considering a colony. I have some questions.

Hi! We are wanting to start raising meat rabbits. I like to allow animals to live as naturally as poossible. My chickens have a pen, but free range most of the time.
I've been considering a colony. I do not have a building available to house them in. So whatever we do, has to be built, and relatively cheaply at that. I was thinking of building a tractor or hoop house of sorts for the rabbits. It wouldn't move though. I don't have the room for that. I was planning for it to be 8'x 8'. I was thinking I would put 2"x4" wire on the bottom so they can't dig out and the walls and roof would be 1/2" hardware cloth. It would be tall enough to walk into and the roof souls be covered with a tarp that goes down the two side walls.
I do want to control the breeding a bit, so I was planning a divider. I want to close off a 2'x8'end for the buck and the young boys. I plan to not feed pellets, so I know they may take longer to grow out, which is another reason for a partition.
Does all of this sound reasonable?
I'm not sure about the nesting areas. I was thinking I would build some elevated hutches for nesting areas. Then they would have the space underneath the hutch available as well. Should I build them about 18" off the ground so they can get under them, or should I put the nesting tunnels on the ground so they can climb on top of them?
I plan to use straw or shavings on the ground to be able to keep it clean.
Or should I call the whole thing off and go with cages?

Welcome

There's a thread with people making covered areas with cattle panel.

I want to close off a 2'x8'end for the buck and the young boys.

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It is highly likely that the mature buck will attack them to try and drive them away from his does so a separate pen for the boys is needed. The young bucks will start fighting with each other after 12 weeks and will need to be butchered or caged indiviually. Also, rabbits can breed through wire so the dividing wall will need to be a double wall of wire with at least a 2 inch space between them.

I plan to use straw or shavings on the ground to be able to keep it clean.

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it will still get pretty stinky in a short amount of time since the urine is likely to seep into the dirt. Perhaps framing in the sides and having a 12 inch deep bedding of straw or woodchips would help prevent this but the rabbits may still dig down to the dirt level. I would line it in patio stones and do a 2-4 inch deep bedding and have metal/plastic trays in the corners for added protection.

Should I build <the nestboxes> about 18" off the ground

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I would not raise them up as the kits will not be able to get back in once they start exploring at 2 weeks old and can die of the cold. Baby rabbits must huddle togeather to maintain body temperature and their mothers will not pick them up and return them to a nest like a dog or cat. Ground level, or 1/2 inch off the ground if you're worried about them rotting, would be best.

Welcome to RT!

There is a lot that goes into successful colony raising, especially for someone new to rabbits. In your shoes, I would probably start with cages. Take a look at the cattle panel idea. Later on, after you have worked out the kinks in your rabbitry (and there will be kinks), you can look at converting to a colony.

If you are set on the colony idea, Dood's advice is spot on (as usual).

:welcome: :mbounce:

It really sounds like you should start with just a few rabbits and cages. You can always move them from cage to colony, or back to cage if anything goes wrong, or if anyone needs separated. (ask anyone on here, EXTRA EMPTY CAGES ARE ALWAYS GOOD)

6x8 seems really small for more than one doe unless they are REALLY good friends, 2x8 is for the buck, right? he would try to attack, or mount younger bucks, so they will need a separate place, from him, and each other. (those empty cages are looking handy already)

Many people who have colony rabbits remove the does when they are ready to kindle, this prevents re-breeding and allows the does to raise their babies without stress from other does. (another use for those handy extra cages)

and what dood said about urine build up in a stationary setup. That's a very real concern. Ammonia is very damaging to a rabbits lungs.

also even one rabbit will quickly destroy all grass in such a space, so all forage will have to be gathered and delivered by you.

You may be able to keep the young bucks together for up to 6 months. If one starts a fight, butcher. But it very often works, as long as they have enough space. I'd build a separate pen for them. Mine are about 4.5 square metres, not sure what that is in feet. I've never had an isssue with fighting, but it may be that I simply have a nice line of rabbits.

I havn't had any issues with smell in the dirt-floor pens, but a nice floor is good. Easier to clean and sanitize. Concrete or wood works as long as you have a decent amount of bedding. Wood can be treated with good paint, they won't gnaw unless there are edges they can get their teeth to. Usually they chose a potty corner, be extra careful when cleaning that.

Having a 6x8ft area for two does, preferably sisters raised from the same litter, and a 2x8 area for a buck may work. But I think you'd need two other pens for grow-outs (one for does and one for bucks)

Grass won't last in the pen.

If you want to give the rabbits more space than regular cages, an option is to build large-ish hutches in 3 levels for the adults and have grow-out pens for the kits. Or have cages for all. Solid floors+bedding is the standard over here.

