permacultured rabbits

6 AUGUST, 2012

We've had two rabbits living with us for the last year and I decided to devise a way to incorporate them into the garden, to add to its productivity, which would, in turn, be able to feed them!One rabbit was an angora and required regular haircuts to stop dreadlocks forming in her fur. I had dreams of one day spinning her wool and then knitting it to make an incredibly soft item of clothing. The other rabbit was found near a huge Chinese market garden and was obviously a pet when I found him. He was so sweet and I located his owners, who's property backed onto the market garden. I asked them if they wanted him and they said that I could take him so I did. As soon as he meet the angora rabbit they became inseparable. It was the most bizarre connection between them. According to the vet the male rabbit was either desexed or a hermaphrodite, so there was no concern there would be kittens. The rabbits nestled together all day long and loved each other's company, like I have never witnessed before in all the rabbits I had when I was a kid.

I couldn’t stand cooping the rabbits up in a cage so they free ranged for a while and dug insanely deep tunnels in the sand at the back of the property. So I decided to re-cage them and placed their cage on a slotted outdoor table with the new worm farm I had built underneath it to catch the rabbit’s droppings.It seemed to work for a while, but the rabbits just looked so miserable that we have just decided to sell them. They will definately be sold as a pair. I would loved to have made it work. Perhaps if the cage, table and worm farm were all a whole lot bigger…