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Many residents of the private sector are engaged in rabbit farming. Animals are easy to care for when kept in a properly equipped cage. It's easier to buy houses for eared pets, but such costs will pay off for a long time. It will be cheaper to make cages for rabbits with your own hands, and after receiving the first profit, you can think about factory designs.
Cell dimensions and drawings
The size and design of the cages is determined by the number of animals, as well as the purpose of the livestock, that is, the rabbits are left for fattening, for the tribe, etc. Let's look at what parameters are used to make cages for different groups of animals:
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The rabbits separated from the female are kept in a group cage up to three months of age. Moreover, animals are divided into breeding and slaughter individuals. A house for young rabbits is made 2-3 m long, 0.6 m high, 1 m wide. Young animals are populated by 6-10 heads. Breeding individuals are grouped with a maximum of 6 heads. The photo shows a group cage with young rabbits.
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The next photo shows a diagram of a house with dimensions for two pregnant rabbits. A cage with a queen cell can also be made single. Then its dimensions will be: 1.2x0.7x0.6 m.That is, half of the house shown in the drawing is obtained. The mother liquor can be made retractable, which is recommended by many breeders. This design makes it easier to clean the cage after the young stock is deposited. The mother's bed for a female with rabbits is made: length - 40 cm, height - 60 cm, depth - 70 cm.A hole of 20x20 cm is cut on the front wall.
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Now consider the cage sizes for puberty rabbits. Adults are kept in one- and two-section structures. The length of the first type of house is 0.8-1.1 m, and the second type is 1.3 m. The width of both types of construction is at least 0.6 m. A maximum of 3 pets can be populated in a one-section cage, and a two-section structure is suitable for keeping 5 –6 rabbits.
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Young males are kept in groups up to three months of age. If animals are intended for slaughter, then they are simply castrated. Breeding rabbits are planted in single cages measuring 0.7x0.7x0.6 m. In the photo you can see a detailed drawing with the dimensions of a house for young animals. Simple mesh enclosures are attached to the back wall.
Using the presented drawings of cages for rabbits, you can try to make a similar design yourself at home.
Cell building guidelines
Even before starting the construction of cages for rabbits, you need to decide on the place of their installation. On the site, it is advisable to choose a corner without drafts, but it is better to refuse from the southern side. In summer, the rabbits will be very hot in the sun. It is important to provide a roof that reliably protects from precipitation. On houses, it is made single-pitched, using the cheapest roofing covering.
Building winter houses for rabbits is much more difficult. Firstly, the floor is not made of mesh, but the lath is filled with a pitch of 15 mm. A solid pallet is installed under the floor. It should slide out to clear manure. Secondly, you need to take care of preserving the offspring in winter. The walls and ceiling of the winter house are insulated with any available thermal insulation. Feeders and drinkers are removable.In severe frosts, food and water will freeze in them. The removable design allows you to bring the drinker and trough into the heat for thawing.
Overview of the varieties of rabbit cages
To make it easier to make a do-it-yourself rabbit cage, let's look at several popular designs. The photo shows the original solution of the summer house. The structure stands on high legs, and a mesh aviary is arranged under the house and near it. Inside there are two compartments: a mother liquor and a feeding place. The rooms are separated by a plywood partition with a manhole.
The next photo shows Mikhailov's cage, designed for industrial rabbit breeding. The author of the technology provided for the heating of the mother liquor, the ventilation system and other nuances. The feature is a cone-shaped pallet for automatic manure drainage. The design can be called a mini-farm that allows you to engage in rabbit breeding at a professional level.
If someone wants to know how to make a cage for rabbits similar to Mikhailov, they can use a detailed drawing with the indicated dimensions.
Zolotukhin's cage is no less interesting in the device. Its distinctive feature is the floor construction. It is made solid from plywood, boards or flat asbestos-cement slate. The slats and the pallet are not used, and the net 20 cm wide is installed on the floor only at the back wall of the house. Manure is removed through it. To make this happen automatically, the floor is equipped with a slight slope.
Feeders are placed outside, and they are made tilting. This design option is due to the ease of cleaning. The feeder does not need to be removed, but only needs to be tipped over and thoroughly cleaned with a scraper.
Another distinctive feature of the cell is the absence of a mother liquor. The author of the technology proposes to fence off the space inside the house in summer with a board 20 cm wide. The rabbit herself will equip the nest from hay. Zolotukhin assures that rabbits born in such conditions are healthier and rarely catch infectious diseases. When the kids begin to move independently, the board is removed. There is a lot of free space in the house.
