Recent content by Rainey

I find many herbs quite easy to grow. Many don't require very rich soil or much water, but most need full sun. So it helps to have a good spot. Then I like to make it as easy as possible--like leaving some parsley to go to seed, then laying the plants down where I would like parsley next year. I...

Welcome to RT. You'll find lots of help about feeding rabbits without pellets in the natural feed forum. Everyone does it differently, depending partly on their goals and on what is readily available. We have been raising meat rabbits, just to feed ourselves--not commercially--for a few years...

I don't have a book to recommend, but I can tell you herbs we've fed to our rabbits (raised for meat). When I need to cut back herbs to keep them producing tender new leaves, we often feed the trimmings to our rabbits. We've given them parsley, borage, oregano, lemon balm, basil, and dill...

Welcome to RT. Glad you're finding helpful information. Our rabbits are in cages in an outbuilding, and we bring the nest box in to check the kits each day until their eyes open at about 10 days. They react to a hand the way they would to the doe, jumping up to the top of the nest looking for...

What grain(s) are you feeding? And are you feeding anything else besides hay and grain? What did you feed before and when did you start your transition? We switched our original trio (NZW does and a SF buck) from pellets to natural feed before we bred them so going forward we've kept rabbits to...

We put the nest box in on day 28. Have a doe that had her first 3 litters on the wire floor of her cage, more or less covered with hay and with fur pulled. Then last week she kindled for the 4th time and she actually had them in the nest box. Slow learner I guess. But otherwise she's a good...

RT was such a help when we started raising rabbits for meat back in 2014. We never got lectured about 'eating the cute little bunnies' and instead found information on many things we needed to know. We wanted to raise our rabbits without pellets and learned so much here about forage and growing...

We wean at 4-5 weeks. By then the kits are eating hay and willow and whatever other fresh forage is available at the time. They are also eating grain--wheat and oats--we don't feed pellets. We don't give our does the grains except when they're nursing a litter or in cold winter weather and have...

If you are ruling out greens, the earliest things we plant are peas and potatoes. And having a small space, it helps to think about succession planting. For example, we plant peas that we shell out in spring, then plant snow peas in the same bed in fall. There are ways to deal with slugs, but...

Everything does feel uncertain, almost unreal. But right now I'm grateful for all the resources we have here on this little farm. Yesterday we brought all the potatoes out from the root cellar and picked out 20 pounds for planting in a few weeks, set aside some that were good sized but not over...

I've heard both positives and warnings about comfrey. Our rabbits will sometimes eat a little of it when it first starts growing in spring, while the leaves are still small. Not a favorite though like the other herbs I've mentioned that we feed. We do use comfrey leaves when planting and hilling...

Not sure from the original post if you have space to grow herbs in the ground or if you will only be growing what you can in pots. I had an herb garden before we started raising rabbits. Because we don't feed pellets, we gather a lot of fresh forage through the growing season and trimmings from...

Yes, we dry the nettle for rabbits and chickens. Also, for what it's worth, we're in zone 4. When you are ready to forage you'll find lots of help in the natural feed forum. I think in years past I've posted there about the various things we find to feed here. I like the idea of looking at what...

Glad to see that Michaels4gardens has responded to your questions. I learned so much from him, even though what I feed is somewhat different because I've used what was growing wild as much as possible and then what I have experience growing. But the advice about offering a variety was very...

Welcome to RT. I also live with long winters and raise rabbits for meat for my family. We don't feed pellets, so having a variety of other feed matters for us. We feed willow year round, fresh spring and summer, and dried once the leaves are yellowing until new ones emerge. We cut willow soon...