chickens & rabbits

[tobyerick]

hello all im thinking of building a bigger coop later this year the one im using now is going to be to small i can tell allready and i only have ten chicks so new coop it is.....im thinking about building a sizeable coop that would allow me to attach rabbit cages on the inside and have there cages extend outside so they can get sun and what not but be able to come "inside" to get warm or out of the rain or what have you......has anyone housed rabbits and chickens together? what are the concerns? especially health concerns will they get to hot in the central texas summers or will the rabbit dropings that could drop in the coop make the chickens sick? any input is apreciated!

 

[my sunwolf]

We house the rabbits in the brooder shed with the chicks, and it works out really well. As far as I know, there's nothing rabbits can spread to chickens and vice-versa. One of the problems we've encountered is heat--the rabbits get really hot in the stuffy barn in the summers. The other problem is that rabbits pee, which makes the bedding under their cages wetter, and necessitates more clean-up of that particular area. Other than that, the setup works great, and the chickens eat up any spilled rabbit pellets.

 

[tobyerick]

im actually trying to work that out right now i think im going to make (for lack of a better term) a poop shoot that slides it out the coop through the wall into a bucket for garden amendments or a worm farm using plastic sheeting or mabey sheet metal.......my wife thinks im crazy and i probably am but i allways like to do things that arent easy so im thinking of adding an intergrated green house to it as well i should have some designs fleshed out in a few days and i will try to post them here for ideas and input i just have to figure out how to over come a few things first.......but here is my curse im a machinist so the little things most people just go ehh its ok those are the things that drive me nuts!