Just another colony idea .. input requested?

I'm in the process of building a colony for my rabbits.

I'm well aware of the "issues" that could arise from putting 5 does together and can/will separate if needed.

My main question revolves around the "layout" of the colony.

It's 10' wide x 20' long.

I was planning on 4 "pens" alone one of the long sides. Each 4' x 5' with some vertical space added. These "pens" would be for the bucks. All of the remaining space would be for the does.

I also toyed with the idea of doing a 10' x 10' area at the "rear" of the space then putting 2 "pens" on each side.

[album]3024[/album]

With the first idea, all of the bucks can "participate" in the colony.

But with the second idea, I can have an area to walk through without worrying about stepping on anything I shouldn't be! Plus I'm thinking it might be easier to "split" the doe pen if I need to.

Maybe I'm over-thinking this. LOL

Anyone have any input? <br /><br /> __________ Sun Oct 26, 2014 7:58 am __________ <br /><br /> Well, I've made up my own mind.

Going to do one similar to the first pic. I need to add a water closet (insulated) so the buck pens will be smaller, but I'm sure they'll still enjoy having digs that are more than 2x as large as what they live in now!

Great Idea! Sorry no one got back to you! :shock: I didn't see your post until I looked at the unanswered posts.

Thanks for the reply!

It's currently "in progress". Slab is poured, frame is up (harbor freight carport) and the sides and back had the wire put on them yesterday. Today we will be working on the interior dividers & maybe the front. Depends on how much hubby feels like doing, since today is his bday. But ... today is going to be the last "nice weather" day we have for a couple of weeks, thanks to that cold front coming in!

Keeping width is important for the does to be able to pass each other and possibly a litter without argument. Colony does do not like nest boxes if they've never used them before so you can have litters in rather random places sometimes. I would prefer a pen that is not smaller than 6' in either direction. In the first setup your buck pens would have to be 4' wide for that. There are plenty of colonies smaller that get along but they often have only a trio of related or raised together does with the buck or smaller rabbits.