I've seen rabbits mentioned in passing in a few of Geoff Lawton's videos and articles, but I've not been able to find out any information on how he raises them. I understand he has them at both the Greening The Desert II site, and Zaytuna Farm. Has anyone that has been to either site seen the rabbit setups? Could you give a brief overview? Even better, could you give a highly detailed overview with photographs and/or video? I'm also interested in how other people are raising rabbits in a permaculture system. The only concrete information I've been able to find so far is from VelaCreations (https://velacreations.com/). I'd love to read about more setups! I've currently got my breeding rabbits in suspended cages, growing out the young ones in movable rabbit tractors - I've modelled my setup after Joel Salatin's. Now that I'm comfortable with their care and handling, I'd like to move towards something with a higher level of welfare.
I've seen his set up at Zaytuna 2 years ago - it may have changed since then. He had three arrangements - one was suspended cages within the chook / duck run so that manure dropped to the ground and was added to the bird stuff and eventually this all runs downhill into the food forest. He also had cages suspended over worm farms in the bamboo grove near the polytunnel nursery so the poo ended up with the worms. And he has a rabbit tractor about 2 m x 2 m that is used to prepare the ground for future food forest planting. From memory the chooks follow on after the rabbits, but I may have that wrong. I don't know what breeds or how long he keeps them until harvest or how he manages his breeding. I think that rather than trying to use someone else's system the way to go is to use the input / output exercise that you learn in a PDC. Draw up a table of what rabbits need - food, shelter, water, sunlight, etc etc and what rabbits produce - manure, meat, skins and their behaviours - chewing grass rather than digging it up - think of EVERYTHING you possibly can about the essential rabbit-ness of rabbits. Then work out how you can meet those inputs from your property and how you can use their behaviours as a useful function rather than it being destructive and how their outputs can feed into your system as an input for something else. That way you come up with a unique solution that works for you rather than what works for someone else.
Thanks for the additional info. I've been through the input/output exercise thing (by the way, rabbits do dig up grass!), and my current system is working well in those terms. I'm not going to claim I've thought of every possiblity, though. It's always helpful to see what others are doing - I often pick up interesting ideas from others to tweak my own systems.
Well I didn't know that! As a QLDer I'm not allowed to keep rabbits (you have to be a licensed magician…. seriously) so I have no personal experience with them.
Yeah, your rabbit laws are very strict up there! I didn't know there was an exception for magicians - it sounds funny! They must have a powerful union . I wonder how many a magician is allowed to keep, and whether you could "rotate stock" regularly, if you get what I mean.
From the Dept of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries So you need to be a magician who works for a university! Doesn't say how many you are allowed.
When we first moved to NSW the first thing I got the kids (OK I lied - the first thing I got me ,but pretended it was for the kids ) was rabbits. I'd wanted a rabbit since I could stand up by myself, but being a Queenslander that wasn't going to happen. We almost got ferrets too, but thank god one of the cute little blighters (& they're cute as all hell when they're just kittens) sunk its teeth to the bone on my finger just before I could reach for my wallet! Narrow escape that one
eco4560; great advice, can't agree more - trial and error, exploration, experiment...DESIGN, should be the goal of all of us.
It took the pet shop owner plus a by-stander to disengage the naughty little blighter from my finger. I was too busy willing myself to stand really still & not shake my hand around like it was on fire to be of any help That & trying hard not to cry!
You've got it nailed there Nigel Design is everything And yeah - trial & error & exploration & experimentation & getting it wrong all pushes you towards good design that gets it right
If it helps I was at Zaytuna last year doing my PDC and I noticed that the rabbit tractor cages had mesh bottoms so the rabbits can eat the greens and the waste can fall out but the rabbits couldn't tunnel out. I would imagine that you would have to move it round a bit more often than a chook tractor though as they would only be able to eat what they can reach through the mesh.
Go for guinea pigs - you can free range them & don't have to worry about them digging. I've run mobs of them free range. They love it & thrive, but you have to keep them out of the veggie garden cause they just help themselves I dunno how anyone can eat a guinea pig though ... I can't even eat a rabbit - I'd have to be starving to death to eat a guinea pig : /
Maybe you have to start shearing them Helen. When they kick you in the back of the head, you'll want to murder them. Hmmm - No - it does't really work for guinea pigs does it.
No. It doesn't. They are the cutest, most defenceless, sweetest lil' critters you'll come across. There's a permaculture mob up in Hervey Bay I think that eat them - they had a video about processing them somewhere. They do them in a jaffle maker Like I said, it'd be a cold day in hell I ate a guinea pig ...
That's Elisabeth Fekonia. She's a Noosa Permie person and runs lots of courses. I've been to a few and have eaten lots of her food but never a flattened guinea pig. Mores the pity. Would be nice to try it out on someone else's GP first in case they weren't that tasty before committing to the whole shebang! I reckon I could knock a GP over the back of the head with a spanner and get it ready for tea. They remind me of rats rather than cute bunny wunny's. Big animals like cows and sheep are a different issue. I'm not so sure I could stare one down and smack it hard enough to stun it!
