We considered rabbits for meat, but already had the chickens in full swing, which give us eggs as well. My only issue is a rooster in suburbia, which was fine with my original guy, because he trained up to not crow once out for the day. Unfortunately, he'd passed away and his son isn't training up very well.
The pigeons are breeding themselves well, but they are hard to catch, so the quail seem to be the ones for the win for suburbia. They just don't lay over winter.
The rabbits are so darn cute, though. I think I'd struggle to kill them for meat. So cheap and easy to feed, though, unlike chickens.
They get easier to kill after the first few. I've got it down to a science now and can do six animals, from the time I pick up the first one to the time the kitchen is clean, in an hour.
Waitaminute. IDK how I glossed it over, but how in the world did you train a rooster not to crow?!
Lol!
It doesn't work for every rooster, it depends on their temperament. He didn't not crow... he came in overnight to a box in the shed and would crow his heart out in there from abbout 4am, where it was muffled enough not to bother the neighbors. Once he'd finished crowing, usually between 9am-10am, I'd bring him out and if he crowed while out, he went back in. He gradually learnt not to crow while outside and mostly didn't. We'd get the occasional days when he would, usually in spring as they came into breeding season. He was a gentle giant, light Sussex. I've had no success with an araucana and his son is half araucana, so probably got too much of that temperament.