Rabbit manure for growing mushrooms?

[Zass]

Anyone try this?

I'm always trying to produce as much food of my own as I can, but in a quite limited space.
Mushrooms are still something that I buy frequently. I haven't been able to bring myself to purchase one of those little boxed mushroom growing kits yet. The prices just seem awfully high for a cardboard box of spore ridden compost. :roll:

I've seen wild mushrooms in my compost pile a few times now.

So, does anyone have a method for using rabbit poo for growing domestic mushrooms?

 

[Sagebrush]

I have been using my rabbits poo for fertilizing everything here (dad loves the growth on his Wisteria) but I found HUGE mushrooms growing in it. I have been throwing them away, since I do not know if they are edible or not :shrug: I will try to get a pic of them to see if they are the same "kind" as what you are getting.

I think it would work out really well to grow the mushrooms. I might have to try it :lol:

 

[Zass]

One of the kinds I found was "edible with caution" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinopsis_atramentaria

I don't touch mushrooms unless I know them 100% inside and out though. My ID wasn't 100% enough to consider it.
The only wild ones currently I harvest are sulphur shelves http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetiporus

Growing ordinary button mushrooms would be good enough for me though. If no one else is currently using rabbit poo or rabbit poo worm castings for growing them, I might have to try it.

 

[Sagebrush]

Well I can truthfully say that I do not have either of those in my yard. Next time I see some coming up I will be sure to get photos of them.

 

[ckcs]

I get several types of mushrooms growing out of my rabbit compost piles. The piles are mainly pine pellet sawdust and rabbit poo. I throw some odds and ends in there too like old bread, fruit, leftovers and such.

 

[Yossi]

Im sure this would be very off topic , but i wouldn't mind a mushroom that would take me on a little spin here n there

 

[Zass]

Im sure this would be very off topic , but i wouldn't mind a mushroom that would take me on a little spin here n there

Nothing against your personal choices, but I wouldn't consider that topic very appropriate for this forum.
As many rabbit enthusiasts and RT members are underage or even the children of older members.

I was thinking purely in terms of culinary mushrooms!
Hopefully just one more way for rabbits to provide something that is both gourmet, and can save me on my grocery bills.

 

[akane]

I would think you would need to process it somehow like making a rich compost or worms going through it. Mold is a major risk of straight manure of any type and the nutrients are bound up some. Processed rabbit poo, possibly with some fine wood materials like the broken down pine pellets (free sawdust sources?), would probably grow mushrooms well. I don't know about button mushrooms but wild ground growing mushrooms like wood ash or composted wood in their growing medium. They will take over after a forest fire or in a forest that suffered major storm damage several years back so the downed wood has time to compost and be broken down by other fungi in to the dirt. I don't have a whole lot of mushroom experience though. My grandpa mostly just hunts morels and he's not so great at it. We're pretty sure he's nearly killed himself a few times.

 

[Zass]

I would think you would need to process it somehow like making a rich compost or worms going through it. Mold is a major risk of straight manure of any type and the nutrients are bound up some. Processed rabbit poo, possibly with some fine wood materials like the broken down pine pellets (free sawdust sources?), would probably grow mushrooms well. I don't know about button mushrooms but wild ground growing mushrooms like wood ash or composted wood in their growing medium. They will take over after a forest fire or in a forest that suffered major storm damage several years back so the downed wood has time to compost and be broken down by other fungi in to the dirt. I don't have a whole lot of mushroom experience though. My grandpa mostly just hunts morels and he's not so great at it. We're pretty sure he's nearly killed himself a few times.

I've read that good compost will grow button mushrooms.

As to running worms through it, no problems with that here. I've got buckets of worm casting compost, with pine pelleted bedding already a part of it.
I've read that mushrooms grown on pine may have toxins that differ from mushrooms grown on hardwood. It's possible it's something species specific.
I guess it's time to put some research into growing the things myself.

