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~ THE BARNS ~

The Rabbitry viewed from the house. The shed was built 2005. 12'x16' w/electricity. Designed for southern comfort with windows on 3 sides, roof and gable vents, light-colored siding and shingles. Blinds on E and W windows (this shows the W side), and fans help with summer heat. A homemade screen door helps keep flies and the menagerie out when the door is open. I leave it open during the day for more air flow. The gardens around it include trees that will provide shade someday. And of course make it pretty.

Shed contains 46 holes. 22 brood holes on left, center, and back wall. The center unit is a combo of brood, weanling, and jr holes.

24 buck/jr holes on right and center.

I call this the "Brush Clean System". This homemade setup was completed Jan. '09. It's very efficient. It takes about 15 minutes to sweep out the chutes and gutters, and everything fits in one 5 gal bucket. It's a daily chore, but with feeding it's only about a half hour all together. Beats the dreaded hour+ once or twice a week with pans and wheelbarrow and my poor old back. It's also easier to wire-brush the floor wire. I can reach the dingle balls from both top and bottom. No need for shavings other than show carriers. Everything is contained so there's no spills on the wood floor which happened with the stacked setup. Daily cleaning also means less urine fume build-up. It gave more storage space under the brood units. The bins hold extra water bottles, dishes, shavings, and other things go under here as well. The units are fairly light-weight and easy to move round. It's a little tight for moving myself around, and the heaters, but I manage. I worried how I would operate fans in the summer, but since bucks and jrs will go outside in the Summer House for the warm months, I can move the center unit over against the buck/jr unit and make plenty of room for fans. They aren't as tall as they appear in the photos. I'm short and designed them so I can easily reach the top tier bunnies.

The "Summer House" was added 2007. 12x20 metal carport w/ 10x12 dogrun inside. The chainlink was necessary for predator prevention. Chicken wire was run around the bottom half to prevent escapees. Dwarfs can fit through chainlink. It does freeze sometimes, so the herd is moved back into the shed for the winter months. I don't want to enclose this space, or worry about frozen water bottles. Except for a bit of overflow during culling decisions, the head count is maintained at the number that will fit in the shed.

Home-made panless strips. Currently 33 holes, but there's room for more in the center. The strips were made entirely of cage floor wire to keep out smaller critters like rodents and snakes. It's nice and airy in here, and much cooler than in the shed. Bucks, jrs, and idle does are housed here for the warm months. Working does and weanlings remain in the shed. Fewer buns in the shed helps with the heat in there. This takes quite a bit of cleaning work off me when I'm busy with other things like gardening, and the bunnies seem so much more comfortable during the summer.

2.7.10

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