Posted: 6/9/2014 7:12:45 AM EDT
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We have some people here that either have or are thinking about getting rabbits. That in turn has brought up the topic of rabbit hutches among other related topics.
I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread dedicated to rabbits, but time will tell if it's a good idea or not. To start, _RAGNAR_ has a lot of good information in his My backyard suburban farm Continuing, we currently have three rabbits. Two females and one male. The male and the female "housed" with him are brother and sister and were given to us about a year ago. The other female was given to us a few months ago. These rabbits are pets and I built the hutches with that in mind and with the intention of being able to sit with them and spend some quality time with them ... which they enjoy. If the need/opportunity arises I can adapt the hutches for more rabbits by adding some supports and wire in the runs. We also have two smaller hutches that came with the rabbits that can be used. On to the pics ... The double hutch on the right was the first built that houses the siblings. It's divided by wire so they can't "interact". The 2x4 poles are used during winter for an electrical cord for water heaters. I spray painted all the wire black to help it "disappear" and I think it works. 
It took the rabbits a couple months to figure out the ramps, but now that they have they use all the hutch. The plexiglass windows have landings so they can sit up there during cold weather and enjoy the heat from the water bottle heaters. the water bottles and heaters (drop lights) are behind the wooden doors. Beans, the male is very friendly and likes to lick me while I pet him. 
The wooden doors open up to the rabbit's den. The drawer in the middle is for droppings and it worked at first, but now only Casper, the female uses it. I have to climb under to clean up Bean's mess. It's worth it though because our garden loves the fresh droppings. 
This is the inside of one of the dens. I think all the rabbits enjoy having multiple levels and they spend a lot of time just hopping up and down all of them. 
This is Ally's (short for albino) hutch. The food bowl has been replaced with a regular feeder. This hutch differs from the others in that the floor area where the food bowl is is open to the run. Imagine a balcony overlooking the ground. I do have a short wall there that can't be seen just in case she has a "panic seizure". I don't want her rolling off and hurting herself. Ally is less than a year old (the others are around 2yo) and it took her about 30 seconds to explore all the levels. 
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Wow. Pretty darn nice
I have tractors and a wooden floored hutch but decided on wire cages for daily life . Though finishing litters from 6-12 weeks in the tractors mows the lawn nicely :-) I'm currently setting them up so their droppings fall to the ground and it's a red wiggler worm farm the chickens can scratch in. |