 

[skysthelimit]

Supposedly one of my rabbit raising friends is growing mushrooms in his basement from a kit. I need to ask if he's using his rabbit poo.

 

[Miss M]

Definitely don't take a chance with mushrooms. Get a kit or something where you know the mushrooms are safe. There are too many look-alike mushrooms out there. A Japanese grandmother, who had been collecting mushrooms her whole life, mistook some mushrooms a while back and sent her whole family to the hospital.

That said, I have thought about doing this myself. I love mushrooms.

 

[Zass]

Definitely don't take a chance with mushrooms. Get a kit or something where you know the mushrooms are safe. There are too many look-alike mushrooms out there. A Japanese grandmother, who had been collecting mushrooms her whole life, mistook some mushrooms a while back and sent her whole family to the hospital.

That said, I have thought about doing this myself. I love mushrooms.

This site has pretty simple instructions:
http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-Mushrooms-Indoors

It says to sterilize the compost with a microwave, but I bet I could get by with placing the composted rabbit manure in yard-sale baking pans and cooking it. Then use those pans as my growing trays and stack them on a shelf in my cold room.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I bet I could get by with placing the composted rabbit manure in yard-sale baking pans and cooking it.

My husband would kill me if I put rabbit poo in the oven, and my kids would probably never eat anything from there again. The house will smell mighty interesting afterwards too, I imagine. :x

Maybe you could get those disposable aluminum trays and cook it on the barbecue or over a firepit.

 

[MaggieJ]

I agree that an outdoor fire pit would be a better choice than the oven.

The weirdest thing I have ever put in an oven was some "red earth" that my sister and I found in Southern France. We processed it for the red ochre... shades of Clan of the Cave Bear. But compared to manure, it was clean.

 

[Zass]

I'm imagining some kind of bunny poo kiln now.
Getting compost sterile just seems so...ewww...
The spore plugs that go into hardwood logs are looking like a less fuss option.
I have LOTS of downed hardwood logs and branches I could work with, with no cooking of compost required!

 

[Miss M]

You can also put compost into black plastic bags, and lay them flat and thin on a surface that gets really hot -- full sun cement or asphalt. The compost will be cooked. I'd probably let it get several days' worth of sun.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I bet I could get by with placing the composted rabbit manure in yard-sale baking pans and cooking it.

My husband would kill me if I put rabbit poo in the oven, and my kids would probably never eat anything from there again. The house will smell mighty interesting afterwards too, I imagine. :x

Maybe you could get those disposable aluminum trays and cook it on the barbecue or over a firepit.

So would your BIL...I mean, he would FLIP! LOL

 

[Zass]

You can also put compost into black plastic bags, and lay them flat and thin on a surface that gets really hot -- full sun cement or asphalt. The compost will be cooked. I'd probably let it get several days' worth of sun.

Really good idea there, and no cooked compost smell !

But, I bet my neighbors will be AWFULLY curious about the black plastic bags placed up on my roof...

 

[Miss M]

You can also put compost into black plastic bags, and lay them flat and thin on a surface that gets really hot -- full sun cement or asphalt. The compost will be cooked. I'd probably let it get several days' worth of sun.

Really good idea there, and no cooked compost smell !

But, I bet my neighbors will be AWFULLY curious about the black plastic bags placed up on my roof...

"Oh... um... those? Well.......... let's just say we had a misunderstanding with a neighbor of ours. But it's all taken care of now. What can I do for you?"

 

[Zass]

You can also put compost into black plastic bags, and lay them flat and thin on a surface that gets really hot -- full sun cement or asphalt. The compost will be cooked. I'd probably let it get several days' worth of sun.

Really good idea there, and no cooked compost smell !

But, I bet my neighbors will be AWFULLY curious about the black plastic bags placed up on my roof...

"Oh... um... those? Well.......... let's just say we had a misunderstanding with a neighbor of ours. But it's all taken care of now. What can I do for you?"

With my reputation... Oh man....


:twisted: