About
Mahala Love welcomes Jacaranda Gardens as our newest supported project. Stephen and Brenda N. own this property in KwaMhlanga, SA. They are working to provide for themselves with the goal of cutting back and eventually quitting their outside employment to fully sustain themselves from their home site. Stephen and Brenda are both committed to making their home produce both food and income and to teaching their neighbors to do the same.
Our Story
Together with Mahala Love, Stephen and his brother, Henry, designed and built a stacked function rabbit/chicken/fish/plant/water purification system. After the build, Mahala Love hosted a community Open House where we had roughly 50 locals in attendance. The guests were engaged and curious to learn more. The afternoon was a huge success with everyone staying to exchange information, taste new food and build community around Self sufficiency. Mahala Love and Jacaranda Gardens – sharing with the community.
Rabbits …
The rabbits occupy the top two layers of the system. The top layer has a wire floor and a second sloping zinc/corrugated metal floor to trap rabbit urine which then flows into a gutter on the side and into a bottle. The rabbit urine will later be diluted and used as a pesticide and fertilizer on garden plants.
More Rabbits …
The second layer also provides space for more rabbits. However, the spilled rabbit feed and the rabbit manure drops to the ground on this level.
Chickens
The ground level currently houses 5 laying hens. The dropped rabbit food provides additional food for the chickens and allows the chickens to keep the area clean from food sources tempting to rats. Additionally the chickens scratch the ground, eat the worms attracted by both the chicken and rabbit manure and speed up the composting of the cage litter for garden use.
Catfish, Plants and Water
On the back of the cage, a catfish tank was placed up hill to allow the nutrient laden water to flow to a small tank on top of the hutch. That tank can be turned on to drip into the top of 3 levels of planters made from 2L plastic bottles. In turn those will drip down the chain to the bottles below. This provides efficient use of water and some aeration and filtration for the water which can be caught at the ground level and returned manually to the cat fish tank.
the 2L bottles are now planted with greens for the rabbits and more bottles will be added in the future to cover the back wall and provide a colling effect on the cage as well as plenty of fresh greens for animals (and people). An additional bio char water filter will also be added to the water collected from the 2L planters allowing that water to go straight to the animals, instead of back to the fish.
This system currently houses 5 rabbits – 4 does and 1 buck, and 5 laying hens. We have received news that 2 of the does have been moved to the maternity ward. And the hens have begun to lay – 10 eggs and counting! We will keep you informed of the production of this system.
Mahala Love 