Secure Rabbit Housing

Building rabbit housing is one of the first thing you need to prepare before bringing home rabbits. Raising small flocks and herds of animals for your home use is time consuming. All animals require care, cleaning, feeding, fresh water, etc. You can’t help but feel some attachment to your homestead animals, even if you intend to ultimately use them to provide meat for you family. Because of this, nothing is harder than stepping into a nightmare scenario after a predator has gained entry into your barn, coop or pen that was intended to keep your animals safe. While we may not be able to keep our farm animals safe from all harm, we can take steps to prevent most predators from gaining entry.

Beginning the Rabbit Housing Project

Recently, we acquired additional rabbits for our farm. Temporarily, we kept them in crates inside the duck house, but the ducks really were not happy to have these furry house guests. After two weeks it was time for the rabbits to find a home of their own. We set out to build a predator safe rabbit enclosure.

First, we prepared the ground on a level spot. Large strips of chicken wire were cut and laid on the ground to prevent something from digging up into the pen. The chicken wire base was about 10 inches larger all around than the size of the pen.

A use for all those empty feed bags-

Next, I laid empty feed bags on top of the chicken wire, as an additional barrier from digging into or out of the pen.

Third, dirt and sawdust were laid down on top of the chicken wire and feed bags. The ground was smoothed out. The small rabbit house was placed on the ground and the pen, a 6 x 8 foot chain link enclosure, was placed on top of the prepared place.

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The next step was to continue to prepare the outside perimeter to prevent animals from digging into the pen. Boards were laid around the outer edges of the pen. Mulch and dirt were used to back fill up against the pen. The dirt was compacted as much as possible. With this method, any animal trying to dig into the pen would first come upon the wooden board, then a layer of chicken wire before being able to gain entry. I am not saying it won’t happen but it will not be an easy job.

Inside the pen,the bedding will cover the bottom of the pen. If the rabbits decide to try to dig out they will hit a barrier of woven plastic feed bags and a layer of chicken wire before escaping.

The last step was to add a layer of dry straw for bedding in the pen area and inside the small rabbit house.

 

Moving to the New Home!

Time for the new residents to move in. At night, we close the rabbits in the house. There is room for a food dish and a water dish and plenty of room to move around, in the house. 

 There are certainly many ways to build rabbit housing that will keep your bunnies safe. This is one way that is working well for our rabbits. For more ideas, check out some of the posts listed below, on rabbit housing and rabbit care.

 

Read my new book!

Habitat Housing for Rabbits is available now as a pdf download by following this link! The information I have been wanting to share, about how we keep our rabbits in a natural setting, successfully keeping them healthy and safe.

Only $2.49! Click the book photo to go to the information page. 

Habitat Housing for Rabbits  available now!

 

(This post was originally published in March of 2014. Since the release of my mini e-book, Habitat Housing for Rabbits, I updated the content to include more information. Thank you for reading this post. Please spread the word about the book to anyone thinking of raising rabbits for their homestead.)