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Thanks, Maggie. This pretty much confirms my feeling about the need for a berm. The picture of the "recreation of Woodbury Court Warren" is pretty much what I have in mind. Apparently people have been keeping rabbits for domestic use for a long time. The wattle fence is a clue.

I have had a pair of NZ whites in a large outdoor pen for three months. The pen is on flat ground and the rabbits have been tunneling underground. I suspect the doe has lost two litters because the ground is unsatisfactory, wet and cold. Three weeks ago I happened to be feeding when I saw the...

Thanks for the good advice. I set my box trap beside the colony pen, baited it with apple and rabbit pellets and on the second evening caught the loose doe. I've not seen the buck lately, so he may be eaten. The doe seemed happy to be back inside. I've a spare buck, but I'm not going to put...

Thanks, Maggie. It appears that I am at least part-way back in business. One of the does, the one that has been tunneling, is back in the pen and I have set bricks in the ground under the fence. I also moved the present feeder-shelter out about a foot from the fence so that there is a clear...

Oh Foo!!!! Last night I was a bit late getting out for a final check on my animals. When I started toward the rabbit pen my light picked up pink eyes in the pasture. Rabbit out. Two of the three were in the pasture, the third still in the pen. I was unable to catch either of the two out...

Do any of you have hay feeders in your colony pens? I think I have acquired a big round bale, 1200 pounds or so, of alfalfa. If so I need a feeder for that. What to use? I think it would have to have a trough under it to catch shattered leaves. and broken stems. They will eat every bite of...

OK; I've got the sucker started. Tomorrow I fashion a roof of some sort, and I need to buy sheet metal sheathing to enclose the sides. Ox<br /><br />__________ Tue Oct 11, 2011 6:19 pm __________<br /><br />Sheesh!!!! I went to town to buy sheet metal, 24" valley materiel, a light-gauge...

What on earth are you people talking about? Here we are talking about killing animals for food, discussing breaking their necks, shooting them in the head with a captive bolt, cutting their throats and letting them bleed to death (which is approved by at least two great religions that discuss...

Maggie; that sounds pretty much like what I'll have to do, but the more "structure" I put in the pen, the smaller the colony space becomes. Ox

Whoa!!!! Now what Coach? I have my bunnies in a 20 foot square pen. The ground is well-drained but flat. There is an A-frame pig shelter in the center. I originally had a feeder out in the open so that the rabbits had free choice. I left town for a few days and thinking it might rain...

Akane: A very helpful post. I too have had rat problems in the past, but as you did I learned that poison works. My favorite is the "One Bite" that consists of little blue pellets in a small plastic sack. I scatter those around the inside of my barn and have no rat or mouse problems. (I...

Jack; I have some cages that are so deep I cannot reach rabbits if they get against the back wall. I made a snare catch; a long aluminum arrow tube with a loop of insulated flexible copper wire through it. One end has a loop, the wire is tied in a knot at the other. I can push the wire...

Jack: My fencing is all on the ground, 2x4 horse panel surrounded by electric wire. I am told that rabbits are not bad about tunneling OUT if they hve something inside to contain their tunnels. As Maggie said, they are tunneling next to a small shelter. My wire will NOT hold kits; I will...

I've never kept rabbits on the ground before. I put a buck and two does in a 20 foot square pen a week ago and the does are already digging. I saw two tunnel entrances this morning and a third this afternoon. All the tunnels start at the edge of a small A-frame pig shelter that was already in...

Maggie; my only experience with ceresia is with cattle. It is a tough forb, and cattle prefer more tender food but will eat the tops of it off if hungry. It makes a very rich hay, and fed as hay in winter the cattle will nose the leaves out of a trough and push out the stems, which are very...

Savvy: The hay feeder is a good feature. What are you feeding in it? What kind of hay? Ox

it is my understanding that rabbits make a central den with lower ranking rabbits extending the warren's edges. (Predators encounter the outer burrows first!) I think it will be very interesting to see what happens here with these outdoor colonies. It seems to me, just from these few posts...

Jared; How about an update on your colony experiment? I notice that my rabbits are using an old piece of tin as shelter, no digging. It is cool here but no frost yet

Maggie; all sorts of complicated!!! I put in a chicken feed bucket, one of those that hold several pounds and gravity feed it into a tray. To avoid mice I pulled it up off the ground and hung it there for the night. Now I notice that the dumb bunnies are settling down against the pen wall...

Maggie; I have no intention of making them do without water; It will be there first thing in the morning, but in the meantime they are eating succulent grass and weeds. They will not perish overnight. Water is easy. How to design a feeder that I can service from outside the colony is a bigger...