Jun 10 2017 explore samantha littrell s board rabbit colony on pinterest.
Rabbit colony roof.
This is the part i hate.
Rabbits have always been a welcome part of our homestead.
See more ideas about chickens backyard chicken diy building a chicken coop.
Its set it and forget it rabbit raising.
I knew relatively early on after receiving our free meat mutt rabbits that i wanted to raise them colony style versus in individual cages as they ve been up to this point.
Before i can finish it though and move on to the fun building i need that one stumpy limb of the old apple tree removed.
Raising meat rabbits in a colony is when your rabbits are in the same lot and they mix and mingle whenever they want to.
Then a triple check for any conceivable gap rats could get in and destroy our efforts.
To me colony raising rabbits is digging a three foot rectangle the size of a large not huge greenhouse lining the sides with a wire box filling it all back in with earth planting grass and clover on new patch throwing up a strong tall fence around it with a wire skirt so nothing can dig in topping half with a roof half with wire and putting a super tough wood wire door in the end.
This allows the mothers does and children kits to be social with the other members of the colony.
It also allows the rabbits room to roam hide play and sleep.
Hopefully this new colony will be the happiest and safest enclosure for our rabbits yet.
Our rabbits live in a colony together as they grow with their mothers.
Cottontails are economical to raise provide us with a steady supply of meat for the table and manure for the garden my strawberries were.
We thought this was the most humane way of raising rabbits because it s the closest way to how a wild rabbit would live.
Snuggle piles are frequent even on hot days.
As we have covered in depth there is a lot of prep work for starting a colony.
There are some disadvantages to colony rabbits too though.
Once the weather clears i ll be heading back outside to work on the rabbit colony.
We tried giving multiple hiding spots and layering branches over a large section of the colony for the rabbits to climb in but the cats outsmarted us at every turn.
Our latest colony is under the roof of a pole building so hawks weren t an issue but we have several barn cats who really enjoyed the rabbit pen.
For our specific setup that thought ended up being so wrong.
The roof needs to be installed then the walls.
Started the foundation for the meat rabbit colony coop.
Leveling putting down wire all the boring tedious bits.
