How big is the bag ? Is it 100% manure ? If yes and it is not composted then I will let it to compost first OR work it into soil sparingly. You wouldn't want to take a chance to burn the plants.

Seysonn

The issue with using un-composted manures of any animal is not whether it will burn plants or not. The issue is the pathogenic bacteria contained in the manure. That is why it is recommended that all animal manures be composted for a minimum of 90 days prior to using on any food crops or if fresh, applied to the garden no sooner that 30 days prior to planting.

You can much more info about this issue on the Soil & Compost forum here.

Dave

"burning" is a quantity problem that can be avoided by being careful. Rabbit poop is right up there with chicken manure; hot stuff. I try to work more long term and never use anything fresh.

There's a great deal of doubt whether fresh manure can foster unhealthy conditions, but I think to ignore it is to risk the health of you and yours. All of it is animal sewage; rabbit manure comes out of the anus of a rodent! I wouldn't want that on my food.

Let it all sit, compost or rot, and get to it later when any possible pathogens are no longer possibly viable. You'll lose some N, but then you don't have to worry about anything being too "hot".

OK. So "pathogenic" issue is more important here . Good to know.

It is of course critical with leafy and root crops (like lettuce, carrots, onions..) and not so critical with tomatoes and peppers, Me thinks.

At any event, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Seysonn

Yes. The pathogenic issue is the most important issue, but this is true for ANY type of manure. Rabbit poo will be hot if you place fresh poo that is saturated with rabbit urine, as in right out of the cage or using that day's rabbit litter. This doesn't happen often because bunnies are always pooping and it takes a while to build up enough bunny berries to be used as fertilizer. And, most of the time, they urinate in a different spot than where they poo. This is because they need to eat a certain portion of their poo. I won't explain, but you can look this up. As for the accumulation of bunny berries beneath the cages, by the time it is harvested for use, the urine is usually dried up or diluted (soaked down).

It is the urine that burns. Even some will debate this, but I have found it can happen. Bunny berries, by themselves, do not burn unless they are in an aerobic microbial environment (as a compost pile). It doesn't take much time for the urine to dry out or be washed off of bunny berries. Folks will apply bunny berries directly to the garden beds and have no problems, but there is ALWAYS the potential for pathogens when this occurs including e. coli.

My knowledge comes from study (like, who doesn't read?) but also personal experience with raising rabbits specifically for use as fertilizer. AND I have messy cages so there is always a concern for pathogens. I have disabilities so I cannot readily clean up every day. In those cases I always put the bunny berries in the compost pile and I use LIBERAL applications of hay within the cages because rabbits are awesome at keeping themselves clean if you allow them access to what they need. I do. I bury them inside their large cages with good quality hay. I'm always astonished at how they have 'redecorated' by matting the floor, building tunnels and quickly eating most of the hay. Keeping rabbits clean and healthy is the best way to avoid pathogens and that is no guarantee, but helpful. Rabbits that do not have continual and perpetual access to hay cannot care for themselves and keep themselves clean and if they're not allowed to decorate their own cages with hay, they may not be able to find their nutrient-dense poo that they are required to consume. Some have the awareness and eat it right out of the poop shoot, but like many humans some rabbits are too dense or just not that sharp and miss out on this healthy endeavor if the poo isn't allowed to hang out with them.

Sometimes, I will place the bunny stock (berries and spent hay) directly atop things that need them because I garden organically and some things need a lot of nutrition, like onions and garlic. I use the back to eden method with up to a foot of hay mulch and place it right on top where it never touches the plants or soil directly but has time to trickle down and allow nature to do its job in purification.

Otherwise, I mostly use the bunny stock steeped in a tea with other nutrients complete with air bubblers and molasses to encourage the good microbes to develop. I strain the matter and place the bunny stock sludge into the compost while drenching the soil with the tea. That is still at a risk of pathogens, but is helpful.

The only way to be certain is to use the bunny berries in a HOT compost pile and most do not know how or are unwilling to maintain a truly HOT compost pile sufficiently to eradicate pathogens. I have much trouble being consistent in Oklahoma where the wind blows ..... you know.

This is the tomato forum, I would be remiss if I did not add: My best use of rabbit manure for tomato plants is placing a heavy amount of bunny berries at the planting site and digging into the soil. Drenches and such are not as effective at fertilizing my tomatoes as just simply amending the soil with it. The drenches I use for maters is usually calcium and magnesium washes (powdered egg shell and epsom salts) through the growing season. I use the bunny berries directly under ground because I know my micro climate is swarming with good healthy life forms and it is their jobs to eradicate diseases and the manure forms beneficial relationship with the soil microbes. the tomato roots know more than I. So, I let them.

thanks for reading

bon

I try to avoid both Chicken manure and rabbit manure. I have found bone in them. This tells me that they compost their dead animals. So what you get might not be REALLY just manure.

Seysonn

I don't compost my rabbits, but what if someone did? What would it matter? If it's fully decomposed, it's fully decomposed. Even a cold compost becomes pathogen-free if allowed to sit long enough. Of course, one would need to be knowledgeable to properly identify fully decomposed compost.

