Does anyone raise rabbits to enhance their gardens?

[Tara Pendleton]

I'm very new here, and this is my first post.

Hello all,

 I'm not new to keeping wonderful gardens. Growing large amounts of food in a small amount of space.

 My success is the rabbits I keep. They feed my gardens with droppings and hay. The soil just gets so nice to dig into and grow. Earthworms thrive here as a result. Rock hard dirt turns to soft dirt without a tiller.

 I was wondering if anyone else does this to make their gardens grow?

 Since this is the best fertilizer in the world! Also a pet rabbit can be kept in most places. Unlike other livestock. They are quiet animals, and will be happy to eat any extra things you grow.

I'd be happy to share about how this works here.

 I raise critical endangered meat breeds. Silver Fox & American breeds of rabbit. Both are known as Heritage breeds and are on the ALBC  critical endangered  list.

The ones here, are purebred pedigreed show animals, and very much  loved. I'm interested in getting more 4-H & FFA kids started in saving these breeds. 

Also to share the wonderful relationship between raising rabbits and growing fruits and vegetables.

 So any interest in that please share your ideas.

Thank you

[Tara Pendleton]

Tara Pendleton said:

So very true. That is the best part. Rabbit droppings are known to be a cold manure. It will not burn plants. I think it's the best fertilizer in the world.

I can pile it on every plant. I find my leaves are bigger, greener, and same goes for size of blooms, and produce.
My plants also seem very disease resistant with such healthy looks.

The plants are a rich deep green color. It is best to spread it out with a thin layer. Too much and it gets too rich. Meaning it could attract flies if the pile is too deep-like any other manure pile. I tend to pile 1-3 " mix with hay.

A little bit goes a long way.
I even wash my trays out on my lawn. Which is lush & green.

What also happens with the droppings, is soil conditioning. The droppings attract earthworms who till the soil. The earthworms eat the dropping and create earth worm castings as a by product. Soon worm beds appear. No need to even make a worm bed box. Just feed rabbit droppings. By putting a layer over the garden soil.
I also add coffee grounds to areas rich with earth worms. Since they also love coffee grounds. They stay put, multiply like mad and as long as there is food. Do not wander from the gardens. The earthworms make the droppings disappear into the earth. I seem to add more every few months. The soil gets dark in color and very rich to grow in. My hard dirt is like beach sand now to dig into.

I believe a rabbit is the gardener's best friend.

Where one choses to get one is up to them; and the area they live in.
One could buy purebreds from a show breeder or make a simple adoption at a shelter. If you get a rabbit make sure it is safe from trouble like heat, cold drafts, and any kind of critter who may harm it. They are very easy to keep. Also they have more personality than most people realize until one comes to live with them.

Look for ones with out going personalities. Shy in the corner types sometimes stay that way for life.
Then again I have a Holland Lop rescue who took 3 months to say hello to me. This buck was scared of his own shadow.
He now snuggles, and greets me at the door. It took a lot of love. He was going to be food and he knew it.
He was just to pretty to see him go off to be food. So I got him before the breeder sent him to become a feeder.
I wanted him as soon as I saw him. Little did I know he was going to be food until I asked if he was for sale. He was given to me for free. Since I was willing to give him a good life.
I can't breed him since he has no pedigree. Also his color would make a genetic mess of the other Hollands I keep.
I'd get strange and unwanted colors mixing in with my other show rabbits.
So he is a show- pet. More pet than anything.
I show him, and he does very well in competition. He is a beautiful Chinchilla color.
So any rabbit can be gentled with time and love.
As this story turned out.
Rachel said:

The great thing about rabbit manure is it can go straight onto the soil around the plants and not burn them.

[Tara Pendleton]

Tara Pendleton said:

Tara Pendleton said:

So very true. That is the best part. Rabbit droppings are known to be a cold manure. It will not burn plants. I think it's the best fertilizer in the world.

I can pile it on every plant. I find my leaves are bigger, greener, and same goes for size of blooms, and produce.
My plants also seem very disease resistant with such healthy looks.

The plants are a rich deep green color. It is best to spread it out with a thin layer. Too much and it gets too rich. Meaning it could attract flies if the pile is too deep-like any other manure pile.
I tend to pile 1-3 inch mix with the hay.

A little bit goes a long way.
I even wash my trays out on my lawn. Which is lush & green.

