Rabbit droppings for fertilizer

My hubby and I are truck drivers that hopefully will soon be off the road…I want chickens and possibly rabbits. Can rabbit droppings be used as fertilizer for a garden?

Judith Avery
New Bern, North Carolina

Definitely! Rabbit droppings are one of the best fertilizers. Chicken droppings aren’t so bad, either. Best of luck with your homesteading! — Jackie

Monsanto seeds

I have a question for you. All of those wonderful seeds from Monsanto, which I do hope that we don’t want, are they sterile? My husband and I were talking about genetics this evening and we were wondering about those GMO seeds. We don’t know enough about them to know, if they breed true to form or even if they breed at all.

Debby
Helena, Montana

Monsanto’s garden seed line is not (yet!) GMO. There is a lot of confusion between the terms “hybrid” and “GMO.” Hybrids are crosses between two varieties in the same family. GMOs, on the other hand, have genes of differing species introduced. Hybrids will reproduce, contrary to common belief. However, the offspring of these seeds may or may not look and taste like the “mother” of the seeds you saved. Often the resultant plants will produce fine, however. Just not consistently perfect.

We are planting nearly all open pollinated heritage varieties now, on our homestead, as we’re VERY upset over the trend toward only being able to buy a few select varieties produced by Monsanto, while dozens of excellent varieties are becoming extinct every single day. We like variety and hate depending on one or two companies to produce the seed (and thus, food) for us. — Jackie

4 COMMENTS

  1. Greta,
    Rabbit droppings aren’t as “hot” as many manures. However, I wouldn’t spread a deep layer on a growing garden or in the spring of a planting year….just to be safest.

    Jackie

  2. Jackie, Thank you for the response and info. That’s EXACTLY what I needed to know. Tick bite sounds scary – we don’t have them here – glad that new hubby saw the spot and you’re under a Dr’s care. I’ve enjoyed following your adventures for many years….thanks again. Pam

  3. Just a quick addition to the dropping answer- chicken droppings should be composted before being spread on the garden, or only spread on a field being fallowed for a season. Otherwise, too hot! (I found out the hard way.) I don’t know if the same is true for rabbits… Jackie?

  4. There are a number of seed companies that you can buy heirloom seeds from and they have a wide selection available just not always a lot of them. A couple of them are Seed Saver’s Exchange and Baker Creek Seeds. You can get a catalog from Baker Creek Seeds and it is a very nice one too. They are both available on line. There are others also just do a search. Then you can save the seeds from these and they will grow true to the original. We have switched to heirloom seeds almost completely this year. You may have to experiment to find ones you like of certain varieties.

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