How to fix a moldy dirt floor?

[Zass]

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?

 

[akane]

Rake it out and do basically a raised garden bed type setup but with drainage materials. Build a wood frame to hold the material in place, leave a gap on the low side for drainage, dig a pit going down the middle toward the gap, pour a thin layer of gravel sloping it from the sides toward the drainage gap, and then cover with sand in a similar fashion. It is how we do sand horse stalls for foaling. Except we then cover with a stall skin that creates a barrier between horse and sand. Not really necessary with just humans walking on it and raking the mess off. Chickens will probably roll and scratch there digging it up some. Another option is you can pay someone to pack aglime there and then cut your ditch and use a single drainage material, if any are even needed, but it's gonna end up being a lot more work and cost. That's how many of our horse stalls are that we don't use for foaling. Aglime is a good concrete substitute if you can keep it from washing away and getting pitted areas.

 

[Dood]

If its clay soil then patio stones or brick pavers. You can put down a dusting sawdust or wood chips or peat moss to absorb urine and to make it easier to sweep it out.

You might want to put a 5 to 10 degree slope on the floor so water / urine flows away and a layer of gravel under the bricks would help.

 

[Miss M]

You could put a deep bed (6"+) of shavings in there, like we have. The chickens keep it all well-turned, and it slowly composts. It gets shoveled out and replaced twice a year. The compost goes in the garden. If you don't have enough places to put it, you could sell it. My husband tosses some scratch into it several times a week to make them go really crazy with the digging.

Our rabbitry is on a bit of a slope, so water flows into it. I put garden edging around it to help, but I didn't sink it into the ground enough. I need to re-do. That will help the floor stay drier.

That's really the thing... what will promote air flow and keep the floor drier?

The north side, you may want to remove the plastic at least halfway up, to promote better air flow. It may allow a little rain, but I think the trade-off for more air would help.

 

[akane]

Laying down stone or brick didn't work well. You have to get the area really flat and even. Otherwise stuff gets down in it and materials like that hold moisture underneath them. You may stay dry on top but between and under the blocks you will still have damp ground releasing mold or ammonia if urine gets down there.

 

[Zass]

So you can get an idea of what I'm working with. Within city limits (and I am) all rabbits must be kept 60 ft from any building. So this is the only place on my property that qualifies. We actually had to dig the hillside back about 5 feet and build a retaining wall to be able to fit all that up there.

the hill literally presses up against the north side, with only a thick plastic barrier separating the two. We are in the process of digging the hill back further, but as you can see, we have to be very careful about erosion.

On another note:
If I move a bucket anywhere on my property this is what I see:

I have accidentally colonized the entire hillside with redworms. They survived the super harsh winter and naturalized.

Somehow, they have even found there way into the pots of my HOUSEPLANTS. :shock: No one warned me these things could teleport!


Right now I'm thinking that I can dig about 1.5 feet down inside and a few feet out from the structure and fill it with crushed sandstone, and then add a thick layer of very coarse sand or very small gravel on top of that.


Oh yeah. Any materials I use have to be carried up that steep staircase in 50 lb bags or 5 gallon buckets. A wheel barrow will not make the trip.

 

[Marinea]

I may be wrong, but from that pic it seems that the east side ground slants down towards the rabbitry? And I am guessing, based on the southern slope, that the land slants down from above the rabbitry as well? If so, you might want to start with some leveling outside the rabbitry. Maybe level out the east side a bit, and maybe make a runoff path on the north side on either side of the rabbitry. I realize it's more work, but it only costs time and sore backs, and it might get to the root of the problem. If, as I said, you have slope issues.

I have the same issue with my place. We turned our attached carport into our rabbitry, but the water from two sides drains towards it. We are leveling out one side, but the other side is a steep, really steep bank that we can't level. So, we are going to have to work on a runoff path around the side of the house. I keep building up the carport ground, but as long as the drainage issue is there, it isn't going to help much.

Oh, by the way, you have some gorgeous land there.

 

[Zass]

The retaining wall is filled up with a pile of dirt and bedding that will flatten down in a few days. It's really more level to the right.

Your right about the north side. It needs dug back and a drainage trench placed to be between the rabbitry and the hill.
We started today. Everything is a mess.

Here is it from the east. The north is on the right.
Most of the sun exposure is from the south.

This is our "temporary while we are stuck in town" rabbitry.

It wasn't exactly built to last, and no...not everything measures up right :lol:

My dropping pans are random and don't fit perfect. They do work, just not as pretty as I'd like.

We built it to get them through an AWFUL winter, and it worked well enough for that.

