My Rabbit Colony setup

[rabbitman]

Right now this is my setup, I have 5 rabbits 3 are in my avairy that isnt finished yet. I got some awesome photos. My only consern is that I won't be have access to the kits. The burrow is like 4 feet deep then turns into a bend.

 

[foxywench]

my cousin had a similar problem with her outside rabbit (not kits, but getting to her once shed made herslef a nice burrow...)

so she built a box, painted it with a couple coats of high gloss latex and a couple coats of poly, then she dug a hole in the pen, burried the box, then attatched a very large plastic drainage pipe (about the same diameter as the tunnel) attatched it to a hole in the box, and burried it along the existing tunnel her rabbit had built.

the box had a hinged lid

then she put down 2 x 4 welded wire on the floor of the pen and covered the whole lot (except the hole to the tunnel and the top of the box) with about an inch of dirt and then laid cheap sod down and sprinkled the whole thing with clover seed...

bunny still got to sleep naturally "in the ground" but she could easily get into the main chamber vie the lid, and bunny couldnt make brand new tunnels because if she dug shed hit wire.

it was a little more "involved"

but i think if someones going to be raising colony meat buns in pens, its definatly a good idea, stops predators from digging in, and bunnies from digging out. keeps them "natural" but a lidded "nest/warren" box makes checking litters acessable form the inside if you allow them to kit in the colony pen.

im planning on doing something similar myself depending on how much land...
the hope is to colony the girls.
males and growouts will probably be raised in large rabbit arcs. so i can still control whos breeding who and knowing due dates ect.

 

[rabbitman]

She burried the box, how big was it, do you have any pics? I cant really imagine it...

 

[foxywench]

i dont know the exact measurements but she had a big bunny (flemish x eng lop) i think it was about the size of a large tupper tote.

she simply dug a hole and dropped the box into it so it was buried up to the top but the top wasnt covered with dirt...then of course it had the acess pipe to mimic a burrow...
hope that makes sense.

 

[Hop N'Tail]

That is a cool set-up.