forage feeding during drought

We had a plan this year, figured out a breeding schedule to take advantage of the early spring growth of many good rabbit foods. All but one breeding was successful and we had 6 litters born from March 8 to May 24. The early spring stayed cold so growth was slow to start and then it's been dry all spring and summer, worst in May and now July. Still it's gone pretty well--amazing how well weeds grow even in sub-ideal conditions and how many weeds are great rabbit food.
Also we've been growing more in the garden for rabbits--thanks to M4g for some great advice. The rabbits like the dino kale and it's growing well. We tried sugar beets this year and none of them germinated so that was a complete bust. Don't know if it was the dry conditions or if we didn't get good seed (bought some on ebay since our usual seed company didn't carry it). We also planted some forage chicory in a garden bed and have been cutting it regularly so it doesn't flower--all the wild chicory is flowering now and once it does, it's mostly stem and leaves. We've just started feeding some turnip roots as well as the tops and from here on there will be some roots from the garden for feeding.
I've been disappointed in the J-chokes. We'd been trying to get rid of them without success until we got the rabbits in 2014. Then we started feeding the above ground parts. Also tried digging up some of the roots and planting them in another place to expand the amount. Funny how hard it can be to eradicate some plants and then once you want them for feed how difficult it is to increase them. Hope eventually to have enough to feed the tops and to feed the roots some too. Grateful for all our willows--because they grow in the wet areas, they seem to cope better with the drought and the rabbits really like them--get some every day, even in winter when we feed what we dried in May.
Last week we bred Casco for a litter late in August and we'll breed Berwick in another week or so.
Early in the growing season, some folks were complaining about too much rain. I wondered if others are coping with drought now.

This drought is awful. Where we are it is supposedly the most severe drought since they started recording droughts in the 40s. :x
Thankfully we have municipal water, and a lake nearby, so we don't have to worry about a well running dry. Every day we water the driest parts of the garden, but have started focusing on the most important crops...the dry beans we have started to let go. I am really struggling with forage for the rabbits. We planted clover in the garden pathways for the rabbits, but that is mostly dead. A small area we are actually watering a little now, just so they have some greens. They have been getting mostly hay, since it is hard to find enough readily available greens. I need to go clip some more multiflora roses and apple suckers for them.
The wild creatures are becoming more of a problem in our garden, since food is drying up elsewhere.
We had planted Jerusalem artichokes last year, but they didn't come back this year. Our sugar beets are doing great though, but we won't start feeding them until winter.
One weed that is really thriving for some reason is purslane....and the rabbits love it so that is good!
Even my comfrey is doing poorly...
Despite reduced rations, the first batch of grow-outs grew satisfactorily... ~2 1/2 lb each dressed out at 14 weeks. They were nice and healthy too...beautiful insides and sleek furs.

We got a little over an inch of rain on Monday....the first significant rainfall since March! Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the end of the dryness...just a very brief respite.

I don't think this part of PA was hit as bad as some part of NY.
The springs in the hillside pretty much never dry up.
None of my beets sprouted either I think I may have planted them late.
My buns are getting some turnips and kale too, but they also still get comfrey, white clover, plantains, blackberry and raspberry canes, grasses, coltsfoot leaves (they grow in the dry parts of my herb bed), dandelion, hawkweed, ragweed, some other garden weeds (my purslane isn't as plentiful as I'd like), and tons of lemon balm. Oh yeah, and some of our extra summer squash or zucchini. Not all the buns will eat it, but some will.
Helps get rid of the stuff.

A few thoughts, just briefly:

- most weeds like chicory, Queen Anne's lace, dandlelions, sowthistle and prickly lettuce (Latin names are in the Safe Plants List) can be cut to the ground when they start to get too stringy and they will regrow nice young palatable leaves. Weeds are tough--they routinely survive decapitation with the lawn mower, after all.

- in addition to willow, poplar and elm species are great for the rabbits. In a drought, trees often fare better than weeds.