LOL LOL I HAVE USED RABBIT MANURE FOR 36 YEARS NOW SOME I USE COMPOSTED WITH LEAVES FOOD SCRAPS BUT MOST GO RIGHT ON RAISED BEDS,MOST IN FALL BUT SOME DURING GROWING SEASON, NEVER EVER HAD A PROBLEM BURNING NEVER ,LIKE THE GUY SAID DONT USE URIAN TO CLOSE TO PLANT,BUT RABBIT POOP WILL NOT BURN NO IN FALL I DIG MY HOLES FOR SPRING TOMS, WITH POST HOLE DIGGERS ABOUT 18 INCHES DEEP,ADD SHOUVEL OF MANURE SOME LEAVES CUT WITH LAWN MOWER ,SOME COFFEE GROUNDS FOOD SCRAPS LET THE WORMS DO THERE THING PS I TRULY THINK RABBIT MANURE BEST FERT EVER TU HAPPY GARDENING

This is a good post. I'm trying to find rabbit manure but everything around here has cinders or rocks in it. I have used rabbit droppings in my compost piles before and was very happy with the results. But I don't need the cinders in it. I know some will ask how do cinders get in-- this is cinder country and used to be a volcanic area so cinders are like soil in some spots and when they dig up the poo they dig up cinders. Usally goes for about $3.00 a 5gal bucket.

Let me assure you that what they sell as "manure" (of any kind ) is not pure manure. It is mostly top soil and/or some kind of other compost. I personally used them as soil activator/ amender, not as a fertilizers. I cab buy a 16-16-16 fertilizer for about a buck per pound that has more fertilizing power than 2 cu-ft of any manure, (at a cost of close to $6- $8).

Sey

We use our bunny poo by putting it through our yard shredder. It is then fluffy worked right into the soil as early as possible. Before its time to plant if any composting occurs it seems to be enough and our plants bolt into production early on.

Rabbit manure does not burn plants. I put it in the hole before dropping the plant in and I top dress during the season.

"Burning plants" isn't the primary issue with using manure, ANY manure. Composting first to reduce/destroy the numbers of pathogenic bacteria is the issue.

Dave

Dave you are giving bad information. #1 You do not compost bunny manure, EVER. You throw it on your plants or in your soil directly from the bunny but, it wont burn (its super low in npk.. 2 2 .2 is what my own rabbit manure test out as. Its funny that somebody from Arkansas would even comment like that, you can hardly grow anything there with the humidity you have so I doubt you are any type of expert.

it has nothing to do with pathogens as inside a bunny gut there are none that are harmful to plants or humans. I make compost tea for my cannabis and tomatoes directly from the pan, goes into my bucket, with aerator, run for 24-48 hours and directly poured onto my plants.

There is ZERO need to compost rabbit manure, Dave is not as smart as he likes to pretend to be. Attached is a photo of my marijuana plants and a couple of tomato plants i have in front of them, my front yard is almost all tomatoes as well. Composting rabbit manure is a waste, its good to ADD to your compost bin but it does not need it, you can safely add it to your garden right from the bunnies butthole if you want to

You are wrong about composting, the break down has little to do with pathogens (in rabbit manure) you can use hot manure from a cow and while it may burn because of EC being too high. There is nothing harmful in animals guts who eat greens/hay etc. I've been a farmer for 20+ years now. We put our manure on our fields a year in advance not due to pathogens but due to EC and nitrogen being too high right out the steers rear.

Going back to rabbits one of the aspects that make it so beneficial and has a high bioavailability IS the flora/bacteria inside its gut. Why a person would want to remove what is BENEFICIAL in a garden is beyond me.

Not to take away from the importance of ensuring you still use clean sourced manures. Composting increases biodiversity and positive bacterial growth. While there are peer-reviewed articles showing the existence of e coli they only claim zoonic potential. There has still been no evidence showing that transference has ever occurred.

Pathogens in manure, including rabbits, has been studied. Rabbit guts, are able to house several. In a paper I found (https://fyi.uwex.edu/manureirrigation/files/2014/03/ASABE_2006_Pathogens-in-Animal-Wastes-and-Impacts-of-Waste-Management-Practices.pdf) it lists E-coli, Francisella, Listeria, Cryptosporidium and the non-plague forms of Yersinia.

Did you also happen to look at the happenstance of zoonic transference? Not likely. A human can eat rabbit poop. parasites are host specific to rabbits so there is no parasitic risk.

Once again, there is ZERO need to compost your rabbit dropping, anybody who says otherwise is an idiot. Also those who fer "pathogens" in historically known manures are the hold my hand idiot pansy generation who are afraid of it all.

Rabbit poop is safe so safe that people can eat it. Rabbit manure is NOT KNOWN to have ever transferred ANY disese or illness to humans. Rabbit poop and urine does not post any health risk to humans, its safe.

It does not need to be composted, if you compost it you are using it wrong.

Your photos reflect its use on flowers, not-edible plants. Sure, no problem there. But using it in the food garden as we are discussing here is a different matter.

Dave

Two items:

1. Rabbits can be host to the O157:H7 strain of e-coli (the one that makes humans sick): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3034324/
2. E-coli O157:H7 can be taken up by plant roots into the cells themselves, at least in least in lettuce. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC126537/

Decide for yourself what you want to do with this information.