Cage lighting

I live out in the country. No street light no neighbors. So my cages are about 200 feet from my house. Is there any cages lights out there. When I check my rabbits at night I use a flashlight and it kinda a pain sometimes

We are careful with flashlights/headlamps. The rabbits freak out and could hurt themselves when they are shined upon. :x Because the roof of the barn is a white tarp, we can shine a light up to the ceiling and it will give a softer, fuller light that doesn't scare the bunnies.

Is a cheap string of white Christmas lights an option ?

Zinnia":190vdrzj said:

The rabbits freak out and could hurt themselves when they are shined upon.

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Really? Mine only freak out with unknown noises in the night. I check them every night and use a headlight....I suppose they are used to it....but I don't remember them being bothered when I first started using it.... :? I suppose all rabbits are different. My buns are pretty mellow though, they just squint when the light hits them. :lol:

Oh yes. Coming into a dark barn with a bright flashlight causes shadows... the light is moving... the rabbits jump and run. I don't consider mine skittish. They are reasonably mellow.

Harbor freight sells some reasonably priced solar powered task lights.

We do have a line of solar powered lights. They are kinda weak in winter and look a bit like an airplane landing strip. Hopefully no one ever lands next to them or they will find themselves in the chicken yard. They do not produce much light but they are good for seeing where you are going. They typically run out of power around midnight. More expensive ones may last longer and/or produce more light.

The lights I am talking about, you mount anywhere, they have an on/off switch, and a small solar panel. They cost about $30 +/-

With the daylight shrinking, we tend our rabbits by flashlight or headlamp and they don't respond with alarm. They don't like the sound of an umbrella being closed or of duct tape being pulled off the roll.

In a few more days the space in the new barn will be ready for them and they can be moved into one space from 2 quite small ones. There will even be lights with a switch!

The solar light idea is appealing. Thinking about the chicken area. But would having the light come on nearby keep them from going in and roosting? :?

Nope, the chickens will be fine. I have a light on in my 8*12 chicken coop 24 hours a day now. Chickens still do there normal chicken thing.

jr farms, like you, we live in the country with no outdoor lighting at night. Don't want to attract unwanted attention.

And, like you, my rabbitry is a couple hundred feet from my house. I do use a flashlight to find my way to the rabbitry at night but I installed two light fixtures with 60 watt light bulbs on the ceiling of the rabbitry. I had previously run 120v power underground, in conduit, to provide outlets for barn fans and an evaporative cooler. Just used a 14 gauge outdoor extension cord to wire in the light fixtures and plugged the factory plug on the extension cord into the outlet. I wired through a wall switch installed next to the entry door so I could turn the lights on and off when entering or leaving the rabbitry without having to unplug the extension cord.

I considered using a dimmer switch so I could slowly bring up the lightning thinking that would help prevent startling the rabbits. We live near a very small town and all I could find at the hardware store was a standard light switch. But they've never reacted at all to my turning on the lights (with no dimmer), even when I get home late on a moonless night. I finally found a dimmer-style switch but haven't even bothered to install it.

I did try moving around the cages one night using a flashlight without first turning on the 60 watt light bulbs. That was a mistake!! As Zinnia said, I think the moving shadows produced by the flashlight seems to freak them out! The rabbits don't seem bothered by any shadows produced by me moving around with the overhead lights on though.

Whether you use solar-powered or 120v, I don't think you'll have problems if you don't use too bright of lighting.

Good luck!

Randy

Our rabbitry doesn't have power at this point so we're using very very strong outdoor extension cords. It currently runs the pump for the water system but with hopes it will also run the Ceiling Fluorescent Light (http://www.lowes.com/pd_271069-13537-27 ... 2&pl=1#img) I had my DH double check amperage and wattage so that I don't have to worry about my barn burning down. Right now I use a head lamp, but I want to make sure the rabbits are getting enough light through the winter. Well at least I'm hoping this will work.

I haven't had any issues with my rabbits freaking out over the head lamp or flashlight. Of course they don't freak out when a hawk or owls lands on the fencing but do if I sneeze. :shrug: Rabbits.

I have four solar panels with two lights each on long wires. There are four lights in the rabbit colony, one in the feed shed, two in the chicken coop and one in the turkey shed. They turn on and off at the panel and on the light itself. I think they are made by Noma, you get a solar panel and one light in a box and you can buy a second light separately. I have had the oldest one for a few years now and it still works great, deep cold in winter, heat in summer, no problem. I don't recall even having to replace the batteries in any one of them yet and the lights are very bright. I have had a problem with the switches on a couple of panels and a couple of lights but it's an easy fix. Along with four solar spotlights, my set up lights up like a little city block at night. I also wear a battery powered head light made by Energizer, it has two intensities of white light, a red light and a green light, it is the single most convenient item I have ever bought.