 

[khellendros05]

just curious cause i have to know everything lol but do you happen to know why you cant have the rabbits close tou your house.
I am new to the forum and pretty much everything. while i have had my rabbit going on 4 yrs now, ive only had one, and he has been nothing but a pet i keep indoors. i have a friend that shows rabbits and keeps them outside in her shed, which i felt bad for them not getting petted or attention excpet when getting ready for show. but this seems to be the norm. I'm just adjudting to it

 

[Zass]

just curious cause i have to know everything lol but do you happen to know why you cant have the rabbits close tou your house.

There is a city ordinance that I must follow as to where I can keep any rabbit pen or hutch (for any purpose). They must be 60 feet away from ANY building. Well, from the picture it can be hard to believe I live in a city, but...such is PA.


I also have a house bunny , and I admit I would strongly prefer keep all my bunnies closer to me if I could.


The whole hillside is equally steep, all the way to the street. The house is built into the hill, with a front door on the first story, and the back door on the second story.

 

[khellendros05]

hmmm, for some reason i dont understand why the city cares how far away from the house they are. i get the they want you to I just want to be like is there a logical reason why, maybe they dont want them ruining the foundation like ive read in other post could happen if they are left to run rampant (not saying you would though lol)

 

[Zass]

hmmm, for some reason i dont understand why the city cares how far away from the house they are. i get the they want you to I just want to be like is there a logical reason why, maybe they dont want them ruining the foundation like ive read in other post could happen if they are left to run rampant (not saying you would though lol)

The ordinance was put into place in 1940, and hasn't been changed since. :lol: They probably had a good reason then...or thought they did.

Personally, it infuriates me how easily people have surrendered their basic freedoms.

 

[khellendros05]

hahahahha :lol: so just something they never bothered changing. ok i will stop getting your thread off topic lol

 

[Marinea]

Zass, first of all, your rabbits are gorgeous. So don't downplay your rabbitry.

I showed the second pic to my hubby. This is his suggestion: put some waterproofing liquid (like Damtite) on the outside of your existing north wall. Then put some Hardee (spelling?) cement board on the outside of that. Then dig a trough down around the north side and divert the water to the side. He also says you could dig down some and add some concrete blocks around the edge to help move the water away.

If I was going to do the floor, I would probably add a thick layer of crushed limestone (thicker than the bottom wall plate), put a vapor barrier over that, then maybe add a plywood floor.

 

[Zass]

Zass, first of all, your rabbits are gorgeous. So don't downplay your rabbitry.

Thank you, I think they are lovely too.

The rabbitry doesn't quite meet my sense of aesthetics though. Well, you can see from the first photo, being unobtrusive and hiding the chickens and rabbits from the street was the main goal. My backyard may be woods, but there are houses closer than 20' on both sides of me. Having the cages within a larger cage has helped keep them safer from predators. (and easier to catch when they get loose!)

Lucky me, I have a long narrow property on the very edge of town. Otherwise the bunnies would all have to be inside. If I had a shed or garage or even a basement I'd have used that, but no such luck. The hill is too steep for driveways. I certainly couldn't get a pre-built shed up there. :lol:

Not sure how a wood floor would work for the hens. There are 4 of them currently. Their henhouse is attached to the rabbitry, so that they have a safe place to scratch until one of us wakes up to let them loose. I could put drop pans underneath the bottom cages, but...my husband doesn't want to take any floor space away from the chickens. See, they are his precious pets. :roll:

If I could convince him that whatever we are doing will be MORE comfortable for the chickens...I can get him in on it...

All the wet ground isn't great for the hens anyway, and they have no dry place to take a dust bath inside the building as it is. I bet they would like a layer of sand to roll in.
We'll get that north side dug back and a trench added. It's tricky, because there is an old stone retaining wall buried in all that eroded hillside.

Since I'm showing the rabbitry, I'd best include the bucks pens. Yeah, a converted double bed. Also painted to be unobtrusive.

Quarantine cages are in the dog's yard. Hidden by 6' privacy panels. So that no one can see that I quarantine my bunnies right-next-to-the-house .

 

[Miss M]

Well, you have no shortage of ideas to work from!

Seeing that you have some low cages, I guess you can't remove as much of the north plastic as I thought. If you can remove any of it without exposing your bunnies to rain, that would help with circulation. If not, oh well.

Those ordinances can be maddening. Ridiculous. I had to deal with them when we lived in town. Not anymore.

If you can solve the drainage issue, that's most of the fight. You may not need to dig out the floor, though you might want to anyway. You might just put down some shavings, and see what happens. I would definitely dig out the floor to put down sand, though, as that will get kicked out all over the place. They do it with shavings, I know they'll do it with sand.