Wintering Rabbits In Manitoba

While some Manitobans my not love winter here, my rabbits love it.
They are well suited for the climate.
I have warrens made of straw bales with covers on top, and also incorporated an insulated doghouse for them. They have excavated burrows and are a happy population of bunnies.
My colony lives in a 3000 square foot pen that has fruits for shade in the summer. Here are a few pics.

they certainly look comfy.

ladysown said:

they certainly look comfy.

Click to expand...

Thanks they are happy. I have chairs in the pen to sit and hang out with the rabbits and friends

Great job! Really nice to see!

Very nice! Tell us more. What kind of rabbits? how many? How do you deal with winter kits? Preditor protection? Who are "and friends"? Northern Wisconsin, rabbits fairly new to me. I only have a trio of Silver fox in a shared hutch with den boxes in an insulated box with lots of straw. They have daily free access to a fenced yard about 25 x30 with brush piles and shade trees.seem to prefer being out even in really cold weather. And an aviary. They often stand watching the quail in the window. I close them in at night for preditor protection and to keep intruders out. Lots of critters in the north woods. The adults seem happy and thriving, but after waiting months for babies that didn't come, they had first litter in December (-15*) heartbreaking to find 9 frozen kits. Your advice is appreciated.

dlynn said:

Very nice! Tell us more. What kind of rabbits? how many? How do you deal with winter kits? Preditor protection? Who are "and friends"? Northern Wisconsin, rabbits fairly new to me. I only have a trio of Silver fox in a shared hutch with den boxes in an insulated box with lots of straw. They have daily free access to a fenced yard about 25 x30 with brush piles and shade trees.seem to prefer being out even in really cold weather. And an aviary. They often stand watching the quail in the window. I close them in at night for preditor protection and to keep intruders out. Lots of critters in the north woods. The adults seem happy and thriving, but after waiting months for babies that didn't come, they had first litter in December (-15*) heartbreaking to find 9 frozen kits. Your advice is appreciated.

Click to expand...

Ouch, we waited whole three months on our first litter. Only three kits. But well. Have you ever heard of the kindling totes from Bobby from the Rabbitry Center on youtube? They look amazing and it s totally working out for him.

Ps. Do your rabbits ans quail ever share the same space? When yes, I would be interested in your experiences. Want to make a big aviary with them mixed in (lots of hiding places for all sizes) Thanks in advance!

Nice to see another free ranger.
I make my Warrens out of straw bales, I put extra bales inside for them to build nets in. I have insulated covers that go on top of the bales. I have an insulated dog house that I have e corporates into the warrens as well. When the snow covers them they have even more insulation so no worries about frozen Kits. The bunnies also have dug deep burrows as well.

I have bird netting over top of my compound. The middle is open but I have no problems. I also have 3 German Shepherds that patrol too lol.

Here is a video of when I first started but it has changed a lot since.

theMarjolein said:

Ouch, we waited whole three months on our first litter. Only three kits. But well. Have you ever heard of the kindling totes from Bobby from the Rabbitry Center on youtube? They look amazing and it s totally working out for him.

Ps. Do your rabbits ans quail ever share the same space? When yes, I would be interested in your experiences. Want to make a big aviary with them mixed in (lots of hiding places for all sizes) Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

dlynn said:

Very nice! Tell us more. What kind of rabbits? how many? How do you deal with winter kits? Preditor protection? Who are "and friends"? Northern Wisconsin, rabbits fairly new to me. I only have a trio of Silver fox in a shared hutch with den boxes in an insulated box with lots of straw. They have daily free access to a fenced yard about 25 x30 with brush piles and shade trees.seem to prefer being out even in really cold weather. And an aviary. They often stand watching the quail in the window. I close them in at night for preditor protection and to keep intruders out. Lots of critters in the north woods. The adults seem happy and thriving, but after waiting months for babies that didn't come, they had first litter in December (-15*) heartbreaking to find 9 frozen kits. Your advice is appreciated.

Click to expand...

I just wanted to add that I keep a rubber maid tote with lid in my Warren with earth, wood ash and diatomaceous earth for my bunnies to dust bath in, it will kill mites ticks etc. I am so Ad diatomaceous earth to the bunnies food it keeps them free of internal parasites and there is added health benefits from the diatomaceous earth. Make sure you use food grade diatomaceous earth. I take it and my dogs get it too lol!

Rabbit Warren Man said:

I am so Ad diatomaceous earth

Click to expand...

I also add

theMarjolein said:

Ouch, we waited whole three months on our first litter. Only three kits. But well. Have you ever heard of the kindling totes from Bobby from the Rabbitry Center on youtube? They look amazing and it s totally working out for him.

