Rabbit Poo

[dbjay417]

I got rabbits!!

one died giving birth so now i have rabbit!

Stupid me, i brought a pregnant rabbit here without knowing anything at all about keeping rabbits. probably the worst of my animal husbandry blunders. i'm still quite upset, but thats not what this is about!

i have heard that i can use the poo to amend soil without aging or curing. Is this true? if so, should i age it anyway for better results, or is straight from the bunnys butt as good as it gets? if not how long should I age it before use?

i think its funny to use the word aging when talking about composting poop. makes it seem like your talking about wine or whiskey instead of animal turds.

 

[patandchickens]

i have heard that i can use the poo to amend soil without aging or curing. Is this true?

Congrats on the rabbits, and condolences on the rabbit.

Yes, AFAIK you may as well put it straight on the garden, no need to age (although if you would prefer to put it in the compost pile for some reason that is totally fine too).

Fine compost *is* like fine wine or cheese or whatever. Garden long enough and you will become a connoisseur (sp?)

Have fun,

Pat

 

[obsessed]

I am going to agree. I have several rabbits and I their poop has made a BIG difference in my garden. I can actually grow stuff now. Just becareful. You may find that you need more rabbits to save some money on soil amendments.

 

[Reinbeau]

Rabbit poop can go right on the garden. Don't put it up against tender seedlings, but add away......sheep poop can be used the same way. My great-grandmother (the root of my family's horticultural interest) used rabbit and sheep dropping on everything, and her gardens were amazing.

 

[dbjay417]

my cukes are almost of age for transplant, when i find a suitable location i will use what I have collected this far to amend the soil. Almost a pound of poo at this point.

I'm raising the rabbits for meat, and have just gotten off to an unfortunate start, so there will be no shortage of rabbit feces in my life soon enough.

i got tons of chicken poop too, but i know that has to be broken down for several months before its usable.

 

[tigerlily]

It is great for the garden--I even have neighbors asking for it for some to amend their beds---I spare a bucket or two when I clean out the pens....
I also stick some in rubber bins with a lid and add water( Phew eee) but the compost tea that I get is phenomenal!

 

[muddler6]

I have never had rabbits myself, but read that some folks build worm boxes under their rabbit hutches and the poo and spilled feed, feeds the worms, just thought I'd throw the idea back out there.

 

[dbjay417]

and i'm off into the world of vermicompost!

LoL

thanks for the additional tip. i dunno about buying or importing worms, I'm not in terrible need of insects that feast on rotting materials, so maybe I'll just rake some leaves and turn up some dirt and just see what i can do with whats down there.

Note to Self: The centipedes pack a punch.

 

[simple life]

This is my first year with rabbits too and I have been throwing it all into the compost heap along with the chicken poop because of the weather, but that compost ought to be good and ready this spring when its time to plant.
How many rabbits do you have now?
How are you feeding the babies? Good luck with that.

 

[dbjay417]

well after i went to the man who sold me the first two rabbits and told him the doe died during labor, he agreed to sell me a doe with 5 babies. i didn't think this was the best of ideas but he really didnt want to part with any of them, so there was no room to be choosey.

So now there is the original buck and a doe with 4 babies (the runt died some time yesterday.) I can't seem to catch a break from animal mortality these days. Hopefully once i have an established group i wont be so nervous about it all all the time. the other babies are poking their heads out of the box, their mother is feeding them.

The original doe never actually produced living offspring. She pushed out a stillborn baby that never made it out of the amniotic sack and then a while later she died, I assume with a while litter of stillborn babies in her. It was really quite sad.

I have been told that my vermicompost experiment will likely fall short because I'm using random worms. I'm hoping that because I live where I do, that i can find a suitable substitute. There is plenty of decaying plant matter around so I'm sure that if not worms, maybe some other manner of insect will be useful for the task.