Question ... Chicken liver...Rabbit Liver

I'm butchering 14 rabbits, this morning, most I've done at one time.
My question is...can I freeze the livers ect for a couple of weeks ?
Guess they would be the same as chicken livers.
I'm leaving Sat for 2 weeks and would like to eat them when I get back.

Dwight

I think you can---they freeze beef and lamb and other mammal livers.

Thanks for the info...got 7 more to clean...I could never make a living at this ^_^

Make sure they are not diseased. If they have little white spots on them, I would not eat it.
There's a name for it, but I can't remember it.

I used to raise rabbits & butchering was a chore I hated. I found a processor that took them live for a decent price, so I sold most to him. Try boning for burger & you will really get disgusted!

Bernie

How do you kill them?

Five hours to dress 14 rabbits, I really am getting slow. Well my 70th birthday was in March.
Bernie, None of the livers had any spots and I didn't brake any of the bile sacks. Almost 2 lbs...Yummm

Jayryunen, when I was a boy my Dd would hold them by the back legs and when they stopped crying and kicking he would hit them in the back of the head, braking their neck.
I brake their neck but a different way. I lay them on the ground, makes the feel a little better, then I lay a pipe across the back of their neck, while holding their back legs, put one foot on one side of the pipe and my other foot on the other, press down and jerk up and the neck is hanging loose.. I only had one cry a little.
Another on got me with his hind foot, before I could get a hold on them. But it was red blood mixed with red blood.
They have nisty feet even though I keep their cages clean. And I do Love their Poo, great stuff.
I only have 2 does and a buck, both does had 7 babies each, 8 days apart and I was dumping their litter trays twice a week. My 'First Born' will take care of them while we're gone.
These went into the freezer back in July

What kind are those?

I've thought about raising meat rabbits, but I'm not sure I could kill them. My dad said he'd just grab them by the neck and the hind legs and yank... but I never saw him do it.

I did see him wring a grouse's neck once when I was a kid, but when I tried it with a chicken I just tortured the poor thing. Dang, he made it look easy! My attempts at his bird-killing technique petty much convinced me I'd just hurt a rabbit, not kill it.

I looked in the one rabbit book I saw, but though they extolled the virtues of rabbit meat, they didn't actually tell you how to make it... =oP

I'll tell you a rabbit can hurt you if your not careful, They can kick there hind legs around and over their head.
And when those nails hit you, anywhere, they can bring blood. After I finished cleaning them I went into the bathroom and and put hydrogen peroxide on the scratch I got today and it really boiled...My DW is all worried, well I will keep an eye on it and keep it clean.
The rabbits I have are New Zealand White , a meat rabbit, you can find lots of info on the internet about how great rabbit meat is for you and like I said before the Poo is wonderful for the garden. But they must be killed like any meat animal.

I was around 4 when my Dad wanted to show me how to kill a hog, he had it tiyed to a post and had an ax, the big ones, I thought he was going to chop it's head off but he hit it in the back of the head with the blunt end of the ax, with great fource, well the first blow did not kill the hog, it took 2 or 3 more, you get the picture, and being 4 at the time it realy made an impression on me. BUT they say that plants make a responce when you pull them, so I don't know.
It is bad, after I kill the rabbit, then cut off the head, to let it bleed and the pink eyes are open still looking at me.

Yeah, I like rabbit meat but it's a whole lot easier to for me to kill a chicken...

When my dad wrung that grouse's neck, my eyes were so bugged out and I was one freaked out kid... I was probably about 10 and we didn't raise our own meat, he hunted. He knocked that bird out of a tree with a rock, ran up and ripped its head off and then turned to me and said, "Don't tell anyone". Yikes! No SIR I will not. (It wasn't grouse season....)

I don't often post, but have this to offer.
The most humane way to kill a rabbit is to grab it firmly by the hind feet, swing it quickly down, run your hand down its body and grasp the head, place your thumb at the base of the skull and quickly pull down and back. This is to stretch the spine. The rabbit will go limp and unconscious. They never squeal or act as if in pain.

