EVERY HOMESTEAD NEEDS RABBITS

Whether you plan to breed them, eat them, or keep them as pets every homestead needs rabbits. They are extremely easy to care for and can provide homesteads big and small alike with many benefits. Even if you only have a small backyard garden you can benefit from having rabbits.

 

WHY EVERY HOMESTEAD NEEDS RABBITS

Ok, so why do I think every homestead  needs rabbits? It all comes down to rabbit poop. A pair of rabbits provides several buckets worth of manure and spent bedding each week and you’ll never need to buy fertilizer again. Unlike most live stock manure that needs to age for 6 months to a year, rabbit manure can go straight into your garden. You can use it to layer a lasagna garden or to top off your garden as mulch or both. Anyway you use it, it makes excellent fertilizer, providing you garden with all the nutrients your plants need.

Here’s what our lasagna garden looked like step by step. We first put down a layer of cardboard and then we added the rabbit bedding and manure.

Then we topped the garden beds with soil and the walkways with mulch.

Later in the growing season we’ll add more bedding and manure to the base of our plants in place of fertilizer.

If you don’t need to add it directly to you garden at any given time then simply chuck it in your compost. In 6 months you’ll have a lovely rich soil for your garden. In fact, if you have a large enough compost set up you’ll never need to buy soil again either!

Another reason every homestead needs rabbits is they are very cuddly and sweet. They can bring lots of joy to your homestead. My kids love playing with and taking care of our rabbits. They are a great entry level live stock animal for kids to learn on.

 

CARING FOR RABBITS

With all the benefits rabbits and their poop provides you might be wondering if the benefits out weigh the costs.

In word yes! The benefits do out weigh the cost. They are very low maintenance and easy animals to care for. I spend about an hour a week cleaning their cages and putting down fresh bedding. We use grass and other materials from our property so bedding costs us nothing. My kids a little bit of time each day playing with and helping caring for them. So on a day to day bases, they require very little of my time.

Feeding them also costs very little. A 50lb bale of timothy hay lasts our 4 rabbits about 6 weeks. You can also grow timothy hay in pots or on a small plot of land. It’s perennial grass that will grow forever providing a never ending supply of food that will cost you next to nothing to supply. You can also supplement their feed with a few veggie scraps every day. Depending on who you ask hay should make up 80-90% of their diet. We aim for 80% hay and 20% veggie scraps.

Now that we are harvesting our own timothy hay feeding them only costs about $2 a month. When we were buying hay we spent about $20 a month to feed 4 rabbits. With the rising cost of fertilizer, compost, and garden soil, they more than pay for themselves.

Lastly, they don’t require a lot of space. A pair rabbits can do quite well in a medium sized dog kennel. You also don’t need a barn or any other type of enclosure. All they need is for their cage to be off ground a few feet and they can be outside year round. They will need extra bedding in the colder months but they will keep themselves plenty warm.

Now that you know how awesome rabbits are it’s time to add a pair to your homestead or backyard garden.