Rabbit thread!!!

[firestomp]

Hi singing tomato,

I don't know where you are in your plans as your post is over a month old. I raise meat rabbits, have since childhood, my dad and three others as well. Lots of years of making mistakes, getting answers, and coming up with fixes combined. I am now in my 50's.
I have my setup on the east side of a 20 foot long storage building. I'm in Indiana, all of our bad weather comes from north or west, rain from south at times, and rarely anything from the east any time of year. It is basically a metal roofed shell. I have barn siding on bottom of the 2 sides and lattice on top. The south facing is my way into them as well as the large storage behind the cages for feed and stuff. In the winter, I use those cheap blue tarps and enclose the 3 sides. (west side is My building). all the rain runs off the building, to the metal rabbitry roof, all guttered and I collect the water in a plastic drum system I made for my plants. All this are ideas from years ago mistakes and add ons over time. This system has proven best in shelter, care, waste, and time management. I hose off slopped floors,( i have 2 levels of cages) so no odor or fly issues as well. I rebuilt this thing in my head a hundred times to get to this point.(I DON'T SLEEP WELL BECAUSE MY MIND NEVER STOPS). And I never put anything on paper, it's all in my head.
This is what I suggest. I have been using "BASS" cages for many years (CAN BE FOUND ON LINE AND PURCHASED)
I couldn't find these cages locally anymore, the places have went to a cheaper brand. I build a roof over shelter, this time I have 2 tiers, with cages hung from top, and a slanted floor thar goes to a gutter system, into 5 gallon buckets. I used UNTREATED 2x4's on the outside of wire and 2x2's cut to fit on the inside. (front and back of cages. This is your hanging or mounting system and as big or small as you like. I use 30" x 36" cages for does, and 24"x 30" for bucks. I have one 30" x 48" with the heavy wire upgrade for a finishing pen. I WISH I HAD THEM PUT IT ON ALL THE CAGE FLOORS. "BASS CAGE COMPANY" has many options you can choose from.
If they are over bare ground, throw down some barn or ag lime and clean it up a couple times a year. I used to do spring and fall. OR, buy yourself a start of red worms and they will take care of 80% of this for you. I still raise red worms as I compost all wastes from the few rabbits I now raise,chickens, and quails. YOU CAN FIND THESE ON EBAY . I have a hobby set up now, not like 16 years ago.You will need "J" clip pliers as well to assemble them. I like the heavy wire floor option and they put all the sides on it for you with HOG RINGS they are called.
THIS THING AS EVERYTHING CAN BE BUILT AS CHEAPLY AS YOU WANT. MY STUFF IS BUILT TO OUT LIVE ME,
I have seen to many people build or make stuff from junk and scraps, just to have to redo it all again in a few years. May as well do it right the first time. I'm getting to old to spend time rebuilding and on clean up now. This allows me to enjoy my animals and not see them as a chore. I hope this help you and others.

 

[firestomp]

singing tomato, see my reply to you after the post below yours. I hit the wrong reply button.

 

[SingingTomato]

Thanks for the input, firestomp. As it happens, I just finished my build on Friday. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I ended up giving each of them a 2'x4' hutch, split into two equal sized rooms. One room is mesh floored, the other is wood floored with straw bedding. I blocked them into the mesh-side for the first 48 hours, to help train them to eliminate their waste on that side. They'll also each have access to a private 3'x6' run filled with clover, sainfoin, mixed grasses, and mixed veggies (from leftover garden seed), but I'm going to lock them out of the run for a few weeks in hopes that will train them to continue eliminating in the mesh area. I might later build dividers into the run, or an annex, to facilitate rotation if they are overgrazing.

I'm pretty happy with it (and more importantly, the rabbits seem VERY happy so far). My only concern is the same one I started with: I'm hoping they'll keep eliminating into the wire mesh area, so I don't have to clean the run too often and so I can easily collect their droppings for our garden.

If anybody wants to know how it goes, let me know and I'll try to remember to report back in the spring, after we've raised a few litters. I can post photos of our build, too, later on.

One other thing I'm working on: we live in a pretty hostile high desert climate, and had an awful heat wave this summer, so for next year I'll be building a solar-powered swamp cooler for my rabbit hutches. I'm building it with a 5 gallon bucket, a computer fan, a solar powered pond pump, a boat battery, and some scrap irrigation tubing and pvc. Total cost should be well under $100, plus the battery (which I already had). Happy to share plans and results next summer if anybody is interested.

 

[firestomp]

They wont create enough waste in the run for you to worry about I don't think, the insects will probably deal with that. You are in an entirely different climate than me. So red worms are probably out of the question as the need a good bit of moisture . I would use pine chips instead of straw, they absorb , where straw just stays nasty. if they do have one corner they like to pee in, you can always cut that little section out and put in some 1/2 x 1 cage wire. Problem solved. They WILL pick one spot to pee in. May not be a corner but it usually is. One of my bucks likes to pee in the front corner. So I had to put a guard up to keep it on the sloped floor. I raise some leaf lettuce, clover, radish tops, and chicory, all the animals love it as well as dandelions , any part. But i'm guessing you don't have those there. I use 2 dollar store box fans for the rabbits, and a small circular one for the quail. Not even on high speed. not only does it cool them, but keeps the flies away. Good luck, more importantly. Have fun with it. I hear frozen soda bottles works well, and they will lay against them. Haven't had the need for that here. They are amazingly adaptable critters, and will put on the fur needed for your area. Or less I should say.

 

[Hansbear]

My rabbits have been having babies but not in the nests. Why would they do this? All babies froze to death.

I build my nest boxes on the back of the cages. I connect 4) 30" X 30" or 30" X 36" havahart cages together and build a wood frame under them that sticks out 12" from the back side of the wire cages. Apon that I build a 30" X 12" X 11" nest boxes.

 

[burdboy]

these are my three does the gray one is cricket and she is a nz mutt and the other two are Barbie and Patricia they are Flemish mix

 

[orpington13]

They almost look like my old rabbits.

 

[burdboy]

They almost look like my old rabbits.

awe

 

[firestomp]

Great idea, do you keep them out of them other than 28 days after breeding and raising kits, Like a door or gate you close? Do your babies have the big bone frame of the Flemish? The meat breeds I have used were built for the smallest frame to meat, so the old books say. I know they are strong critters.
Do you have trouble with doe's using the boxes as toilets? If i put my boxes in their toilet corner they will use the box,( learned this quick years ago) even though very pregnant. So I place it in the other corner. No more troubles with that.

 

[firestomp]

Singingtomato, I see you are in NM. Have never been there. Was in Vegas once in the early 80's, we get upper 90's here with real high humidity, so that makes us and animals feel like it's over a hundred. Like wind chill, it affects living things, not batteries and stuff. -10 with a -40 wind chill. is still -10 to objects and so on.