COMFREY

I have been using Comfrey as a food source and tonic for a long time in my rabbitry.

When I was young I always talked to all the old-timer rabbit breeders around my neighborhood and on my paper route. They all agreed and swore by comfrey as the best rabbit tonic and said every rabbit breeder should grow it.

They would give a little each day added to their daily green feed, and told me this is why their rabbits never got sick. They told me it would prevent everything from snuffles to premature kindling and helping milking does produce more milk. I have no scientific proof, other than never seeing any of their rabbits sick.

So that’s when I got my first few comfrey plants (cost me a weeks worth of newspapers) and I have been feeding comfrey to my rabbits ever since. I have moved many times from my childhood home but have always brought comfrey cuttings with me to plant more.

I know that my rabbits love the stuff just by their reaction when harvesting the comfrey, the rabbits hear me cutting the leaves in the comfrey beds, I can hear them running and binkying around their cages knowing their healthy tonic is on the way.

When entering the rabbitry with a basketful of comfrey, the whole herd comes alive waiting for their treat. I highly recommend comfrey for rabbits! It is a great digestive aid and will help with wool block, do not overfeed as it may cause diarrhea, this is the plant working use caution! Great as a tonic and added food source but not as the only feed source.

You can cut it down and dry it like hay to store for winter use ( It can be cut down up to three times here in Maine). They also love the freshly harvested leaves. The plant has a calming effect on rabbits, also good when a rabbit is off feed, It will get them back on it!

Comfrey is a great source of vitamin A and good for pregnant and nursing does as it also supports the immune system. Comfrey is good for the stomach, and can be fed as a general gut tonic. Always use caution when feeding greens to rabbits! Being extremey potent comfrey can have negative effects if overfed, and can cause diarrhea. When I do feed, it makes up about 25% of the basket of greens/weeds I pick every other day or so in the Spring/Summer/Fall. There are so many other uses for comfrey on the homestead. I will list just a few.

Comfrey has long been used as a cure by Gypsies and peasant people for ever, it has an ancient reputation as a mender of broken bones! It has also been recommended for uterine and other internal hemorrhages and for the healing of wounds. Comfrey’s power to heal wounds is credited to a substance in the plant called allantoin (listed in Merck’s Index of Chemicals and Drugs for its use in skin ulcer therapy). The most common medicinal use of comfrey is in poultices to help heal swellings, inflammations and sores.

To make such a dressing, let the leaves mush up in hot water, squeeze out the excess liquid and wrap several handfuls of the hot, softened foliage in a clean cloth. Apply the pad to the affected part—comfortably hot, but not scalding—and cover the area with a thick folded towel to keep the heat in. The moist warmth enhances the healing effect of the allantoin. Roots and Leaves have historically been used to apply to swellings, sprains, bruises, cuts and used as a poultice for stings, abrasions, blisters, abscesses and boils. Comfrey is also widely known for healing and clearing up skin problems. You can use the roots to make decoctions, and the leaves to make infusions that have antiseptic properties

British Gypsies would also feed the roots to their animals as a spring tonic. On my homestead all the livestock love it! The pigs go nuts when I throw it into their pens, The chickens come charging to meet me at the gate with some, And we already discussed the rabbits!

You can also condition your soil with comfrey! It’s one of the best plants for this. The leaves themselves may be buried as “instant compost” to give row crops season-long nourishment. A tea can be made with the leaves and used as a liquid fertilizer (No more Miracle Grow!). You should google the uses of comfrey in the garden you will be amazed! There is to much for me to list here maybe I will do a future post just on comfrey and the homestead!

COMFREY- THE HOMESTEADERS GOLD MINE

Harvest when the foliage is 12 to 18 inches tall, we cut the leaves with a sickle by gathering a bunch together and shearing them off two inches above ground. After such a harvest, the plants will grow enough to be cut again in 10 to 30 days. About two weeks is the average in our experience. Dry the harvest or feed it fresh! The thicker stalks are had to dry and mold before drying, so for drying stick to the leaves.

Comfrey is 86.6%water,2.6%protein,1.8% fiber.

Comfrey is a controversial plant yet it has been used medicinally for at least 2000 years.

It has also had extensive use as an animal feed just as long. Due to recent evaluations of this plant, it is important to learn about it before deciding whether or not to add it to your rabbits’ diet. I have used it before any of the studies and still use it to this day wit no ill effects! It irritates me how negative weighted research can affect the truth of an herb.

There are three main varieties of Comfrey grown, Russian Comfrey(bocking strains), Prickly Comfrey, and Common Comfrey. Common Comfrey is the one usually grown here in the US. These Comfrey plants greatly differ in the amount of alkaloids present in the plants.

I grow and sell the Russian Bocking 14 type.

The research was done on young rats that were injected not fed naturally the whole food product. It is known that injecting a substance will often give a toxic reaction when just eating it does not. This test did cause tumors in the liver, but it was basically an overdose of the toxic part of the comfrey injected into young rats than are sensitive to the alkaloid to begin with. That is a negative weighted research project to say the least!

Despite the controversy over Comfrey and liver toxicity, farmers in both Japan and in the Pacific Northwest plant fields of comfrey to feed both their dairy and beef cattle. These farmers are getting remarkable results in the health of both their beef cattle and increased milk production in their dairy herds.

If comfrey is so dangerous, then why then is it not causing liver toxicity in these cattle? They are being fed enough to cause liver problems. There has been no problem with liver toxicity in their herds.

So if you question the use of comfrey in your rabbitry do your research. I have butchered many rabbits and have never found any internal issues with the feeding of comfrey over long periods of time.

We have Comfrey plants, roots, and crowns available in season(May till end of October ere in Maine.)

COMFREY FOR SALE

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