coffeenutdesigns
Well-known member
Our hutch is making some good progress. It was supposed to be finished by now, but things got a little slow going while we dealt with insurance out of town and then DH had to catch up on work he missed.
These are the pics I have so far. Don't begrudge me the mess, I actually bought it with the house, lol. We had to do a lot of cleaning out of trash piled up and overgrowth before we could even start building.
These are the stackables the rabbits came in. I will probably just take those caged down and rehab them for baby chick runs for when they get old enough to start transitioning outside of the brooder. The beginning of my hutch is in the background.
These are my helpers assessing the situation.
This is all super heavy duty galvanized beams that we got for free that was going to be trashed and the angle iron was some left on our property from the previous owner...25' lengths!
Seeing my vision yet?
This shows how heavy those metal beams are. Not bad for free stuff, but you do have to get creative when making it work to fit your needs. I don't know how many times my daughter and I rearranged all that framing to form something workable and symmetrical (to appease my OCD-ness).
Now you can see where I'm going with this, right? The angle iron is being used for brackets to hold the cages, but also where I can lift them out when I need to. I am going to paint this with some spray on insulator that we can get from my FILs. They use it on electric motors and it makes like a plastic-y feeling coating, but it's not plastic exactly and it doesn't come off or flake or anything. That should protect it well from caustic urine.
You can also see where we put a second level of beams with enough room for a second row of cages and enough space between for a barrier with a 3" incline.
And here we have the two rows of brackets for cages. Not sure if you can see some of the flat iron pieces of the galvanized frame, but there are enough that I can cut them to to fit in the brackets to give added support at the edges of each cage. It was great how that worked out. The angle iron is plenty sturdy, but these will give the wire cages a little more support and I can remove them for cleaning or for rearranging cages.
Final picture. The frame is on the side of our storage building that the previous owner used as his leatherworking shop. It is insulated and has electricity, so we can run a fan in the heat of the summer. We put it on that side so that it is not visible from the road and the building blocks the north wind in the winter. I will need to paint or put something on the sheet metal of the building to protect from urine, probably the insulator. We have some corrugated metal roofing sheets also left on our property that all of our barns are made of so we will have that for the roof. We already have posts to use as corner posts for the roof. If I can manage to find someone replacing their privacy fence and can get some free panels for the sides, and part of the front, all I will need to do is fashion a gate. It's heavy enough to withstand our crazy winds, so far hasn't cost us anything but elbow grease. I am just amazed that the 2 pieces of angle iron we just happened to have were just the right size to make 2 rows to fit that frame perfectly. Coincidence...or divine intervention? I dunno, but I love that it worked out.
I'll post more as it comes along.<br /><br />__________ Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:38 am __________<br /><br />The brackets are a little over 30" deep to fit a 30" deep cage. They are 148+ inches long so I can fit 4- 30" wide cages and a 24" cage on each row, giving me a 24" x 30" for a buck, 2 - 30 x 30s for my does and 2 - 30 x 30s for growouts on each level, good for a trio of NZs and a Cali trio if I ever get my herd how I want them.
Right now I can actually fit all my does on the top level since my buck is in quarantine until further notice. I won't have time for dispatching for a few days. Sick kids and 2 jobs came up I wasn't planning on.
The height is perfect for 18" tall cages to be right at shoulder height on the top and I at shoulder height while kneeling comfortably on the bottom. Although, if I get concerned about how low it is, it will be easy enough to add some risers under my framework.
These are the pics I have so far. Don't begrudge me the mess, I actually bought it with the house, lol. We had to do a lot of cleaning out of trash piled up and overgrowth before we could even start building.
These are the stackables the rabbits came in. I will probably just take those caged down and rehab them for baby chick runs for when they get old enough to start transitioning outside of the brooder. The beginning of my hutch is in the background.
These are my helpers assessing the situation.
This is all super heavy duty galvanized beams that we got for free that was going to be trashed and the angle iron was some left on our property from the previous owner...25' lengths!
Seeing my vision yet?
This shows how heavy those metal beams are. Not bad for free stuff, but you do have to get creative when making it work to fit your needs. I don't know how many times my daughter and I rearranged all that framing to form something workable and symmetrical (to appease my OCD-ness).
Now you can see where I'm going with this, right? The angle iron is being used for brackets to hold the cages, but also where I can lift them out when I need to. I am going to paint this with some spray on insulator that we can get from my FILs. They use it on electric motors and it makes like a plastic-y feeling coating, but it's not plastic exactly and it doesn't come off or flake or anything. That should protect it well from caustic urine.
You can also see where we put a second level of beams with enough room for a second row of cages and enough space between for a barrier with a 3" incline.
And here we have the two rows of brackets for cages. Not sure if you can see some of the flat iron pieces of the galvanized frame, but there are enough that I can cut them to to fit in the brackets to give added support at the edges of each cage. It was great how that worked out. The angle iron is plenty sturdy, but these will give the wire cages a little more support and I can remove them for cleaning or for rearranging cages.
Final picture. The frame is on the side of our storage building that the previous owner used as his leatherworking shop. It is insulated and has electricity, so we can run a fan in the heat of the summer. We put it on that side so that it is not visible from the road and the building blocks the north wind in the winter. I will need to paint or put something on the sheet metal of the building to protect from urine, probably the insulator. We have some corrugated metal roofing sheets also left on our property that all of our barns are made of so we will have that for the roof. We already have posts to use as corner posts for the roof. If I can manage to find someone replacing their privacy fence and can get some free panels for the sides, and part of the front, all I will need to do is fashion a gate. It's heavy enough to withstand our crazy winds, so far hasn't cost us anything but elbow grease. I am just amazed that the 2 pieces of angle iron we just happened to have were just the right size to make 2 rows to fit that frame perfectly. Coincidence...or divine intervention? I dunno, but I love that it worked out.
I'll post more as it comes along.<br /><br />__________ Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:38 am __________<br /><br />The brackets are a little over 30" deep to fit a 30" deep cage. They are 148+ inches long so I can fit 4- 30" wide cages and a 24" cage on each row, giving me a 24" x 30" for a buck, 2 - 30 x 30s for my does and 2 - 30 x 30s for growouts on each level, good for a trio of NZs and a Cali trio if I ever get my herd how I want them.
Right now I can actually fit all my does on the top level since my buck is in quarantine until further notice. I won't have time for dispatching for a few days. Sick kids and 2 jobs came up I wasn't planning on.
The height is perfect for 18" tall cages to be right at shoulder height on the top and I at shoulder height while kneeling comfortably on the bottom. Although, if I get concerned about how low it is, it will be easy enough to add some risers under my framework.
