@@TrentJ202007 their fur is a bit longer and tends to not finish as nicely. They also have a much smaller gene pool than the other two chins, so finding animals with good fur and correct fur banding is harder. The biggest reason to not choose giants for a meat/pelt program is the slow growth rate and poorer meat to bone ratios. Like any of the giant breeds, they grow bone first and meat second. You also don't get a primed pelt until around full adulthood, which tends to be closer to a year. Keep in mind you'll need bigger, stronger accommodations for giants as well. They tend to fatigue anything not at least 12ga GAW floor wire, and even then you'll want to add floor supports.

@SpragueRiverHomestead thank you so much, I really appreciate it!

Not really. The ones made for home use have a pretty narrow opening to prevent fingers getting anywhere near the blades. Statistically, manual grinders actually injure more people per year. Anything can be dangerous in the wrong hands, but with common sense using an electric grinder is easy and safe.

@@honeytoone8610 the larger Wyandotte like Golden Laced, Buff and Blue/Black. We've had them all go broody and we've used them successfully in mobile grazing pens for years. We are now raising them and Freedom Rangers (meat birds) exclusively. Wyandotte roosters CAN be jerks though, so just know that going in.

@@honeytoone8610 we don't raise them any more, but we ran ours in mobile pens successfully when we had them. They do require more "training" to forage than other breeds. I had to throw scratch into the area every day for over a week before they would scratch and forage themselves. Its been bred out of them but they can learn. I will say for that same reason that they are one of the dumbest breeds in regards to predators. If you want to keep them and free range them I do recommend adding it least a few of a breeder with better instinct. Wyandottes in particular have been a favorite, but New Hampshires, Rhode Island, Plymouth Rocks, Buckeyes and Dominiques are all good choices.

@ wow! Thank you so much for your response! We currently have a Delaware flock , but they don’t go broody. We have a mixed flock of barn yard mixes and other pure breeds. I need a sustainable flock that we can eat , get eggs from and use to hatch and raise chicks. Any thoughts? Maybe the speckled Sussex? Also can I mix the speckled Sussex and breed them w/ a few Sussex roosters ?

@honeytoone8610 I had terrible luck mixing Sussex with other breeds. We found they got bullied terribly, and were awful about hiding eggs. They never went broody either. I'm a big fan of Wyandotte. They make nice met birds, brood and forage. The roosters can be pretty spicy (and occasionally a hen) but they manage themselves better than any other breeds I've raised, except maybe the Dominiques.

@@SpragueRiverHomesteadI am sorry. I didn’t mean to say Sussex. Ugh….. I meant Wyandotte. I think we will go with them. I read they are not very needy. That will help me not get as attached! But can I get the different colors and mix them when breeding? Or should I stay with one color / pattern with a matching rooster?

@honeytoone8610 I would stick with one or two patterns. Not all Wyandottes are equal in my opinion, and I've raised most. I wouldn't recommend Silver Laced (great layers but less broody and not as meaty), Blue Laced Reds (terrible layers, not broody but good meat), or some of the rare colors like penciled or Partridge (unpredictable because flocks vary)

@@cebasmb8250 if you can find a puire line of NZ and not crossbred stuff being sold as NZ, they really can't be beat for growth, feed conversion and muscling. Second to them would be good quality Champagnes. Rex have really wild growth rates, and vary wildly by line. I've seen some that give NZ a run for their money, but those are few and far between. With Fox, if you aren't planning to use the pelts I wouldn't recommend them. They are heavier in bone than the others, so have a smaller meat yield. They are also a lot of maintenance as their hair tends to almost felt onto the cage wire during molt. Cremes really aren't the same category at all. They are quite a bit smaller than champagnes, and most of them have atrocious type. I wouldn't consider them at all, unless you are looking for a smaller breed and willing to hold them much longer to make a good butcher size. Their feed conversion is not a good as any of the others either. Hope that helps!

@SpragueRiverHomestead thanks so I'll stick with my champagne d'argent, or California. Do you think the growth rate is any good for meat purposes?

@@cebasmb8250 absolutely no telling. REW (red eyed white) masks the other genetics they carry, so they literally could throw anything, depending on what color program the REW came from. As a side note, don't use Flemish in a meat program. They spend their energy on bone growth first, so despite being a larger size as kits, they are not anywhere near as good at feed conversion or muscle (meat) production. You'll also slow down maturity rate.

@SpragueRiverHomestead I do really appreciate that you answered comments. That's the reason I'm always going back over you're videos I learned a lot from you I was just curious about color to expect but won't do it I like champagne d'argent my doe should have kits the 24th of this month December yahhhhh

@@evelyny7037 ours never spend time in the house. Ever. In my opinion it creates confusion for them on their duties and loyalty. I have 2 that we adopted as teens that were house raised, and while they do their job, as soon as we're outside the focus is always on the people and not their goats. I don't agree with sticking them straight out with livestock either, exactly. I don't like to bring pups in until 10-12 weeks (8 is too young in an LGD), and they get penned in the barn beside the goats. At 4-5 months they can have supervised time with the herd, so long as there are no kids or lambs in the pen. By 6 months they can spend the night with the herd (again, no kids or lambs). Usually by 9 months they're pretty functional on their own. I do watch them for chasing or bullying when they hit the terrible teens (12-18 months), but that seems to be an issue more with makes than females. By 18 months they're usually trustworthy with the kids/lambs as well. Timelines can be sped up if there's an older dog available to teach, but I wouldn't rush it if you're raising a single pup. A good foundation is essential, and bad habits are super hard to break. Good luck, and thanks for watching!

