My compost pile

We always make our own compost, we just make a pile of grass, leaves, straw, left over food scraps-but no meat or grease, and rabbit manure. We did have some chickens and we added the chicken manure, but we decided not to keep the chickens since the storm blew the chicken house away. We just pile it up and I turn the pile, (not as often as I should) but it all rots down to good compost in the end. I also have a 55 gal plastic barrel with a removable lid and I put the same thing in
it and roll it around to mix it, and when the temp outside is hot, the barrel gets really hot inside and it all breaks down really fast.


Here are the compost makers at our house:



The black one I turn lose in the yard sometimes, she doesn't go very far, she likes to hang out in the SFG, she only nibbled on some lettuce in one corner of the garden other than that she just likes to hang out there.


So I got to thinking, the rabbits are on one side of the yard, and the compost pile is on the other side of the yard, and I have to scoop up the rabbit manure and move it over to the compost pile, so I came up with this idea :idea:


I have plenty of room to turn the compost pile and the rabbits just deposit the manure in the compost pile for me!

Smart fella. Now if you could only get some school credits for that practical knowledge and application! Well Done!

+1

See how much you can accomplish without a girlfriend?!

Love it! Cute rabbits too. Are they just pets/compost makers, or are they being raised for their meat?

I love that setup Josh.

I have been thinking about getting rabbits for pet, fiber, and manure purposes.

I have a couple of questions. 1.) How do you provide winter cold/wind weather protection? 2.) How are they protected from coyotes and other predators?

What a great set-up Josh. You are always thinking and finding ways to improve your gardening efforts. Looks great to me.

Thanks!

We only keep them for pets and compost, we don't eat them.

mijejo wrote:I love that setup Josh.

I have been thinking about getting rabbits for pet, fiber, and manure purposes.

I
have a couple of questions. 1.) How do you provide winter cold/wind
weather protection? 2.) How are they protected from coyotes and other
predators?

There is a wooden box attached to the cage for them to go inside to get out of the cold, wind, rain. The cage was given to me and it is a homemade cage. I also have one I bought at the store, you can buy a rabbit house and put it inside the cage for them, or just make a wooden box for them. They do ok in cold weather with some shelter. The cage has a roof on it too. I put some straw in the box for them too.

The cage keeps the coyotes and other predators out, and when I let them lose in the yard I watch them while they are loose. Ours are really friendly and they don't run from you, they make a good pet.

Thanks Josh. I am thinking of one of the angora breeds. I love working with fiber and often purchase spun bunny pluckings. I think two rabbits would be the right number. Do you recommend male or female? Would you have them spayed or neutered? Is there a reason to not keep them together? If they were bought from the same litter, could they share a large hutch?

You could keep two females together or two males together, I think that the females get along together better than the males, but that's just my opinion.

When I got mine they were just little and they were suppose to be two males. Then one day I went out to feed them and in the black ones box was a bunch of fur, I took a closer look and there were 9 babies in there! My dad made a divider in the cage that day to keep them separated, then 30 days later I went to feed them and she had 9 more new babies! That was the last time they were together! We don't eat them, so I just sold all the babies.

I bet those angora ones will be nice to have for pets!

Now that you've moved the rabbits over a "more efficient" spot, I think you should be promoted to management.....and along with it the payCUT of being taken off hourly and put on salary. Seems like the typical reward for showing your brain works. /jaded opinion

danged ifin I wouldn't like some rabbits for the manure, folks used to raise them for sale when I was young...great manure source