Converted a chicken house to a rabbit house

[anomalyrabbitry]

I am so happy to have found this forum. I have had so many ideas to share and get feedback as well as search for other ideas and share the pros and cons to help others. I would love to share the progress here. I will warn - I'm a bit OCD and love to have things clean and efficient.

This was the chicken house...

We disinfected, powerwashed, you name it... and then made custom built hutches.

Pros:

This has been wonderful. We use shadecloth up in the windows to cut down on heat in the summer. It actually stays pretty cool like most horse barns do with a fan in one window drawing the air through.... but on the really hot days, we turn on an air conditioner that we have that is portable (rolls on the floor).

Cleaning - My daughter goes out once a week and does a thorough cleanout of bedding, litter boxes, etc. If a rabbit has peed in the corner instead of litterbox, she will throw some pine pellets in (horse bedding), and it soaks it up well.

Cons:

We did not use wire mesh floors - even though it would be easier, I had faith that we would have these rabbits littertrained. Unfortunately, only a few are super clean and littertrain, while others are dirty as heck. Not sure if I can "retrain" them with their litterboxes, but I may try something.... I just never believed that the wire mesh was good for their feet.

The doors - due to our humidity here, the doors to the cages have warped a bit. I'm going to have to redo the doors by next spring. They were wonderful at first, but I think using the soft wood (pine) was not a great idea.

Some more plans: I'm going to be adding three or four more hutches built in to the top of this (after we are done finishing insulating - we only insulated the bottom half before putting in the hutches... so the ceiling and top half needs insulation). Right now, I use that area as storage so I need to come up with another storage solution for our giant bags of hay and straw. I have a few ideas so I will be playing around with them shortly. We also have a fully enclosed chicken run that I am waiting for at least a year (next spring will be a year) to start constructing some outdoor hutches and some "play areas" for the buns...


(Plan to share next --- DIY hay racks that are amazing and super cheap and "chew solution" that is working great!)

 

[DBA]

Welcome to rabbittalk. I agree, your place looks nice, but yeah, wooden cages and rabbits....probably not the best idea.
If you are worried that wire is harmful to their feet, you can always lay a piece of wood or tile in their cages to give them something to rest on.

Once urine starts soaking into the wood really good, you won't get rid of the smell.

 

[anomalyrabbitry]

So far so good on the smell, and we have had them in there for six months - no, make that nine months... gosh time flies. The bottom is a plastic tray in each cage, so that is saving us right now. I may modify to a wire floor - I'm looking at the logistics of adding that and leaving room to still pull the tray out but I may not get to that until spring - when I do, I will probably seal the wood for a fresh start. But yeah, I'm surprised we don't have any terrible smell. It may be because it's only one bunny that has missed the tray a few times. It gets a bit "rabbit-y" in there by the end of the week before the weekly big cleanout is done, but other than that, it goes back to pretty nice - better than the barn where we keep our horses surprisingly!

All windows have screening BTW - so we haven't had any bugs either except the occasional spider web on the ceiling. I was terrified of the smell when we were at the worst summer heat, but it wasn't a problem probably because of the amount of circulation we had going on.

 

[alforddm]

Your setup is lovely. The floor though! Wow. I be happy to have that in my house!

 

[Marinea]

Welcome to RT! Great setup you have.

I agree with DBA, my New Zealand's enjoy a rest on their ceramic tiles when they want a break from the wire. But, big buns and no feet problems. And so easy to keep wire floors clean.

 

[macksmom98]

I love it! We also have wooden floors, and I only have a problem with smell in the attached boxes. The floor part is slatted tho, so there is a way for some things to fall thru and all are outside so plenty of ventilation. I think we will end up getting rid of the boxes on the side, and putting nest boxes in the cages eventually. Looks amazing at your place tho! Glad you are enjoying your set up