Cockeyed Headway- The Rabbitry

Cockeyed bunny barn

Man, oh man, it's been a busy week on the homestead this week. It was good to be doing something constructive toward the homestead again. All of it had to do with the downsizing or consolidating the rabbitry. Dropping the cages, scrubbing each down with bleach and soap, and rehanging some of them, figuring out which rabbits go where. Even though we shaved them back in March, the angoras have blown their coats. It took both of us to groom all of them in a timely fashion. The staple length is a bit shorter but 3 1/2" is a respectable length to work with. But, it's finally done.

I was beginning to think we'd never finish it. I focused on scrubbing the future unused cages. They will be stored away from anything living, We had two empty doe cages absolutely full of chicken poop. This was my job. Now keep in mind that the doe cages are a 3' cube, each one. We are talking a full day to remove the poop and another one to clean them.  Guess where the chickens roosted at night? :o)

Mel did the buck cages which were slightly easier because they are smaller. All rabbits have scrubbed clean and sanitized 12" tiles in them. All the J feeders and spare water bottles have been cleaned and rehung on the cages. The 5-cage buck unit is history since we only have three bucks.

Mel shoveled about 4" of composted straw and dropping that has been composting in a deep bedding method from the dirt base floor since Spring. It'll finish composting in the garden before we lay the black fabric down in a couple of weeks.

The rabbitry's rain catchment watering system is now set for only seven bunnies instead of eleven. We even took the opportunity to bleach out the system. We want the remaining rabbits to have a super clean start. I mean since we were doing all this work to revamp the rabbitry, it only made sense, right.

We've got two 50# bales of timothy/orchard grass hay and three 50# bales of straw now under cover. That will see us through about three or four months. All my seeds and buckets for fermenting chicken food are under cover now. The Cyclone fans are closer to the remaining rabbits to keep them cool for the remaining of the summer. And, there's space for more. There's space for the chickens roosting perch and a larger grooming table. We're happy with the progress we made this week. It was a job and a half.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo