Free source of hay and rabbit poo. What would you do with it?

Hello
I have been given a huge trailer load of hay which is bedding from a rabbit boarding house. It's got urine, poo, wood pellets and the occasional tissue in it.

They have offered a big trailer every 2 weeks. I said yes, but I'm wondering what the best way of dealing with it all is.

I have chickens which I thought might appreciate scratching through it. I also have worm bins, but I doubt they could keep up with the qty on offer. I also have trees to mulch around.

I would like to know if anyone has some good suggestions for me.

Seems like too good of an opportunity to waste. It should be a valuable input.

Cheers
Tom

P.s. the pessimistic side of me just activated. Do you think I should be concerned about pesticides from the hay? It's called Timothy grass apparently and it comes from Otago (Not that I expect that to mean anything to anyone, but does hay get sprayed?)

Personally, I have never had issues with bunny poo or bunny hay.

I'd be making compost out of the hay/pee, the brown orbs are perfect to go straight on the garden!

I'd be composting it. Add worms, let them breed up to their heart's content. Let the chickens dig up worms, the stuff no one eats rots down. Kick ass compost mix you have there. Put it around your trees when it's broken down a lot more.

And if you have more than you can deal with, sell compost!

Awesome score, I'm envious!

Chemicals can happen. I'd test the first batch of good compost with a fast growing annual known to do well for you. That gives you a quick data point will be visible one way or the other.

I hate to be a negative person, but it's very common to spray herbicide on Timothy grass.  I would test every batch you get.  If peas or beans grow and look healthy I would compost it and be thrilled with the bonus.  If the peas or beans are deformed, I wouldn't use it in my veggies garden.  It a scary world we live in, and it's better to be safe than sorry.
Good luck I hope it's chemical free.

Rabbit poo is one of these things that you can put directly under plants.
If they're offering too much, maybe just take delivieries every 4 weeks?

Seems like a great resource if its not chemically contaminated. I would do the seed starting test mentioned above, peas and beans work well as they are sensitive to herbicides. I have also traced back such hay or straw sources through the feed store it went through. I told them (truthfully) I would be using it around kids gardens with edibles and then explained the catastrophic health risks chemical herbicides pose to these kids, and it may be less compelling to some but those risks would be shared by you or your family, and the workers cleaning the rabbit pens.

It also may not feel great to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this could be an opportunity encourage the rabbit boarders to get a chem-free source if they are not already. I would not take it if it is not clean of biocides. If they could not give the stuff away with cheaper chem tainted bedding/feed, but alternatively could offset the cost of organic (certified or not) by selling it to you to cover the difference, plus have safer working conditions and a selling point for their boarding service, it would be a win-win-win. You could cover the modest cost on your end selling the compost you make, or the organic produce it helps grow.

I really believe this back end bi-product management of ag inputs is an under estimated motivator for going organic or better. If we could have waste products that are worth something rather than being  biohazards, why would we do anything else?

I think everyone else has some great points.
I would add that iff you are going to accept the loads and trust them,  you should prepare for remediation and/or disposal.
If time and biology is enough to break down these toxins and you have the room, you can set aside bad batches and let them cook.
If not, you will want to have a disposal plan in place.
That could mean acan or two into the regular garbage each week,or a trailer full to the dump directly.

Fwiw, we feed timothy hay and orchard grass to our single bunny.
We use local when we can get it and tractor supply when we cannot.
The bedding usually goes right into the planting holes.
The amount is miniscule in comparison,  but concentrated in usage.
So far,nothing but good results.

I got one bad batch of contaminated horse bedding and I was shocked at how long I had to keep it quarantined. Last I tested it, it still didn't seem to germinate or grow happy broad leaf plants. I need to put up a little bit of fencing and test it again this spring, as it's possible that last year's test was sabotaged by birds and deer!

Hay looks like hay, and my source was usually safe, so I'm thinking it got mislabelled somewhere in the pipeline. That suggests that frequent testing would be the safest route. I have a series of pallet compost bins. One of my last steps before moving the compost is to grow plants right in the bins - usually squash as they're heavy feeders and their leaves tend to be deformed is some of the nasty culprits are present.

Tom Wilson wrote:P.s. the pessimistic side of me just activated. Do you think I should be concerned about pesticides from the hay? It's called Timothy grass apparently and it comes from Otago (Not that I expect that to mean anything to anyone, but does hay get sprayed?)

Hey Tom, what a fantastic resource. Nicely done! And yes, rabbits and guinea pigs are crazy over Timothy hay -- I used to grow, hand harvest and dry a lot for the piggles in my wife's classroom. (They went straight for my hand-grown stuff first, of course -- clever piggles.)

Every country has its own regulations about the use of persistent herbicides (the ones we're deeply worried about). I'm sure government agencies in the agricultural sector can at least tell you what the rules are for agricultural producers. Be warned that utility companies may have special permissions in their rights-of-way and will casually dole the stuff out like candy (as I discovered -- get lost!). Sometimes people cut hay in rights-of-way.

There's nothing wrong with asking questions about the stuff that will go into your soil. And if this is an ongoing resource, you can compost separately and perform grow tests before committing it to gardens.