I'm Baaaaaack! ...and building a rabbitry. (Help!) :)

HI! Well, we've moved, and got internet service, only to have it knocked out by a storm. Haha!

Anyhow, now that my uncle realizes that the rabbit thing was meant to be permanent, and is on board (which is good, since it's his house...), we are getting ready to build a small rabbitry.

We're figuring six 24"x30" cages -- one for the buck (Thumper), three for does (one of which is Pearl), and two growout cages. We have another, slightly smaller (24"x24") cage to use in a pinch or for quarantine.

We'd like to build in a simple system that takes the waste, perhaps sheeting it into a gutter that drains into a bucket of peat moss or something. Something that I can hose off a little every day or two to keep things clean and the smell down. I know I've seen some things about this, but naturally I can't locate the information now. :? Can y'all help me? (I am so ready to be done with litter!) Do you have to use urine guards to keep them from overshooting?

I could really use some info on hanging cages and related support and stuff too.

Any and all small rabbitry advice would be greatly appreciated!

We'll be able to screen the thing in with the window screens from the house that haven't been in since the security system was installed -- which was quite a while back. I got used to flies not being around with the buns being on that screened porch at our apartment. Seeing them around the rabbits troubles me, with all I've seen on here about flystrike.

Oh -- one thing I learned from the move: 10-week-old kits in a cardboard box will escape from it through a hole they make themselves in about 5 minutes. We ended up using the 24"x24" cage in the back seat of the car, with lots of hay in it, on top of towels, on top of a tarp. Pearl and Thumper were in carriers. Worked out great. Sure am glad I discovered the box problem before we put them in the car! :x

Glad to see you back, Miss M, and very glad you survived the move!

The only thing I have to suggest is that you consider making those cages bigger than 24" x 30". I can understand having them only 24 inches deep, so you can reach to the back easily, but perhaps you could make them 36 inches wide, especially for the does who have to share space with rambunctious kits. Just thought I'd mention this now, while you are still in the planning stages.

My cages are 30 by 36 inches. I find it difficult to reach all the way to the back and wish now I had made them 24 by 48 inches. I like the rabbits to have room to hop a bit.

I have a picture of a 6 cage hanging hutch on my blog. It is the first one I bought. The center cages are 30"x36" and the cages on the ends are 30"x30". I've since built one larger that hold 6- 30"x36" cages. I roofed them together to form a building that I can hang tarps on in the winter and make it an enclosed "building". I can also hang a flourescent shop light out there when needed. Here are links to the pictures. You could use something different (I suggest used shower doors) for the 'poop shoots' and add a gutter system. I just use long totes to sweep into and lime, lime, lime.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bePDMfeS-RM/S1KQ9bPUJqI/AAAAAAAAADk/0elPw5EhZGA/s1600-h/101_0162.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bePDMfeS-RM/S7AHHzPf60I/AAAAAAAAAIE/tcCDfU1F6z0/s1600/101_0357.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bePDMfeS-RM/S7AGaPGqKuI/AAAAAAAAAH8/W3DCUZOLuoc/s1600/101_0356.JPG

Good luck!

Thank you, both of you!

Maggie - I've shown drawings to Shaygetz using 24x36 cages for each of the four adults, and also using 24x48 cages for the does. Have to run it by my uncle as well, since as drawn it goes in front of a window, but perhaps we will do a narrower, 3-high setup. I'd rather not, though, since I'm only 5' tall. But I wanted to let you know that your advice is well taken.

pfaubush - Those pictures were just what we needed! Thank you so much! The lime - does that cut smell, or just help break things down?

Oh, and it looks like the storage room it will be adjacent to has the right kind of wiring for Shaygetz to tap off of and run a fan out to the buns!

The lime cuts the smell a great deal. I use it in my bunny barn as well as with the hutches and don't have any odor problems.

Where does one buy lime?

What did it cost for materials to make your hanging cage setup?

Do the cages start swinging on windy days?

