anomalyrabbitry
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- Joined
- Sep 28, 2015
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- 6
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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!)
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!)