Rabbit with chickens?

[000]

Hello! I was considering buying a rabbit in the spring and having it live with my chickens. Should I do it (poll)? I would keep the coop clean and prevent it from getting out, but what about pecking order? Would they include her in this? I don't have overly aggressive hens, and my only rooster is tiny and about 4th or 5th in pecking order. Also would rabbit droppings set off their digestive system or get them sick? Thanks!

 

[Lofty Dreams]

I would advise another enclose for your rabbit. When I put my rabbit in a smaller cage in my one of my past chicken coops, the chickens didn't seem to mind her as much and after a week payed her no attention. Since the ventilation wasn't proper and my chickens decided to dust bathe, I lost my rabbit due to the amount of dust they tilled up. In addition parasites would be more likely to be spread if your rabbits would eat your chickens waste or vice versa as rabbits do eat their own fecal mater.

 

[000]

I would advise another enclose for your rabbit. When I put my rabbit in a smaller cage in my one of my past chicken coops, the chickens didn't seem to mind her as much and after a week payed her no attention. Since the ventilation wasn't proper and my chickens decided to dust bathe, I lost my rabbit due to the amount of dust they tilled up. In addition parasites would be more likely to be spread if your rabbits would eat your chickens waste or vice versa as rabbits do eat their own fecal mater.

Thank you. Do you have an advice on free ranging rabbits? Thanks!

 

[User395221]

You can't really free-range rabbits. You can let a pet rabbit out, but it won't be coming back unless you've trained it/domesticated it/enclosed it sufficiently that it can't dig out and head for the hills. The best you can do it make a large enclosure, but you need to have barriers so it can't dig out.

 

[000]

By free range I meant just not confined to a hutch. It would still be contained in a fence.

 

[User395221]

To contain rabbits in a fence, you need to dig the fence in/create a skirt of some kind to prevent digging out and the depth will depend on your rabbits (I have a giant girl and her digging ability is higher than her "little brother's". Or, you need to mesh the floor of their run as well.

Where do you live? If you're in a predator-prone area, you've probably done that to your chicken coop already?? We have myxomatosis here and we also need to flymesh our runs against mosquitos.

You can make your rabbit run as big as you can afford, taking into account that the fence needs to go down as well as up.

EDIT: they can also jump, so you need it high enough not to be able to be jumped out of, or roofed.

 

[Leisure105]

My daughter brought home a year old rabbit one spring from school. Fredrika had been in a cage all her life and was somewhat tame. At that time we also had a wild female rabbit living under the chicken coop so I let Fredrika run free and she moved in with the wildly under the coop. A month later the wild one disappeared but Fredrika stayed. She lived under the coop for the next 5 years. We have free range chickens and the rabbit started hanging out with them during the daylight hours. It seemed she gott to know the predator alarm cry of the rooster and would head for cover when the chicken did. Safety in numbers I guess....instinct and necessity makes funny bedfellows