My rabbitry is literally a 8x10 chicken wire cage with a slanted vinyl roof.
The south facing side is covered with several layers of heavy tarp to provide insulation from the rain and sun. The north facing side is covered with thick clear plastic to keep rain out.
The east and wast sides are totally open. (covered in winter)
There are 5, 48 x 24x 18 cages hanging on chains affixed to ceiling beams. I use dropping trays for three of the cages and the last two have the urine and feces fall onto the ground. I scrape the trays out about every 3rd day. Sometimes I rinse the pans with water.
A few hens spend their morning in here before I get up to let them out.
We feed hay liberally, and much of it falls through floor wires or out of hay cribs and provides a pretty decent floor covering for the hens. We rake it all out and take it to the worm beds about once a week.
There is a fan on in there to help aerate things, and I've just started adding horse bedding pellets to the drop pans to reduce ammonia smell. The truth is I don't really smell ammonia up there at all, and I have a good sense of smell.
The floor is dirt. Wet dirt this year because it won't stop raining and the hillside it's built upon is clay underneath the topsoil. A layer of wet hay and straw above that since it's been landing on a wet dirt floor.
The problem is that I have had a "perfectly healthy, born here from a healthy mother, didn't go anywhere, wasn't petted by people who own other rabbits, very friendly and unstressed" 13 week old kit suddenly break with sneezing and white snot.
I know rabbits carry pathogens that they are normally immune to. I know respiratory irritation can make rabbits more susceptible to infections.
So I'm trying to cover all bases when it comes to things that might contribute to irritation. Last night I found mold growing all over the floor of the rabbitry. Dunno why the stuff was harder to see in daylight.
But I'd like to re-do the floor. Keep in mind it's been raining almost daily this year because the weather patterns are still all messed up.
What I would like to know is what would you use? Sand? gravel? crushed limestone? Something else? Is there a different way I should be approaching this?
The south facing side is covered with several layers of heavy tarp to provide insulation from the rain and sun. The north facing side is covered with thick clear plastic to keep rain out.
The east and wast sides are totally open. (covered in winter)
There are 5, 48 x 24x 18 cages hanging on chains affixed to ceiling beams. I use dropping trays for three of the cages and the last two have the urine and feces fall onto the ground. I scrape the trays out about every 3rd day. Sometimes I rinse the pans with water.
A few hens spend their morning in here before I get up to let them out.
We feed hay liberally, and much of it falls through floor wires or out of hay cribs and provides a pretty decent floor covering for the hens. We rake it all out and take it to the worm beds about once a week.
There is a fan on in there to help aerate things, and I've just started adding horse bedding pellets to the drop pans to reduce ammonia smell. The truth is I don't really smell ammonia up there at all, and I have a good sense of smell.
The floor is dirt. Wet dirt this year because it won't stop raining and the hillside it's built upon is clay underneath the topsoil. A layer of wet hay and straw above that since it's been landing on a wet dirt floor.
The problem is that I have had a "perfectly healthy, born here from a healthy mother, didn't go anywhere, wasn't petted by people who own other rabbits, very friendly and unstressed" 13 week old kit suddenly break with sneezing and white snot.
I know rabbits carry pathogens that they are normally immune to. I know respiratory irritation can make rabbits more susceptible to infections.
So I'm trying to cover all bases when it comes to things that might contribute to irritation. Last night I found mold growing all over the floor of the rabbitry. Dunno why the stuff was harder to see in daylight.
But I'd like to re-do the floor. Keep in mind it's been raining almost daily this year because the weather patterns are still all messed up.
What I would like to know is what would you use? Sand? gravel? crushed limestone? Something else? Is there a different way I should be approaching this?