Hey all. I'll be getting my trio of meat rabbits in a month or so, but I'm thinking ahead
I really like the growout pen from Teal Stone Homestead but since I don't have any experience yet, I can't spot any potential issues. What are you guys using?
https://www.tealstonehomestead.com/blog/the-best-rabbit-growout-hutch-plans
I wouldn't do the shelf. Unnecessary extra wire and they'll just pee on whoever is under them.
Yeah, I agree. And the wood ledge holding up the wire will collect nastiness, and the screws will too.
Another thought is that the rabbits are vulnerable from underneath the cage. As a teenager, I kept rabbits in hutches very much like these, and I gave up on rabbits in despair when a pair of dogs came through our (fenced) yard and tore up the rabbits through the bottom wire. It was hideous. So I'd encourage enclosing the bottom area, to keep dogs and other large predators out. Maybe you could hinge one of the enclosure panels, so it wouldn't be so difficult to clean out underneath the cage when that is necessary.
From what I can see in the materials list, it's all being built with 2 x 4s. You might think about sealing at least the bottom half of the legs to prevent rot, which you'll get eventually due to wet ground and constant soaking in pee. I'm not a big fan of treated wood and you don't want it anywhere the rabbits can chew it (and they will chew the wood even if it's on the outside of the wire), but it really does do a good job at delaying rot on legs. I like to build things for the long run - like, 10-20 years - rather than have to be patching/fixing/re-building every few.
Also, it's not necessarily a design flaw, but those support struts on the legs will probably catch a lot of ick in the angled lower connection points.
I don't usually add any separate enclosed areas, because the whole hutch should keep them "out of the weather." In this case it reduces the available movement area (one of the appeals of this hutch is the long length - bunnies love to run) and adds plywood that
will get chewed and wet/dirty. Maybe that separate area would allow some bunnies to get away from others if they're not getting along. I suppose it could also help in catching bunnies that did not want to be caught, if you blocked the hole, but I just use a box for that when needed.
If I did have a separated area, I'd also add another feeder and waterer inside. Rabbits maintain a dominance hierarchy which includes resource guarding, so you could find that some of the smaller/more timid bunnies hide in the enclosed area and may have less access to food and water than ideal, if those are only available outside that area.
One thing I do like about this design is that you could fairly easily divide it into two or three separate pens temporarily, just by cutting plywood dividers and screwing them to the sides and upper supports.
It's great that there is no wood under the floor wire, but that won't entirely prevent buildup of waste in the corners. Even all-wire cages get that, and as long as you have those wooden edges and corners, they'll soak up urine and collect hair and waste, which can be pretty hard to get out from between the wood and the wire. On the plus side, the 2x4s along the lower edges of the cage would function like a baby-saver if you plan on having the doe kindle in the pen.
I like the roof design (I use that on chicken tractors), but I would add some sort of latching mechanism to prevent it from being blown up and open, or being blown a little bit up and slamming back down.
If you have any small predators at all in your area, the 1x1 wire mesh might not keep them out; ermine, many rats, and snakes can all get through that. If you think small predators might be a problem, it's more expensive, but it might be worth investing in wire mesh with smaller openings. 1" x 1/2" like you use for the floor would be better, and 1/2" x 1/2" would be my preference if there were snakes around (thanks goodness that's one problem we don't have in AK!).
One question I have is - what is providing the support for a 7' long expanse of wire? If there are no solid supports underneath, it seems to me that you'd soon have a some serious sag going after a big doe with a few litters of porky meat bunnies have bounced up and down for a while. I can't tell from the photos, but maybe the wire is stapled or screwed to the solid partition? That still leaves 56" unsupported, and attaching wire to the edge of 1/4" plywood has never been very effective for me. Maybe that's addressed in the plans...?
I've spent the last 20-some years developing opinions on rabbit housing...can you tell?
