does anyone use rabbit poo in their bins?

does anyone use rabbit poo in their bins and if so how do you manage the ph?

Hi; fieldsems
I raise worms for the poo, I have two plastic tubs in my basement we get alone just fine. No smells no flies, When I transplant my tomatoes and other seeds I mix the potting soil and worm poo. If I had rabbit poo I would just add it to the rows of plants in the garden. I add veg peels, coffee grounds fruit peeling, no meat or bones No poo either.
I am sorry no one answered your question from July 6, But why would you want your worms to eat poo?

I've read that worms actually thrive on cow manure, even drain sludge and hairballs. As long as your rabbits are only eating veggies it shouldn't be a problem. I've read that you definitely don't want dog feces as they are eating lots of proteins. I've also read to keep a good mixture. ie table scraps greens, apple cores, paper, egg shells. I don't drink coffee but they are also supposed to really love coffee grounds. I've thought about getting some from my neighbor. Hope that helps.

well I just heard that any type of livestock manure was better for vermicompost. as of now my worms do without it and do fine I was just curious as I have read about people putting rabbit cages over their worm bins

There's a large worm farm in my area. I went there recently to buy some castings. They have rabbit cages built directly above the worm beds, so that all the rabbit droppings (solid and liquid) fell directly onto the worm beds.

I use the droppings and the used bedding from my rabbit 's cage in my compost. Rabbit droppings are very high in nitrogen. I read that any vegetarian animal's manure is okay in the compost, such as cows and horses, but definitely no cats, dogs or birds.

I don't know about feeding worms but I do know that in 2000 I had the biggest ...bestest...garden ever hand tilled by woman because I used only rabbit poo to fertilize!! The garden was about 24 feet by 18 feet. I had about 8 rabbits and had a constant source of rabbit poo that never burned my veggies. Everyone commented on how large everything was and how much produce I got from everything - except the bell peppers! They never did much of anything but I may have planted the beside the wrong partner.

If I had worms that would eat the stuff and then spread it out for me into the garden, I'd go that route rather than having to scatter the stuff myself:)

I've never noticed that worms stayed away from cat, dog, raccoon, 'possum, poultry, swine, etc feces. Everything on that list but swine cross or live in our yarden & we have worms everywhere.

when i had rabbits i raised worms under them and they did great they would stay away from the hot spots from the urin but rabbits will always go in the same spot so the rest of the bin is free game for those little wigglers

Manure from any animal that's not a carnivore will do. Although poultry is omnivore you can also use poultry leavings.

I don't use it, but I'd like to. I've read a lot about it. It's about the best manure fertilizer you can get, next to bat guano. A lady who owns a rabbit farm near me sells it, but demand is so high, I can never catch her when she has some.

Nothing I read mentioned that ph could be a problem.

Steve

Horse manure and rabbit manure are particularly good as worm food, and they (the horses and rabbits) seem to produce copious amounts *S*

I''m new to all this but reading voraciously right now, and I recall just a few weeks ago reading that the mere act of passing through a worm will correct the pH of whatever it eats to a neutral. Good piece of trivia, I thought.

Believe rabbit manure's one of those you can add straight to the garden without too much grief.

The worms *can* be used on dog, cat and other scarier kinds of manure, but they urge you to use a dedicated bin for this and not cross contaminate. They make one just for pets, it's long and low, with only one tray...called pet-poo converter. Featured on greenhousecatalog.com you have to search for it via the search feature.

If you want to compost manure from something that eats meat some good suggestions are 1) keep a dedicated compost pile/worm bin just for that, 2) age it an extra year, 3)put it through a super-fast super-hot session (one composting book calls this a 'hospital heap' spiked with something like dog food or cottonseed meal or similar) where the temp gets up around 170 degrees to kill any scary pathogens, 4) give it an extra year to age 5)use it only on your flowers. I guess if your really scared you could do all five! it'd still be an improvement on throwing into a landfill.
Melis

This message was edited Mar 24, 2009 12:34 AM

Coffee grounds were mentioned here.

It turns out that coffe grounds are an excellent fertilizer, by themselves. They can be applied as a top dressing, or mixed in with soil when planting.

Starbucks has a program where they'll package them up, and give them away free. I've been getting them for years.

Steve

Coffee grounds are great! (and so is Starbucks for handing them out like they do)
I think one reason they make a good fertilizer is that the worms love them and anything that attracts worms is good for the soil.
I also water my acid loving plants with coffee that is leftover in the pot, azaleas, gardenias, etc.
Fill the pot with water to dilute and pour it around the plants.

I've always used all my coffee and tea leavings under my azaleas and other acid loving plants. It seems to agree with them. I've been putting it on top of the soil like mulch.

I heard about that Starbucks thing. Can't wait to ask my local one if they participate.--M

They put small bags of coffee grounds into a basket out on the floor, the kind of bags that one pound of coffee comes in.. Anybody can take what they want.

I walk right past those, and ask them for the grounds they have behind the counter. They fill plastic trash bags with them - I usually walk out with 2 plastic bags full of grounds.

I have a deal with a Hess station (Quick Mart) that they set their coffee ground trash bags beside their dumpster for me from each shift. I have brought home about 40# per day for almost a year.

Last year I spread it daily on the lawn and picked up the coffee filters with the lawn mower (bagger).

I spread it on most of my 1/4 acre front yard already this spring and continue each evening. Will take pics as soon as green weather gets to PA!

I also layer it in to my worm beds. It dries out quickly so I add wet shredded paper and corrugated cardboard over it.

Jeff

40 years ago, when I was a wee lad, we had ribbit cages on 4' legs. The only thing people used worm for was fishing or chasing girls. There was tons of worms under the cages,they showed up uninvited, stayed untill the last ribbit poo was composted.
They grow wild in S.C. anyways.

chasing girls...growing wild in S.C....lol.....you really should be an author!!