In the first year of raising rabbits on our hobby farm we shoveled a lot of rabbit poop, hauled it to the edge or our woodlot, and dumped it thinking it was of little value…then we got smart and started using the rabbit manure to our tremendous advantage!
You may ask – What advantage does rabbit manure provide? Can you use rabbit manure for fertilizer?
Rabbit poop is a wonderful fertilizer for growing healthy plants like vegetables and flowers. It is packed with nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) , potassium (K) and several other key elements that plants need from the soil; making it a great tool for replenishing the soil as well.
Read on to learn more about using rabbit poop on the homestead… Why rabbit manure is “gardener’s gold”… and how to sell rabbit manure to help pay for your rabbit feed!!!
Rabbit Poop For Fertilizer and Other Benefits – The Bullet List!
After providing the top take-aways for this topic, we’ll elaborate on a few key points and provide some of our experiences. That said, here are the bullet points or take-aways for this topic.
We give due credit to the Michigan State University for the basis of this list and we’ve added our thoughts as well.
- Rabbit manure has four times more nutrients than cow or horse manure and is twice as rich as chicken manure.
- Cow, horse and chicken manure are considered “hot” and need to be composted (well-rotted) to use as fertilizers.
- Last winter I dressed some new Blackberry bushes with cow manure. I thought the manure had aged and was not hot. I was wrong. The manure was still “hot” and it killed several of my bushes. This is less of a problem when using rabbit poop.
- Rabbit manure doesn’t need to be composted.
- Rabbit manure is organic matter and improves poor soil structure, drainage and moisture retention.
- Rabbit manure adds tremendous organic material to tired soils. It is a good soil conditioner and can re-energize tired soil in gardens, raised beds, potted plants, etc.
- Rabbit manure adds tremendous organic material to tired soils. It is a good soil conditioner and can re-energize tired soil in gardens, raised beds, potted plants, etc.
- Rabbit manure improves the life cycle of microorganisms in the soil.
- Worms love rabbit manure.
- Worms are attracted to the organic matter of rabbit manure. Supercharge your compost pile by adding some rabbit poop to it.
- Perhaps even start your own little vermiculture box or pile to enhance the soil on your hobby farm.
- Rabbit manure is not as smelly as other manures and is easy to handle.
- It’s true that rabbit manure is less smelly, less pungent, than most hobby farm manures. And its pellet form makes it easy to shovel, bag, and spread in a garden or even on the lawn.
- It’s true that rabbit manure is less smelly, less pungent, than most hobby farm manures. And its pellet form makes it easy to shovel, bag, and spread in a garden or even on the lawn.
- One doe and her offspring can produce about a ton of manure in a year.
- For Hobby Farmers and homesteaders, a few rabbits can make a lot of “bunny honey”, also known as “gardener’s gold”.
- For Hobby Farmers and homesteaders, a few rabbits can make a lot of “bunny honey”, also known as “gardener’s gold”.
- Rabbit manure is packed with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, minerals and micronutrients.
- Further, the NPK ratio in rabbit manure is an excellent blend or balance for the needs of most plants.
- Nitrogen (N). Rabbit manure is higher in nitrogen than sheep, goat, chicken, cow or horse manure. Plants need nitrogen to produce strong green growth.
- Phosphorus (P). Rabbit manure is also higher in phosphorus than the other manures. It helps with the transformation of solar energy to chemical energy. Phosphorus also helps plants to withstand stress and contributes to more and bigger blossoms, and is great for root growth.
- Potassium (K). Potassium helps reduce plant disease; plants will not grow without it.
- Further, the NPK ratio in rabbit manure is an excellent blend or balance for the needs of most plants.
- Rabbit manure contains beneficial trace elements such as calcium, magnesium, boron, zinc, manganese, sulfur, copper and cobalt, just to name a few.
- Further, the bunny honey is full of excellent trace minerals that get used up by repeated plantings. Rabbit poop helps replenish the soil and its trace elements.
Now that you have the key take-aways, we’ll elaborate on a few points.
How To Use Rabbit Poop As Fertilizer
As noted in the introduction, we used to just gather the rabbit manure from under the hutches and then dump it along the edge of the woods; totally disregarding the tremendous value stored in the little pellets excreted by our bunnies!
By talking with other hobby farmers and homesteaders we learned that the rabbit manure is a fantastic, ready to use, fertilizer.
How Do You Use Rabbit Manure
Rabbit manure can be used to top dress your flower and vegetable gardens. To top dress a garden, means laying in a one or two inch layer of rabbit manure on top of the existing soil.
