Do any of you put the bunny berries directly in the garden soil or compost first? My 4 yr old daughter gets a bang out of the name bunny berries, and using "the berries as food for the dirt in the garden, and the dirt helps to grow carrots and corn for the rabbits" She quite willingly helps to haul the rabbit droppings to "feed the garden". Would anyone know if strawberries are safe with the berries being dumped around them ?(with lots of straw in the manure as well).I am guessing that some of my fellow rabbit growers will have a garden as well Thanks....Andrea & Kayli
I put bunny berries in my garden all the time. I put them around my plants and never have a problem with it.
Hi Andrea, We put the bunnie berries on the garden without any composting time and have had great results!!! --During the cold months we mix the berries with straw and lay it on top of the garden and then cover that area with black plastic--we cut slits into the plastic and let it sit until spring tilling time. I might add that the soil has also been worked by our chickens---we move the tractor over the garden and let them do the soil prep for us!!...On another point---my rose bushes thrive on bunny berries!!! Suzi
Of course I don't remember WHERE I read it, but have plenty of personal experience.. Bunny manure is the BEST of all manures. It will NOT burn plants and can be used diretly from bunny to plant/dirt.
By all means!!! Immediately and without question, lol - as a matter of fact, I just shovelled out an entire pen into the garden. In Idaho, we had a series of cages hung on the porch, with a worm bin under them.... My daughter decided one afternoon that the bunnies were too hot (it was about 98).... She literally hosed them all down. Miserable bunnies, drowned worms, and lots of moisture for all that urine and manure... Reason for the story? Well, though we lost one buck (from shock), we had the best garden I've ever grown... Dug holes and put it straight in, what we couldn't bury (it smelled HORRIBLE) we used as top-dressing. My neighbors were still picking and canning for about a month after we moved!! Heck... that was in 2002, and I think I might still have some left... Sue
I put mine directly on top of my raised beds, and just work it into the ground a little with a hoe. I worked it right in around my tomatoes last year, and I didn't think they were ever going to stop growing. Same with my yellow squash. I had 8 yellow squash plants, and they grew more squash than I thought would ever be possible.
SueD, how old was your daughter at the time she "watered down" the rabbits? I am tempted to hide the garden hose from my girl as well in case she thinks the bunnies get too warm! :haha: Thanks for the story, it had me in stitches except for the loss of your buck. Andrea
I too put the berries directly in the garden. In truth the spraying of hot rabbits is a practice of many during the really hot times of the year. I am not sure how well of course your daughter sprayed them. Just enough to wet down may be the difference of live rabbits and dead ones due to heat.
I use a pump up sprayer with a fine mist adjustment, my rabbits like the fine mist and come to it on those hot days. And the only thing I know of being better than strait bunny poo, is bunny poo worked over by earthworms.
I spread my in the fall and then till it in the spring my brother use to put it in a barrel and then make manure tea
Mine is mixed with sawdust but it goes straight into the garden or is used to fill large flower pots. Never composted. When I have time to plant a garden it always does wonderful.
I put bunny berries directly on my lonely rose bush and it went nuts this year! I also cover the garden with bunny berries through the fall and winter and till them under in the spring and had tomatoes hitting 6 ft tall before they fell over. And they gave me some massive sized tomatoes too! Posted from Homesteadingtoday.com App for Android
We used bunny berries on the garden for the first time two years ago, had the best garden we'd ever had.
We just shovel out from under the bunny hutches into the garden. Sometimes folks will buy a bucket or two of bunny berries for their gardens, too. Bunny berries are the only fertilizer we use and the garden does great! I'll put some more out there again tomorrow since it's time to replant.
Anyone know why something with such high NPK value can be put straight on the garden when something only half as high can not? It's the lack of salts. When we raised rabbits for market, we'd dig trenches several feet deep for the manure disposal. After covering with a few inches of soil, first year's crop would be bush snap beans. Monster plants! Martin
Martin, you are so full of incredibly clever ideas! We've had a little trouble with beans the past couple of years, but now I have a game plan to fix that situation. Thanks!
Anything that loves nitrogen will love rabbit manure. On average, it has 2.6% as versus 0.6 for cow manure. Cow manure is "hot" since it may contain up to 10% salts whereas rabbit manure has very little. Martin
Fertilizer was one of the reasons I first got into rabbits I too shovel it with their bedding into the garden all year long....piling it between rows during summer and dumping it on the snow in winter.
