Rabbit manure and the yearly plan

In short

• A doe with her litters gives roughly 100 kg of manure and bedding a year, with roughly 7–10 kg of nitrogen per tonne.
• At most roughly 2 kg of rabbit manure per m² a year (a limit of 17 g of nitrogen per m²).
• Fresh manure: 120 days before harvest for vegetables touching the soil, 90 days for others; or through compost.
• A wormery under the hutches turns pellets into vermicompost, as long as the urine is balanced with straw or cardboard.
• Homestead plan: 0.5 h of work a week per doe, plus harvesting and hay.
• Records (litters, kits weaned, kg of meat, costs) are the basis for every decision on replacing does and bucks.

What's inside

Chapters

1. Rabbit manure: what it is and what it's worth
2. Collecting under the hutches
3. Straight onto the garden
4. Compost
5. A wormery under the hutches
6. The rabbitry in the homestead loop
7. The rabbitry year
8. Work and rota
9. Costs and whether it pays
10. Records and the yearly review
11. Common mistakes
12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Yearly rabbitry calendar
• Manure calculator and log
• Costs and value of the year
• Yearly doe records
• Work rota
• Yearly review and plan