Rabbits.... These cute, cuddly, little animals can provide a multitude of benefits to both homesteaders and preppers. Some of the advantages of raising rabbits include fertilizer, food, furs and income opportunities.
Fertilizer:
Because rabbit manure can be applied directly onto your vegetable garden, there is no need to compost it. You can use as little or as much as you like and it will not burn your plants as many commercial fertilizers will. The results that are achieved from using rabbit poo as a fertilizer source are simply amazing. Anyone who follows my blog has seen the results in my post Tomato Update.
Food:
The fact that rabbits are an excellent source of food is rather self explanatory. One good doe can provide up to 600 pounds of meat each year while she is in her prime. 600 pounds! That's enough food to keep your family fed for quite some time.
Furs:
Stating the obvious, anyone raising rabbits has a nearly endless supply of furs which can be made into gloves, hats and other useful items. It is also possible to scrape the hide and produce leather. It will take some effort for a beginner to perfect the process of tanning a hide, but anything worth doing usually requires time to learn.
Income Opportunities:
There are numerous income opportunities that result from raising rabbits. The leather, pelts and even rabbits feet can be sold locally or online. Individual rabbit furs aren't worth a lot, but when you raise rabbits for food production, you will have a lot of them and like saving change in a jar....it all adds up.
Rabbits can be sold as pets or even to other people who want to eat them, but can't for don't want to deal with raising them on their own.
Rabbit manure can be sold to local gardeners. The best way to do this is to use a wire mesh screen and sift any debris out. This debris can be added to your compost pile. After this is done, simply fill your empty feed bags with the clean fertilizer and sell it. Typically you can expect to get one bag full of manure for each bag of food you go through. This will come close to covering the cost of feeding your rabbits. You can't beat letting other people pay for your rabbit food!
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"Back Roads Adventures"
-Any day in the outdoors is a good day!