More Rabbitry

Poop slopes lol. It adds to the overall height (which is bad since that means the top cages are hard to get to) but the poop will just roll down into containers that I can empty every so often. What doesn't roll can be squeegee'd. We had the same setup in the garage this past winter, and it worked great except in the garage we couldn't get in behind the cages, so some spots that were hard to get to from the front accumulated too much poop. Since there's three feet of space on each side of these cages in the new rabbitry, we'll have plenty of room.

The pieces of wood inside the cages are for the bunnies to chew on and lay on. They will be replaced periodically.

The wood is covered in two layers of plastic and it's anchored at the ends and the middle (to avoid sagging). It also sticks out 3 inches past all edges of the cages, which will help catch rogue poops so they don't go into the cages below.

I mentioned to Tom that it'd be good to get some lights and plugins in the building, and he bought all the stuff and wired it all in less than a day. I'll take a pic next time I'm out there.

Rabbitry

It's been 2 years in the making and still not quite done, but our rabbitry (which will have 27 holes when all said and done) is nearly complete. It will be interesting to track the inside temperature over the winter. So far it's almost too hot on sunny days so we might need to buy tarp and cover the windows in the summer.

Each long cage will house three individual units and there will be three long cages in each row and three rows. With poop bins under each row, and each cage being 20 inches tall, it will be about 9 feet in height all together. I'm toying with the idea of a ladder on wheels like in old school libraries in the movies. Not sure how else I'll be able to get up there and feed the top row of bunnies.

View from below. Each individual cage is 3 feet deep, 2.5 feet wide, and 20 inches tall. Lots of room! :)

Make sure the doors swing inward so if you forget to latch it, the bunnies can't get loose.

Windows

We put the windows in the rabbitry today (the rabbitry is earthbag/conventional hybrid). We bought the windows from the restore for super cheap about 1.5 yrs ago and then built based on the dimensions of the windows (and based on how much space each rabbit needs). Due to some setbacks, we only just now finished the rabbitry, so the windows were sitting outside in the snow/rain/sun for all that time. One cracked, but honestly I'm surprised the other five survived! Thanks to Pete for the help! And now to practice our cobbing skills... The plan is to finish all these side jobs so we can then fully focus on the house. Too many distractions!

The windows are super dirty from sitting around outside for so long. The suction cups were awesome! Would highly recommend if you're ever lifting 100+ pound windows.

We plan to cob all the exterior to make it look more earthen and pretty.

Zilla's pooped out! What a day!

We loaded the windows into the truck, drove them up to be parallel to the wall, and lifted/set them in place.

Quick! Before summer's over!

Everything needed to do the concrete pour (except the concrete---to be delivered the day we need it) Hoping to get this done soon!

Inside the rabbitry. Adding insulation.

The rabbitry is 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide. Almost done!

Painting the skirting for the mobile home.

Update

We were finally able to get a quote from some concrete guys. We need a little bit of concrete poured under the side walls and front to comply with building permits. Hope to get that done before it gets too cold! The excavators took so long that once they were done it was hard to find anyone with the time to do the concrete. Will have to take lots of pictures as it happens as "proof" of the rebar that will be in the concrete (which is needed for structural integrity). Things are really starting to pick up! Too bad it's Aug 29 and not, say, June 29 :P Here's hoping for a mild autumn...

We'll be having a few volunteers come for Sept. long to help out. If you want to join, give me a shout! 

What Tom was up to while I was in China

It was waaaay to hot out for Tom to pound tires while I was away in China, so he turned his focus to other things. We were in the market for a cheap trailer or shed to use as a chicken coop in the near future, and so of course an old 54 foot by 12 foot mobile home was only natural :P It's set up on a nice level pad with blocks so it (hopefully) won't sink in 30+ years. Still need to do a few things to it (tear out some carpet and lay lino for easy cleaning, replace a few ceiling tiles, build steps, add some skirting), but it's basically ready and waiting for chickens. Not sure if we'll be ready for chickens by next spring though. 

 

This (below) will be our rabbitry (a place to house our rabbits). Large windows to let light in. The rabbits will be in cages inside because (1) we don't want them eaten by predators, and (2) our ground isn't totally flat making it nearly impossible to fence them into a small outdoor area. We bought the huge windows first and based the dimensions of the building off the dimensions of the windows and the cages. Cages should be about 1 square root per pound of rabbit, so if your rabbits are 6 pounds you want the cages to be say 2 feet by 3 feet. Not only do you need large cages but there needs to be 3 feet of space all around the cages to facilitate cleaning. Trust me, that is very important!

Rabbitry

Roof pic (rabbitry).

 We'll do the same rainwater collection idea from the earthship with the rabbitry (and eventually the mobile home chicken coop). Rabbits can drink 1L a day each. By next summer we should have enough money to deal with backburying a cistern.The plan is to hook up a pump and a bunch of pipes with water valves along the cages so it will be a totally automated watering system.

Rabbitry + shed roof.

This (above) is the join between the rabbitry and the attached shed. The entire thing (rabbitry + shed) was supposed to be earthbag construction, but things didn't quite work out so the rabbitry is only maybe 3 ft earthbag and the rest regular wood construction, and the shorter and smaller 10ft x 10ft shed is all earthbag)

A view from the roof

Rabbitry + shed

22 inch lawn mower that can't quite handle 10 acres! Holly cow those weeds grow like...weeds. Camper in background.

We need some goats to take care of these weeds!

China

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I was out in China for work for two weeks and didn't realize the extent of internet censorship out there, so I couldn't check my email or update the blog or facebook group. There's not much for updates, we had a couple couples visit to help Tom out while I was away, but the weather did not cooperate (in one instance there was a heat wave warning and people were told not to do anything outside, and in another it had rained so much that tire pounding was impossible). Thanks to those who came out and visited; hopefully the weather cooperates in the future!