Building a New Rabbit Barn

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Fernie

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Now that we are settled and set in our place here in Kentucky, I have a few projects I want to do. We are planning to build a "Rabbit Barn". We are in the planning stages at this point. I am trying to figure out how big I need to go for up to 60 rabbits. The plan is to start with a trio and adding over time, but I want to be sure to have room to expand and grow as I wish. The rabbit barn will be in the 1/2 acre poultry yard. I want a room to store hay, feed, and other rabbit needs. The floor will be dirt except in the room for hay and supplies storage.

How big would I need to house 60 rabbits and not be cramped or tripping over stuff? If you could get your dream "barn" built how big would you go?
 
Are we talking 60 breeder's plus grow outs? If so it would depend on the size of cages how often you plan on breeding them how much hay your storing. If its what I'm picturing it would take a barn for sure :) I have 4 does and 1 buck and that's plenty for me but if I thought I could make some money and sell all the grow outs i could produce. Then maybe a 24'x32' because I already have that building with maybe 20 -25 does and a few bucks. 60! Good luck :eek:
 
I have a 30ft x 10 ft building that holds 20 cages. Each rabbit has a 30x36 wire cage. Their hay and feed are stored above their cages. The cages are about 4ft off the ground so their poop just falls to the ground for easy clean up. We could have double the cages if we wanted to stack them and have trays underneath. I really feel like more than 20 rabbits in that 300 square foot space would be overwhelming though. If it was me I would want 900 square feet or 30ft x 30ft building for 60 rabbits. I couldn't imagine taking care of 60 rabbits. I would think it would be around a 30 hour a week job just to care for them. You would still have to factor in time for the babies such as butchering them or finding buyers for them.
 
Myself, I would go as big as you can, regardless of how big you NEED. Big barns are never a bad thing if you decide to sell down the road, and we all know how life changes our well-laid plans.

I am about 35 minutes from Middlesboro. Where are you?
 
Marinea":21h01dbr said:
Myself, I would go as big as you can, regardless of how big you NEED. Big barns are never a bad thing if you decide to sell down the road, and we all know how life changes our well-laid plans.

I am about 35 minutes from Middlesboro. Where are you?


I will also have the poultry running under the rabbits so any spilled feed will not be wasted. I was looking at 30x40. We are thinking rabbit barn on there and then having a second barn two pens over for the other livestock. I am 30 minutes west of E-town

-- Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:18 pm --

AmberRae":21h01dbr said:
I have a 30ft x 10 ft building that holds 20 cages. Each rabbit has a 30x36 wire cage. Their hay and feed are stored above their cages. The cages are about 4ft off the ground so their poop just falls to the ground for easy cleanup. We could have double the cages if we wanted to stack them and have trays underneath. I really feel like more than 20 rabbits in that 300 square foot space would be overwhelming though. If it was me I would want 900 square feet or 30ft x 30ft building for 60 rabbits. I couldn't imagine taking care of 60 rabbits. I would think it would be a 30 hour a week job just to care for them. You would still have to factor in time for the babies such as butchering them or finding buyers for them.

I had over 70 breeders at one point when I was up north. I also homeschool all 6of our children, run the farm and a crafting business, and do a ton of other stuff. 60 breeders would be nothing. Although we are not looking to have 60 breeders right now. I would rather have too much room, than not enough room. <br /><br /> -- Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:20 pm -- <br /><br />
Dwc77":21h01dbr said:
Are we talking 60 breeder's plus grow outs? If so it would depend on the size of cages how often you plan on breeding them how much hay your storing. If its what I'm picturing it would take a barn for sure :) I have 4 does and 1 buck and that's plenty for me but if I thought I could make some money and sell all the grow outs i could produce. Then maybe a 24'x32' because I already have that building with maybe 20 -25 does and a few bucks. 60! Good luck :eek:


60 breeders plus grow outs. Although we will not have that many, I need to be able to house that many for the JIC rabbit my husband ma bring home. I also do the butchering. There are 8 of us to feed, plus the dogs and cats. So 60 rabbits may keep up in meat and hides.
 
We had our chickens in the rabbit coop in the past. It worked out well for the chickens to eat the dropped rabbit food. We did however have a problem with the chickens roosting at night and pooping all over the rabbit hutches and supplies. It got too messy for us and we now have the chickens in their own space.
 
AmberRae":1vuvq646 said:
We had our chickens in the rabbit coop in the past. It worked out well for the chickens to eat the dropped rabbit food. We did however have a problem with the chickens roosting at night and pooping all over the rabbit hutches and supplies. It got too messy for us and we now have the chickens in their own space.


That is why we have a separate coop for the poultry. Just they can go into the rabbit barn during the day. We have thought of putting a coop for them attached to the barn. The poultry all wander into the other pens through or over the fencing.
 
just lay out what you want on graph paper, a common mistake is making the isles too narrow. I like 4 foot wide isles, and room to turn a feed or weaning cart at both ends. I have worked 350 doe barns that had 3 foot isles-- bad idea...
 
michaels4gardens":2dolax6p said:
just lay out what you want on graph paper, a common mistake is making the isles too narrow. I like 4 foot wide isles, and room to turn a feed or weaning cart at both ends. I have worked 350 doe barns that had 3 foot isles-- bad idea...


I was looking at wider aisles. We will build a recirculating watering system so there will only be 1 fill spot and no bottles to deal with. We are planning to have good airflow as the last one we only had windows on 2 sides and the doors on the third. We had nothing on the fourth so no way to open windows and let the air circulate. I also plan to have 2 smaller sheds for isolation. One shed for those showing illness and one for new purchases.
 
5ft isles are recommended for disease control. My rabbitry only has 30 inches, so it's squished.
Also, make it extra big so your rabbitry can grow.
 
A friend of mine has one of those prebuilt sheds that they just drop on your property and it's pretty much my new dream rabbitry. Approx 30ft x 12ft with rabbit cages lining both walls, a loft for feed and hay, double barn doors on both ends. Only thing I'd improve upon is ventilation. I'm buying an 8x12 in a few weeks that will move with us when we're finally able to move our manufactured home to our own property sometime this year, then upgrading to something similar to my friend's and converting the 8x8 to a regular storage shed. For her, I imagine she has well over sixty in that barn, comfortably. For me, since I'm planning on adding checkered giants and 4ft custom cages for them... maybe 40 head if i'm lucky.

I agree with Michael, though - get some graph paper and lay things out to scale and give yourself room to expand if down the road you decide 70 head fits your needs better.
 

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