Light breeze vs a harmful draft

We're hitting 90-plus already. Yesterday, I was in someones lattice-sided rabbit shed and he has fans hanging from the rafters, blowing straight down on the cages. It felt pretty comfortable in there... and windy.
At home, I've had a fan drawing air in through a window so it can flow out another, but not blowing directly on the buns. Also, frozen water bottles. (Need to get bigger ones that will last longer.) They still looked miserable, so this afternoon, I added a second fan, set on low blowing across the cages. It's not a wind, just a light breeze.
Should be okay. No? Would you turn that one off at night?
Thanks!

Fans in hot weather are fine. Harmful drafts in winter would be most drafts. In summer, when it's warm, most drafts are fine. Keep the stronger winds off, especially wind that carries rain with it, but fans are good. We have a fan in our rabbitry. It blows mainly down the aisle of the rabbitry, but it does blow into a few cages to a certain extent. We do turn it off at night.

Thanks! They seem to enjoy it.
It sometimes worries me that I worry so much. :roll:

:lol:

I understand the confusion, though... we can frequently be found advising others to work to keep wind and rain off of their bunnies. And then we go and turn fans on them? :shock:

I was wondering about this too, esp living in FL. I was just asking for steamed bunnies without a fan to circulate fresh air and push out humidity. (Plus mosquitoes HATE moving air and I imagine it frustrates flies too)

Yep, when it's hot, bring on the fans!

If you have some rabbits getting direct flow from a fan, just watch them for tolerance issues -- irritated eyes or nose, for instance (from too much drying or dust being blown). I don't know that anyone has ever had trouble with that, just thought I'd throw the thought out there.

Miss M":d4r1dq6d said:

Yep, when it's hot, bring on the fans!

If you have some rabbits getting direct flow from a fan, just watch them for tolerance issues -- irritated eyes or nose, for instance (from too much drying or dust being blown). I don't know that anyone has ever had trouble with that, just thought I'd throw the thought out there.

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For me, I was planning to hang a box fan from a corner (possibly 2 corners if it's not enough, in a giant X wind pattern) so airflow should be at a perpendicular line across a 10ft x 10ft wired space. So not exactly aimed down cage rows as just pushing air across the general area and preferably out. I cannot enclose my rabbits with solid walls without an AC unit in my area - but on the plus side because of it any airflow is good airflow as all the heat heads right out of the wired walls.

I was just really concerned any air flow like that would do more harm than good especially as it's repeated a lot to be careful with that. (I know cats are especially sensitive to this from working at a rescue - the AC and fans actually did more harm than good for felines - but they also have higher "comfortable" temps than humans - rabbits, not so much)

Thank you @karebru for asking this question. It was on my mind a lot as temps are already shooting up in my area and since I'm not coastal here, there is NO seabreeze to offset the baking bunnies. I was just afraid to ask and was even about to return my brand new box fan I had ordered before seeing the "no drafts".

Sali":2vwioxwa said:

.............temps are already shooting up in my area and since I'm not coastal here, there is NO seabreeze to offset the baking bunnies.

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Did you say Florida? I'm inland from Fort Myers, on the eastern edge of Lee County.
Hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.

karebru":239a2fbs said:

Did you say Florida? I'm inland from Fort Myers, on the eastern edge of Lee County.
Hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.

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Well howdy ho there neighbor to the soutttttttthhh of me. I'm in Marion county

Sali":1g6p2ff9 said:

I cannot enclose my rabbits with solid walls without an AC unit in my area - but on the plus side because of it any airflow is good airflow as all the heat heads right out of the wired walls.

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I am well acquainted with the problems you are having... I have lived in Florida and southern Louisiana for most of my life.

Our rabbitry is made of fence pickets that are spaced 1/4" to 3/4" apart, depending on where they are. That would be three sides. The north side is double layer wire fence. We put visqueen over that side in winter to keep the wind out, and rely on the spaces between the pickets for ventilation year-round.

Sali":1g6p2ff9 said:

I was just really concerned any air flow like that would do more harm than good especially as it's repeated a lot to be careful with that. (I know cats are especially sensitive to this from working at a rescue - the AC and fans actually did more harm than good for felines - but they also have higher "comfortable" temps than humans - rabbits, not so much)

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Yep, it's opposite for rabbits. They like it cool... even cold. As long as they are protected from the wind, they pretty much don't care how cold it is. Heat, on the other hand, can be very hard on rabbits. You can breed for heat tolerance within your herd, keeping only those rabbits who can handle it well.

Sali":1g6p2ff9 said:

I was just afraid to ask and was even about to return my brand new box fan I had ordered before seeing the "no drafts".

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The bunnies will appreciate it. Just keep an eye on the box fan... since it's not an outdoor fan most likely, the dust and fur and humidity could combine to shorten its life or even cause a fire (that's RARE -- I'd still use it, and save up for an outdoor fan to replace it with).