what to grow for rabbits

[ohiogoatgirl]

hey i've been on here for a while. i'm on alot of forums and sometimes one holds my attention for a while. anyway...
i'm hoping to start raising rabbits. for meat and to sell. what could i plant for them? i like to be as self-sufficient as possible.
i make my own hay and i know that's a big investment for any livestock. here's what i've already come up with:
sunflowers -seed, stalks
black oil sunflowers (?) - seed, stalks
indian corn - seed, stalks
carrots
turnips
pumpkin
squash
peas
cucumber
parsnips
zucchini
radishes
chicory (the roadside flower kind)
plantain (lots of em in the yard, hope to transplant a few to actually harvest)
willow withes
apple tree clippings (have a few apple trees on the farm and know people with apple trees)
apple slices
parsley

some things i was wondering about were :
lemon balm
mint
cattails (have a huge field of em that i could harvest. hoping to harvest some anyhow for basket making)
dry beans (i have seeds that never got around to planting, hutterite soup bean and indian black bean i think)

and btw i'm in SE ohio.
thanks!

 

[wsmoak]

Mangel beets? Oats?

I got a bag of oats that was moldy and since I couldn't feed it to the animals, I tossed a bunch out in the unused summer garden area. They sprouted and really took off -- I've been "mowing" a small patch with a pair of scissors daily and feeding it to the rabbits. At first it was just long grass, now it's starting to form hollow stems. I wonder if it will form heads of grain! Granted, it's a WHOLE lot easier to pay $13 for a 50 lb bag of oats than to grow it yourself...

-Wendy

 

[hoodat]

There are two crops I grow especially for my rabbits that are highly productive and nutritious; red clover and broad leaf chicory. I can get greens off both for a very long time. They are both cut and come again crops. I also grow the giant French dandelions because they seem to be good for does when making milk. Green pea vines dry into top quality hay, as do bean vines. I don't feed much of the latter two green because they can cause diarhea if they get too much but as hay they are very good.