Comments on: Composting Worms Under Rabbit Cages

By: Donald

Donald — Sat, 25 May 2013 17:25:20 +0000

Not sure if this is still active, but want to take a shot…
What about building wooden boxes under the rabbit pens? Each would be 24″ wide, 32″ long, and about 12″ deep. Each would have only 2 Mini Rex rabbits above it.

By: michael bates

michael bates — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:40:29 +0000

Hi Attie Mathee. 10 points for your english. I am farming rabbits in Cape Town, SA. If you need help with your farming have a look at http://www.coniglio.webs.com. They are based in Somerset West and do training courses on rabbit farming.

By: Chris McLaughlin

Chris McLaughlin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 23:18:02 +0000

Just wanted to throw out there that I’ve been raising rabbits for many years and while worms truly don’t like urine build up…you can simply rake the concentrated urine area into the rest of the waste once a week. I also add some newspaper strips to help soak it up. I know several rabbit breeders that have great luck with their worms staying right under the cages.

By: ryu

ryu — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:34:39 +0000

hi i have a 25 rabbits + worm. my first plan was feeding my worm with rabbit poop directly but it didn’t go out well my worm keep running away due to ammonia and to much heat from the nitrogen i think. so i am now planning to build a bio mass generator to pre compost the rabbit waste. is it ok ? and does rabbit poop a good source for methane gas? and well the rabbit waste reduce its nutrients after it goes to the digester?

By: attie mathee

attie mathee — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:41:49 +0000

hi there
i am from south africa and got hold off 6 rabbits,3 newzeeland whites and 3 reds and black, 2 bucks and 4 does, they are not the same age.the withs are raedy to made and the others are 3 mounths old.
my plan is to build them cages as everyone do but i still need to work out the best way to do so, i bought 10 cages from a friend to start off but with all the space i got its seems not right to put them in such a small place,can`t i put them together, or just the does then till there is enought to start farming with them and i worked out all the layout and best spot and so on
is it possible to for exsample put 10 does in 1 pen,when its time to mate them just take them out 1 by 1 to the buck,before the new babys are born i can just take the older ones out and put them all together in a pen next to there mothers, this would make the cleaning and feeding so much cheaper and the housing cost low, i think??????

i don`t want to spent much money in the begining on my rabbits because i don`t know if anyone will buy the rabbits,there are no rabbitfarms here to learn from

any advise will help
thanx
attie

By: ToilingAnt

ToilingAnt — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:11:41 +0000

Sounds like I’d do best to keep them separate. Thanks for the feedback!

By: Bentley

Bentley — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:59:01 +0000

Poultry manure is a LOT more potent than rabbit, and can contain lots of inorganic salts and nitrogen. You would definitely not want to feed it directly to composting worms. That being said, if you had a thick enough habitat zone that consisted of straw with perhaps some peat moss or coco fiber (and this lower zone was kept moist), maybe it could work – especially if you also added some food scraps as well. I suspect the chickens would go on a feeding frenzy once they realized there were worms under their feet – not sure how/if this would impact the population.

Alternatively, you might just want to remove the bedded poultry manure and compost it for awhile outside before feeding it to a worm composting system.

By: ToilingAnt

ToilingAnt — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:35:56 +0000

What about putting a worm bin below a small chicken coop? My husband and I are buying our first house and I am eager to raise some chickens, and fascinated by the idea of worms as well. I’m experienced with poultry but have never raised worms; could I try to combine the two, or should they remain separate endeavors?

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:48:19 +0000

CHRISTY – Thanks for sharing – that’s really interesting. I’ve heard from others that Rabbit poop is one of the few manures that is ok basically fresh, but you are probably right – always best to err on the side of caution. Very good point about the urine as well – I completely forgot to address that issues in my reply. I’ve read that when you keep cages above worm beds, periodically you will need to flush out the beds with water, or remove the zones with high urine salt concentration (I guess rabbits typically pee in the same spot).

I would personally still try it out, Jeff! Seeing a very successful (and fat) population of red worms in my (compostable) kitty litter bin has made me realize these worms can be even more tolerant than I thought.
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DUFF – Absolutely, guinea pigs (hamsters, gerbils etc etc) – it’s all good stuff.
8)

By: Duff in VT

Duff in VT — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:28:07 +0000

I assume Guinea Pig poop is OK for the worms, too? I intend to get some Guinea pigs this Fall.