rabbit pellets.

[DogDiesel]

Anyone have rabbits for meat and use the rabbit pellets for their garden. I wouldn't mind hearing about the rabbits in general. If its worth the hassle. or not.

Diesel.

[Pat]

"DogDiesel" wrote

No meat rabbits but do have a housebun and all her wet litter and droppings go into the kitchen compost bin.

[songbird]

i've read that rabbit pellets make excellent worm food. :) often building the worm compost bin right under the rabbit hutches and thus getting a quituple crop from one input (rabbit meat, rabbit poo, worms, worm poo, and veggies).

i have no experience with raising rabbits and the only indirect experience was that they like to chew on electrical cords.

songbird

[Steve Peek]

Rabbits are great for protein production. One buck and 2-3 does can produce over 200 pounds of very low fat protein per year.

Rabbits are normally raised on hardware cloth floored cages that are set up well off the ground. The urine and feces fall through onto the ground. The manure is quite "hot" and will easily burn plants. It should be composted before use.

New Zealand and California are two well thought of meat breeds. They have fairly large litters and are generally good mothers. The young are usually fryer size by 6-8 weeks and mom is ready to breed again. Young does are ready to breed at about 3 months and produce a litter in 28 days, thus the term, "breeding like rabbits".

Rabbits definitely have a place on the subsistence farm or just for a variation of protein. I can butcher 3 rabbits in the time it takes me to butcher 1 chicken.

[Billy]

Doesn't sound like a good career move ;O)

Rabbit manure N-P-K: 2.4 - 1.4 - .60

[songbird]

Billy wrote: ...

one thing mentioned which i have not personally verified is that their poo is alkaline instead of acidic (i don't think many critters poo alkaline).

songbird

[Ross]

We raised rabbits commercially for many years and that statement is contrary to anything we ever read in related literature. Rabbit manure is one of the few "cold" manures, does not have to be composted first and can be applied directly to your garden. We have a large garden and all our rabbit droppings were applied to it, right from the barn. I wish we still had a regular supply. The following is excerpted from a document entitled Raising Rabbits by Washington State University:

Rabbit manure is a valuable fertilizer sought by many horticulturists. Generally speaking it is not considered to be a ?hot? manure and may be used freely.

Ross.

[DogDiesel]

I agree, you can put it on straight. Its a well known fact.

Diesel.

[Steve Peek]

Now this is odd. The only time I ever used rabbit droppings straight from the hutch was many years ago on tomatoes. The plants went yellow and died within 2 weeks. I have no knowledge of these university studies, only personal experience. Steve

[Pat]

"Steve Peek" wrote

Likely from some disease or deficiency rather than rabbit droppings.

[Billy]

[Steve Peek]

ergo the manure burned my plants!