- sunflower foliage is great for rabbits and can be cut several times and allowed to regrow. A few handfuls of BOSS casually planted here and there yield lots of greens.

MaggieJ":1vl7jlro said:

- in addition to willow, poplar and elm species are great for the rabbits. In a drought, trees often fare better than weeds.

- sunflower foliage is great for rabbits and can be cut several times and allowed to regrow. A few handfuls of BOSS casually planted here and there yield lots of greens.

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I didn't realize poplar is good for rabbits...we have a lot of large poplar trees!
My husband planted a huge amount of sunflowers, but apparently deer like the young shoots a lot. :evil:

Bikegurl, I think the drought is worse further west--we're just a few miles in from the east end of Lake Ontario. But we only got a quarter inch Monday. We're on a well but we've been running drip irrigation in the vegetable garden for months now.
Zass, we're still feeding grass, brambles, ragweed, etc. It's just getting harder to find stuff that isn't drying up. Even the weeds in the garden are fresher/greener We have purslane but it grows so low and is so dirty when I pull it up that I usually put it in the bucket for the chickens instead of the one for rabbits. I've got lots of lemon balm that has blossomed and is going to seed, needs to be cut back. Guess that could go in the rabbit buckets.
Maggie, we usually count on those weeds growing back after cutting, but they don't grow very fast or very big when it is so dry.

Our litters have grown out well in spite of the challenges of the season and 2 more litters should be ready for freezer camp next week. Then we'll have one more that should be ready to go shortly before we start with a new litter at the end of August.

Maggie, we usually count on those weeds growing back after cutting, but they don't grow very fast or very big when it is so dry.

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You're right about that, Rainey.

One of the best things we did was to plant a plot of red clover, timothy and alfalfa on the previous owner's vegetable garden plot. It looked worn out to me and we thought it would improve the soil. When we got the rabbits a couple years later, we had a dependable source of forage at our fingertips. Very handy when other things were scanty, although i was careful to give them a variety of plants.

We're just about directly across the Lake from Rochester, so if you're near the east end of Lake Ontario, I would think our flora should be quite similar to yours.

When you say cut back sunflower foliage do you mean as it sprouts, or the leaves off of the stalk? Might be a dumb question, but this is my first year with successful sunflowers and I don't want to mess them up (although at this point they are on their way out. We haven't had decent rain in a while either).

Some years we've fed sunflower trimmings but this year didn't take anything off because they were struggling to survive (not on the drip irrigation) and are only about half the height now that I'd expect at this time.

MaggieJ":389lo9al said:

...most weeds like chicory, Queen Anne's lace, dandlelions, sowthistle and prickly lettuce (Latin names are in the Safe Plants List) can be cut to the ground when they start to get too stringy and they will regrow nice young palatable leaves.

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I agree. I tried a test this past summer with the sow thistle I have growing in my yard. I let several plants get about 18" tall, then topped them. I just cut off the top half of the plant. Each plant responded with at least 4 new sprouts from where I cut them, giving me 4 times the new growth to harvest for my buns.

I also sow grain ... wheat in the fall for winter greens, oats and rye in the spring. You don't have to let them go to seed, simply pull the whole thing when you are done with them and feed roots, stalk and all to the buns.

My wheat grows where I plant corn, so some years I plant a couple of rows past that area to let go to seed for the next year.

Also, you can take the corn leaves that break over or come loose fro whatever reason and the buns looooooooove them!! Also, I stack and dry the stalks after the corn is harvested and feed them out over the winter and the buns are all doing the bunny blender when they hear me digging into the dried stalks

Mulberry leaves and stems are also a favorite of the buns here. Of course, the does runout pen is under a native elm tree and in the late summer branchlets are breaking off and falling into their pen and they definitely like that!

Mangol beets are a prolific weed around here and I will trim it for summer treats, but when the plant starts to go to seed in the late summer, I pull the whole thing and tie it by the roots to the side of the runout pen and within a few days the does have stripped it down to the pithy core that they won't eat.