me is I think the best business solution. Ps he has loads of pheasant on there too. (not long now before shotty gets an outing. Yummy.

[Ferret Master]

Are you saying he's going to pay you to shoot his pheasants? Or are you paying to shoot them?

 

FM

[fiiish1987]

It's good to see others have tried it too. I think if i get another shoot i may take a nosey around the local resteraunts and butchers to see what price they'd give if i were qualified. but if it was only like 50p for you then it woudn't be worth it. Of course the other route would be to sell the finished product e.g roasted rabbit, or stews at local events like the dodgy car boots or the monthly farmers market.

Good luck with the pheasants.

[wolf]

Are you saying he's going to pay you to shoot his pheasants? Or are you paying to shoot them?

 

FM

Nah i dont get paid for the Pheasants just get to keep half i shoot woot woot, who said farmers arn't fair.

[Ferret Master]

OK

[Evilv]

I wnt down to a local pub (The Cove Inn on Portland) and discovered that on there menu they had fresh local rabbit stew for £10 . I've also seen on the net that you can buy rabbit furs for between £4-£6 per pelt! So technically we could be making £16 from each rabbit we shoot . Isn't it worth getting the correct health and hygene certs so we can sell our rabbits as i'm sure that there must be money to be had from such a wonderful source of food! Even if you only sold a few you could use the funds from the rabbits to cover the costs of your hunting trips (pellets, fuel, general maintainance etc)

 

I've shot 77 since a week Friday, and am sickened at having to leave loads in the woods, I mentioned to the local butcher that I shot a few rabbits and did he ever sell them. He offered £2.50 a head for a skinned and cleaned rabbit, but said he'd just bought sixty farmed rabbits, and so would have to wait a while yet until he sells them off. He took my number. Quite a lot of mine aren't that big - maybe half grown, so he will no doubt adjust the price, but I'm sure as hell sick of leaving half my bag for the flies to eat, and this looks like a good alternative. I'm going to visit a few old fashioned butcher's shops and see what they think. I give most of the ones I bring home away to people I know, and an inebriate guy down at the local allotments takes them by the twenty odd from time to time. I reckon he swaps them for beer down at the local working men's club but what do I care, he gives me big smiles and all the vegetables I can eat.

 

By the way, you are right about them being a wonderful source of food. I'm having rabbit pie twice a week and giving some of them away too. I just had some cold with cabbage and mashed potatoe left overs out of a tupperware box while I was shooting this afternoon. Seventeen fell to my new Cz between the rain showers.

[king ratcatcher]

Our local butchers want £12 for a rabbit

[pin]

Erm, so don't shoot so many then!

 

Just leave them there for next time when you can use them, I hate the idea of them going to waste

[Evilv]

Erm, so don't shoot so many then!

 

Just leave them there for next time when you can use them, I hate the idea of them going to waste

 

So do I, but the places I have are over-run. The issue is either I sort them out or I lose the shooting. I've never seen anywhere like this valley. One farmer's wife said she looked out the other night from her house and estimated 300 in the front field which might be about five acres. Also, a small number have the mixi now. They need thinning out. It's been the same up there for six years that I know of. One time they had some guys take 700 with ferrets and the landowner said the next day, the place was still crawling with the *******. I'm bringing three sacks back a week at the moment. Beats the shooting I had back in the eighties - then you felt lucky if you got two shots in during a five hour stint. There are time snow when I get three in a minute.

[pin]

You on the set of watership down or smt ?

 

I know sometimes they need controlling, fair play to you. Shame you are so far away, I would take them off you. I am lining up a massive pie production line for the next big load, if they come

[Evilv]

You on the set of watership down or smt ?

 

I know sometimes they need controlling, fair play to you. Shame you are so far away, I would take them off you. I am lining up a massive pie production line for the next big load, if they come

 

There's something in the pie production thing. I've a great recipe going just now. People I've given them to send good feedback. Maybe I can offset the cost of diesel and cartridges by selling some. It's an 89 mile round trip to the Rabbit Valley. I suppose all the regulations around food production would mean I'd be breaking some law or other. There isn't much you can do in this country without getting a permit from some busy-body council official. Apparently, Blair has created 300 new criminal offences since he got in in 97. :/

 

I'm starting to feel like becoming an anarchist, and that generally isn't the territory of yer average 55 year old.

[pin]

The regulations are a pain, but to sell at the farmers market or similar you don't need anything I understand. The basic food hygene certificate isn't hard or expensive to get hold of.

 

I had the idea to make a whole load up and freeze them, chest freezer full at a farmers market, putting a few in the oven now and then so people can try them. I think you'd sell the lot at £2 a pop (maybe more) you'd make a killing. The nack is they cook it, not you

 

With your motherload of rabbits you seem to be getting, i'd say an average of 2 or 3 pies a rabbit, you could be sitting pretty.

[Mungler]

Do the old Hugh FW bunny burgers at farmers markets - you can "cut" the rabbit with onions and breadcrumbs to make them go further.

 

With that level of supply I reckon an enormous chest freezer beckons.

 

What's the fastest you can gut and skin them - that's where the time will go.

