skysthelimit
Well-known member
What is a dairy parlor heater?
Winterizing Rabbitry
- Thread starter andyva
- Start date
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I'm in the Greater Kansas City area. We use heavy-duty plastic crocks. Two sets. I water the rabbits at least twice a day. Clean crocks with fresh water in the morning and then in the evening those crocks are replaced with new ones and new water. The ones from morning are taken indoors, thawed and cleaned, and then swapped out the next morning - and the cycle continues. Sometimes they don't freeze during the day so then I only rinse the crocks out and give them fresh water.
Our rabbits are kept in an un-insulated metal barn / building. Has big doors on east and west sides, windows north and south. When temps are above 40 degrees and it's not too windy, we'll open doors or windows as needed to keep the air fresh. It's not an airtight building so there's still some ventilation via the eaves and the roof ridge.
Last winter, we didn't have it so bad. This year, however, all the weather "experts" are calling for much colder temps and much more snow. Guess Mother Nature is trying to balance things out from this summer's high temps and drought. Best of luck to all this Winter!
Our rabbits are kept in an un-insulated metal barn / building. Has big doors on east and west sides, windows north and south. When temps are above 40 degrees and it's not too windy, we'll open doors or windows as needed to keep the air fresh. It's not an airtight building so there's still some ventilation via the eaves and the roof ridge.
Last winter, we didn't have it so bad. This year, however, all the weather "experts" are calling for much colder temps and much more snow. Guess Mother Nature is trying to balance things out from this summer's high temps and drought. Best of luck to all this Winter!
BlueCamasRabbitry
Well-known member
I put socks on my rabbits' water bottles one year in an attempt to insulate them.
I don't remember if it worked very well or not! LOL!
I only have 3 rabbits this year, and by the time super cold temps roll around, I'll just have one, so I won't have to worry about taking time to thaw a dozen plus water bottles and crocks each morning. lol.
I'll give my rabbits old Pepsi boxes filled with hay, but they don't exactly use them the way they're intended. Oh well!
Emily
I don't remember if it worked very well or not! LOL!
I only have 3 rabbits this year, and by the time super cold temps roll around, I'll just have one, so I won't have to worry about taking time to thaw a dozen plus water bottles and crocks each morning. lol.
I'll give my rabbits old Pepsi boxes filled with hay, but they don't exactly use them the way they're intended. Oh well!
Emily
grumpy
Well-known member
skysthelimit":2vojhk0m said:
Sky:
It's just a little thermostatically controlled electric heater. That was the "brand-name" of it on the box. It is fairly well constructed and real durable. It's got a tip-over switch that shuts it off if it starts to get bumped over.
grumpy.
I use the hard plastic crocks and my buns are outside all winter with a wind break on the west and a 6mil plastic sheet I can flip down to keep the heat in at night. The crocks froze solid only once or twice last winter, but many mornings were skimmed over with ice and quite a few mornings had a 1/4" or better of ice. The adult rabbits drank often enough to keep the ice open and still had free water even though I only dumped the crocks in the morning and just topped off in the evening.
Bunnies put out a decent BTU ... 1.75BTU/hour? ... and with the 6mil plastic over the front of the cages it stayed nice and warm enough for 3 litters from both does to be kindled and raised for the first week
Bunnies put out a decent BTU ... 1.75BTU/hour? ... and with the 6mil plastic over the front of the cages it stayed nice and warm enough for 3 litters from both does to be kindled and raised for the first week
