Best way to collect POOP? Mesh?

[CanadianRabbit]

Curious if anyone collects their rabbit manure with mesh? 1/4" Mesh is what the user Truckinguy started with here: http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/4479581-post8.html

I'm wanting to find an easy way to collect the manure pellets so they can be slightly air/sun dried and then put into bags so I can give them to friends and try to sell some. (The mesh would also let the urine fall to the ground helping with the smell and the mesh would help keep the pellets clean from debris for when I bag them.)

I was thinking 1/4" wire mesh. But then I thought the kits manure may be small enough to fall through that when they are growing. Truckinguy mentioned on a previous post that hair clogged the 1/4" Mesh.

Any insights or ideas???

THANKS!

 

[Mickey328]

Hair or hay or straw can even clog larger mesh. I would just gather it in a bucket and spread it on the ground to let it dry and let the urine soak away. After a couple days, it'd be fine to bag up.

 

[akane]

Gardeners are not going to be so thrilled if you use hay or straw. Probably especially hay unless you get it from a certified weed free source. Even then products that aren't composted and have a lot of fiber or something else that takes microbes awhile to break down may mess with the nitrogen in the soil. That's why pure manure sources that aren't hot are so desirable. To have a good product you wouldn't want hay or straw anyway and then the mesh should work fine. I don't know why some people have so much hair build up. I've had rabbits that molted frequently in wire cages and the hair never built up. I also never had poop stick to the wire either. The large amount of hay I fed may be part of the reason and it made what I shoveled out of the building pretty useless as a marketable product without composting.

 

[ckcs]

If I remember correctly a board member (Grumpy or Fire-man) made catchers using window screen. If I remember right they were simple wooden frames with window screen stapled (I assume) on them.

 

[Miss M]

Yep, that was Grumpy. He's got a thread about it somewhere...

-- Sat Apr 12, 2014 11:45 pm --

Yep: rabbit-poop-t16550.html

 

[MamaSheepdog]

If I remember correctly a board member (Grumpy or Fire-man) made catchers using window screen. If I remember right they were simple wooden frames with window screen stapled (I assume) on them.

Fire-Man had the original idea, and used regular window screens that he picked up from someone.

The link to his post is below, but I warn you in advance- you will eyeball each and every old travel trailer you see in the future with the idea of replicating his "Meals-on-Wheels"!

meals-on-wheels-rabbitry-t12968.html

 

[Miss M]

I think Truckinguy's predated Fire-Man's, but he used 1/4" mesh.

 

[MaggieJ]

My rabbits have been in a colony for years, so separating the poop from the hay residue is impossible. I'm not looking to sell the manure anyway, since our garden can use all the buns produce. I use the manure laden hay as mulch on the vegetable garden, just as it is shoveled from the rabbitry. Works great as a combined mulch and fertilizer and I have never noticed a weed problem in the vegetable garden as a result. Quite the reverse: the thick mulch keeps the weeds down as it retains moisture.

 

[CanadianRabbit]

I've seen Fire-Man's meals on wheels before! Super cool!

Any thoughts on using 1/8" Mesh instead of 1/4" to take advantage of the smaller manure from kits as they grow?

1/8" has a much bigger chance of getting clogged.