Out buildings?

[MoonSpiritMom]

So i have a question...

I have an out building on our new property... it's open on one end but the rest is closed in and is roofed. currently when we moved in last summer the out building was used as a storage shed (still is.. we haven't had a chance to clean it out) I'm wanting to use it as a place to put my rabbits (when i get them) It had great air flow and is shaded most of the day (the late morning there is sun going into it though) i could easily block the enterance with a tarp for the time being until we made a door. or should i make a door at all? it has enough room for my 4 bank hutch plus a few more cages if i took out the shelving. It's all wood, the out building.

Should i use this as a rabbit house? I'll try to get photos in the morning.

 

[Knacker]

Whatever you can do to retain air flow and increase shade during hotter months would be beneficial. The opposite is true during the winter months as long as urine is taken care of.

I would suggest to hang a thermometer on the wall close to the cages and a foot above so you can see the extremes and act on them before the rabbits do.

 

[Marinea]

Rabbits (in my experience) seem to have a harder time handling summer heat than they do cold weather. As Knacker said, air flow and shade would be my concern.

Think back to this past summer- how hot was it in there?

 

[Rainey]

It sounds like a good rabbit house to me. We started with our rabbits in a shed built to hang 6 cages and have room to step inside and access the fronts of all of them. Sounds like you've got the shade part and the roof is apt to be further above your cage tops than if you just built a shelter around them. Now our rabbits are in a new barn but it has a dirt floor and the rats get in . The shed had a wood floor and nothing could get in when the door was closed for the night.
Things to look at:
Are there windows or could you put some in for light and cross ventilation?
Are there openings under the edge of the roof for ventilation?
Could predators get in and if so how will you keep them out?
I liked having a door (it faced northeast) that could be left open during the day and closed at night. The windows on ours were screened with hardware cloth and left open spring through fall. We moved that shed so the door opened into an open-sided but roofed in space for the winter last year and this year have them in the new barn. For winter I guess the questions would be about your ease of access (how far from the house and how deep does your snow get) and keeping adequate ventilation without drafts.

 

[MoonSpiritMom]

we moved in at the beginning of September.. so i have no idea how hot it gets here during the hottest months (July/August) The farm (old house) got hot (up to 38c last year) but this new property is shaded way more then the farm was. I'll get photos later today... it's not cleared out yet.. most of what is in there was left by the original owners.

I have a large tarp i can put over the entrance to block sunlight if needed.. and the building it self has slats in all 3 walls for air flow.

Would completely wire cages be better then the completely wood ones we have... especially for summer? or would the wood be ok until i can get/make some all wire ones?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

That sounds like a great location, and very similar to Miss M's setup. You might like to copy her design of having 2"x4" wire on the open face of the building to keep large predators out. In the winter she puts clear plastic on the wire to keep wind and rain out.



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I have a large tarp i can put over the entrance to block sunlight if needed.

I think you would get far too much heat buildup in the shed with a tarp. Shade cloth would be a better option since it will still allow airflow. Another alternative is to plant something to act as a living screen... vining plants for the wire or just tall plants in the foreground. Even sunflowers would be a good option. Live plants help to cool the area even more, especially when a breeze blows through the foliage.

 

[MoonSpiritMom]

Here is the space.... I couldn't give you dimensions.. only because i dont have a tape measure and i suck at eyeballing things.. lol










What do you think? yay? nay? <br /><br /> -- Sat Jan 30, 2016 11:37 am -- <br /><br /> it needs some major clean up.. obviously.

Which i will be doing pretty quick here.... I did see that it does have space for air flow at the top of the roof... so it may just work fine for a rabbit house.

I could totally plant some vines or something at the front.. that is where most of the sunlight would come in....

 

[MamaSheepdog]

That looks perfect! I love how rustic it looks- why don't you break it down and ship it out to me here in California? :twisted:

 

[MoonSpiritMom]

No... I like it!!! The whole property is like this... the house, the out buildings, there is even a tiny cabin! (although the cabin has busted out windows currently... )

Ok I'll start clearing it out and I'll bring my 4 bank hutches in. The old house (the farm) is only a few km's away (10 km) so its not like its that big of a deal.. to load it up in the truck and bring it over.

Baby steps.. one step at a time!

 

[Rainey]

It looks wonderful for the warm months. Where I am the wind would blow lots of snow in through those slits in the walls. But they could be wrapped for the winter--and maybe snow blowing in isn't a problem. I'd wonder about it for winter but I'm a relative newbie. Hope you'll hear from others from places with real winters and who have more experience than I do.

 

[MoonSpiritMom]

So far (this being our first winter in this new house) this out building has stayed completely dry from snow. The way it's situated.. very little wind comes through. The first photo of the front of the building, looking inside was taken from my drive away. I can look out my patio window and see right into this out building. When you come up my drive way from the road, you can't see the house right away.. lots of trees in the way. which makes for a great wind break. there are trees on both sides of this out building so this limited the amount of direct sun exposure to a few hours a day. when the sun shines right into the opening and then again when the sun hits the back of the building.. but since that is a wall there.. it won't be a direct heat.


Really the only way to know if this is going to work is to try it out. It's never been used to house animals (that i know of, although there are two horse blankets hanging up in one of the photos.. we don't have horses.. those were there when we moved in) so i have no way to tell if this will work before hand.

I can work on blocking the sun from coming in the front... hmm... of course vines would only work in the long term.. i dunno if i could get them to grow quick enough for this year...

 

[MaggieJ]

Get the vines started this year and use shade cloth until they are well-established. Looks like a great building for rabbits!

 

[EnglishSpot]

sounds bizarre, but I found that tomato plants grow fast, are bushy, and provide great shade almost til winter freeze. would you be able to do some tomatoes on a cinder block and wood shelf on the exterior of the barn? food and shade. where i am i cannot do vines but have found tomatoes do a right awesome job of providing shade.

 

[Knacker]

Hops are great too for creating shade and they are vigorous growers. Some would even call them invasive yet I have had no problem establishing ours and keeping them in check. We ordered our hallertau hop rhizomes from http://www.fourhorses.ca/ in Nova Scotia. I would suspect that they would grow even better where you are. Here are a couple pics of their second growing season, by the end of summer they were 18 - 20 feet long. Keep in mind that they are not like grape vines; hop bines grow from the ground each year and must be trimmed back to the ground each fall to stay healthy.

June 2014


July 2014

 

[MaggieJ]

If you decide to try tomatoes, be sure to choose the indeterminant varieties -- theya re the ones that grow tallest and keep going until frost.

I order tomato seed from The Cottage Gardener - they have a wonderful selection!
http://www.cottagegardener.com/

 

[MoonSpiritMom]

oh my hubby would love to grow hops! lol I'll talk it over with him. I could make a raised bed as a base then put wire all the way up on one side so the plant has something to grow against. The bed would be about 4 ft in front of the opening.. so you could just go around behind it to get into the rabbit house.

The kids and i are cleaning out the out building tomorrow for the rabbits... although I have no where to put the cans of paint and such... i might just leave it there until i can take it to the dump/hazzardous waste place. the rabbits would be on the opposite side of the building from the shelves and paint cans. so they would not have access to them.

 

[Knacker]

I thought you lived in Ontario. BC has some great hop producers too, like https://www.hopsconnect.com