Keeping rabbits and chickens together!?!

[Tressa27884]

Thanks Hencam! I keep my run pretty clean so it shouldn't be an issue. Easter and Trix will be so much happier!

 

[LyonFuzz]

My rabbits have never gotten sick. One of them is pure white and I know I would have seen poo on his backside if that were the case They have been living with the chickens for close to 10 years.

 

[crazymama4]

We are new to chicken-raising...our hens are about 12 weeks old, and in a great coop/covered run that my husband built. We also have two dwarf rabbits that belong to my daughters that I am thinking of moving out with the chickens. We have had the rabbits for two years and have tried various housing situations, none of which are satisfactory. They use a litterbox, but it gets very stinky, even with daily changing. The rabbits also dig in the litterbox wildly, making rabbit poop go flying all over the floor. We had them outside for a bit when we first got them, in an outdoor hutch and run, but found that they were always digging their way out, and they were very difficult to catch. So, we brought them in. Now that we have chickens, I thought we could have the rabbits free in the coop, which is much bigger than any rabbit cage, and let them out in the chicken run for supervised playing. I would keep their rabbit cage in the coop, under the nest boxes, and put them in there during the day when the chickens are allowed access to both the coop and run, so that they can't dig out. At night, I would let them run freely in the coop. What does everyone think of this idea? My husband is hating the rabbits in the house, so I nned to come up with something!!!

 

[denasfarm]

I raised chickens and rabbits together for a while. They had huge 1/2 acre fenced runs and with plenty of space to get away from each other if needed. I kept the males in cages and only caged the bred females. The main problem we had was the rabbits stay up all night and attrack roaming dog packs. The dogs would break in Kill a few rabbits while the majority would hide in PVC cubby holes and then the dogs would take out my sleeping chicken flocks.
The pens without rabbits were never hit. The ones with rabbits were hit multiple times. I gave up on rabbits and only have chickens now.
It works...as far as them getting along if you have a way to lock them up at night and keep dogs away.

We had something like 50 rabbits in with with 50 or so RIR, RIW and Barred Rock pens.(Not all in the same pen) and they were annoyingly friendly to the point you would trip over them while feeding.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

We have one rabbit left, George, and he runs with the chickens in the yard during the day and they get along fine, but I don't know how'd they act living together 24/7?

~ Aspen

 

[Yuperrose]

Well, I've done that twice with a single male rabbit and, for me, both times the rabbit became friendly with the chicken on the lowest end of the pecking order. It wasn't until the second time I did it that I realized just how friendly they were! Trust me when I tell you a male rabbit will "fall in love" with a hen. The second rabbit literally wore off the feathers on the poor hens back. So, I would have to say it is NOT a good idea.

Because of the male rabbits' reaction to hens, I would assume the other posts talking about the rooster harming the female rabbit would also be likely. If you had adequate room to have a pair of breeding rabbits it might work, but I'm willing to bet any resulting babies would be in jeopardy...especially if you have a rooster!

Bottom line: it's just not natural and much healthier for all to live with their own species.

 

[Dutchgirl]

Our rabbits' cages are in the chicken coop, but they stay inside their cages (hopefully ). It's safer for two reasons: 1) the chicken coop is already protected against predators and 2) if the rabbits do somehow get out of their cage during the night, the chickens are locked up anyway.

However, I don't trust the chickens to not hurt the rabbits, especially because we have several roosters. Occasionally we do fence off one part of the coop to let a rabbit run, but we supervise it at all times.

We let our first rabbit run during the day in a dog pen with a non-aggressive blind rooster. The rabbit was totally fine (in fact, being a buck, the rabbit used the poor rooster to practice on). We would lock up the rabbit at night to protect it from predators and from digging a hole out.

 

[Dutchgirl]

We had a rabbit slip into a cage with a rooster and he was attacked. He ended up with fly larvae implanted in his skin, and his testicles infected/destroyed. Vet bill was $70+. Other times we have let rabbits run around with the chickens while we watch them, and the chickens are nervous, but haven't attacked. Since then, some rooster has blinded my duck, a hen and another rooster in an eye. Arrgh! So, I wouldn't take any chances with my rabbits.

 

[farmboy22]

Joel Salatin keeps rabbits in cages above the hoop house floor and had yearling hens on the bottom. there was also a wood burning stove to heat it in the cold.

 

[zengrrl]

Omg - what a gorgeous boy. What kind of rabbit is that Navy mom?