You can then cut off the head, and hang them on a hook to skin. I do not often kill them, but DH has done it for years.
We raised five kids on mostly rabbit, deer and chicken. He killed and dressed the rabbits.
I killed and dressed the chickens. He could do six rabbits while I was picking and cleaning one chicken. LOL
I do not let my killed chickens flop around on the ground, as they bruise the meat. I place their wings on the ground behind them and gently hold the wings down with my foot and cut their throats with a sharp kitchen knife. I hold them until they quit flopping. I don't like to wring their necks, and prefer to hang them on a hook and let them bleed out.

rentman, those are pretty NZ Whites. We used to raise them and Californias, but they are so big, and now with just the two of us here, we have gone to Dutch rabbits. They are much smaller, eat less and still a nice skillet full.
Last winter, a pack of dogs got into our rabbit barn, and chewed the feet off several rabbits, pulling them through the cages. We heard the barking and caught them in the act. One dog got away....we buried two.

Caliche, I do want to use the most humane way...I will have to try you way next time....Thanks

Dwight

Could you build an air proof box to put them in? Recently some miners who died in a cave-in left letters to their loved ones that they were just going to sleep, with no oxygen in the air that they were breathing. No struggling.

Depriving an animal of oxygen is not more humane, IMHO. Animal shelters in this country are no longer allowed to do that. I'd much rather do it fast and quick.

Go stick your head in a plastic bag and see if there's no struggle as the air runs out...

There was probably some sort of toxic gas in the mine, IF that story is true... and so much of what we read is distorted by the media.

I used to raise rabbits and killed lots of them. I hit them in the back of the head to kill them. Never any crying. They just got stiff and then went limp. How do you guys skin yours? I'd pick a small area clean of fur in the middle of the back and make a slit in the skin big enough to get my fingers in. Then I'd jsut pull in opposite directions and peel the pelt away. Didn't get any fur on the meat that way. I do a squirrel the same way.I'd cut the feet and head off while it was still inside the fur. I raised Ca Giants and NSW. I'd like to raise them again and plan on getting some in the Spring but I think I will try the Flemish Giants or the Checkers this time. You can kill them younger as they are bigger and I think they would be very tender.

Cajun, did you just hit them with your fist or ?

I'd sure like to find someone around here that raised and butchered their own rabbits, so I could watch and get over myself before actually trying it. I've always found that helpful.

Jay, I was thinking about the letters that trapped miners wrote to their loved ones as the air became less oxygen, They all said they weren't suffering, just going to sleep.

That may have been the way it felt while they were writing the letters, but the body struggles and fights for oxygen... they could also have been falling asleep from hypothermia, not oxygen deprivation. Ask anyone who has found the body of someone who killed themselves with carbon monoxide... the body fights and fights hard enough to rip out the fingernails as it tries to claw its way to air.

Talk to your local county coroner about how the body responds to lack of air...

It's not humane, it's torture.

Ooo, I'll take your word for that. I stand totally corrected

This will sound heartless but it wasn't really. They never struggled or cried. I would hold them by the back legs and support their bodies with my other hand until I was ready to kill them. Then very quickly I let them hang down and swung them in the air. I hit their heads on a stout tree. I tried using one of those small ball bats and even a stick but I couldn't get it done in one whack so I found a way that I could so they wouldn't suffer. Just because I like to eat meat does not mean I want to see an animal suffer fear or pain.

I am considering 'thinning' the wild roosters around my house.

Sounds good. Can you catch them?

I used to kill mice that way to feed the hawks at the vet tech school where I went.

A good pellet gun would help you out with your feral roosters, Mola... I had one with a scope. Throw some corn down and aim for the chest.

Works for those big rats they get in the islands, too. I wonder... is spot-lighting feral rats illegal?

I was just reading "The Final Frontiersman" and he hunted caribou with a .22. Most folks would use a 3030. That's one heck of a good shot!

I don't have a gun license, and I'd never try to use just a pellet rifle.

I'll need to make some kind of a trap. They already come for the cracked corn I put out. One hen comes alone, she's setting. She's funny to watch, fluffs, shivvers and shakes, waggs her tail, flops in the dust and pecks for food at the same time. Setting must be the pits