[JoeKan]

I asked a few weeks ago about how to make an inexpensive chicken coop, now it's the rabbit's turn! I'm wanting to breed my rabbits but don't have a hutch made for separating the males from females. I thought about buying a metal shed (used) for cheap and then hanging wire cages off the roof. Do you think that would work and do you have another idea?
Thanks for any help,
Joe

 

[Chrysalis]

I asked a few weeks ago about how to make an inexpensive chicken coop, now it's the rabbit's turn! I'm wanting to breed my rabbits but don't have a hutch made for separating the males from females. I thought about buying a metal shed (used) for cheap and then hanging wire cages off the roof. Do you think that would work and do you have another idea?
Thanks for any help,
Joe

I have a relative who raises meat rabbits. He makes wire cages that hang from the side of a building. Just make sure they are inside the building or have very reliable shade or you will have hot dead rabbits.

I've seen people on youtube housing them in a little chicken tractor. We may be using that for my son's rabbits.

 

[BoldViolet]

Try craigslist, too! People are ALWAYS selling used rabbit cages. I just picked one up for when I get rabbits in the spring for less than half of what it retailed for new. Waiting on coming across a second one.

 

[FarmerJohn]

I saw a thread long time ago cant find it now but was a pretty sweet set up basicly a two or three sided building cant remember with the cages mounted to the wall and had tin roofing at an alngle underneath with a bucket at the end to catch the pellets and urine

 

[IceFire]

Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits has some pretty good plans in it for making different kinds of rabbit "housing"...from wire cages to rabbit barns. The book ALSO has good instructions for slaughtering/butchering the rabbits, and even has plans in it for making a "portable abbatoire" (processing "facility") from a plastic 55-gallon barrel.

 

[53convert]

Yeah storys gude is the bible for this venture

 

[etdbob]

So Joe, did ya get your hutches all set up?

Ya know, my hutches cost me very little. I make them out of salvaged lumber and hinges, some hardware cloth, some poles cut from my land and not much else.
I'm always on the lookout for buildings being demolished along my daily commute and I've been fortunate enough to take down a barn for a relative and a carport for a friend, and haul off all the material.
I don't have any real good pictures but you can sorta get an idea how they go together in these photos -
Only the bottom of the cages need be expensive hardware cloth. The doors and even the dividers between the cages can be chicken wire and in my case I used some leftover stucco wire.
They are just simple pole buildings with shed roofs.
Framework is 2x4, 2x6s and poles, whatever was handy. The sheathing is pieced together of odd scraps of OSB and plywood. My wife is real good with puzzles and is very handy piecing together this stuff!
Over the plywood and OSB goes tar paper and roofing metal.

I make 'em four cages wide, and about as deep as I can reach so that I can just reach in and grab a rabbit, and I wound up making two such structures one facing the other.
Keeps the snow out that way.

These are pretty sturdy structures. One has 2x4s for rafters and the other uses 2x6s. We had a pretty good sized tree come down on 'em with very little damage and they do hold up to a heck of a snow load.

 

[JoeKan]

I'm going to be working on mine this Saturday. I really like how you did yours, etdbob, that is really nice work.
Hopefully, this won't take me too long to build, but I'll post pictures once I'm done.
Thanks for all the advice,
Joe

 

[shadow61]

i built my rabbit hutch for about $100. i made it 8 ft long so i can put a divider between the 2 doors and make seperate areas for male and female rabbits. My new rabbit and chicken house will have 6 stacked cages inside for the rabbits plus this outside hutch i made, here is a pic.....

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/shadow61508/033-1.jpg

 

[FarmerJohn]

So Joe, did ya get your hutches all set up?

Ya know, my hutches cost me very little. I make them out of salvaged lumber and hinges, some hardware cloth, some poles cut from my land and not much else.
I'm always on the lookout for buildings being demolished along my daily commute and I've been fortunate enough to take down a barn for a relative and a carport for a friend, and haul off all the material.
I don't have any real good pictures but you can sorta get an idea how they go together in these photos -
Only the bottom of the cages need be expensive hardware cloth. The doors and even the dividers between the cages can be chicken wire and in my case I used some leftover stucco wire.
They are just simple pole buildings with shed roofs.
Framework is 2x4, 2x6s and poles, whatever was handy. The sheathing is pieced together of odd scraps of OSB and plywood. My wife is real good with puzzles and is very handy piecing together this stuff!
Over the plywood and OSB goes tar paper and roofing metal.

I make 'em four cages wide, and about as deep as I can reach so that I can just reach in and grab a rabbit, and I wound up making two such structures one facing the other.
Keeps the snow out that way.

These are pretty sturdy structures. One has 2x4s for rafters and the other uses 2x6s. We had a pretty good sized tree come down on 'em with very little damage and they do hold up to a heck of a snow load.

could you post some more pics of your rabit shed?

 

[etdbob]

I'll take some better photos this weekend and post 'em Monday!

 

[etdbob]

Hey FarmerJohn,
Sorry it took so long for me to get new pictures -
It's hard to get photos that show how they were framed up and all but hopefully this will help.

As the hutches stand today -
Originally there was just the white hutch, then I built another facing it which keeps the snow out, and the little hutch beside them is only used in the summer for the "overflow".