Thank you for your valuable insights!

@@CHFG24 I say no to preventatives period, and for 2 reasons. 1. Its a known fact that "preventative" parasite treatment breeds stronger, more resilient parasites. When there's an actual issue I need to know my treatment will work and that I'm not going to spend a ton of time on some crazy regime and mixing of stuff to get the job done. 2. Breeding for health and vigor should be every breeder's number one goal. I need to be able to see what lines are strongest and have the best immunity naturally. If I'm cocktailing them along the way I can't see that. The body becomes codependent on the treatment and loses its own natural abilities to fight. That's not something I want to be breeding. As for DE, it's known to cause lung issues in small mammals, and rabbits are no exception. I think its overhyped as a miracle cure when in fact it creates more lung issues than anything it solves. This goes for its usage in poultry as well. Thanks for the questions, and for watching!

@@CHFG24 every doe should be bred for 2-3 litters per year. That keeps them from getting too far and having breeding issues down the road, and is not aggressive enough to cause them trouble. Don't set your sights on keeping anything! If you make a plan for that, you'll convince yourself to keep rabbits that really arent worth keeping. You're going to find you'll get litters where nothing is worth holding on top, and that's good, as it shows you're focusing on breeding good animals instead of just making rabbits. As for breeding the colors back and forth, I wouldn't. REW hides a lot of stuff, and you can start getting off colors in your Blues (I've had gold and silver tipped steels, and opals appear in mine. So frustrating). There's also a growing number of breeders trying to focus on just blue, and getting the REW out of a line is dang near impossible.

@@CHFG24 good luck! Remember to aim for quality, and make sure you are reviewing your breed standard before and during evaluating animals. Weight issues are pretty common, as is mismatched nails and white spotting in the blues. There are downsides to the breed of course. Stock is hard to come by (especially non-related stock), and quite a few animals have crosses in their backgrounds which can bring up all sorts of off stuff at breeding. All in all though, I absolutely love them. Celebrating my 10th year raising them in 2025.

​@@SpragueRiverHomesteadThank you for taking the time to reply to me! And thank you for the advice 😊 I definitely want to get pure breed Americans and have rabbits from different lineages for breeding! And wow 10 years is impressive! That's so cool you're still breeding the Americans for so long.

@@ScarySpots start slow, especially if you plan to try and make money off of them. Its easier and cheaper to scale up for demand than to scale down. In some places its about impossible to sell meat, in others the market is already saturated, and you'll find in others that rabbit meat is fadsy so hard to create a consistent market. Lots of people say they want to buy meat, but disappear once the meat is actually available. Thats from experience. Good luck on your endeavors, and thanks for watching!

We have used ours a lot and it's done well.

Sweet! 🙂

@@KimberlyBales placing well has zero to do with breed and everything to do with quality and finish. For a large 12 year old I would suggest a medium/large breed. Californians are probably the easiest to find. Lilacs and Silver Marten are tougher to find but have good size.

We just have the one video mentioning them.

@@justforfun4623 each person has to decide what is ethical when breeding their animals. I refuse to treat my critters as factories to the detriment of their health, but to each their own. To me that sort of aggressive breeding (which has been scientifically proven to shorten their lifespans) makes us no better than the factory farms who place profits over animal welfare.

@@SpragueRiverHomestead I mean it's the way they are made to be bred, if they was not to breed like that then they wouldn't allow the buck to breed, it doesn't hurt their health if you know what you are doing and looking at. I have had a doe breed a lot longer than the scientific people say they can, and her litters remained the same. Same with any other animal, they can't and won't breed unless they are in heat and ready. It is plenty ethical my rabbits are not suffering not one bit unlike most of those colony rabbits people raise. I wouldn't mind their lifespan being shortened honestly,I never keep many does around to long before they go to the freezer any how do the most I can get from them is good. I also work on what you would call a factory farm, and there is nothing factory about it lol. Fun fact for ya though if it wasn't for animal agriculture especially pigs all of the stuff we waste that is normally perfectly good for use to eat but does not look up to the companies standards like snack cakes and other commercial baked goods and chocolate all get put into pig feed where would that stuff go if it wasn't for commercial farms? In the already over packed landfills or let to rot and spread on fields.

@@SpragueRiverHomestead and I will tell you nobody places profits over animal welfare period, animal welfare is number 1 priority on a commercial farm, now as for the giant mega dairy farms I know a lot of their animals get mistreated by employees, same with any large farm. It's not the company or owner of the farm it's the employees this is why there is things put in place to catch it and fire people for it. An unhealthy or animal that is stressed is not a productive animal scientifically proven time and time again. It makes no sense for one to put profit over animal welfare because then they would be losing money.

You could wipe it in, or put a few drops in the ear. I drop it in and let the rabbits distribute it for themselves.

The only time we had trouble with our well was when the big grow was next door pumping a huge amount of water. It's recovered, and we haven't had any issues since.

@@SpragueRiverHomestead Thanks

Usually, once a doe is bred her scent changes and the buck will quit mounting. In some cases a buck won't "get the message" and will keep trying. That's more likely to happen early in the rut, and with first time bucks.

@@BritonAD yes we do

There isn't much available for rabbit hydes in general. The craft with rabbit pelts is really going away. We couldn't find any books via Google search, but there are a few videos on KZbin concerning tanning.

We have a separate video showing how to calculate the quantity of every ingredient. What you can buy locally is slightly different based on the area / region (or country you're in), so we don't teach based on exact brands. If you know how to calculate the mix, you can make adjustments easily.

Beater bar is probably a better description of what it does.