What also happens with the droppings, is soil conditioning. The droppings attract earthworms who till the soil. The earthworms eat the dropping and create earth worm castings as a by product. Soon worm beds appear. No need to even make a worm bed box. Just feed rabbit droppings. By putting a layer over the garden soil.
I also add coffee grounds to areas rich with earth worms. Since they also love coffee grounds. They stay put, multiply like mad and as long as there is food. Do not wander from the gardens. The earthworms make the droppings disappear into the earth. I seem to add more every few months. The soil gets dark in color and very rich to grow in. My hard dirt is like beach sand now to dig into.

I believe a rabbit is the gardener's best friend.

Where one choses to get one is up to them; and the area they live in.
One could buy purebreds from a show breeder or make a simple adoption at a shelter. If you get a rabbit make sure it is safe from trouble like heat, cold drafts, and any kind of critter who may harm it. They are very easy to keep. Also they have more personality than most people realize until one comes to live with them.

Look for ones with out going personalities. Shy in the corner types sometimes stay that way for life.
Then again I have a Holland Lop rescue who took 3 months to say hello to me. This buck was scared of his own shadow.
He now snuggles, and greets me at the door. It took a lot of love. He was going to be food and he knew it.
He was just to pretty to see him go off to be food. So I got him before the breeder sent him to become a feeder.
I wanted him as soon as I saw him. Little did I know he was going to be food until I asked if he was for sale. He was given to me for free. Since I was willing to give him a good life.
I can't breed him since he has no pedigree. Also his color would make a genetic mess of the other Hollands I keep.
I'd get strange and unwanted colors mixing in with my other show rabbits.
So he is a show- pet. More pet than anything.
I show him, and he does very well in competition. He is a beautiful Chinchilla color.
So any rabbit can be gentled with time and love.
As this story turned out.
Rachel said:

The great thing about rabbit manure is it can go straight onto the soil around the plants and not burn them.

[Tara Pendleton]

My reply must have had the hiccups. I see it 3 times. Must be a newbie mistake. Sorry about that. I'm still learning here. Such as my next lesson is how to put photos up. I hope to get it right, to share photos of my gardens and a few bunnies too.
☼

[Tara Pendleton]

I just love angoras. I once had some English Angoras. Do you spin your wool. I think those drop spindles are neat.
I never had the chance to try one or any kind of spinning for that matter. I'd give the wool away to those who did spin. I could see having another Angora in my life. They have such nice personalities.

I'm more of a veggie eater than anything else. So I keep my rabbits as show livestock and love them like pets. Even the meat breeds I keep. I have never eaten any of my rabbits. They feed me by fertilizing my gardens.

I've bought that bat guano at the nursery before. I think rabbit droppings are better. At least that was the story with my garden out come.
☼

Viggie's Veggies said:

I'm vegetarian so I went with angora rabbits. That way they are still doing double duty, providing me with fiber to learn to spin and pooping up a storm. I read that only bat guano is a better dropping to use as fertililzer, but I'm not ready to install a bat cave...so rabbits it is lol

[Jan Martinez]

I happened to adopt a few rabbits because a college kid could no longer care for them, as a result my garden thrives and I get some awesome bunny snuggles every day!! <3

[Tara Pendleton]

That is so neat. A old antique spinning wheel. Classic. Please share how it turns out for you in working with the wool. What a neat winter project. Have fun with it. ☼

Viggie's Veggies said:

Learning to spin is one of my winter projects. I found a nice old antique spinning wheel earlier this summer to learn on :)


Tara Pendleton said:

I just love angoras. I once had some English Angoras. Do you spin your wool. I think those drop spindles are neat.
I never had the chance to try one or any kind of spinning for that matter. I'd give the wool away to those who did spin. I could see having another Angora in my life. They have such nice personalities.

I'm more of a veggie eater than anything else. So I keep my rabbits as show livestock and love them like pets. Even the meat breeds I keep. I have never eaten any of my rabbits. They feed me by fertilizing my gardens.

I've bought that bat guano at the nursery before. I think rabbit droppings are better. At least that was the story with my garden out come.
☼

Viggie's Veggies said:

I'm vegetarian so I went with angora rabbits. That way they are still doing double duty, providing me with fiber to learn to spin and pooping up a storm. I read that only bat guano is a better dropping to use as fertililzer, but I'm not ready to install a bat cave...so rabbits it is lol

[rachel whetzel]

This is so funny!! I just got some "used" rabbits for this very reason!! I have a garden spot that I'm sure didn't thrive because the soil isn't at it's best. I plan to get that soil rockin' and rollin' with that rabbit poo!! Have you read this thread? http://www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/what-skills-would-you-want-to I think it would be a GREAT idea for you to share your rabbit knowledge there!

