Rabbit Manure Tea

[Bad Habit]

I'm thinking of trying out some rabbit poop tea, to see how my plants like it. I can't sell the poop I have, nor can I give it away, but people with house plants might be interested in the tea for a natural fertilizer. I'm going to try 1c poop to 2l water, see how that looks/works, and then adjust. Hoping to have the formula down pat when the market opens up in May

Anyone else tried this?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I've made tea with horse poop and also compost, but haven't tried bunny berries yet.

I would suggest selling "tea bags" instead of the liquid. You could sew little pouches that people could toss into their watering cans to steep.

 

[Cali]

I've made some! I didn't really do much in the way of measuring though. :/ I have thought about the "tea bag" idea MSD mentioned. It seems pretty neat to me, might see if anyone on craigslist is interested.

 

[Bad Habit]

Little pouches made of what?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Cotton? Muslin? Burlap? You could get old sheets and pillowcases from the thrift store. People might like the flower prints.

I use burlap bags because when I make manure tea, it ain't in no watering can. :mrgreen:

 

[MaggieJ]

Burlap is good. It looks "gardenish" and it lets the water flow through easily. You don't have to sew... Just make a square, dump the bunny berries in the centre and gather the corners. Tie with a bit of jute twine or whatever.

Or try thrift shops for fabric... You might find some really cheap flowered cotton sheets or miscellaneous fabric. Those would work well too. If you stick to natural fabrics (rather than polyester or other synthetics) your customers can compost the "tea bags" after they are used.

 

[skysthelimit]

Maybe brown paper tea bags, like those scented paper satchels.

 

[Bad Habit]

Well, I have soooooo much fabric, and tons of old sheets, lol. Would you get the same benefit with it in bags as you would with it free floating? Ive done this before, and simply let it sit for a night or two, shook it up good and watered with that, and it worked fine. But that was with guinea pig poop a while ago.

 

[Mickey328]

You could put it in almost anything that water could easily penetrate. If you didn't want to sew you could cut it in such a way that you could fold and just put a staple in, like regular tea bags. I'm thinking you'd want to make sure the berries are really, really dry...and maybe pulverize 'em a bit...it'd penetrate the water better if it were in smaller pieces. It's sure a great idea!

Too bad you can sell or give it away. We got our first couple of loads from a local gal for the price of going to fetch it and scoop it into our buckets. She said she hadn't got rid of any for several years after starting with rabbits because she used it on her own gardens/yard. But finally she'd reached a point where she really didn't need to pile it on so she periodically posts on CL and folks go fetch it.

 

[AmysMacdog]

I found these recipes last year and they all worked great!
I didn't use tea bags, I just dumped left overs in empty bed, worm bed or compost.

Rabbit manure tea Chicken manure Tea
I used an 18 gallon tub and calculated accordingly 20 pounds poop to 30 gallons water
5 quarts rabbit manure to 3 gallons of water Steep 4 weeks, stir at least once
a week. Add 1 cup Epsom salts, stir
Steep in sun for 1 week, stir daily.
Dilute 4 parts water 1 part tea.
Dilute 1 cup tea to 1 gal. water. Use about a pint per small plant.
Store diluted in cool dark place.
(I never had any left over)

Use 1 quart per outdoor plant per week.
Less for indoor plants.


Comfrey Tea
14 pounds Comfrey to 20 gal. water
Stir daily
Steep 1-4 weeks
Dilute 4 parts water to part tea

__________ Fri Feb 01, 2013 10:45 pm __________

Sorry guys that messed up and ran together, I had them separated into 3 recipes. Now its squished together. I thought it would post the way I had it.
Good grief I can' t read that and i wrote it.
Please disregard and if possible delete that.
It was supposed to be side by side with plenty of space between!!!!<br /><br />__________ Fri Feb 01, 2013 10:59 pm __________<br /><br />Rabbit manure tea
5 qts manure to 3 gal. water.
steep for 1 week, stir daily.

Dilute 1 c. to 1 gal. water

Use 1 qt per outdoor plant per week
Less for indoor plant.

Comfrey tea
14 lbs leaves to 20 gals of water
stir daily and steep 1-4 weeks
Dilute 4 parts water to 1 part tea

These 2 are my favorites Again sorry
I generally only use chicken manure/tea around my comfrey

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Holy guacamole, Amybart! That's complicated! :shock:

My method:

Put poo in burlap sack and submerge in water.

When husband complains that the bucket reeks, dilute tea with water and feed plants.

Empty burlap sack into compost pile and cover well with yard debris to smother odor.

Run to house, strip, burn clothing, and take a shower.

 

[garden lady]

I saw some of the bags that held a gallon of berries and put in 5 gallons of water. I am not going to use a bag, but just put about what looks like a gallon in the 5 gallon bucket, stir it each day and use it for watering and dump the bucket of stuff on the compost bin when done. I am starting to think the best way to do this is to compost the rabbit manure, start worm bins, feed some to the worms, mix compost and worm castings and have really nice potting soil and put the rest on the garden. Might be able to sell it. They sell worm castings.

 

[AmysMacdog]

:rotfl: :rotfl:
Thank you MammaSheepdog I needed that!! :lol:
Mine isn't as complicated as I made it seem once you've done it.
I should have said I dump mine when I'm done with them and make a new batch. Then run to the house....
I've never thought about using my husband as a gauge for doneness though Good idea! :lol:

 

[Joe n TN]

Try making a tea bag out of burlap that will hold 3-4 cups of bunny berries. Weigh it down with something and drop it into a 5g bucket. Fill bucket with 4.25g of water.

Drop in an airstone and aerate the water for 24 hours. The good bacteria that helps build soil will flourish, multiple and help build your soil when watered in. You can buy a cheap air pump, some tubing and the airstone at Wal Mart in the pet section for like $7-8 dollars. It will last years.

This method gets good benficial bacteria into your soil AND all the benefits that rabbit poo already adds to your soil. This methods kicks butt and I would give it 4 thumbs up if I had two more thumbs!

Joe

 

[Jack]

I just dump the berries on the garden, esp. in the winter
for me it takes 2 seasons for it to break down, when it does it's a VERY light, airy humas, not a loam, plants like it lots,
there is an intermediate state where it's the dank, wet VERY thick sludge
this is workable, just not that good for the plants, and probably the reason it's worked, in

when it's fully worked over, it's awesome, but I've lose plants to the middle stage,
as for tea, I don't really bother, figure if I have good soil and the downhill drainage from the compost box (which is full, hence the winter dumping in the garden)
they do fine.

 

[Shelbers91]

I ALMOST thought you meant for drinking (like people do with cow menuer in India lol Anyways, rabbit poop is a good fertilizer, why is it that no one buys it? you could sell it by quart bags or gallon bags couldnt you?

 

[Jack]

Know all those feed sacks you have....
put 20-25 pounds and build a mound next to the street with a sign
something like "super poo organic fertilizer..."
the local lions sees it for 20 a bag

 

[Bad Habit]

I spent all last summer trying to give it away. I personally have a 2 inch thick layer on all my gardens, and three compost piles, plus I constantly fill up my mum's two composters. And my commercial composter(which SUCKS btw), is full of litter box dumpings.

I'm going to put a sign up at market this year though, and possibly start drying it and storing it in some form of bag, and taking it down to market myself. I'd like to just give it away, sawdust, hay and all, just because I have SO MUCH to deal with. I can't imagine how people with more rabbits than me deal with it!