Temperatures!

[grumpy]

It is HOT!!! 102 a little bit ago.....I live north of KCMO

The rabbits are in the barn (insulated roof and walls) a dozen fans.. a small a/c unit blowing into the fans. and it is still too danged hot!! I'm seriously looking into building an evaporative cooler.

Every two to three hours my son or I will go down and "mist" them down with a two-gallon pressurized sprayer. The does don't like it!! But tough-stuff, at least they're cooled down a little.

I lost three over the week-end but they weren't out of my brood stock.

grumpy

 

[Miss M]

we get about eight months of winter here

We get about 8 months of summer! :roll:

how would you keep rabbits alive without ANY power?

In an emergency, your best chance would be to just think about all of your outdoor areas -- not just the yard, but carport, garage, screened porch, etc. If you had to be outside, but could be anywhere you wanted to be around your home, where would you pick? Maybe go on a tour around your house and see.

Until late afternoon, the carport here is much cooler than surrounding areas. In a pinch, I could put up a tarp to keep that late afternoon sun out, and it would stay cooler. I could turn the carport into an emergency rabbitry, with some pre-planning. Being a carport, it pulls breezes through, too.

Another possibility is to have something like terra cotta chimney sleeves on hand. you can take the cages and place them in the shadiest grassy spot. Stick a chimney sleeve in each cage, and wet the sleeve down. The terra cotta will absorb the water, slowly letting it evaporate off. It gives the bun basically an air-conditioned "room".

 

[WildWolf]

One way would be to build a warren for them... with pipes and rooms that are covered in dirt. What I'm going to do is build wire tunnels and line them with plastic, and the rooms will be rock or clay. Then I'll wet the dirt around the warren, and when it evaporates, it will cool everything down. Just for my convenience, I'm probably going to make the rooms out of rock, with a clay lid on top- that way I can lift the clay lid to reach inside if I need to. This is mimicking a "clay pot evaporative cooler"... If you want details, look on google for it.

 

[Miss M]

That should work well, also, as long as the rabbits can get along together (unless you figure out a way to isolate them). Cage rabbits suddenly put together into a colony setup may start fighting.

Maggie posted a document in another thread that has plans for a couple of different types of rabbitries which offer access to an underground "room" as well as a cage for each rabbit. Lemme see....<br /><br />__________ Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:45 pm __________<br /><br />Found it! http://ressources.ciheam.org/om/pdf/c08/95605275.pdf

 

[Therian]

Another possibility is to have something like terra cotta chimney sleeves on hand. you can take the cages and place them in the shadiest grassy spot. Stick a chimney sleeve in each cage, and wet the sleeve down. The terra cotta will absorb the water, slowly letting it evaporate off. It gives the bun basically an air-conditioned "room".

Any chance of a image to what you speak of?

I thought about trying some large tiles as a thought, not as good BUT they do a good job of staying "cool", was going to test it on the next liter of kits (see if they would chew or die from it) Times like these I wish I had more land, id just make a giant dirt hill and put my cages inside of it My big goal is to have a setup where I don't need to do anything, atm I do fans and ice bottles and its still only delaying things.

*edit*
Also my rabbits wont drink water during the day, would it be beneficial to rotate bottles to keep "cooler" water or do they just not drink when hot?

 

[Miss M]

ny chance of a image to what you speak of?

Here's a link to a company that sells the things: http://superiorclay.com/flue-liners.php

 

[Therian]

ny chance of a image to what you speak of?

Here's a link to a company that sells the things: http://superiorclay.com/flue-liners.php

I see, will try them out and thank you for the help. I was hoping the tile might cool down with a breeze over it but it just got hotter than ambient temps with the rabbits on them. Will try these out next, I would like to get to a point where no special devices are needed to keep them alive. Our grid goes out at least 10 times during the summer so its important I don't rely on electricity lol.

 

[LauraNJ]

I use 2 liter bottles but I also use the 12 oz or 1 liter bottles because they freeze quickly. I rotate the 2 liters out in the evening and by morning they refreeze but during the day I just keep adding frozen 12 oz bottles and swapping them out when it is really hot.

I also change water a few times a day. We have water bottles and crocks. I do crushed ice and water in water bottles and cubed ice and water in the crocks.

I also have some gallon ice tea containers I freeze. My family thinks I am a little nuts with how much I run new water, check on rabbits, etc when it is hot. I text my husband updates during the day (I am sure he just loves that). I managed to get my FIL paranoid about it when he visited last weekend and he was swapping bottles for me.

I also turn down the temp on my freezer so the water freezes quicker. Check and see if you can adjust yours. The ice cream is extremely hard but my water freezes much quicker now.

 

[3mina]

The ice cream is extremely hard but my water freezes much quicker now.

That just means it will last longer cause the portions will be smaller

 

[LauraNJ]

The ice cream is extremely hard but my water freezes much quicker now.

That just means it will last longer cause the portions will be smaller

You would think but unfortunately my boys have a system of getting out the ice cream, doing something else for a few minutes, then running the ice cream scoop under hot water. Comes out easy then. We are averaging at least a gallon of ice cream a day here.

Ice cream is one of my guilty pleasures, I love all the flavors.

 

[Miss M]

Our grid goes out at least 10 times during the summer so its important I don't rely on electricity lol.

Wow! So you regularly have to revert to survival mode! Knowing how to keep your animals alive without electricity is important for us all, but it is a clear and present necessity for you!

 

[Therian]

@LauraNJ
My grandparents have a electric ice cream scooper System defeated! haha.

Thanks for the help, I found a partial solution for now (still working on 100% power free cooling) but I made a box today with half inch thick walls, I put ceramic tile on the bottom with thin board under it with silicon to prevent air escaping (bunny chew proof too) so that its a "ice box" with the two liter inside. Based off initial tests (103F) my ice bottle lasted about 2 hours longer with my basic box today, I imagine it will last longer with my new box tomorrow. They will just have to suffer till 1-2PM as from 3-7PM they seem to get hit the hardest down here.

My neighbors love eating my rabbit so I am thinking of asking them if I can put a dirt pile on their side of the fence If I can make a mound behind then 90% of the evening sun will be off the rabbits.

Our grid goes out at least 10 times during the summer so its important I don't rely on electricity lol.

Wow! So you regularly have to revert to survival mode! Knowing how to keep your animals alive without electricity is important for us all, but it is a clear and present necessity for you!

Sadly yes, I am looking into solar panels atm now, enough to generate about 16KWH worth every day so I can run my freezers + my fans to keep myself cool. The big issue I have is I need around 8-10 boat batteries to keep above 70% usage at night (longer battery life) the issue is each battery is around $200 for a good deep cycle :/ Main reason I need to find a solution to bypass over taxing my freezers during these times for rabbit bottles

BTW Miss M, on those clay things do I want one where the rabbit can go inside of it? I keep NZW and Cali's, I finally got my dream rabbits and this heat is risking um ~_~ I actually need to know before I build these new boxes, I will make sure they can fit inside if so

 

[3mina]

I would go for the the ones the rabbits can get into

 

[Miss M]

on those clay things do I want one where the rabbit can go inside of it?

The lady who used them had the ones they could go into, the ones that look like square or rectangular tunnels. I would think that, in the shade, these would keep the rabbit cooler (especially if damp) than ones they cannot get into.

 

[WildWolf]

So, to make (I don't like buying things... I like making things ) a the coolest room possible, I think what you would have to do is this: have a clay pot, upside down, with an opening for a tunnel. Attach a clay tunnel to the opening (you could just have the tunnel lead into the pot, and then seal with silicone or something else like it. Then cover it all with sand... and water it daily. You could even cover the entire thing with another pot, just be sure to have a small opening so that you can water it.

Here's a link to an easy-to-make clay pot refrigerator: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pot-in-a-Pot-Refrigerator just modify it however you want to make a cool room for the rabbits.

 

[-HRanchito]

It seems like you would always get a jerky rabbit who would want to pee all over the inside of the clay pot/tunnel -- they look like it would be rough to clean.

 

[WildWolf]

Good point... Maybe you could line the floors with something easy to clean/replace- plastic, or wood shavings, or hay- if you have a rabbit with that problem.

 

[Therian]

Well I couldn't find pots that made me happy so I got a cousin down in the Ozarks who claims he can get me the same pots to my box specs. Will wait and see what happens on that front, one thing I did do was make some tile floors for the rabbits. I ran 2 12x12 tiles and glued them to a piece of flimsy wood via silicone, then sealed the middle to avoid the mess for each of their boxes. I can put water on the tile to "cool" it or I can lay a ice block inside instead. So far I get a extra 2 hours in 100F+ weather and 3-4 hours in the 90s. I cut my bottle usage in half doing this as one 2 liter lasts all day (12pm to 7pm). Best part is all of it was free except for the silicone I used ($2 per tube sale at Lowes ) and it gives the rabbits a larger surface space to cool down. My buck LOVES it, he will lay on his side and hug the bottle all day long.

 

[WildWolf]

At first my rabbits didn't know what to do with the water bottles... then, after the 3rd or 4th day, I caught them licking it and laying around it with their heads right up against it. I don't think they have lay on top of it yet.

But we have had rain for 3 days!!! It's a lot cooler now!!
The only problem is that I want to introduce my 13 month old does to a young doe, and it would be better if it were hot. That way they wouldn't be so active.

 

[SatinsRule]

We've been rather lucky as of late, and I'm thankful for it. The last several days have been low 90's for the highs with a few days of temps around 85. Even gotten rain a couple of times this week, and I know the farmers need it.

I really feel for the farmers in the corn belt. I heard a crop report yesterday that said the projected crop for the year is rated "poor" or "very poor" for 48% of IL's crop and 61% of IN's crop. That all translates to a rather sharp increase in food prices in the near future.