TIA

I'll have to get pics when our rabbitry is done.
We are hanging cages to.
But with our Wi winters all the rabbits are inside the enclosure thats kinda like a big shed.
I will have 10 hanging cages, 30x36.
We have 6 hanging now and they are hung with wire we buy cheap by the spool.
The cages are fastened together for stability when the buns hop around. I just used zip ties to connect the cages to make a long row of them.

I dont use anything underneath because the cages are single rowed.
I have a sand floor which is natural....our land is sand in the high areas and loom in the flood plain.
I toss pines shavings and scrap hay on the floor and the 3 chickens living in the rabbitry keep things well stirred up and eat scraps the rabbits spill. I just periodically rake it all out and lay new ground cover to keep it fresh.
I add DE to prevent cooties.
For me its as easy to maintain as the chicken coop.

We also let rain wash through under the walls as that cleans the sand so no ammonia build up.

The best part with the Angoras is the dangle poops that get hung up on the wire floor are now easy to get to with a hand broom to quickly wipe off. No more dangle poops plugging up the wire floor.

I also toss cardboard in each cage so buns can get off the wire if they choose and most prefer to lay on the cardboard.

Cost for us was cheap. A large spool of wire was 8 bucks and its more than needed for all 10 cages.
I used screw eye bolts in the beams of the roof and that was cheap.
The cages cost the most, 30 bucks each at the farm store, assembly required, but for us thats cheaper than making them ourselves. The cages last a long time too. Most of mine are 5 plus years old, some a lot older. I have 4 new ones we bought this past month.

Yes, I meant to ask about the cage swinging thing too, pfaubush... do the cages swing about when the rabbits hop or when it's windy?

Thank you for the description, R.Pines! (I remember seeing you at HT) It'll be great to have pics.

I think you can get lime at hardware stores, home improvement & gardening stores, or feed stores. Is that right?

You can find lime at Home Depot in the garden section. I think you can find it at Wal-Mart too.

As far as the cages swinging, I have the ones in the first hutch held up by S-hooks into angle iron, so there is no give to swing. In the second one, I used chain. I hang them with the chain on all 4 corners at an angle and that stops them from moving. I will try to explain it with a visual (sort of). Imagine side walls on the cage. My cages DO have four sides, but I couldn't get the keyboard to do that. LOL

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As for the cost, it ran me about $150 for the lumber, nails, mending plates, etc. The 'poop shoots' cost me about $100. Like I said, if I ever did it over again, I would use old shower doors or something off of craigslist for much less investment. The cages were spendy. I bought all of the wire from Bass and paid shipping. I have since found a place a couple of hours away (I travel there for my feed and to sell rabbits anyways) that is about 1/2 the cost with wire that is just as good.<br /><br />__________ Tue May 25, 2010 7:28 pm __________<br /><br />Ugh, my visual looked good when I typed it, but something got lost in the posting. The top portion gives the idea of the angle I was talking about.

I get barn lime right at the local farm store.

Just to clarify.. there are two kinds of lime. Horticultural lime that is in garden centres and is usually pelletized and Spraying Lime which is what is used in barns to whitewash them.We used spraying lime to put under our horse's bedding to cut odours and kill germs.But that was before stall-Dri. I use pellet lime in the garden where there is a lot of manure and it helps the veggies grow.

I've used horticultural limestone (just ground limestone really) in the chicken house to cut odors. It seemed to help. Stirring the litter so it can dry out also helps.

The barn lime we buy comes in 50 pound bags, powered.
Its for farm and outhouse.
Farmers use it to for when they bury a carcass.

Thats the only lime I am familiar with.

pfaubush - thank you, yeah, it can be fun getting those things to line up right!

Okay, so I put my order in to Bass last night (no rabbitry cages being sold around here... just those little pet starter cages. Even at the feed store.

They didn't have 24x48s for me to price compare, so I got 24x36s for Thumper and the does. I got valves for 2-liter bottles, because with the heat, they are going through water like crazy, and I don't want the bottles dripping out on me. I got some of their Fine-x J feeders. Nobody sells wire around here at a price that would make it worth it to build our own cages, so we got the kits. Pearl will be so happy that the babies will be in growout cages before long!

Thank you all for the ideas and info!!!!! :bow: :bow: :bow: