July Hatch-a-Long (including 4th of July hatch-a-long)

[chickiebaby1]

Had to toss an ozzy, smelly egg yesterday! Hopefully it doesn’t affect the rest of the eggs in the bator! Cleaned up what I could. It didn’t explode thank goodness! But man the smell was awful!

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I’m not sure where you got this, but I found this

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/bunny_honey_using_rabbit_manure_as_a_fertilizer

I did a generic NPK search and forget what university/ag extension published the chart.

When I farmed and composted for a living I generally followed guidelines put out by UCDavis, Cornell, OH State, ATTRA, and other agriculture and ag science institutes. And again...I did not work with rabbits directly, but their manures and the values of were all part of my classes and research. I'm sure on a small scale it's probably fine to use and adds organic matter to the soil....much like goat, alpaca, sheep, and goat pellets, which is always a good thing. But any manure will enrich the soil better if it's composted or at least partially
composted. And time will also break down any chemicals in the manures such as dewormers.

For example...if one were to give an ivermectin based dewormer to animal X, then that animal's manure would be potent enough to kill earthworms in the garden if applied fresh and not aged appropriately. Generally ivermectins only need about 90 days to age in order
to be considered safe but other dewormers need longer times.

Can't tell you how many times I've heard from newer gardeners about responding to a local add for free manure. They go get it, take it home and spread it on the garden, and it burns or kills the plants and also it kills the earthworms and microbials in the soils because of whatever the animals were eating or being treated for. They are devastated and have to start all over.
YMMV.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Nice reference! Thanks for sharing!

Yes!! Got rhubarb and hops and plum and honeycrisp apple trees that way recently. Got a kind of eclectic mix of permaculture going, but it's been fun.

For sure!

Yay for permaculture!!
My last farm was a more typical layout with 2 veggie gardens, a small orchard, and the brambles along the tree lines in unusable areas for pastures or hay. When I started it I didn't know what permaculture was.
Here I'm limited both with less acres and because of topography. Plus I'm on a red clay ridge so have to garden more creatively and have been able to incorporate more permaculture techiniques. Still a work in progress though.

I have a book that lists rabbit manure as hot, but everything else I've read or watched anywhere & everyone else I've spoken to have said that rabbit manure is one of the few manures that can be applied directly to the garden and raved about how well it worked for them. I just figured the writer of that book was mistaken. (I can't remember which book I read it in, though. )

I have the same book! Dozens of books actually. I'm kinda nerdy like that. But my books all say the same about rabbit manure. Hot, and list it fairly high on the charts.

I have to wonder if an explosion of N in the soils ends up binding up other nutrients later on
in the soils and what the longer term impact is on healthy garden soil.

When I went out to put chickens in for the night I found 2 more big bull snakes in the chickens night run. I tried to kill one of them, but my blade on my hoe was not sharp enough. They both slithered right through the chicken wire and hid under my FIL's trailer that he keeps his old model A in...so I am sure they will be back. I thought it was odd that they were hiding in the night pen....and sure enough we get a huge wind storm about 20 minutes later. It has blown the trampoline over (each of the 6 U shaped legs had 3 cinder blocks tied to it). I am sure we had gusts above 70 mph. I guess we will get to go see what other damage we have in the morning. (I'm sure it wasn't good on the crops either).

I hope everything is ok this morning!

 

[FortCluck]

I did a generic NPK search and forget what university/ag extension published the chart.

When I farmed and composted for a living I generally followed guidelines put out by UCDavis, Cornell, OH State, ATTRA, and other agriculture and ag science institutes. And again...I did not work with rabbits directly, but their manures and the values of were all part of my classes and research. I'm sure on a small scale it's probably fine to use and adds organic matter to the soil....much like goat, alpaca, sheep, and goat pellets, which is always a good thing. But any manure will enrich the soil better if it's composted or at least partially
composted. And time will also break down any chemicals in the manures such as dewormers.

For example...if one were to give an ivermectin based dewormer to animal X, then that animal's manure would be potent enough to kill earthworms in the garden if applied fresh and not aged appropriately. Generally ivermectins only need about 90 days to age in order
to be considered safe but other dewormers need longer times.

Can't tell you how many times I've heard from newer gardeners about responding to a local add for free manure. They go get it, take it home and spread it on the garden, and it burns or kills the plants and also it kills the earthworms and microbials in the soils because of whatever the animals were eating or being treated for. They are devastated and have to start all over.
YMMV.

I have spoken with several gardeners in our area that sell at the local farmers market... The 3 that I spoke with told me that rabbit manure will not burn plants and it is like liquid gold (all of them own rabbits for this purpose). They said to mix it in the soil. I do not worm my rabbits or chickens unless it needs to be done, I do not believe in a worming schedule (I am one of those people). I guess everyone has their own way of doing things. I do know that the tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers absolutely loved the rabbit manure. My Gypsy peppers and Cubanella peppers loved it as well. I think my yellow pepper plant is just a dud and will not survive because it wasn't going to thrive no matter what.

My chicken poop and shavings go into the big compost pile for next year. We will not be adding it until next spring when it has gone through the whole cycle. I add rabbit manure into it now because I do not want to add more than what I have already added.

Soon I will have quail droppings to add to it because we will have 60+ of those little buggers starting on Sunday.

Our garden has lots of earthworms right now. Every time I go to loosen the soil, I get a few in my hand. I cannot wait until I can actually have a huge garden that is bigger than my chicken run (10,000 sq ft). That is something I want to do in the next few years because I eat plant based so it only makes sense to grow my own.

 

[Hucklekree]

Got my first pip on the Bielefelder eggs this morning! They are due to hatch tomorrow. Some peeping beginning too .

 

[FortCluck]

Yay for permaculture!!
My last farm was a more typical layout with 2 veggie gardens, a small orchard, and the brambles along the tree lines in unusable areas for pastures or hay. When I started it I didn't know what permaculture was.
Here I'm limited both with less acres and because of topography. Plus I'm on a red clay ridge so have to garden more creatively and have been able to incorporate more permaculture techiniques. Still a work in progress though.

I have the same book! Dozens of books actually. I'm kinda nerdy like that. But my books all say the same about rabbit manure. Hot, and list it fairly high on the charts.

I have to wonder if an explosion of N in the soils ends up binding up other nutrients later on
in the soils and what the longer term impact is on healthy garden soil.

I hope everything is ok this morning!

I am wondering why everywhere is saying that it is a cold or cool manure. Around here everyone uses it directly on their gardens and no one has had complaints about it. The person who I have been following with gardening brings it back to way back when and uses methods that prevent weeds and you never have to till the area. He actually recommends not tilling. He has been doing his method for 30+ years and I like his way of layering the earth to create rich soil no matter what you are dealing with even clay. It has worked for us even in our above ground beds.

 

[AgnesGray]

I did a generic NPK search and forget what university/ag extension published the chart.

When I farmed and composted for a living I generally followed guidelines put out by UCDavis, Cornell, OH State, ATTRA, and other agriculture and ag science institutes. And again...I did not work with rabbits directly, but their manures and the values of were all part of my classes and research. I'm sure on a small scale it's probably fine to use and adds organic matter to the soil....much like goat, alpaca, sheep, and goat pellets, which is always a good thing. But any manure will enrich the soil better if it's composted or at least partially
composted. And time will also break down any chemicals in the manures such as dewormers.

For example...if one were to give an ivermectin based dewormer to animal X, then that animal's manure would be potent enough to kill earthworms in the garden if applied fresh and not aged appropriately. Generally ivermectins only need about 90 days to age in order
to be considered safe but other dewormers need longer times.

Can't tell you how many times I've heard from newer gardeners about responding to a local add for free manure. They go get it, take it home and spread it on the garden, and it burns or kills the plants and also it kills the earthworms and microbials in the soils because of whatever the animals were eating or being treated for. They are devastated and have to start all over.
YMMV.

Wow, I'm glad to know this. A little aging never hurt anything anyway with how there tends to be an over abundance of manure. Haha! Thanks for sharing!

Yay for permaculture!!
My last farm was a more typical layout with 2 veggie gardens, a small orchard, and the brambles along the tree lines in unusable areas for pastures or hay. When I started it I didn't know what permaculture was.
Here I'm limited both with less acres and because of topography. Plus I'm on a red clay ridge so have to garden more creatively and have been able to incorporate more permaculture techiniques. Still a work in progress though.

That would be challenging! Awesome though! What are you growing there?

 

[hysop]

The two eggs I thought were dead so I cracked open the air cell side of the egg died.
The membrane dried out so much that it hardened. One chick still had a while to go. He didn’t even have legs formed except the bone part not the skin or toes.
The other one had a few days to go too but that one did have legs already and was a bit larger.
I will never again do a mixed batch without writing dates on the eggs.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I am wondering why everywhere is saying that it is a cold or cool manure. Around here everyone uses it directly on their gardens and no one has had complaints about it. The person who I have been following with gardening brings it back to way back when and uses methods that prevent weeds and you never have to till the area. He actually recommends not tilling. He has been doing his method for 30+ years and I like his way of layering the earth to create rich soil no matter what you are dealing with even clay. It has worked for us even in our above ground beds.

It is called cool because it won't heat up a pile to hot and steamy on it's own like chicken manure does and/or for the nitrogen levels.

There are also hot and cold methods to composting and most manures can be composted by either method depending on your carbon to nitrogen ratio. I've been a no-till gardener using layered methods, raised beds, square foot gardening, and cold composting in place for .....I can't even remember how many years.

 

[FortCluck]

It is called cool because it won't heat up a pile to hot and steamy on it's own like chicken manure does and/or for the nitrogen levels.

There are also hot and cold methods to composting and most manures can be composted by either method depending on your carbon to nitrogen ratio. I've been a no-till gardener using layered methods, raised beds, square foot gardening, and cold composting in place for .....I can't even remember how many years.

Thought it was called cool because it doesn’t burn plants. Most gardeners here say cool not as a composting method. Like chicken manure is hot and will burn plants... no idea lol. I just do what I do and it’s working.

I almost pulled my yellow pepper plant until I realized it’s actually growing peppers!!!! So the rabbit poop worked!