Construction advice for rabbitry on concrete

[Southbound_SF]

Howdy, folks! So, I'll be building a new rabbitry (small - 5-6 cages) in a couple of months, and I already have some ideas for how to improve my current system. But the new space has some new & different challenges, too, so I'm hoping y'all can help me brainstorm.

The main challenge is that the back yard of the new place is paved with concrete, which raises two issues that I see:
1) Anchoring the structure.
Perhaps weights/buckets of concrete on the bottom, attached to the legs? BF says we can anchor it to the brick wall of the garage, but I don't know how structurally sound THAT is, how difficult or destructive it would be, etc. Any suggestions? And,
2) Waste disposal.
This is really the main thing. I can't just let it all fall to the floor & shovel later, as the landlord is under the impression that rabbits don't poop that much (lol) and anyway it would stain the concrete. There is a small drain that could handle urine, but it's in the very center of the yard so I can't put the rabbitry right over or next to it.

I plan to have one row of cages and continue using a slanted board to move waste around, but with a steeper slant than I have now. How to separate liquid and solid waste? Right now I have urine draining into a hold dug in the ground, with poop removed manually, but this place needs a different system. Also, what to make the slant boards out of? Plastic over wood is not really working for me. It'll be easy enough to carry water out there for cleaning, but I don't think there's a hose. I'm thinking of a big rubbermaid tub under each set of 2 cages, with the boards slanting into the center like this \ /, and inside that another such tub with small holes drilled in the bottom. The top tub can be removed and hauled away, and the bottom one full of liquid waste can be tipped into the drainage hole in the middle of the yard.

Any suggestions appreciated! For general design, anchoring, waste disposal, and especially cheap/free materials I could use for slant boards & to collect waste in.

SB

 

[mystang89]

1) Anchoring the structure.
Perhaps weights/buckets of concrete on the bottom, attached to the legs? BF says we can anchor it to the brick wall of the garage, but I don't know how structurally sound THAT is, how difficult or destructive it would be, etc. Any suggestions?

Seeing as how you are renting it you would definitely need permission to anchor it to the brick. The most non invasive that I could see is probably what you said. If you are real chummy with the landlord I would ask if its ok to anchor it to the concrete. It would require a concrete drill, concrete bolts and maybe, (if you want to go a bit overboard) some quickete just to fill in around the bolt. I assume that is what your BF is going to be doing with the brick. Drilling and screwing it to the wall. If it is just make sure you pass it by the landlord.

2) Waste disposal.
This is really the main thing. I can't just let it all fall to the floor & shovel later, as the landlord is under the impression that rabbits don't poop that much (lol) and anyway it would stain the concrete. There is a small drain that could handle urine, but it's in the very center of the yard so I can't put the rabbitry right over or next to it.

Mmmm, not sure how much help I'll be on this one as I have mine sectioned off and just have the poop going into the dirt I have on the concrete under the cages. I'm sure I saw a few people on here with slant boards which made the poop go into bins or something like that.

Much luck.

 

[Southbound_SF]

Thanks for the suggestions, mystang. If you have concrete under dirt under your cages, what is the liquid drainage situation like? I was just thinking of building boxes in place under there, with removeable fronts like a compost bin, so it would look nice between shoveling it out, and something could protect the concrete BUT then where would liquid drain? So I'm still thinking of a way around that, if I did skip the boards.

SB

 

[Dood]

I have my rabbits over concrete

I let the wastes drop to the floor and have a 1 to 2 inches of peatmoss under them and sweep it out once or twice a week. The concrete does get a bit stained so you could put down a sheet of linoleum flooring as added protection.

 

[mystang89]

Dood's right, it will still get stained but that is a good suggestion about the linoleum.

As far as drainage I'm assuming you mean from rain and the like. I don't have that problem. My cages are under a car port that I have enclosed on the side. The only thing that gets the dirt wet is the pee but the dirt soaks that up nicely. What you were talking about, (having a face board and a compost pile type setup) is how I have mind so the smell is kept down very nicely. After a year of this I am actually still suprised at how little I smell. Either that or I've gotten used to it.

All concrete when poured SHOULD be sloped a certain direction. You can take a long 2x4 and set it over the length of the patio or whatever and them put a level on top of the 2x4 to see if it is and which way its sloped. Make sure the 2x4 isn't warped too bad as that will sque your reading. If it's sloped correctly, that's a big if btw as most concrete workers really don't care on patios then you shouldn't need to worry too much about drainage. You did say something about bracing the rabbitry to the brick which makes me think the patio is connected to a building. If so the patio SHOULD be draining away from the house and towards the nearest "ditch" line. That's the way I would have done it anyway. A picture or 2 would help a lot as we would be able to see better the lay of the land.

 

[Southbound_SF]

All right, I'm getting some good ideas here. The drainage concern is for urine. The concrete is all sloped towards a small drain in the center, but I need to put the rabbits along a wall so they're not annoyingly in the way.

If a couple of inches of dirt will absorb urine without getting stankily waterlogged, the compost bin type setup is sounding like a good way to go. With something impermeable underneath. I can get dirt for free - not necessarily super clean dirt, but I guess it's not a huge loss if I can't use it in the garden. The poop will definitely get shoveled off and used.


SB

 

[mystang89]

I have about 5" or so of dirt. Not clean dirt, just what I have from the compost pile. I clean it.....sometime...maybe a few times a year...I think. :? I don't know. I clean it when it gets nice out, then I clean it when it starts to get cold out, and maybe sometime in between. Really not too big of a deal. I do mix it up quiet a few times during the year though. Just take a pitch fork and stir it up. Make sure if this is your option that the boards holding the dirt are a few inches taller than the top of the dirt, taking into consideration that rabbits DO poop A LOT. Plus if you have any hay, of course optional, but if you do then you're going to have some, (Read "lots") of waste that falls in the dirt too. Stir that in, mix with salad and eat as a salad.