[Angry Cow]

When I finally am at my BOL, I will need to build an enclosure for rabbits. It is a forested area and I want the bunnies to have some freedom to roam, so no tractors or other cages. I was thinking of putting up a 5ft chicken wire fence, then putting up another chicken wire fence that would cover 2ft of the upright fence and extend 3-4ft into the run on the ground. That way the bunnies can't easily dig out. Would something like this work?

 

[Ramona M. Faunce]

You should use chicken wire over the bottom of the pen. then put in some mulch and hay. the bunnys will build their own burrows.

What I want to know, is how are you going to catch your butcher rabbits? At my age, I would expire during the 1st chase and the bunnies would have to live off my carcus. Ha! Ha!

 

[Kingfish]

We all want our rabbits to have a good life BUT too much exercise and they don't get fat. Give them room to run and they will. Also way to many chances at Birds of prey getting them in an open top pen. I don't let my chickens free range unless I'm right there watching them. We have a pair of Eagles on our lake and several Cooper hawks. Large Owls will also take your rabbits at will in an open pen. 24 Inches by 30 inches is all they need. Keep them contained and you will have fat tender rabbits to eat. Let them run and they be much thinner and more on the tough side. KF

 

[jodier7]

You could use a chainlink fence around them and lay the bottom over to where foxes and other animals cant dig in and then wire chickewire to the inside of the fence and lay it over where the rabbits cant dig out.

 

[Jelsey]

Keep your buns OFF the gound.

Cage 'em - less chance of predatory death, parasites & digging "out" - just to name a few hazards.

Also, how are you going to "successfully" breed them, or aren't you concerned about culling undesirable traits?

"Colony" rabbitrys are common in Europe, not so much here.

Good luck.

 

[Kingfish]

I used to use a rabbit tractor (moving cage for meat rabbits but it was easier to keep them caged and bring the grasses, dandelions and clovers to them. I'm feeding a lot of hay now from our food plots and I like to be in control over how far down the grasses get chewed. I would suggest keeping bucks and does separate and caged for control over breeding. They get much fatter in a 24 by 30 pen . When the feed in equals meat out why let them burn any of it off?

The main trouble with rabbit is lean protein. Wild rabbits are skinny, lean and have fleas and ticks. Your tame ones will contract all these things if left on the grass day after day. It will take more food in to produce a pound of good meat . My hay fed rabbits are Fat beyond belief. The Kidneys are wrapped in huge globs of fat which add carbohydrates to the meal in gravy. In a post shtf scenario this will help so much I cant stress it enough. You want good fat rabbits not skinny lean ones. Meat rabbits don't need exercise . KF

 

[Sweeper80]

When I finally am at my BOL, I will need to build an enclosure for rabbits. It is a forested area and I want the bunnies to have some freedom to roam, so no tractors or other cages. I was thinking of putting up a 5ft chicken wire fence, then putting up another chicken wire fence that would cover 2ft of the upright fence and extend 3-4ft into the run on the ground. That way the bunnies can't easily dig out. Would something like this work?

I built a "rabbit yard" for ours, 8X16, split in two to allow vegetation to regrow as they eat off the vegetation in the other side. I sunk the fence 6" into the dirt, then lined both sides of the fence with football size rocks, they finally gave up trying to burrow around the perimeter fence and now only burrow in the "fallout shelter" I built them, which, of course, started with one entrance and now has two new entrances.

Rabbits burrow by nature, it's in their DNA . That's why I built them a man-made burrow, it keeps them cooler in the summer, and they feel safe inside.

And, as of right now, I'd much rather have lean meat than fatty meat, as we get plenty of fat in our diets with foods like hamburger and bacon, TEOCAWKI would be a different story, and we'd be needing all the fat we can get.

 

[Angry Cow]

I built a "rabbit yard" for ours, 8X16, split in two to allow vegetation to regrow as they eat off the vegetation in the other side. I sunk the fence 6" into the dirt, then lined both sides of the fence with football size rocks, they finally gave up trying to burrow around the perimeter fence and now only burrow in the "fallout shelter" I built them, which, of course, started with one entrance and now has two new entrances.

Rabbits burrow by nature, it's in their DNA . That's why I built them a man-made burrow, it keeps them cooler in the summer, and they feel safe inside.

And, as of right now, I'd much rather have lean meat than fatty meat, as we get plenty of fat in our diets with foods like hamburger and bacon, TEOCAWKI would be a different story, and we'd be needing all the fat we can get.

I realize that rabbits burrow. I wanted to build a "burrow safe" area that they could burrow IN but not OUT. I'm reluctant to simply put the bunnies in a cage/shed since it seems like I'd be denying their fundamental nature, which is to burrow. I think that the crazy rabbit behavior you hear about, such as attacking humans and each other, comes from keeping them in cages and not letting them burrow.

 

[Sweeper80]

I realize that rabbits burrow. I wanted to build a "burrow safe" area that they could burrow IN but not OUT. I'm reluctant to simply put the bunnies in a cage/shed since it seems like I'd be denying their fundamental nature, which is to burrow. I think that the crazy rabbit behavior you hear about, such as attacking humans and each other, comes from keeping them in cages and not letting them burrow.

Bunny bomb shelter

They burrow here instead of under the fence, well mostly.........