[Evilv]

The regulations are a pain, but to sell at the farmers market or similar you don't need anything I understand. The basic food hygene certificate isn't hard or expensive to get hold of.

 

I had the idea to make a whole load up and freeze them, chest freezer full at a farmers market, putting a few in the oven now and then so people can try them. I think you'd sell the lot at £2 a pop (maybe more) you'd make a killing. The nack is they cook it, not you

 

With your motherload of rabbits you seem to be getting, i'd say an average of 2 or 3 pies a rabbit, you could be sitting pretty.

 

I put four young rabbits in two pies. Mine are quite big pies mind - enough to feed four or five amply. What size are yours?

 

My recipe is:

 

three or four half grown rabbits

3/4 pound of belly pork

two leeks

two carrots

two onions

sage

Italian herbs

methi leaves

Basil

Garlic

cream

grated cheese

salt and pepper

 

Pressure cook the rabbits for ten minutes at 125C. Allow to cool.

 

Pressure cook chopped belly pork, sliced onions, sliced leeks, garlic and herbs and sliced carrots in a small amount of water for ten minutes.

 

Strip rabbit from skeletons preserving meat in decent chunks and place in bowl. Ensure no bones go into bowl, especially not ribs.

 

Decant vegetables and pork into pie dishes with suitable amount of liquor.

Add rabbit meat to level of the top of pie dishes.

 

Pour cream over the meat and a small amount of grated cheese

 

Roll out pastry and cover pie dishes. Trim edges tidy.

 

Decorate pies with easily made pastry rabbit heads from scraps of trimmingsand make cuts to vent steam to look like long grass around rabbit heads.

 

Bake at 180 or 200 degrees for 35 - 45 minutes.

 

 

SErve with vegetables of choice, especially peppery and creamy mashed potatoes and beer.

[Evilv]

Do the old Hugh FW bunny burgers at farmers markets - you can "cut" the rabbit with onions and breadcrumbs to make them go further.

 

With that level of supply I reckon an enormous chest freezer beckons.

 

What's the fastest you can gut and skin them - that's where the time will go.

 

That's the job I hate. and I'm not quick at all. I have a freezer with about sixty rabbits in it still in their skins!

This is my own freezer for my own 'nefarious activities' as the wife calls my hobby. She won't have my stuff in her freezer. I'm that knackered when I get back, the idea of skinning fifteen or twenty rabbits would make me give up, so I generally freeze them in a black bag and deal with them when convenient. It seems to work and everything is totally fresh. I expect there are damned good reasons why I shouldn't do this, but I've never had so much as a sniffle for years and can't remember my last upset stomach that wasn't caused by drinking too much beer or wine.

 

The reason I get tired is that the shooting I have is high up on steep slopes. The best place is at 1150 feet above sea level and is sloped at around 35 degrees. Try dragging twenty rabbits and a gun around here and you'll know why I'm so lazy about the aftermath.

 

[Soulboy]

Same as you mate - a local "old style" butcher around the corner asks me for 15 or 20 for the next day,and i get a pound each,not in the summer though - nobbody wants them.

 

I am at the mo putting them - gutted,skinned,cleaned and wrapped in clingfilm in the freezer (used to be a chef !)the problem is weve a new shoot thats overrun with them,got 12 in 45 mins last night,and its the control them or lose the shoot scenario.

 

Like others i dont like to see them shot and left to waste.

[Evilv]

Same as you mate - a local "old style" butcher around the corner asks me for 15 or 20 for the next day,and i get a pound each,not in the summer though - nobbody wants them.

 

I am at the mo putting them - gutted,skinned,cleaned and wrapped in clingfilm in the freezer (used to be a chef !)the problem is weve a new shoot thats overrun with them,got 12 in 45 mins last night,and its the control them or lose the shoot scenario.

 

Like others i dont like to see them shot and left to waste.

 

Good that you can shift them. The butcher I spoke to said £2.50 each, but I expect he's thinking of big farmed ones. He did say they used to get them from a shotgunner who brought them in full of pellets and useless for his customers though, so he may be amenable to half grown ones shot in the head. They are abundant at the moment as you know and so easy to skin.

[lurcherboy]

Go to your local zoo/wildlife park. They take them unpaunched and pay you.

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

LB

[plinker]

Our local butchers want £12 for a rabbit

 

yeah, right,how much for a chicken then?

[Evilv]

Go to your local zoo/wildlife park. They take them unpaunched and pay you.

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

LB

 

Grea idea. Who did you see. I don't suppose its much use to turn up at the entry kiosk with a sack of dead rabbits.

 

How much did they pay you?

 

 

EDIT:

 

Oh - forget it. I just looked up the only lion park I know of around here and discovered that it closed in the 1970s.

[M ROBSON]

I sell my most of my Rabbits to a local Falconry for 60p each, paunched.

 

Most of the zoo's now have contracts with game dealers.

 

Mark.

[pin]

Another line to look at is petshops that sell / deal with snakes and other large reptiles. I know someone who sells pigeon and undersize rabbit to a few people he got in contact with via a reptile dealer.