# Chickens and colony rabbits together?



## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

I'm thinking of raising colony rabbits. Is there any reason that I couldn't run them together with chickens? I would build the pen alongside my pole shed. It will be much larger than either the chickens or rabbits will need. It will be made of corn crib panels on the side with flight netting on the top. I plan on burying the panels about a foot and a half to discourage burrowing under, and lining with heavy duty chicken wire to a height of about 3 feet. I will build a coop with access inside the pole shed. It will be large enough that I could also divide it in half to let one side grow and recover. I was thinking of putting old hay bales in the center for the rabbits to burrow into and under.

Any thoughts?


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Sounds really cool! I know many people who have chickens and rabbits together. I am not sure what ages they were when they put them in the same pen, though.


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

I have heard of chickens eating mice so they might eat the baby rabbits but if there are the parents to keep the babies from wandering too near a chicken.......


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

lambs.are.cute said:


> I have heard of chickens eating mice so they might eat the baby rabbits but if there are the parents to keep the babies from wandering too near a chicken.......


I thought of this too. My thoughts are that if the rabbits make their dens in burrows that by the time the kits come out they will be big enough that this won't be a problem, but if anyone thinks otherwise let me know.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

I've tried it. It does work better to have them in two separate areas IMO. Plus with a rabbit colony in the chicken area, you have the added issue of the poultry possibly eating the baby rabbits. They are vicious things that kill and eat mice, so a tiny bunny wouldn't have a chance. Plus you have to keep the rabbits out of the chicken food unless you simply feed the chickens plain grain. It just works better to keep them separate. It's less work that way because you don't have to pull out Mommas before they give birth to keep the babies safe, you don't have to worry about a rabbit getting into the chicken feed, you don't have to worry about the hens getting all the rabbit food before they can get to it...... etc. Trust me, separate is just easier for you and better for them.


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## wwubben (Oct 13, 2004)

The chickens will kill baby rabbits.I would keep them apart.Mother rabbits will abandon their kits and all sorts of problems.


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## suelandress (May 10, 2002)

Do they have to share the same grass areas? Chickens sure make a mess of that quickly....


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## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

tinknal said:


> I thought of this too. My thoughts are that if the rabbits make their dens in burrows that by the time the kits come out they will be big enough that this won't be a problem, but if anyone thinks otherwise let me know.


I've never bred rabbits myself, but my sister has and we always go over to see the babies. Hers come out long before they're too big to be a quick and easy chicken dinner.


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## suelandress (May 10, 2002)

You know, alot of this depends on your chickens too. My Brabanters and Ameraucanas have no interest in mice, baby or adult. I haven't had the opportunity to see how the Marans react.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

It really doesn't work quite as well in practice as it does in theory.
You have rabbits with chicken poop on their feet and bellies and backs.
There are strange squabbles over food and territory.
Chickens like the bright, shiny eyes.


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

I thought it sounded like a good idea to try~ so I bought a male and a female rabbit at the swap meet and dropped them in the pen the silkies live in last summer. Rabbits are doing great~ the silkies are doing great. I've never seen a baby rabbit. I see the rabbits have rabbit sex~ I see lots of holes in the pen where the rabbits are burrowing~ no babies. The rabbits were wild and ran from me at first~ now they run to me and beg for food when I go in the pen. Very cute...endearing...

I've thought about getting rid of the rabbits~ they don't make any baby rabbits and they dig a lot of holes....but they are so cute when they dash up and beg me for treats.....I suspect I'm running a home for geriatric rabbits someone was dumping at the swap meet....but I'm gonna let the lazy freeloaders stay.

So can the rabbits live there and thrive~ Yep. Will the breed~ Yep I seen them doing it. Will they make baby rabbits.....not as far as I can tell!
Good luck!


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## PulpFaction (Jul 23, 2009)

I found it worked well for growing out non-breeding rabbits, but I was also afraid of letting them breed because of the baby issue. 

I fed my chickens a grain mix with fishmeal, had kelp/oyster shell in separate containers. I didn't think the rabbits would eat the chicken feed, and fed them their pellets in a separate hidden creep feeder place, but the rabbits DID eat the chicken feed and THRIVED on it! Come to find out, many brands of rabbit pellets use small amounts of animal protein (fish meal included) to up the protein in the feed. YUCK! :yuck:

The rabbits I was growing out were breeders, so I didn't get to taste them. They had very firm flesh from their diet and exercise, but I wonder if the fishhy tase would come through?

