# tell me about your setup please



## greenhorn (Jun 3, 2009)

Well, after the "great rabbit massacre" last week (from which we actually have found 5 survivors!) I need to design and build a more secure cage structure.

There will probably eventually be up to 6 cages running with 3 does a buck and various litters in junior stages. They are in the barn which has a good cross breeze in the summer and shuts up nicely in the winter.

I'd love to build some sort of frame that would contain the cages securely ( may also need to include a way to secure the cages with straps or something so I can still take the cages off as needed) and would have a way for the litter to drop down into collection boxes. The whole litter pan you empty everyday is clumsy and a pain....I'd rather have larger boxes below them that get emptied into the wheel barrow and hauled to the garden every 3-5 days.

Does anyone have a brilliant setup they'd describe or link to pics? I can build basic things, but I'm tried of learning as I go with building projects and would love some basic pointers of frame contruction/designs from more seasoned folks 

Thanks!


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## trinityoaks (Sep 17, 2008)

greenhorn said:


> The whole litter pan you empty everyday is clumsy and a pain....


We put a layer of peat moss (3 cu ft bags from Home Depot or Lowes, not the itty-bitty ones in the potting section) in the bottoms of the poo pans and empty them into the garden once a week. The peat moss absorbs the urine and keeps the smell down.



> Does anyone have a brilliant setup they'd describe or link to pics?


I don't know whether you'd call it brilliant, but it works well for us. Our cages are currently in our attached garage, but we're hoping to build a small barn later this summer. Here's our setup:

http://rabbittalk.com/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=8&image_id=183


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## harlanr3 (Feb 13, 2010)

here is a link to a members blog I really like this setup I saw one just like and it had a gutter system that it when in to then the gutters went in to a bucket that had a strainer in so the urine went in the bucket and the poop stayed in the strainer,
http://proventialruralite.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-on-rabbits.html


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## pfaubush (Aug 17, 2009)

Mine isn't exactly brilliant, either. I had an electric wire strung around it to keep out preditors. It was one of the cheap ones that is supposed to keep unwanted animals out of your garden.


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## pfaubush (Aug 17, 2009)

Oops! Someone posted mine before I could. LOL. I don't know how to delete now.


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## harlanr3 (Feb 13, 2010)

sorry about that but I copied yours and I like it.I need to work on the poop catcher


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## pfaubush (Aug 17, 2009)

No problem.


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## Truckinguy (Mar 8, 2008)

Here's mine. I only have two of these units built right now and plan to build 4-6 more. The manure is caught by the 1/4" hardware cloth and the urine goes through onto the sloping plastic and runs down into the gutter and into the margarine container. Very little odor. When I finish everything there will be no more poo pans. Each one has storage unerneath and one is designed to have my little feed bag cart slide under it. This is part of a whole garage renovation, all old cage shelves are being ripped out and replaced by this setup. These are all moveable so I can pull them out from the wall from time to time to sweep behind them. It's very self contained but isn't nearly as clean as when this picture was taken!


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## pfaubush (Aug 17, 2009)

Truckinguy, could you share what kind of plastic that is and where one would find it? The $20 for a 12' sheet. I would like to find something much more economical.


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## Truckinguy (Mar 8, 2008)

Actually, my brother is a mechanic at a former GM dealership and the plastic is from old advertising signs they had that they now put on the ground so they can lie under cars outside. It is corrugated plastic and exactly what I need but if I can't get any more old signs I'll have to spring for new stuff or find an alternative. I've been throwing ideas around in my head but haven't come up with a practical alternative yet. You're right, it isn't cheap! The rest of it, wood, screws, a couple of brackets, cost me about $20 so I"m good with that. I already made ten of these cages so that expense was from the last couple of years.

This setup works really well so far but I'm always tweaking and trying to improve everything.

Also, my rabbits are in an attached garage so no predators, vented in the summer and nice and snug in the winter. Hopefully a barn is in my future....


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

I get plastic signs like that at convinience stores.


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## garnetmoth (Oct 16, 2008)

Pfaubush- I think maybe coroplast election signs would be good for this? theyre not 100% slick so hair and poo can goop them up, but with a poo-screen i bet it would work. We have made the walls of our outdoor hutches from this 

(of course harvested post-election not trying to get in trouble!)


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## greenhorn (Jun 3, 2009)

These are awesome so far! Pfaubush, I'm totally in awe. It doesn't take much for me to be in awe, but still, that it so cool!

I need to put my scavenger stills in overdrive for a bit. Of course I tend to scavenge things that really are just in the way...I'm not handy enough to figure out how to use them yet but I'm learning......


