First rabbit litter dispatched and butchered

My lovely friends Chase and Andrew joined me for rabbit harvesting day. The litter was 11.5 weeks old. Chase decided to keep the baby that had been consistently most curious and least fearful, and in her opinion was the cutest as well.

She named him Comfit. He has his own pen for now and she'll collect him when she has all the supplies set up.

The other bunnies were destined for the table. I attempted to dispatch the first two with the captive bolt gun but they were not immediately killed as I expected. We had to follow up the gun with hanging them to slit their throats. I later asked for help online and then emailed the company and was told that my placement was a little too much toward the eyes rather than ears. So I will try again with the bolt gun next time. In the meantime, since we weren't getting quick, humane kills, I switched to the broomstick method with a heavy metal pipe that was lying around because this is the country. That worked very well for the remaining four buns.

Emotionally speaking, it was easier to dispatch the rabbits than I'd expected. They were mostly calm and comfortable with me cradling them until the final moment. I was glad that I'd spent so much time handling them as they were growing up.

The butcher station was great except that it wobbled because the supporting legs aren't totally straight and we weren't on even ground. I can fix that later.