Rabbits and chickens? Question-heavy post!

[Artie]

Hello everyone,
This is my first post - but I've been reading the threads like crazy. I love this place and I just know that someone here will be able to help with my questions.

I have never had chickens but I am picking up my 8 chicks next week and am so eggcited I can't hardly sit still. Me ---->

.

Here's where the questions start. While perusing Craigslist for something I could use for a brooder I came across a hutch that a guy is selling along with the rabbit that lives in it. This poor rabbit looks so depressed! So now I am interested in this hutch because I want to rescue this rabbit.

My chicks have priority though. Would I have to worry about my chicks getting a disease from the rabbit? From the pictures the rabbit doesn't look sickly, it just looks sad and lonely. I wouldn't put the chicks with the rabbit of course, but they'll probably be in the same room in my house until the weather warms up.

When the chicks are chickens, and out in their pen in the yard, could I put the rabbit in with them? Do rabbits and chickens do okay together? I have a couple of big dogs, so I'm going to have to pen my critters at least till the canines are trained so I'd like to minimize the number of pens I have in my yard!

If I wanted to use this rabbit hutch for a brooder in the future, I assume I should sterilize the heck out of it?

How many chicks would a brooder that's 5' by 3.5' be comfortable for?

Thanks in advance to any and all advice. I look forward to getting to know you all.

Artie

 

[violetsky]

The hutch might be hard to keep clean. I use plastic moving boxes to brood chicks, they
are very cheap and easy to clean and can be reused for other things. The chicks
will grow very fast and will need a chicken specific coop. 8 chickens will be a lot bigger
than 8 chicks. I don't think rabbits are very gregarious creatures and might find a lot
big pointy beaked things and 2 dogs a little stressful to be around. That said I'm sure
someone out there has chicken and rabbits that are pals.

 

[mrsmaonaigh]

We have free range chickens and bunnies out in the back yard. We have the rabbits penned separately from the chickens. There is nothing but chicken wire separating them and the chickens always go over to greet the rabbits. The girls will get down and look at the bunnies and the rabbits will sniff. But the one time one of the bunnies got loose in our back yard it was chaos. Feathers were flying, the hens were screeching and the bunny was terrified crouching under a bush. My grandfather used to keep rabbits and chickens together but I don't know how he did it.

 

[alhanse77]

We used to free range our 4 chickens and 2 bunnies in the yard all of the time. They generally stayed away from each other. The only problem was keeping the bunnies from escaping from the yard!

 

[lady feathers]

My rabbits when let out of their cages are pretty laid back, if you introduced them while the chicks were pretty young it may keep them from acting flighty whenever the rabbit moves around the yard (they can be pretty fast- which may cause chickens to panic thinking they are running from a predator maybe?). My guess though would be if you decided to throw together a simple "A" frame tractor for the rabbit everyone would be happy. Your soon to be bunny probably just needs some out of the cage timeand some regular interaction to make him happy and keep him healty! If you did this you don't have to worry about him taking off on you and getting out of the yard or under a bush, etc... what a pain it can be to catch them! And everyone can safely interact just incase someone doesn't get along.... plus then your new bunny isn't getting into things he/she shouldn't like your landscaping. Honestly though I don't see why you shouldn't be able to have them together outside, especially since your chickens aren't grown yet!

 

[BigDaddyMM]

I free range my Girls and I have 3 wild bunny's that hang around my yard all the time. So far they have stayed away from each other.