So I'm thinking about making a more permanent outdoor area for my rabbits. I currently have hutches for them but I brought them inside during the winter this year. I want them to be outside year round however since they're kinda a pain to clean up after. I've been thinking about buying this shed, adding a run to the front of it and calling it a day. Do you guys think it needs any more than just some straw put down for them.
My other thought is putting them in this green house but idk how warm it would keep them.
Don't buy a tarp chinesium greenhouse. They are a single use item, degarde in the sun.
A greenhouse itself is not a bad idea since they constantly piss and shit, you can keep your normal wire bottom cages.
Needs an area they can "hide" and you've got to make it fox and cat-proof. Foxes WILL find any weaknesses and get through them if you have them.
You think the shed would work for them of should I put the hutches I got for them in there too. The run and everything will have chicken wire covering it and I plan to line the base with bricks too, in case they try to dig out or something tries to dig in.
I have that shed. it is very small. I am 6'2" and cannot stand up in it.
a neighbor behind my moms house had rabbits, and sunk 50 gallon drums in the ground connected with pipes.
he kept rabbits in them. I do not know any more than that.
I'm not too worried about standing up in it, I just want to put them outside. Think itll be warm enough if I line it with some of them green insulator foam sheets? I dont want to dig up half my yard so the 50 gallon drums are out of the question.
rabbit cages need constant cleaning. yes insulation would help a heater even more, but rabbits are fury and huddle in cold weather (though underground).
a simple heater can be built with a normally closed thermal switch in series with an infrared heat lamp. the thermal switch should have a temperature rating of around 50° freedom or 10° celsisomething.
when it is at or below 50° the lamp will come on and go off when above that. there are many temperatures to choose from
I made some vent fans for my shed that worked in a similar fashion, except I used normally open thermal switches that would turn on the fans when the temp got about 85° freedom.
>a neighbor behind my moms house had rabbits, and sunk 50 gallon drums in the ground connected with pipes.
thats... pretty clever actually.
I keep my rex rabbits outside I'm a colony setup. It's a 10x10 dog kennel with a cover on the roof. I buried some totes in the ground and made tunnels for them to go into. They make nests in the totes by taking hay and making a comfy warm bed. No issues with them being cold they're hardy in I cold weather.
You’d be better off to build an outdoor hutch with cages made of hardware cloth or something really sturdy. If they don’t have space for their shit to fall through the floor, you’re going to be cleaning out rabbit poop every five minutes. Make it so you can easily collect poop and put it elsewhere, like a compost pile/stall. Two layers of cloth might be necessary, foxes and raccoons and stuff will figure that shit out quick if you don’t reinforce it. Don’t bother with straw for adults, the babies need it though; mothers like to give birth in it. Remember to take the female to the male when breeding, not the other way around… Females are super territorial, she’ll frick him up.
>t. I trade eggs for rabbit meat and know their setup pretty well
Taking the doe to the buck is good advice. I had rabbits as a lad and did not do it that way. It turned out bad. Even the few pregnacies ended in infanticide. Grim memory.