In winter, in such cages, they also get offspring from rabbits, only the option with a board does not work. Instead of a fence, a wooden mother vessel is placed.
In the video, Nikolai Ivanovich Zolotukhin talks about his cages and the technology of raising rabbits:
The guide for making Zolotukhin cells looks like this:
- Expensive materials are not required to make a house. You can find most of them at home. So, the frame of the house, the doors, the base of the partition are assembled from a bar or thick board.
- On the lower part of the frame, the slope is equipped by adding a horizontally laid board, after which plywood or flat slate is attached. At the rear wall, along its entire length, a section of the floor is covered with a net. The doors where the feeders will hang are also sheathed with a net. Only the flap of the mother liquor is made solid to prevent a draft and get rid of excess illumination.
- All wooden frame elements from the inside of the house are upholstered with sheet metal. It will protect the structure from the sharp teeth of rabbits. A threshold from a board with a width of at least 10 cm is nailed to the floor from the side of the mother liquor door. It will not allow the kids to fall out of the cage when the sash is opened.
- Zolotukhin's cells are made multi-tiered. The manure will be discharged through the mesh at the back of the house. To prevent waste from the upper floor from falling on the cells of the lower level, the cladding at the back is made at an angle. Moreover, the slope is maintained only on the lower cells, and the wall of the upper house remains flat.
That's all the secrets of making a Zolotukhin cell. The design is so simple that it can be manufactured and installed on your site.
Independent production of a single-tier cage with a mother liquor and a bunker feeder
Now we propose to consider how the step-by-step instructions for a cage for rabbits with our own hands, equipped with two compartments, looks like:
- The manufacture of the structure begins with the assembly of the frame. For this, the lower frame is assembled from a bar with a section of 50x50 mm. Racks are attached to it, and then the upper harness is attached. When the frame is assembled, a steel mesh is nailed onto the bottom frame. Such a floor is made only where there will be a compartment for feeding rabbits. A board is nailed in the mother liquor. Here the floor is made solid without gaps. The optimal mesh size is 2x2 cm. Coarse-mesh material for the floor will not work, as the legs of rabbits will fall through and get stuck.
- Side and back walls are made from boards or plywood. For the partition of the mother liquor and the place for feeding, a partition is installed. The hole can be cut rectangular or round, with a diameter of about 20 cm.
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Next, go to the internal arrangement. First, a cover is installed on the socket. After that, the inner partition of the two compartments is assembled. Here, a section for grass is provided from steel rods and bunker feeders are installed.
- From above, the structure is covered with plywood. This will be the roof. Sash with handles are attached to the feeders. On the front side of the house, a mesh door is placed on the feeding compartment and a solid flap for the mother liquor.
- If you intend to install the cage outdoors, the plywood roof must be protected with a non-soaking roof covering. It is imperative to provide a slope towards the rear wall so that precipitation does not accumulate on the roof.
The advantage of the design lies in the simplicity of manufacture and the provided capacious feeder. The hopper is designed for 6 kg of feed, which relieves the owner of the daily attachment to rabbits.
Self-production of a multi-tiered cage
The instruction for the manufacture of a multi-tiered structure differs only in the assembly of the frame:
- The process begins with the assembly of the lower frame. Vertical racks are attached to it. Their length depends on the number of tiers. Moreover, at least 15 cm is added to the height of each house. The stock is needed to form a gap where the pallet will be inserted. The last knot in the frame structure is the upper harness.
- Transverse jumpers are attached between the posts. They will hold the houses of each tier. From below, legs are attached to the frame made of thick timber or pieces of steel pipe. They must raise the cage from the ground to a height of at least 40 cm.
- The houses will be divided into several sections not by simple partitions, but by a V-shaped grass feeder. Its frame is assembled from a bar. For cladding, a coarse mesh is used or metal rods are attached.
- The manufacture of the mother liquor, the fastening of the doors and other internal arrangement is carried out in the same way as it was done in a single-tier cage. When the structure is fully completed, a galvanized pallet is placed under each tier. It must be fixed with a slope so that it is more convenient to rake out the manure.
Multi-tiered cages are convenient because, if necessary, you can disassemble them into separate modules, move the frame to another place, and re-assemble the house.
The video demonstrates the process of making cells:
As practice shows, in the home and farm, it is more often multi-tiered cells that are popular. This is due to space saving. However, it is not advisable to build a structure more than three levels due to the complexity of its maintenance.
