# Progress on the new rabbit barn



## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

As some of you may know about a year and a half ago I started having horrible coccidia losses in my growout pens. We lost HUNDREDS of kits over MONTHS and no amount of cage cleaning cured my problems because my old cages have a wood frame. Feces builds up even if they are kept 'clean', and getting rid of coccidia was impossible. I stopped selling so I didn't sell 'plague bunnies' to anybody, and stopped breeding. ONLY young stock were affected - my breeding stock did and still do look great. But they have developed an adult immune system and immunity to coccidia. Prior to this, rabbits were the ONLY things profitable on the farm. I was vascillating between just being done with rabbits or expanding/enhancing the rabbit operation. Dad footed the bill for all this. Even though I may be going away for school and 'shutting down' the rabbitry... which didn't make sense to me even when I explained it to him. Overall the investment was 800 ish for the barn, about 2000.00 for the wire/feeders etc, and another 500.00 or so in wood, level dividers (so they don't pee/poop on lower level bunnies), gutters, PVC pipe - and we're not done yet. 

We now have 40 holes hung. 16 buck/junior cages that are 24"x30", and 24 doe cages that are 24"x40". All units are 24"x9'10", so that they'd fit in our frame which required 10' 2x4's to build, lol. so, one cage on each unit is actually 2" shorter than the others, but I'm sure nobunny will notice.  

We have run into issue after issue with this project. On paper, the barn was big enough for 10 cage units, but in real life due to it's slanted walls as well as the space that the hanging frame takes up, it only fits these 6 units and 40 cages. Frustrating. At least we'll have all the breeding stock in one place, and all the grow outs in one place. I'll only have to move the growouts into carriers and then into new cages. ugh. 

We have 3 more units that will hold our growout pens (which are 24"x60"). We're going to have to use the old rabbit barn to house those units in. We were hoping to use the old rabbit barn for a tractor house for my dad's tractor, but otherwise we're stumped on rabbit housing. So, we'll still have 2 rabbit barns which throws a monkey wrench in for running an automatic waterer out there... but at least all the rabbits will be in one place on the property, more or less. Right now we have rabbits in 5 places on the property, and that's a lot of walking to do chores.  


Down the isle - cut off a couple cages to the left and right, but you get the idea. Sorry for the clutter, it's a work in progress.  


One of my young SF does showing off a doe cage. Those are 10" feeders on there. Used to have 5" feeders on my old doe cages and that is NOT big enough for a doe with a litter. 


1/2" PVC support 


1/2" PVC support


Buck cage


Broken and blue NZ does modeling some doe cages


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## viggie (Jul 17, 2009)

Wow! Very nice!


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## CJBegins (Nov 20, 2009)

Those are very nice. I do have a question....what will you use between the two cage levels to handle urine and poop? I am glad you posted those pictures, it give me all kinds of ideas.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

We have thin melamine coated boards for slants under the cages. We're going to build a frame - probably with 1"x3"s ripped in half LENGTHWISE - to support the thin board. We'll put the frame in and get it all set up. Because the edges of the melamine will be exposed and because we're worry worts, we're also planning on painting the boards with a layer of the epoxy garage flooring stuff. We've used it on MANY projects around the farm (shed and chicken coop floors and MAN does it really extend the life of a wood surface!) 

We have a brush I bought specificially for cleaning the slants, which won't have THAT much of an incline. We're planning on building slants and putting in gutters for both the top and bottom row, such that we will clean it every couple days/week with the brush, push it down the gutters into a waiting cement mixing bin, and haul to the compost bin/garden. No standing feces in the barn unlike our current cages which have the poo drop the ground (single story of cages) and it builds up so we clean it 3-4x per year thoroughly.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

Really,really nice set-up. Sounds like a pretty penny but hopefully it will last a lifetime, so it sounds like a good investment.

Sounds like he is a great dad:thumb:. Are you a college student(you mentioned going off to school)? If so, is dad going to take over the rabbit program while you are off at school?

I just showed hubby picture and he asked is that a large green house kit(I didn't notice till he said it but it does look like the interior of my cousin's greenhouse)? Or are the walls of something different?


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

redneckswife said:


> Really,really nice set-up. Sounds like a pretty penny but hopefully it will last a lifetime, so it sounds like a good investment.


Well, here's hoping the new facilities and the massive coccidia treatment of the adults (who are carriers) as I move them to new cages (I'll be using baycox at high doses for 3 days while I move) does the trick eliminating coccidia. If not, I'm throwing in the towel as there is nothing else I could do but start over... and that's not feasible. 




redneckswife said:


> Sounds like he is a great dad:thumb:. Are you a college student(you mentioned going off to school)? If so, is dad going to take over the rabbit program while you are off at school?


He is the best dad.  I am a 5th year senior at MSU, applied to vet school this year (MSU, Wisc. Madison, Texas A&M). I'll be getting my Bachelors this Dec. Currently have a 3.7 GPA. Hoping to get into vet school as otherwise I have to find a 'big girl' job, lol. If I leave the state I'm selling all the goats and rabbits. Dad *could* keep the rabbits going but he has zero interest in them, has no idea how to select rabbits, doesn't even know what a pedigree is and I do all the tattooing, marketing, showing. So no, if I leave the state he's not going to continue them unless he wants to keep 3 for meat breeding - which I doubt. I also do all the butchering, lol. That is why I told him making the investment seems silly. 



redneckswife said:


> I just showed hubby picture and he asked is that a large green house kit(I didn't notice till he said it but it does look like the interior of my cousin's greenhouse)? Or are the walls of something different?


It is a 14'x32' garage-in-a-box for an RV. We have a smaller one for our old rabbit barn, it works great.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

I just for the 1st time noticed your link and looked:bash:. Congratulations, I see you will be graduating next month:thumb:. 