Alternatively, you can apply the top dressing and then mix the rabbit poop into the soil using a garden tiller or a tool such as a garden fork, also known as a broadfork.
Replenish the Soil with Rabbit Manure
Planting and harvesting in the same garden area or raised bed year after year will quickly deplete the soil of the key elements that plants need in order to grow strong and be disease resistant.
Periodically amending the soil with rabbit manure will help keep the soil from becoming worn out and “tired”. Note that rotating “crops” as well as rotating your garden plots will also help keep the soil alive and well. Further, the rabbit poop helps promote worms and other healthy microorganisms in the soil.
You can also make and use Rabbit Manure Tea to feed your gardens, orchards and pastures.
What Is So Great About Rabbit Fertilizer: Selling Rabbit Poop To Pay for Rabbit Feed
In addition to being a great soil amendment and fertilizer, you can bag and sell your rabbit poop to local gardeners as “organic” fertilizer.
From time to time we upcycle coffee tins, plastic milk bottles, ice cream pails, stock feed bags by filling them with rabbit poop and selling it as fertilizers.
Most of the local gardeners readily recognize the value of this “gardner’s gold”, this “bunny honey”, and are happy to find some for sale.
We understand, if you have a 9 to 5, then you probably don’t have time to bag and sell your rabbit poop.
For us, this has been an off and on, cyclical, venture for our kids. Sometimes we put the proceeds toward buying more rabbit food and other times we put the proceeds towards a trip to the ice cream shop!
Composting Rabbit Poop
Some people don’t like the idea of rabbit poop showing in their gardens and don’t want to turn the soil every time they add rabbit poop to the garden. Composting is a great alternative.
Add your rabbit manure to your composting pile just as you would add grass clippings, wood chips, etc.
Over time the rabbit poop becomes part of your larger composting effort. When you are ready to replenish a garden or planting bed by adding some of your super rich, rabbit poop infused, compost.
Composting with rabbit poop is just another way to use the rabbit manure for the benefit of your hobby farm or homestead.
The NPK of Rabbit Manure
| Animal Source | Nitrogen (N) | Phosphorus (P) | Potassium (K) |
| Rabbit | 2.40 | 1.40 | 0.60 |
| Chicken | 1.10 | 0.80 | 0.50 |
| Sheep | 0.70 | 0.30 | 0.60 |
| Horse | 0.70 | 0.30 | 0.60 |
| Steer | 0.70 | 0.30 | 0.40 |
| Dairy Cow | 0.25 | 0.15 | 0.25 |
Here we see that rabbit manure is the best blend of NPK when compared to chicken, sheep, horse, steer and dairy cow manure.
Frequently Asked Questions Related To Can You Use Rabbit Poop For Fertilizer
Is Rabbit Urine Useful On The Hobby Farm?
Yes, diluted rabbit urine (high in NPK) can be used as a fertilizer or as a bug and pest repellent. Here we cover the details on How to Use Rabbit Urine!
Is Rabbit Poop Good Fertilizer For Vegetables?
Yes, rabbit poop is good fertilizer for vegetables. We saw an increase in both vegetable health and productivity when we began to add rabbit poop to the tired soil in our family vegetable garden. In particular, we noticed benefits to both our tomatoes and our peppers.
Is Rabbit Manure A Good Soil Ammendment?
Yes, rabbit manure is generally a great soil amendment for tired or worn out soils. It attracts microorganisms and worms, while replenishing the soil with Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium, as well as other trace nutrients.
Final Thoughts on “Is Rabbit Poop Good For Fertilizer”
As we’ve discussed, rabbit poop is an excellent fertilizer. Here are the primary points we’ve shared with you:
- Rabbit Poop is high in NPK, organic matter, and trace nutrients.
- You and your kids can make some “side-gig” money by upcycling containers and selling rabbit manure fertilizer.
- Less smelly, less messy and already in small pellet form, rabbit manure is not “hot” and is great for top dressing.
- Rabbit poop also works well as part of your composting efforts and composted rabbit manure is a great soil amendment for your gardens and plantings.
Finally, when I attended an intensive farming weekend at Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm in beautiful Swope, VA, Joel went to great lengths to impress upon us the complexities of soil health and soil chemistry. Joel reminded us that hobby farmers and homesteaders are really grass farmers, and good grass farmers are really soil farmers!!!
Publishers such as Acres USA and The Stockman Grass Farmer routinely drive home the point that we all need to be and think as soil farmers.
Rabbit manure can help us all be good soil farmers!