Pics and explanation of BunnyBarn posted in Gallery/Housing

[MamaSheepdog]

Hah! Finally after several aborted attempts I managed to post my BunnyBarn in the Gallery. First pic I uploaded turns up last and vice versa... no idea why that happened!

Here is a tantalizing preview, hoping you will go to Rabbit Housing and take a tour of my BunnyBarn!

 

[DoubleD-Rabbitry]

Very nice, are you useing trays under the top row of cages? I want to double row mine so I can double my Does but need a way for thr droppings to roll out the back, have tried several materials but the droppings are sticky and build up exspecially if a litter is in the cage. Thanks

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Thank you! I was beginning to think I'd never get a response! <sniff!>

Nope, no trays, just dropping boards with a slight slant. I don't know if you read the description or saw the rest of the pics, but I made scrapers out of the same corrugated material, and I scrape them each morning so I can feed the "waste hay" to our goats. I don't think you will find anything that is actually "self cleaning"- even when I just fed pellets, the droppings didn't all drop down. I guess it might be possible if you had a tremendous slant, but then you would need a ladder to access your top row! I don't use bedding except in nest boxes, and I raise Rex with very short fur... even so, that slight fuzz of fur will stop the droppings from rolling freely. I've had rabbits strictly as pets in the past and used cages with trays, and found that to be much more labor intensive- at least this way you are only dealing with dry waste. Scraping daily only takes a minute or two if that- it takes me far longer to feed them their hay. You could probably leave it longer with no problem, but I feel daily cleaning is a good management tool because you can check for loose stools, overall output, etc. If a rabbit goes off it's feed I will know within a day.

I would highly recommend building a wood frame to suspend your bottom cages from so you can place (screw) the dropping boards on top of the frame- at first I had my lower tier hung from the top cages by chain, but that meant we had to cut holes in the dropping boards and urine flowed down the chains. Thankfully we hadn't installed all of the panels before I discovered that problem!

Take a close look at the other pictures I posted, and if you are still unclear, I would be happy to take one of the end panels off so I can take a photo down the center of it. Oh- another thing I didn't mention in the original post- we put "step flashing" (galvanized metal used when installing a roof- ask at your hardware store) on any lumber that urine could flow onto or rabbits could spray.

Hope that helps!

 

[DoubleD-Rabbitry]

Had not seen other pics but thanks for the explanation, I do use the flashing to prevent them from sitting at the front and peeing out on the walkways, and me when I walk by (the little buggers). :lol:

 

[owlsfriend]

Regarding your misting system, I would suggest using gravity-fed water dripping into a Rotron brand fan. These fans are used throughout the electronics industry, and they have a specialized line of fans that are submersible. I talked to one of their techs, and he said he had one running in his aquarium at home, just to see how it would work. You would have to do a web crawl for the models, but I'm pretty sure they're made by Rotron. Additionally, they are available for low voltages, such as 5VDC and 12VDC. The timers and switches would be up to your imagination, but should allow you to mist a given area quite safely. This might work better than some of the higher pressure misters that use city water pressure.

 

[DoubleD-Rabbitry]

You have to be careful with mister's with Rabbits, you can give them SNUFFLES, i.e. a cold/pnuemonia which they are real subseptable to if in damp areas. When I get the roof on my new pole/Bunny Barn I will be useing fans to ciculate the air.

 

[ellistattoo]

I love the scrapers you made. One of Bob Bennett's books talks about those and it seems like a great way to go. He said his fiberglass panels have lasted over 40 years and now seeing yours I can see why it's such a great system! Thanks for showing!!!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Ellistattoo, B.B's book was the inspiration for the Bunnybarn... one improvement on his design we made is to have a frame supporting the lower cages so the dropping boards aren't penetrated by wire or chain, thereby preventing urine from flowing down onto the cages below. As designed it is super easy to keep clean. Another thing I would do differently is to hang the cages in such a way that the posts are not in front of the cages so there is no obstruction when using the scrapers. We had to work with the space available, though, and overall I have no reason to complain!

One other thing- I think I would put the water line on the very bottom with the nipples angled slightly up, since rabbits would naturally drink from a puddle or other groundwater source. (Although I suspect that wild rabbits in arid climates get most of their fluids from vegetation or dew.)

Okay- two other things- if space permits, a slight gap between cages to prevent fur chewing would be good.

I think that if the panels were exposed to weather and sunlight they probably wouldn't last 40 years! But it is a great system!

 

[ellistattoo]

Thanks for the heads up! I will try to mimic this cage hanging system using angle iron.

I also love the way you overhung the roof to incorporate the existing gutters into the system. Looks like you're 2 barrels away from a great rainwater collection system!

 

[TariLynn]

MammaSheepdog - how do I look at the rest of your pictures?

 

[MaggieJ]

Tarilynn, you would go to the menu bar at the top of the page and choose "Gallery". The pictures are under the Housing and Equipment section. But, just to make it easy for you, here is the link: gallery/album.php?album_id=8

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Ellistattoo,

When I had the idea of putting the Bunnybarn in that space, the overhanging roof was part of the appeal. However, when we get a storm it usually includes wind, so we are going to have to install "rain baffles" to prevent water from blowing in.

How right you are about the rain barrels... I would really like to make a cistern to collect water from all of our roofs, but we live on top of a hill so I think I would need a submersible pump to use it. My youngest son put a feed bucket under one of the gutters the other day, and it filled up AND iced over! The kids have great fun removing the ice and tossing it onto the ground. It sounds like glass shattering!

I don't know what effect urine has on angle iron, but hopefully you wont have to worry about urine guards. If you aren't handy with wood or fortunate enough to have a resident carpenter, angle iron seems like an easy way to go, and will probably last longer in any case. I look forward to seeing your setup. I hope that the mistakes we have made will save others a lot of frustration and trouble, and that the rabbitries our design inspires will be better than ours. It's all for the rabbits, after all!

Have fun building!