Rabbits and Chickens

I was wondering if anyone has insight in the following:

I have read that Joel Salatin and others have set up rabbit barns in which chickens live on the ground under the rabbits. I currently have some duckling muscovies in my rabbitry and had intended to use the area as an intermediate step between brooder and chicken tractor/yard for future chicks. A friend told me that they were told not to keep poultry with their rabbits in this way because the poultry will give the rabbits mites.

What say ya'll? :?

We just finished our "Raken House" as Joel calls it. I did research it before hand and like anything else you'll find conflicting info. Overall, if Joel thinks it's a good idea, I trust him, but that's me. And if your coop/raken house is kept clean & the chickens and rabbits are both healthy, then it's less likely you'll have problems. Good airflow/circulation is what is really important. In order for a chicken/duck to give a rabbit mites, I think the rabbit would have to come in contact with the chicken/duck or their litter, etc. I don't know for sure.? I'm trying to let my chickens free range as much as possible, in order to lesson the amt. of time they are in with the rabbits. These are my thoughts, although I'm no expert. Glad to hear someone else is doing the Raken house, or thinking about it!

Mites don't spend all of their time on the host animal- they like to hide in crevices, etc. Food-grade Diatomaceous Earth is a great miticide (kills any insect/bug that has an exoskeleton), and providing the birds with a pile of it to dust bathe in will prevent infestations. You could also rub some into the rabbit's fur every once in a while, and dust their cages with it to prevent problems.

Coccidia is another concern, although opinions vary on whether coccidia is host-specific. As long as the rabbit's feed and water are not contaminated with bird feces it shouldn't be an issue.

The concern I have seen mentioned most here on RT is the dust created by the chickens. Not only their scratching behavior, but the dust from their feathers, especially when they are getting new ones- the sheath that sheds off degrades into a fine powder. From my experience brooding chicks in the house, they are incredibly dusty!

I know that a couple of members have had a similar set-up, and one of the benefits is the birds will clean up any spilled feed. One member did have their chickens attack and kill some young kits when they just started coming out of the nestbox, and it was quite gruesome.

Currently my quarantine cage is in the chicken run, and I have had no issues. When our vegetable gardens are not in production I let our chickens free range, and they love to get under the rabbit cages and make a terrible mess by scratching all of the waste hay out in their search for bugs and dropped feed. None of my rabbits have any parasites that I know of.

If you decide to give it a try, let us know how it works out for you!

If you have a rooster,,he might not like the bunnys

My chickens used to free range under the rabbit tarp-- no issue UNLESS they got on top of the cages--

Hen over Rabbit
A nasty critter habit
Rabbit Over Hen
A happy critter pen

Frosted Rabbits":25zv2s8r said:

no issue UNLESS they got on top of the cages--

Click to expand...

And they will get on top of the cages. I have a roo that gets on top of the rabbit cage all the time, but I have corrugated plastic on top, so no poop issues.

Before our rabbits were on pasture, we had one house rabbit. We routinely dumped all the rabbit waste in the chicken coop. The chickens had zero interest in it.

We went to Polyface for their last Farm Field Day and saw the raken. For being so big on pasture fed livestock, I wasn't really impressed with the raken. The breeding does and bucks never leave their cages in the hoop house. Only the growout fryers are on pasture. The hoop house is huge. I mean... HUGE. During the summer, both ends are open for ventilation. The chickens tend to stay on the ground because that's where the food is - rabbit droppings, rabbit feed that falls to the floor, left over veggie/greens pieces that fall from the rabbits and pulled veggies put in the coop specifically for the hens. They use the raken only for their 2-year-and-older stew birds who aren't really producing eggs as much. I think they had roosts in there for the hens to discourage them from trying to get on top of the cages. The tops of the rabbit cages were a good 5' high. Chickens can roost higher than that but with roosts easier to get to, they didn't seem to have a problem with chickens on top of the cages.

I agree with the concept in theory but it struck me as incongruent with their farming philosophy.

Thanks for the input. I have also noticed that my rabbits aren't very happy with the ducks getting under their cages even though there is not contact. So, if for no other reason but to have non-edgy non-stressed rabbits I think it is better to separate them and nix any ideas of having chickens in there as well. I knew ya'll would have good advise!

My rabbit pens are set up inside my chicken yard and I have no issues. The chickens help cut down on bugs and eat any wasted pellets and hay that the rabbits toss through their cage. My pens are covered with plywood so the birds cannot poop into the pens, and they are elevated pretty high off the ground. If the pens are too low, the chickens can peck at the rabbits and even kill small kits through the wire.

The only thing I don't like about this set up, is the chickens always scratch through the rabbit manure and toss it into the walkway. You can't keep the manure in nice, neat piles for easier clean out with a shovel.

I had originally planned to set mine up like Salatin's, with raised rabbit cages above the chicken run area, but ended up changing my mind for a couple of reasons.

One, I don't really like having to go into the chicken run all the time, especially when the weather is bad. I know that if I had the rabbits in there, they would get less attention from me.

Two, I like my rabbit droppings neatly stacked where I can "harvest" it easily for use all over the garden.

Three, the chicken's yard is much more open and sunny. My layers like to sun themselves and dustbathe all the time, and to put up enough shade that the rabbits would be happy would deprive them of their sun.

I have a rabbit tractor and free-ranging chickens with a small covered roost, all inside a single length of poultry electronet fence. The bunnies are covered with corplast -- aka advertising signs from the local mini-mart -- both for shade and for chicken poop purposes. The chickens have their wings clipped to keep them in the 4' net fence, and I have never seen any poop atop the rabbit's roof. The chicken roosting area is about 1' off the ground and they happily roost there at night. Now talk about poop! That's where the poop happens. When the rabbits are moved, the chickens like to dig about in their wake. It's working out very well for us.

I have a bantam chickens and rabbits, in an 10x10x6 chain link dog kennel, divided in half by a extra gate panel (it has three gate panels one on either end and one in the middle, with wire and a tarp on top. I use the deep litter method by using about 2 - 3 feet of oak leaves. By this time of year, it just looks like I have loose dirt, in there. The chickens keep it all moved around, the is no smell. I also have 6 rabbits under my back porch, bunny berries galore and getting a slight smell.
- I would not keep ducks in there, when I took advantage of being able to keep the chickens on one side and the ducks on the other, it smelled. Ducks and geese keep things wet!
- Pictures of the (grown up) ducks and geese, are in my gallery.

We have successfully had the Raken setup for a few months now. I've been to a few other rabbitries, all which stunk (at least a little) and had a fly problem. I can say that with the chickens under the rabbits, there is no stink and no flies. Of course the chicken poo stinks when fresh, but there is never a buildup of rabbit urine smell. I would agree that one disadvantage is not being able to collect the rabbit droppings, you can't even see the droppings-the chickens scratch them into the litter. But, I figure twice a year, when I clean the coop out, I will have plenty of good stuff to add to the garden. So far, with our setup and situation, it's a win win!!!

Can you clean the rabbit droppings up from under the cages and give it to the chickens in their separate pasture? I was thinking I could make a pile in their pen and let them scratch through it to their hearts content.

Tm, I do that with the wet spots where there are maggots, and also when I clean out all of the old bedding. There are usually lots of earwigs in there too. I rake up the waste hay and grains and feed that to the goats.