Keeping chickens and rabbits together??

[chicken farmer]

I just realized and thought about putting my rabbits in my chicken pen,I've seen people do it before but I would love to see peoples pictures,tips and any advice I can get. At the moment I have a new zealand white buck,a netherland chestnut buck,and a netherland dwarf otter doe. I would only put my NZW buck in so they didn't fight/breed and the pen is 20 feet by 20 feet and 6 feet high and theres a 4 by 4 foot coop and 6 feet tall. There's 8 adult chickens and 3 chicks in there plus of course there water pan and chicken feeder. Im was wondering if it was ok if the rabbits ate the chicken feed,of course I will supply rabbit feed but want to make sure it's ok. I buy Dumor layer pellets but I'm sure it will be fine. And in the pen there's roosts,stumps,bushes,logs and big huge part of a tree that the chickens love and there's wire on top and it's real secure. Anyway please give me feedback and any advice and I'd love pictures

 

[lightchick]

Yes, you can, but I've heard that roosters are sometimes mean to the rabbits.

 

[chicken farmer]

My rooster will always attack me but he never really messes with the cats when there free ranging he will be fine

 

[lightchick]

OK. Well I guess there's no hurt in trying! (unless a rabbit is killed

)

 

[chicken farmer]

The only roosters in there is my buff silkie and my ameracauna but trust me they could care less,but any other advice on it I would love and do you know if the layer pellet are ok to digest with the calcium

 

[lightchick]

The only roosters in there is my buff silkie and my ameracauna but trust me they could care less,but any other advice on it I would love and do you know if the layer pellet are ok to digest with the calcium

For the rabbits? Yes, they can eat it, it's just not the best for them so I'd have his own rabbit pellets for him too.

 

[chicken farmer]

Yep I will have rabbit feed out too,I will try to post some pics soon if I have some but if not I'll post some tomorrow

 

[chicken farmer]

Not the best picture(I'll upload a recent one tomorrow) but this was in winter of half the pen and the coop

 

[SIMZ]

No expert here, but we did keep our Flemish Giant in with our chickens for a few years. We started out by putting her hutch and separate fenced area alongside and inside the chicken run. That way they all got used to one another. They had LOTS of room by the way. It worked really well in our situation - although she was a big bunny and could hold her own. She always had her own hutch and was shut in it each night with her own food. Therefore, she had her own "home" base.

Feed: Her priority each morning was to rush into the coop and eat chicken food. She loved it and pretty much ate that even though she had her food available.

Our rough winter pretty much kept the chickens and rabbit separate because the snow blocked her path into the coop - and the chickens didn't venture out into the yard. When the snow melted and the rabbit went into the coop again, I noticed the chickens trying to attack the rabbit. Whether coincidence or not, about this time the rabbit went blind in one eye. Not sure if it was connected or not because I didn't see an injury. A few month later the rabbit lost the use of her back legs and had to be put down. While I don't know what happened, I suspect she broke her back or picked up a disease from being on the ground.

She was only 4 1/2 years old and I often wonder if keeping her outside with the chickens was too hard on her? It was very fun for the rabbit and gave her lots of freedom, though. We couldn't keep our mini rex out there because I know he'd dig himself out in about an hour. lol

 

[chicken farmer]

Thanks for the reply,I thought the chicken feed would be ok and like I said I'm gonna put my NZW buck in there so he's pretty big and that's why I didn't put my netherland dwarfs in there cause they would of dug out haha