Feeding compost

[U_Stormcrow]

I'll update as I learn, but since we really don't get winter here, I don't know how valuable it will be. Right now, I have a 5 gallon bucket connected by 1/2" garden waterer tubing to spouts which fill a trough (birds in the grow out run), and a large tub butter container for each of the three rabbits - total of four fill spouts. I open the spigot, and wait till it drains. Fills each of the containers from the bottom up (overflows some, obviously - by design). Close the spigot, refill, repeat as needed.

I need to restrict the flow to the trough some to divert more to the rabbit's "bowls", but the system works - it could work better.

 

[gtaus]

Have you considered a goat instead??? Smaller, less costly to feed, their manure isn't as "hot", and can be used more rapidly.

Yep, tried to trick Dear Wife into by asking her, "Would you rather we have a cow, a horse, or a goat?" She responded, "None."

Oh well, she likes the chickens at least.

 

[gtaus]

I think you wife should let you get 2 ponies lol. Or maybe 2 friends with ponies

I have been trying to find someone with cows or horses that would let me scoop up some manure. But none of our friends have livestock.

 

[gtaus]

So I'm curious what you tried for water (so I know what not to try or recommend in future.)

I had water dishes for them in the winter, and I gave them fresh water twice a day, but evidently it was not enough. I think if I would have had a better shelter for them, they would have done better. Anyway, I had all California meat rabbits and they could not make it through our winter in their outside enclosure.

When I was a young boy, I had over 100 rabbits but they were housed in a small barn. The barn was not heated, but just being closed from the elements was enough to keep the water from freezing long enough for them to drink what they needed. I never lost a rabbit due to the cold in that barn.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

As long as they have shelter/windbreak (a hutch not just a wire cage), the heat is actually far more likely to kill a rabbit than the cold.

 

[Pickensandchigs]

I had rabbits free ranging for 6 months, reproducing and finding their own food.. If I was out in the yard working they'd gather around me. We lived in this paradise until a fox came and ended that big time.. I wish knew how to replicate that without the predator problem.. That was truly free food. They didnt even put a dent in my pasture. I couldve grown 500 of em easy, if it wasnt for that damned fox.

 

[gtaus]

As long as they have shelter/windbreak (a hutch not just a wire cage), the heat is actually far more likely to kill a rabbit than the cold.

I agree. Like I said, until I have a proper shelter for the rabbits, I will not be getting any more because my rabbit cages are all wire - no hutches.