My wife and I are interested in raising some Rabbits for meat. We have a suburban yard with a decent amount of room. We are hoping to do as much as possible for home made feed to keep the costs down. Does anyone have any experience with combining Chickens, Meat Rabbits and Worm bins. It is our understanding that Rabbit poop is great for worms and worms are great for Chickens. Does this make for a good combination? Thanks
Rabbits, Worms and Chickens
- Thread starter traildad
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Yes, it can make an excellent combination. One concern some people have about feeding worms to chickens is that they can carry parasites. But if you start with "good clean worms" this should not be an issue.
Here's a great site for you. It doesn't deal with the rabbit aspect in particular, but there is a lot of information about raising worms to feed chickens... and other interesting stuff too.
http://www.lionsgrip.com/worms.html
You will also want to check out our "Other Ways to Profit from Rabbits" forum. There is information on vermiculture there.
Here's a great site for you. It doesn't deal with the rabbit aspect in particular, but there is a lot of information about raising worms to feed chickens... and other interesting stuff too.
http://www.lionsgrip.com/worms.html
You will also want to check out our "Other Ways to Profit from Rabbits" forum. There is information on vermiculture there.
PulpFaction
Well-known member
You may have a hard time getting your worm population to thrive if chickens are allowed access to the worm beds. I think they are a bit mutually exclusive in a set-up directly under rabbits. Both have their pros and cons, just kind of depends on what your priorities are. Worms/compost/castings or eggs/a second source of meat? I think you should pick one and go for it, or if you have both, keep the chickens in a separate space.
I have not studied it in depth yet. I expect that I will have the Rabbits separate but not far from the chickens. Put rabbit manure along with household scraps etc in worm bins. Harvest the worms and feed them to the chickens. I think I read that you can make dried worms for chickens. Use the worm castings in the garden along with composted chicken manure. I am interested in growing some Lambsquarter as rabbit feed. I hope I can reduce or eliminate my use of store bought rabbit and chicken feed.
You will definitely have to keep the chickens out of the worm bins. In fact, I suggest you keep all three separate. They do work well as a homesteading combination though.
Lamb's Quarters makes a good rabbit feed when it is young, but they don't like it much once it matures. If you have an area of rough "lawn" blessed with weeds, you have a great place for gathering greens, as long as you don't use pesticides or herbicides on it and as long as it is not contaminated by dog or cat feces. Be sure to take a look at the Natural Feeding forum - in particular the Safe Plants sticky - for ideas about what weeds to look for. The leaves and twigs of a number of trees are also very useful: apple, pear, elm, willow, poplar and mulberry, to name a few. Raspberry, rose and blackberry bushes are also great. It is fascinating the variety of safe and healthy feed plants that are available for feeding rabbits.
Lamb's Quarters makes a good rabbit feed when it is young, but they don't like it much once it matures. If you have an area of rough "lawn" blessed with weeds, you have a great place for gathering greens, as long as you don't use pesticides or herbicides on it and as long as it is not contaminated by dog or cat feces. Be sure to take a look at the Natural Feeding forum - in particular the Safe Plants sticky - for ideas about what weeds to look for. The leaves and twigs of a number of trees are also very useful: apple, pear, elm, willow, poplar and mulberry, to name a few. Raspberry, rose and blackberry bushes are also great. It is fascinating the variety of safe and healthy feed plants that are available for feeding rabbits.