I find this solution very neat: Each ''door'' can be made into a separate cage by sliding a board in. If I see right, it's 6 large cages now, but can be divided into 12 normal sized ones. Even if you don't build something like this, it may be an idea to make an option to set cages together.
http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/f6e/f6 ... 55/bur.jpg
The picture is borrowed from this thread: http://kanin.ifokus.se/discussions/5056 ... -tva-boxar

don't rule out cages as a useful addition. I do a modified colony with my bucks in cages, my does have a big room to themselves and i recently added a growout room for the youngsters.

Thanks for all of your replies! I hate the idea of "wasting" the money on cages only to go to a colony later, but I suppose it wouldn't really be a waste. I think I will go with cages after all. Now I just need to figure out...everything else. I thought the hardest part would be finding rabbits.
I am going to go with very large cages though. I do want them to have space to move around. Since they will be outside, can I use 1/2 hardware cloth all around? I am in a rural setting. I've seen a fox right across the street. Do they need to be enclosed in some sort of building to protect from predators or will they be okay in their cages with a roof over their heads?
The only flat area I have to put any kind of housing is back near the woods where the grass doesn't grow very well anyway. I figured it wouldn't last very long.

The floor would need to be something else, RabbitTalk taught me (I have no experience of wire floors as we don't use them in sweden). I would imagine that hardware cloth need to be supported by a good structure, like a good wood frame, or metal if you can work it, but other than that it should be good for foxes and other predators. At least if your hardware cloth is the same as the type we have.
I don't know how floors work though, I've heard that predators can get a hold of rabbits through the floors. Doesn't happen here so I wouldn't know.

But to me it sounds like a good plan

Remember to put large doors on large cages. It helps a lot if you get a shy rabbit.

I wouldn't consider it being wasted as you also should keep in mind that there may be times you need to quarrentine a rabbit or 2 due to illness or whatever.

Perhaps a cage colony?
Imagine a row of cages, but really it is all one long one. On top you could add a second level or seperate growout cage colony.. and you could have it however high off the ground you need so could clean out beneath for the garden or farm worms there.
As said though make sure the floor of large cages is supported properly. It will sag and be bad for the whole if it gets too saggy. I had self built 3' by 5' by 2' tall growout cages that i ended up putting on salvaged<br /><br />__________ Mon Dec 02, 2013 3:09 am __________<br /><br />On salvaged bunkbed/futon sections and hanging from that. ((The part the mattress goes on. Also perfect to mount ffor goat hay feeders ))

I have mine in a 4x10 tractor. 2 does and 1 buck +babies. They have a loft that serves as the home/nesting area. I have the loft 18in off the ground. If it wasn't off the ground when it rains, they would get flooded. I have only had one kit(6day old) death with it crawling 12ft from the tractor. My 2 week old babies stay in the loft no problem and they slowly experiment with the ramp til they are running up and down with the other rabbits. I keep a nest box in the loft at all times because we have kits every 33 days. The dominate female breeds with the buck, but I take the lesser female out and breed her with another buck the day the other kindles. They share the same nest and nurse each others kits. I see more aggression issues with rabbits kept in cages all alone. They just don't know how to interact with others. I have not been able to colonize the older rabbits, they fight non stop (blood and fur every where), but the younger rabbits that I put in a colony at 8weeks old have done real well and as adults they are more acceptable when new ones are added to the herd. I am trying a roaster right now and I had to remove him from the group because he was pollinating the others. I don't approve of line breeding in my herd. He got put in a cage by himself and he went crazy, mental case that one. I'm gonna have to harvest sooner than planned because he is so miserable. I wouldn't recommend switching back and forth from colony to single cages.

I also have a question. Someone who is interested in raising rabbits asked about maintenance--how often do you need to check on them. I told her twice a day for me to make sure all is well in their hutches and crates. Turns out she has land outside of the city that she goes to on weekends, and wanted to keep rabbits there where they had room. I still don't think it's a good idea at all, but I'm speaking from my situation. How do colonies function? Do you work with the group each day? If you were to have the rabbits "free range", it woukd have to be an enormous space with A LOT of vegetation and grass, and then would have to be moved to another enormous space, correct? And the less contact you have with rabbits, the more fearful of people unless they happen to be an entirely vulnerable bun. Just checking if my instincts are right, or if I have tunnel vision.

I check on mine daily.. and I want them used to me. But I guess, as long as they are guaranteed fresh water and fresh feed at all times.. they won't be sad to be left alone.

They'd be more shy and if something happened (disease, illness, injury) it propbably wouldn't be found in time..