NOEL FARM RABBITRY
About Us
We are primarily a commercial operation today but started out as a backyard breeder. Located on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Our rabbits are mostly Californian, White New Zealand and a cross of the two which are the desired meat breeds for most processors. But as we started out with some quality does that were not "white" we have a few colors in our herd---and they are just too nice to eliminate. So we are offering them for sale to others who wish to own or raise rabbits for their own use. None of our rabbits are registered but many are purebred or from purebred stock and produce nice large kits who are fast growing and healthy with a good meat to bone ratio. You can find Red New Zealand, Black New Zealand, Blue New Zealand, Broken New Zealand and Californian crosses, Chocolate Sable, Frosted and a few German Angora (hair rabbits) kicking back and enjoying the feed on any given day. We are a small operation--just Dean, Cynthia & sometimes the boys (Chris & Dean) with a goal of 400 breeding does (about half way there). Originally we though that 400 does was a large number until we discovered that the large breeders have thousands! Do not think we will ever get that large, but who knows---never thought we would have as many as we now have--just keep in mind the old saying "multiply like rabbits".
Here is how it all started..........
Dean came home one day from work and announced that someone was giving him a great deal on a breeding pair of Purebred Californians and so our backyard rabbitry began. We invested in wooden frame hutches (at @ $150 each), drove several hours to bring the pair home --- then overnight the female escaped and was killed by the dogs. As the person we got them from had no more females--we were in a bind and started our search for a new doe. Finally we found one closer to home--she was not a Californian. This is how we ended up with many beautiful colors in our herd, we bought nice, young, big does of whatever color we could find (and finding them was not as easy as you might think!) It is harder to tell the sex on a young rabbit and one of our first girls was actually a boy. Most people keep their females and sell the males or sell them as weanlings or fryers which are generally too young to accurately tell the sex. You have to wait until they are 5 or 6 months old to breed them (if you actually get does), and generally there are more bucks (boys) produced in a litter than does (girls). When we decided to make this a business Cynthia set out on the task of finding suitable Californian or White New Zealand does. Again not as easy as it sounds, but this time we got lucky and met some wonderful people who helped us along the way. We learned alot (are still learning), made mistakes and friends. Now we are ready to pass along some of what we have learned as well as some very nice meat rabbits to others.
These are the primary type of rabbits we raise:
Californian
This is a good meat breed developed in the USA. It comes in only one colour-white with black ears, nose, feet and tail. At maturity, this breed weighs 9-10 pounds.The average litter size is 6-8. The body is rather plump, but fine-boned.
New Zealand
The New Zealand rabbit was first a red variety and became known in the United States about 1912. It is thought to be a cross between a Belgian Hare and a white rabbit. The white variety came about from cross breeding among several breeds such as the Flemish, American Whites, and Angoras. A black variety was also developed from various crossings which include the Giant Chinchilla. Historically thought of as a utility or working rabbit, the New Zealand meat rabbit has been selected for hundreds and hundreds of meat rabbit breeders. This is because they have good outgoing personalities and are easy to work with. They don't tend to bite or struggle and they don't get sick or have health problems nearly as often as other breeds. A medium sized rabbit, the New Zealand adult will get up to 11 pounds.
Contact :
Dean & Cynthia Noel
931-779-4043
We generally have male rabbits for sale from weanling to 12 weeks old. Colored--Black, Blue, Red, Broken
Weanling $10 each
Grower (8-12 weeks) $15 each
Breeder (6 month old male--call to reserve as we do not usually keep them to this age) $25 each
Call for availability of does and breeding pairs
This site is a work in progress and I am still working on adding pictures of our rabbits