The other thing is, I found if the fence was tight against the ground, but not buried, that it was more than adequate provided any structures were in the center of the pen. Rabbits like to dig against and underneath solid things, and sometimes that takes them all the way under and out the other side.

I never had any issues with poop. Rabbit poop or chicken poop. The chickens scratch and crunch on the rabbit berries keeping them ground up and turned to dirt. The rabbits never seemed to have poo on them, though I checked for this often.

I imagine coccidia could be a problem but guess what...rabbits and chickens can both use Sulfa drugs in the same dosage, so treat the whole lot all at once and you're done.

Overall, it was a very good experience. I enjoy colony raising and watching the animals interact, even the inter-species interactions are interesting! In the future, given a large enough poultry pen, I would definitely use it for a grow-out pen or other rabbits that are not breeding at the time. Someday I might get the nerve to try a litter in that setting, but haven't so far. If the fish meal ended up being a problem, I might try switching the diet to a alfalfa pellet/grain blend, for at least a week before butchering.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

It will be a fairly large area. About 1200 sq feet. Probably about 25 chickens.


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## PulpFaction (Jul 23, 2009)

Would the pole shed act as one of the walls of the pen? If so, the rabbits will probably dig along there and you might want to consider an "apron" on the inside.

Otherwise, I would go for it if you're feeding a grain based diet or don't mind the switch. It was SOOOO nice to go out and refill 1-2 feeders and waterers for ALL of my animals than going cage to cage!


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

speaking from EXPERIANCE because this is EXACTLY how i keep mine, 

the rabbits have their burrows under the coop, the coop is up on cinder blocks with just two openings big enough for the rabbits to get through, the chickens have one section that they have access too and the rabbits share this space and also go up into the coop for food from time to time, then there is a seccond section where JUST the rabbits can go for extra ground space and i grow things over there for the rabbits, 

it works perfectly for me, i am able to catch the ones i need to butcher in the coop when they go up there for grain, and i am able to use the same space basically for two differint things all at the same time with no problems, 

chickens cant kill kits they cant find/reach because the rabbits have their kits below ground, rabbits are not coverd in poop any more than any other time, infact i have seen rabbits kept in kages that were alot more filthy and nasty looking than my rabbits,


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

chickenista said:


> Chickens like the bright, shiny eyes.


Ewww, that doesn't sound too pretty!


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## Firefly (Dec 7, 2005)

Raising rabbits in a colony sounds very interesting. Is there a book or website you can recommend?


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Firefly said:


> Raising rabbits in a colony sounds very interesting. Is there a book or website you can recommend?


I would like more info too. Mostly what I have found is bits and pieces mixed up in other sites.


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## Candace (Jan 14, 2008)

chickenista said:


> it really doesn't work quite as well in practice as it does in theory.
> You have rabbits with chicken poop on their feet and bellies and backs.
> There are strange squabbles over food and territory.
> Chickens like the bright, shiny eyes.


ewwwww!


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

tinknal said:


> I would like more info too. Mostly what I have found is bits and pieces mixed up in other sites.


I don't have a book to suggest on colony raising, but I do love, prefer, encourage raising in a colony. You have so many more bunnies born that way, it's easy to feed, and much more humane than separate cages. I prefer colonies over hutches. My colony was always kept on concrete with straw over the floor. I would put several boxes in there for nesting and some hay bales that they could eat, jump on, burrow into. It works out really well. The rabbits run up to the door when you come in, so they can get treats. They will eat from your hand. They like having a heat lamp in the winter, but it's not necessary. I just hang one about 3ft from the floor in the middle of the shed, and they all lay in piles under it. Wonderful critters.
That said, I tried the chicken/rabbit combo, and it just didn't work out well. I wouldn't encourage it at all because the chickens will kill bunnies, so you are constantly having to catch and move does before they give birth. And chicken feed will kill rabbits (hormones?), so you have to make sure you can feed separate.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

mekasmom said:


> . And chicken feed will kill rabbits (hormones?), so you have to make sure you can feed separate.


There are no hormones in chicken feed.

I'm thinking of making 2 separate indoor areas, one that only rabbits can access (small hole), and one for chickens (elevated door).

I can feed the chickens inside. I will also probably free range the chickens during the day in the summer.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

chicken feed does not kill rabbits that is just a funny ha ha, if it were true all my rabbits would be dead, i feed everyone a base of mixed grain with layer cruble mixed in, everyone does great on it, fat sassy happy rabbits and chickens,


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