I am so excited to get my rabbits moved out of the room off of my back porch and into their new home! This has been a long time coming so I want to do it right. I'd love to have your all's input and ideas! I'll tell you a bit about the building and what my thoughts and plans are and let me know if I should change anything or if you have any ideas for improving the plan. The building is all brick with a tin roof, and I've been told by a neighbor that was here when our house was built, that the original owner of our home kept monkeys in this building. Each consecutive owner of this property has called the building "the monkey house" and we have done the same. It's going to be hard to start calling it the bunny barn or whatever, so I've considered just sticking with it and naming my rabbitry "The Monkey House Rabbitry"! LOL But, I don't know about that. Anyway, the building is 10 ft x 15.5 ft. and has electric run to it. I have about 22 cages, all stackers except for one 5 hole hanging unit. I'm considering cutting my stackers apart and hanging all of them in two tiers and using slant boards. I know that not having to deal with trays would greatly reduce the cleaning time involved with rabbit chores. The current floor in this building is pea gravel and the inside walls are just studs. My current plans are...
1. For the walls...using 4x8 melamine panels over the studs. I want something that will not be damaged by moisture obviously, and I think these will work. Has anyone had any experience using them?
Also, I may or may not insulate between the studs before I put the panels up. It would be nice if insulation alone would be enough to keep the water from freezing in winter, but I don't know if it would. Does anyone know how much insulation would help in the summer to keep the temp down in there? I live in Ohio and it can get pretty hot.
2. For the ceiling...my original thought was to leave the ceiling open and maybe put some planks across half of it to make a partial loft for storage or hay. (Although, we currently have squirrels living in there and I don't want to just make them a comfy home! I do plan on finding out where the squirrels are getting in at and blocking the holes or whatever.) I was talking to a worker at Menard's (a home improvement store) last night about insulation, and he suggested that I insulate the ceiling as well and put the melamine panels up as a ceiling. He said that would help keep the heat trapped away from the rabbits in the summer. I'm just not sure...pros and cons for that idea? And that brings me to my next point...
3. Ventilation...the existing window is just a pane of glass and does not open. I was pricing out some low grade windows that would open up and found that the price is doable, so I'll definitely be replacing the window before the weather gets too warm. My original plan was to leave the ceiling open like I said, and to put in a fan of some sort in the gable on one end and some louvres across on the other gable. If I insulate and close up the ceiling that obviously wouldn't do any good at all to put a fan up there. Would a window fan be sufficient, if I did close up the ceiling and bought a new window? I don't want there to be an odor in there or for my rabbits to overheat.
4. Flooring...currently is pea gravel which will be fine if I stick with drop pans, but if I do the slant boards would that work? I spoke to my local breeder (that has an awesome set up in her barn with literally no odor even in the summer!) and she said I would need to remove the pea gravel under the cages and replace with several inches of sand. Any thoughts on this? I'd kind of like to be able to use the droppings for gardening too.
5. Slant boards...what is the best way to attach them and what is the best material to make them out of?
If I use the boards, how often would I have to clean out from under the cages to keep the odor down?
6. Lighting...I went ahead and bought my light fixture last night since it was the one thing I was sure of what I needed or wanted. LOL I bought an 8 foot fluorescent fixture that will take 4 48 inch bulbs or tubes. They only had 2 bulbs left that were supposed to be "daylight" bulbs so I held off on buying those. I don't like the glary bluish light that fluorescent lights usually seem to have, so I'm thinking maybe I'll like the "daylight" ones better.
I think that about covers all of my questions! LOL If you have any knowledge of expertise to share I would much appreciate it, even if it's on just one of my topics!
Oh, and if anyone has any rabbitry name ideas throw them in too! I'd kind of like something with "Cottage" in it or something along those lines. I'm going to put curtains at the window and get one of those little electric "candles" to put in the window too.
1. For the walls...using 4x8 melamine panels over the studs. I want something that will not be damaged by moisture obviously, and I think these will work. Has anyone had any experience using them?
Also, I may or may not insulate between the studs before I put the panels up. It would be nice if insulation alone would be enough to keep the water from freezing in winter, but I don't know if it would. Does anyone know how much insulation would help in the summer to keep the temp down in there? I live in Ohio and it can get pretty hot.
2. For the ceiling...my original thought was to leave the ceiling open and maybe put some planks across half of it to make a partial loft for storage or hay. (Although, we currently have squirrels living in there and I don't want to just make them a comfy home! I do plan on finding out where the squirrels are getting in at and blocking the holes or whatever.) I was talking to a worker at Menard's (a home improvement store) last night about insulation, and he suggested that I insulate the ceiling as well and put the melamine panels up as a ceiling. He said that would help keep the heat trapped away from the rabbits in the summer. I'm just not sure...pros and cons for that idea? And that brings me to my next point...
3. Ventilation...the existing window is just a pane of glass and does not open. I was pricing out some low grade windows that would open up and found that the price is doable, so I'll definitely be replacing the window before the weather gets too warm. My original plan was to leave the ceiling open like I said, and to put in a fan of some sort in the gable on one end and some louvres across on the other gable. If I insulate and close up the ceiling that obviously wouldn't do any good at all to put a fan up there. Would a window fan be sufficient, if I did close up the ceiling and bought a new window? I don't want there to be an odor in there or for my rabbits to overheat.
4. Flooring...currently is pea gravel which will be fine if I stick with drop pans, but if I do the slant boards would that work? I spoke to my local breeder (that has an awesome set up in her barn with literally no odor even in the summer!) and she said I would need to remove the pea gravel under the cages and replace with several inches of sand. Any thoughts on this? I'd kind of like to be able to use the droppings for gardening too.
5. Slant boards...what is the best way to attach them and what is the best material to make them out of?
If I use the boards, how often would I have to clean out from under the cages to keep the odor down?
6. Lighting...I went ahead and bought my light fixture last night since it was the one thing I was sure of what I needed or wanted. LOL I bought an 8 foot fluorescent fixture that will take 4 48 inch bulbs or tubes. They only had 2 bulbs left that were supposed to be "daylight" bulbs so I held off on buying those. I don't like the glary bluish light that fluorescent lights usually seem to have, so I'm thinking maybe I'll like the "daylight" ones better.
I think that about covers all of my questions! LOL If you have any knowledge of expertise to share I would much appreciate it, even if it's on just one of my topics!
Oh, and if anyone has any rabbitry name ideas throw them in too! I'd kind of like something with "Cottage" in it or something along those lines. I'm going to put curtains at the window and get one of those little electric "candles" to put in the window too.
