Escape Wire Height

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kotapony

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I scored a dog kennel from the neighbors to enclose my colony when I get it set up (right now my buns are growing up in big livestock watering tubs till I get everything set up). This will work fine to keep predators out and adult buns in, but I figure I'll need to wrap some wire around the bottom to keep kits in. Will chicken wire work for this? And how high should it be? I don't know that it matters but the colony will be inside my calf barn, so it will be on a concrete floor with actually two sides made from the barn walls and the other two made from kennel panels.

Thanks!
 
Most chicken wire has 1 inch holes. In the past I would have said that would be fine, but my newest litter of 13 has kits that would fit through. However in a cage, the likelihood that a kit will end up out of the nest box and near the wire before it is too big to fit is probably much higher than in a larger colony. By the time the kits are big enough to leave the nest they wont fit through chicken wire.

I would hang the chicken wire on the INSIDE of the larger kennel wire, so nobody manages to get trapped between the two, and really secure the edges for the same reasons. Chicken wire is flimsy stuff and your adults will be able to bite right through it, though hopefully there will be no reason for them to try--still, monitor it for holes. I would run it at least a foot to 18 inches up the sides. Kits can climb, but usually don't.
 
I did that-- my vote-- 24 inches, and yes, anchor it well, top and bottom, because, if the rabbit finds they can lift the wire, the will squeeze their way between the chain link and the poultry wire. Oh, the poultry wire-- also stretches-- another reason to anchor it well!!
 
Thanks. I'm glad you mentioned putting the wire inside. I'd thought to put it outside figuring it would be harder for the adults to get at to chew on. I never thought about kits getting stuck in-between. Although I've been around animals long enough to know if there's a way they can find to hurt themselves they'll probably manage to do it.

Another thought occurred to me. Would a band of particle board around the bottom be better? OSB board is cheap and would rip in half to make a 24" border. It seems like it would be easier to attach solidly, which no chance of anything getting stuck. At only 24" and then open the rest of the way up I would think there would still be plenty of ventilation. Or is that a worse idea for reasons I'm not thinking of?
 
the big issue with OSB is sanitation and ingestion. You will need to waterproof it, and I don't recommend letting rabbits chew on OSB-- the formaldehyde in it == well,you get the idea...
 
I think the wire will be easy enough to attach--I laced a layer onto my chicken coop walls by just "sewing" it on with aanother piece of wire. It takes a little while, but it isn't hard.
 
eco2pia":mq69vssa said:
I think the wire will be easy enough to attach--I laced a layer onto my chicken coop walls by just "sewing" it on with aanother piece of wire. It takes a little while, but it isn't hard.
Click to expand...

This reminds me-- if you have a larger animal, or even a rabbit sized one, prone to pushing out the chain link fabric and getting caught-- 'lacing' the fence fabric to the frame is a potential lifesaver-- I used electric fence wire to do this on the last kennel I used-- it sure helped secure the whole pen. and no sheep legs got torn up!
 

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