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## PulpFaction (Jul 23, 2009)

Well, my set-up is extremely unconventional but it is 100% predator proof and someday I will replicate it using something more practical. Maybe you will find something valuable in it:

My 4 rabbits live in a modified colony in the bed of my pick-up truck. It has a ventilated camper top on it with screened windows going up and down the sides, sky lights to let the sunshine in. They get a bale of straw at every cleaning (about every 1.5 months, so far,) to re-arrange and burrow in as they choose. Of course, I live in Alaska so keeping the suckers warm is more of a concern than keeping them cool, but I can easily move the truck into the shade on hot afternoons if I need to.

If I were to actually need my truck on a regular basis, (I drive the BFs Subaru mostly. Better gas mileage.) I would plan a colony with a floor made from either cement or an impenetrable layer of rubble/gravel. I would make two sides out of solid wood, and the other two (opposite) sides would be made out of small gauge welded wire with allowances for solid sides to be added in winter. One side would be hinged, and the low roof would be hinged as well for access. (The whole thing probably wouldn't be higher than whatever pallets I can find to recycle.)

And then I would continue managing it exactly as I manage my truck bed colony. 

If you're breeding meat rabbits, you may find a colony much easier to manage, though not always. I am maintaining a show colony by keeping the buck in a wire cage inside the colony.

For me, I chose it out of necessity but really like it. In the winter, I will have one heated pet bowl to refill instead of having the expense of buying dozens of them. I can easily stock them up with plenty of fresh water and hay to leave for a weekend with no worries. They can burrow down deep into the straw to stay cool OR warm since the straw is such a good insulator. It's just overall so much less fuss and headache than when I had rabbits as a kid in individual wire cages. (I quit rabbits, too, after wild dogs got into my barn multiple times.)

The biggest downside I have is that the very valuable rabbit poop is all mixed up in straw, so I either have to compost it all, or be satisfied with using the poop/straw for mulch.


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## pfaubush (Aug 17, 2009)

Ooh, election signs! I know the guy that was just elected Circuit Court Judge. He won't need them anymore! THANKS!!!


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## RRT Harlies (Apr 27, 2008)

Truckinguy - How well does that hardware cloth hold up? It seems like it would be incredibly flimsy. I do like that idea though.

In a setup like this, what do you do with the urine that is collected?


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## Truckinguy (Mar 8, 2008)

> Truckinguy - How well does that hardware cloth hold up? It seems like it would be incredibly flimsy. I do like that idea though.
> 
> In a setup like this, what do you do with the urine that is collected?


The hardware cloth holds up well, I have it mounted on four hooks, one in each corner and then bend a couple of inches of the leading edge up to give it more stability. It works pretty well but I find the excess hair does tend to clog it up a bit.

I just dump the urine on my compost pile right now. I have some other cages with poo pans and the manure and urine from them goes directly on the compost pile for now. The manure from these units goes into the worm bins as I find the worms are happier with the manure that hasn't been soaking in urine.

Always thinking of ways to modify and improve....


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## RRT Harlies (Apr 27, 2008)

I'm going to be moving to a rental house where I'll more than likely have to keep my rabbits in the shed on the property. I want to keep everything as contained as possible to not upset my landlord, so I'm really liking your idea.

The cages I have now are 6' and 9' runs divided into 3 holes each. I will probably use a combination of the two setups pictured here.


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## preprunner (Jun 6, 2009)

Here is a picture of my current setup:My Current Setup

Basically I'm in a very similar setup. The house I'm in is not a permanent location so I had to come up with something that wasn't permanently installed and didn't damage the house. Also, the lot for the house is incredibly tiny, so I had no choice but to build something for the rabbits on the back lanai/pool deck. So I simply built a freestanding frame for the 24x36" inch cages to hang from. And as you can see there's a worm bed beneath. The setup works phenomenally and is very clean, strong, and sanitary. It holds 10 holes with the pvc water line going down the middle. But obviously you could customize the size to however many cages you had.

I'll be happy to go into more detail about dimensions of the lumber, etc if there is interest.

Jeff


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

preprunner, nice looking setup. Mine is an 8'x8' shed on the east side of my barn, attached with gable roof, wood siding and cedar shingle roof. The siding ends 2' above the 2"x8" wood floor with gaps. I bed the floor with a flake of straw to collect urine. Just rake the waste out the side once a week and used for compost. The east end has 2' of siding at corners to the floor, no door, just 4' opening below the eve line. It is shaded by the barn in the afternoon. Hutches down both sides 3' off floor, four 2' pens each side, one side for 2 does and buck. Pens are convertable to 4' pens when little ones are with Mom, also I can have 2-4' pens or 4-2' pens for grow pens. Down spouts and rain barrels, I have a 55 gallon barrel in the rafters that I fill with a hand pump from the rain barrels to gravity feed the nipple waterers....James


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