Hubby was looking over my shoulder and said that looks like "___" and I laughed because you do look similar to my 2nd daughter except she has fuchsia hair. The funny thing is...she's pre-vet medicine :happy2:

Seriously, congratulations your dad must be really proud and good luck on your journey:thumb:


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Does she look like this? (Me as a HS senior... lol) : 



Significantly more fuschia, significantly more dark makeup.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

HOLY !. That is freaky Ummm, yes:thumb:


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

LOL. I've done fuschia lots... cotton candy pink a few times. Blue... that one didn't turn out well LOL. Now I just keep my blonde top with black underneath... they can't see your roots as well that way as you can with dying the top, lol! I've been mostly normal in appearance for several years now... just added more face holes (2 lip piercings, 7 holes in my ears, and a nose ring. 10 extra holes in my face. Dad calls me perforated... ound


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## Lookin4GoodLife (Oct 14, 2013)

We do a lot for our kids, sometimes even when it doesn't make sense.  Kudos to your Dad and good luck with your project and school! We look forward to hearing how this works out.


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## LittleRedHen (Apr 26, 2006)

it looks very nice


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## ykcharrier (Sep 7, 2011)

Dona,

Now that you've moved into your new facilities, how is it working? Is there anything you'd change?

We need to rebuild our grow-out pens this year and will probably model ours after yours. Your design looks great ... not only from a disease control standpoint but also from a durability standpoint. We built new doe hutches last year; the girls are eating them. The new wood is so soft that the cages will probably need replaced by next year.

Have you installed your auto water system yet? If so, how is it holding up in these temps. (We live in the same county you do and are struggling with frozen everything.)

Thanks for sharing your setup. It's great to see how others do things.

~Yvonne


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## grumpy (Feb 17, 2009)

Nice set-up. In lieu of the 1/2" pvc for stability, you might consider 1/2" electrical conduit. 
At your larger lumber yards it's a shade cheaper than the pvc and much more rigid.
I use heavy-duty zip-ties to hold it in place and as of yet, none of the ties have been cut by the rabbits.
Some of the conduit in my rabbitry is over 5 years old and still working good.

BTW: Those are seven inch feeders on the doe cages w/an extender that slips into the top when
the litter begins eating. They won't run out of feed from one feeding to the next.


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## SherryB (Oct 10, 2012)

mygoat- Would you pretty please take a pic of your set up again now that you have added the boards in between and the gutters? I am always looking for a better way to deal with my double hung row of cages.


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## ykcharrier (Sep 7, 2011)

Updated pictures would be wonderful! Dona, do you have the time? Please.


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## ykcharrier (Sep 7, 2011)

"Grumpy" ... The conduit is an excellent idea. Thanks.


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## grumpy (Feb 17, 2009)

ykcharrier said:


> "Grumpy" ... The conduit is an excellent idea. Thanks.


Thanks,

I've always "hated" working so hard creating a nice, neat rabbitry only to have a bunch of "saggy" cages after a few months.

With that conduit in place, those top-edges of the cages stay straight as an arrow.

Grumpy.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

So far, the PVC is holding the cages up great with no more sag than originally seen. Because the weight of the cage is supported in teh corners, it seems fine. If I see sagging, perhaps we'll try conduit. 

The main issue I"ve come to is that the bunnies fill up the gutters in about a week. I either have to shove double-handfulls of bunny poo down the whole length of a gutter (any more and it just spills out the front onto my feet), or I just use a little hand shovel and shovel it into a bin that I push in front of me. The hand shovel is WAY easy and fast. We use a squeegee on the levels which works great. So far, even ice hasn't been that big of an issue because it doesn't like to stick to the gutter plastic, and the most ice builds up in the front where the gap is largest to the cage floor, so I just scrape off what poo I can and leave the ice because it only LOOKS bad - not causing any reall issue though. I just try to clean every time it is loose. So far, so good. 

We just finished the watering system, but are waiting for above freezing temps to set it up! We have all the manifolds made, the nipples in the t's, and all the spare garden hose needed to connect it all together. We wanted flexible, so the garden hose will be the main channel of water flow. We'll attach it with hose clamps. 

Here it is with the level dividers in: 


Here are the gutters installed: 


Here is a 'doe cage manifold' for the waterer: 


Buck cages are only different in that there are 4 nipples (4 cages per unit). Growout pens are also 4 nipples (2 per cage). 

A PVC T joint. Capped end of tubing is drilled/tapped for receiving the nipple. 


Nipple attachment:


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## SherryB (Oct 10, 2012)

Mygoat, I have a gutter too. I cant tell if you have a downspout at the end or not. If you make one end of the gutter a little higher than the end with the down spout (like it would be as a rain gutter) you can hang a bucket on the end and all the pee will run in it. Dump the bucket and hang it back up. Then use a cooking spatula and run it right down the gutter to move the poo right into the downspout and it goes right in the bucket and you just dump the bucket. I bought a heavy duty spatula after I wore out the first Walmart spatula. The heavy duty is wider and has a longer handle.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

We don't have a downspout, and the gutter is attached fairly level. No good way to get a slant on it for 30'.  That's the same reason Idon't want to push poo - 30' for just a double handfull of poops is a long way to have to go, and a lot of trips.  Any more than that, and it just spills out the front if you try to push it.


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## SherryB (Oct 10, 2012)

Split it in half and have 2 downspouts in the middle? Mine is 12 ft long so yours would be 15 ft each. It does spill a little over the front if I haven't cleaned it in several days.

Just a thought. Also, just to be clear it a rubber spatula that you use to wipe down the side of a bowl not the flipper for pancakes and eggs. Some people call that a spatula but we always called it a turner. 

Your set up looks fabulous.


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