[Tara Pendleton]

It would be nice to see gardening and raising livestock-such as rabbits be shared in how they both can, and will complement each other. My gardens thrive thanks to rabbit keeping. My rabbit keeping thrives thanks to the gardens. How sweet is that in reality? I sure like it. As far as skills go into the 101 discussions- that will be up to someone other than me, to guide this idea. I too love that topic line. I'm also open to learn about things not related to rabbit keeping as well.
☼


rachel whetzel said:

This is so funny!! I just got some "used" rabbits for this very reason!! I have a garden spot that I'm sure didn't thrive because the soil isn't at it's best. I plan to get that soil rockin' and rollin' with that rabbit poo!! Have you read this thread? http://www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/what-skills-would-you-want-to I think it would be a GREAT idea for you to share your rabbit knowledge there!

[Jan Martinez]

Tara,
How sweet of you to serve many angles ~ Grow your garden and help to save an endangered species!
Great idea! I'm going to try to find those endangered breeds. I had no idea any of them were on the endangered species list!
I love my little bunnies, They are so sweet and require almost no maintenance, Feed water, clean their area, so simple and they are so loving! And they also make my garden thrive!

[rachel whetzel]

I know that my chickens are LOVING the spent hay from the rabbits!! I have my rabbits bedded in hay, so when it gets soiled, I will just throw hay and poo altogether into the garden. At the moment, I don't have anything planted in the garden, and I have been letting the chickens in. They have been spreading the rabbit mulch all OVER and keeping the bugs down too! It's so cool to see things working together like this. Here's the girls and my new rabbits on the rabbits first day.

Tara Pendleton said:

It would be nice to see gardening and raising livestock-such as rabbits be shared in how they both can, and will complement each other. My gardens thrive thanks to rabbit keeping. My rabbit keeping thrives thanks to the gardens. How sweet is that in reality? I sure like it. As far as skills go into the 101 discussions- that will be up to someone other than me, to guide this idea. I too love that topic line. I'm also open to learn about things not related to rabbit keeping as well.
☼


rachel whetzel said:

This is so funny!! I just got some "used" rabbits for this very reason!! I have a garden spot that I'm sure didn't thrive because the soil isn't at it's best. I plan to get that soil rockin' and rollin' with that rabbit poo!! Have you read this thread? http://www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/what-skills-would-you-want-to I think it would be a GREAT idea for you to share your rabbit knowledge there!

[rachel whetzel]

Tara Pendleton said:

As far as skills go into the 101 discussions- that will be up to someone other than me, to guide this idea.

You don't have to be an expert to post there! It's really just compiling link lists and things like that with good resources for people to have all in one place.

[Tara Pendleton]

I love the photo. Thank you for sharing. ☼

rachel whetzel said:

I know that my chickens are LOVING the spent hay from the rabbits!! I have my rabbits bedded in hay, so when it gets soiled, I will just throw hay and poo altogether into the garden. At the moment, I don't have anything planted in the garden, and I have been letting the chickens in. They have been spreading the rabbit mulch all OVER and keeping the bugs down too! It's so cool to see things working together like this. Here's the girls and my new rabbits on the rabbits first day.

Tara Pendleton said:

It would be nice to see gardening and raising livestock-such as rabbits be shared in how they both can, and will complement each other. My gardens thrive thanks to rabbit keeping. My rabbit keeping thrives thanks to the gardens. How sweet is that in reality? I sure like it. As far as skills go into the 101 discussions- that will be up to someone other than me, to guide this idea. I too love that topic line. I'm also open to learn about things not related to rabbit keeping as well.
☼


rachel whetzel said:

This is so funny!! I just got some "used" rabbits for this very reason!! I have a garden spot that I'm sure didn't thrive because the soil isn't at it's best. I plan to get that soil rockin' and rollin' with that rabbit poo!! Have you read this thread? http://www.homegrown.org/forum/topics/what-skills-would-you-want-to I think it would be a GREAT idea for you to share your rabbit knowledge there!