Ps. Do your rabbits ans quail ever share the same space? When yes, I would be interested in your experiences. Want to make a big aviary with them mixed in (lots of hiding places for all sizes) Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

I have jumbo pharaoh coturnix. I don't let the quail out. They are always in aviary and in better weather some in a row cover cage in garden. Tried recommended cages, but not for me! More fun to watch natural behaviors on dirt or litter. Before we got the back garden and aviary built, we would put both quail and rabbits in a temporary enclosure for running room. The rabbits dealt with them fine, but when quail got bigger they flushed over 6' fence. They are also super poop machines, slimy not neat like rabbits. And I first got quail during the avian bird flu scare so think it's better to keep them isolated from wild birds. I like the aviary. I keep them on deep litter with shelters on each end. They sometimes lay eggs in shelter, sometimes in some baskets made for them, sometimes in the sand baths I keep under each ramp that goes to top of shelters. The farm I bought from said he tried tractors but with his big numbers and bigger space it was to hard to find all the eggs. I have a small aviary 3x8 with upper levels. I have 20 to 30 birds, not counting brooder. I have heard they don't use ramps. All have different personalities. Some like in shelters, some like on top. Saw one running down one ramp, up the other back an forth for fun. Wire cage (1/2" mesh) buried under bottom to keep things from burrowing in. Part is recycled window, part heavy mesh( with window cover that opens) part plywood siding. I also put a brooder box hung on wall. I have read it's hard to add new birds to an established covey, but I have been cycling new birds in. I give birds a week or 2 in house, then 2 or 3 weeks in aviary. By then they are big enough to hold their own with the bigger birds but still young enough the old males don't see them as competition. Keep 4-5 females to each male. I harvest some older birds then, and move some things around. It's getting hard to tell the ages so I'm ordering some of those colored spiral leg bands to keep track of birth dates. have tried several different types of feeder and waterer. I really like the big metal double wall waterer, I use a halogen light bulb in a clay pot with clay tray across top buried below to keep water from freezing. the feeder with flat, higher edge seems to get less food kicked out. I really like Sadie girl farms articles, There are some other blogs on keeping rabbits and quail together. Hubby keeps saying he wants a bigger flight pen someday and I dream of a greenhouse to put some rabbits and quail in. The best advice I found was every owner, every environment, every animal is different. You have to find what works for you and yours. I really appreciate the diverse info from all the good folks on rabbit talk. Let us all know what works for you. Have fun with the adventure

Rabbit Warren Man said:

Nice to see another free ranger.
I make my Warrens out of straw bales, I put extra bales inside for them to build nets in. I have insulated covers that go on top of the bales. I have an insulated dog house that I have e corporates into the warrens as well. When the snow covers them they have even more insulation so no worries about frozen Kits. The bunnies also have dug deep burrows as well.

I have bird netting over top of my compound. The middle is open but I have no problems. I also have 3 German Shepherds that patrol too lol.

Here is a video of when I first started but it has changed a lot since

Click to expand...

Rabbit Warren Man said:

Nice to see another free ranger.
I make my Warrens out of straw bales, I put extra bales inside for them to build nets in. I have insulated covers that go on top of the bales. I have an insulated dog house that I have e corporates into the warrens as well. When the snow covers them they have even more insulation so no worries about frozen Kits. The bunnies also have dug deep burrows as well.

I have bird netting over top of my compound. The middle is open but I have no problems. I also have 3 German Shepherds that patrol too lol.

Here is a video of when I first started but it has changed a lot since.

Click to expand...

Like the idea of truly free range but have question about all the straw. When I used straw mulch around new berry bushes it turned into mouse houses. I had to add 1/2" wire mesh to floor of rabbit shelter when mice started burrowing in. How do you all deal with the rodents?

I have not had any problems with mice so far.

But if I ever see a problem I will use live catch traps so the rabbits are unaffected.

Eh, that looks nice there. Not our bag as we use pens. But I've done it both ways. As a kid I raised free range. Nice to crawl into n play. Good for the kids to.
Now it's more of a working rabbitry. Food to compost for the garden. It's kinda like a machine but the grandkids still have plenty of time with them.
Our rabbits are treated with respect. Large pens, good boxes n food plan. It's just a system that we developed for our needs.
We also use the rabbitry as part of the science classes in our homeschooling program.
place rabbits looks real nice

Olbunny said:

Eh, that looks nice there. Not our bag as we use pens. But I've done it both ways. As a kid I raised free range. Nice to crawl into n play. Good for the kids to.
Now it's more of a working rabbitry. Food to compost for the garden. It's kinda like a machine but the grandkids still have plenty of time with them.
Our rabbits are treated with respect. Large pens, good boxes n food plan. It's just a system that we developed for our needs.
We also use the rabbitry as part of the science classes in our homeschooling program.
place rabbits looks real nice

Click to expand...

Yea it’s all about what’s good for the rabbits and works for you.
I have no trouble with production in my set up whatsoever. Thanks for the comment.