Inside, looking down one way and then the other at the original white hutch -

he doors are just four chunks of 2x4 with plywood or OSB splices on the corners and old door hinges are used to hang 'em.

Both of the big hutches have five uprights set in the earth, three in the back and two in the front.
The bottom of tha cages is framed up like a ladder out of old full dimension 2x4s and some 2x6s. The rest of the framing is conventional.
On the white hutch the two front poles are set forward to support the roof and the cage bottom is supported by the side framing.
On the newer hutch with the green metal the to front posts are right at the front of the cages and the roof is cantilevered out forward.

Inside a corner cage in the white hutch -

And inside a corner cage of the green hutch -
This is a big cage. It was supposed to be two cages but I ran out of wire to divide it in two so I just use it as is.
You can also see one of my bunny boxes in there. The wire would have been staples to the 2x6 divider right by the bunny box. That horizontal 2x6 is nailed to a vertical 2x4 that frames the doorway.

Now I'm the very first to admit that I am no carpenter! The framing is just sorta hashed out any which way, but the basics are a ladder frame supported by poles with the poles continuing up to support a shed roof.

The floor of the cage is 1/4 by 1/4 "hardware cloth" wire mesh.
I have seen many cages with 1/4 by 1/2 mesh and the poop does fall through that better but it's much harder on the rabbits feet so I don't use it.

Chicken wire is OK for the dividers provided your rabbits don't fight to much, and it's much cheaper than mesh.
It might be wise to use hardware cloth for the divider on a bucks cage.
The chicken wire is fine for covering on the doors

The white hutch cost me 50 bucks to build. About the only thing I bought for it was the hardware cloth, everything else is salvaged material.

The green hutch cost more because I bought new green roofing material.
I made extensive use of 2x6s when building it because that's what I had on had after I toor down an old barn for someone. It's sturdy though, I've never had to shovel snow off it's roof and I have had to do that on the white hutch!

Hope this helps!

 

[FarmerJohn]

Hey FarmerJohn,
Sorry it took so long for me to get new pictures -
It's hard to get photos that show how they were framed up and all but hopefully this will help.

As the hutches stand today -
Originally there was just the white hutch, then I built another facing it which keeps the snow out, and the little hutch beside them is only used in the summer for the "overflow".

Inside, looking down one way and then the other at the original white hutch -

he doors are just four chunks of 2x4 with plywood or OSB splices on the corners and old door hinges are used to hang 'em.

Both of the big hutches have five uprights set in the earth, three in the back and two in the front.
The bottom of tha cages is framed up like a ladder out of old full dimension 2x4s and some 2x6s. The rest of the framing is conventional.
On the white hutch the two front poles are set forward to support the roof and the cage bottom is supported by the side framing.
On the newer hutch with the green metal the to front posts are right at the front of the cages and the roof is cantilevered out forward.

Inside a corner cage in the white hutch -

And inside a corner cage of the green hutch -
This is a big cage. It was supposed to be two cages but I ran out of wire to divide it in two so I just use it as is.
You can also see one of my bunny boxes in there. The wire would have been staples to the 2x6 divider right by the bunny box. That horizontal 2x6 is nailed to a vertical 2x4 that frames the doorway.

Now I'm the very first to admit that I am no carpenter! The framing is just sorta hashed out any which way, but the basics are a ladder frame supported by poles with the poles continuing up to support a shed roof.

The floor of the cage is 1/4 by 1/4 "hardware cloth" wire mesh.
I have seen many cages with 1/4 by 1/2 mesh and the poop does fall through that better but it's much harder on the rabbits feet so I don't use it.

Chicken wire is OK for the dividers provided your rabbits don't fight to much, and it's much cheaper than mesh.
It might be wise to use hardware cloth for the divider on a bucks cage.
The chicken wire is fine for covering on the doors

The white hutch cost me 50 bucks to build. About the only thing I bought for it was the hardware cloth, everything else is salvaged material.

The green hutch cost more because I bought new green roofing material.
I made extensive use of 2x6s when building it because that's what I had on had after I toor down an old barn for someone. It's sturdy though, I've never had to shovel snow off it's roof and I have had to do that on the white hutch!

Hope this helps!

thats a very nice setup and worth copying one day

 

[Sierra Dave]

Heat kills..

I thought about buying a metal shed (used) for cheap and then hanging wire cages off the roof. Do you think that would work and do you have another idea?
Thanks for any help,
Joe

My only concern, and I admit I am a neophyte, is that you need some air flow. I am envisioning a shed with the double sliding doors. I think it might get too hot in the Summer.

Rabbits handle cold just fine. It's heat that kills. And one person told me, that if they get too hot, their ability to impregnate females gets diminished.

The shed idea sounds fine as long as you have good air flow. Maybe take out the whole front or put a doorway in the back for wind. Paint the roof white and maybe a fan inside blowing air.

Best of luck...I'm looking at hutches also.



Sierra Dave

 

[JoeKan]

I actually started building mine today. Hopefully, it should be done by Saturday. I will post pictures of it once I'm done.
Thanks for the pictures etdbob

 

[mountaingoat]

cool setup etd bob looks to do a good job