By Brian Barth
Clean, quiet, and easy to raise, these little critters might be the next big thing in sustainable meat. All ears? We’ve got the low-down on hare care.
We all know the saying. And yep, rabbits really do go at it like, well, rabbits—breeding rapidly enough to horrify any parent whose child brings home a pair as pets. View the math through an agricultural lens, however, and the small mammals’ sexual prowess proves incredibly appealing. As little as $30 can buy a mating duo capable of producing some 40 offspring in a single year. Roughly half will be females, who can yield their first litters at 7 to 11 months of age. Three-month-old meat rabbits fetch roughly $10 per pound (up to $20 for choice cuts), versus about $3 per pound for chicken. Follow the rising population and profit curves, and you’ll wonder why rabbit hutches aren’t as common a sight along rural roads as chicken coops.
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