**The rabbit colony has fully repopulated after the final winter harvest**
After raising rabbits in a colony system for a few years, the natural cycles of the system have become more obvious. Because the rabbits are free to breed, the population in the colony follows the season. We get a big boom of kits in the spring, harvest them throughout the summer and then another big boom in the fall and harvest before winter sets in.
While we might be able to get more total rabbits harvested in a year with more intensive management style, like cages or tractors, the colony style is very passive. It's more like stocking a pond with fish, when it comes time to harvest, we fish out the biggest rabbits or throw the smaller ones back in to keep growing. We end up with about 150lbs of meat per year from this system with very low input costs.
Here's a podcast I recorded last year going into more detail on the integrated rabbit colony cannabis garden system:
#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #rabbits #rabbitcolony #meat
After raising rabbits in a colony system for a few years, the natural cycles of the system have become more obvious. Because the rabbits are free to breed, the population in the colony follows the season. We get a big boom of kits in the spring, harvest them throughout the summer and then another big boom in the fall and harvest before winter sets in.
Fountain
The Survival Podcast • Colony Rabbits and Integrated Systems – Epi-3533 • Listen on Fountain
Today I am joined by Karl Rev Hodl who is a long time show listener that I met via Nostr. Karl raises rabbits as part of his integrated systems app...
Everything is food for something at the homestead
All the weeds, and prunings are fed to the rabbits from around the homestead.
I've been feeding the rabbits one or two wheelbarrows full most days which means we only give them some grain coated with molasses and mineral to supplement their nutrition.
Soon we will start harvesting rabbits regularly but for now we just process one when we get taste for rabbit. We used this one to make white chilli.
What would normally end up in the compost bin is instead used to feed the rabbits and turned into meat which we eat. The rabbits deposit thier manure helping to feed the cannabis, which we produce and sell seed. So weeding and pruning which helps our fruits and vegetables grow better, ends up growing us more meat, cannabis and helps us earn some sats while we're at it. Everything is food for something!
#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #rabbit #rabbitcolony #forestgarden #foodforest #perennial #weeding #gardening
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Soon we will start harvesting rabbits regularly but for now we just process one when we get taste for rabbit. We used this one to make white chilli.
