Timothy hay

Taylor and I are hoping to raise rabbits in the near future for several reasons:


They breed like... well, rabbits.
They're a great source of lean meat
They have a really high ratio of input(food) to output(meat)
They're quiet, don't make a huge mess, and are relatively low-maintenance.
They're a great source of high-nitrogen fertilizer.


After looking into this quite a bit, we've decided it could prove economical and efficient to grow our own food for these rabbits. In addition to giving them leftover greens from the garden, we also plan on growing timothy hay (and eventually wheat straw) to feed them.

This brings me to the second package I was expecting in the mail: timothy hay seeds!


We ordered one ounce of seeds for about five bucks with free shipping. We're hoping this will fill about 100 square feet of area, which should be plenty to feed four rabbits.

Timothy hay is a perennial, so hopefully we can harvest this in a manner that lets it continue to grow without having to reorder more seeds. For five bucks though, I think this might be a great investment. One ten-pound bag of commercial rabbit feed runs about $8, and consists mostly of timothy and alfalfa. With some extra veggies thrown in for more vitamins, I think these rabbits should do just fine.