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DIY rabbit cages made from slab. DIY rabbitry: step-by-step instructions

Living in your own home outside the city limits attracts many: fresh air, the absence of the usual fuss and, of course, physical labor, which brings certain results. It doesn’t matter what exactly you grow on your plot. You can limit yourself to just flowers. When you hold in your hands a banal cucumber that you yourself have grown, you experience an unusual feeling of pride and joy from unity with nature. And you know for sure that you have created a pure product. Gradually the idea arises of whether to get chickens or rabbits. For rabbits, for example, you can build a rabbitry with your own hands. But first think, are you ready to support these animals?

Meat. Rabbit meat is a dietary product useful for people of all ages. It contains a set of amino acids that promote protein synthesis in the human body. In addition, it is low-calorie and natural food.
Liver. Even though one animal contains only 100 grams of liver, it is a real delicacy.
Skins. Dressing hides requires not only additional time and knowledge, but also special preparations. It’s not a fact that you will want to spend your time searching and using them.
Bones and other waste. These products can be cooked and, in the form of a stew, given to the dog.
Manure. In terms of its qualities, this manure is superior to pig and cow manure, but inferior to horse manure. In spring and autumn it can be added to the soil, and it will respond to you with a glorious harvest.
Communication. Even the simple contemplation of these cute fluffies gives a lot of positive emotions.

But in the last point of advantages there is already a catch. It’s also worth talking about the disadvantages of rabbit farming:

Slaughter. Yes, the rabbits will have to be killed. Even if this is a mediocre farm, it makes no sense to hire someone to do this work.
Mortality. These animals often get sick and are rarely cured. Especially in the summer, when an epidemic wave occurs.
Accommodation. In this article you will read how to make your own rabbitry, so you can ignore this problem.
Food. These picky animals won’t eat just anything. They eat up to 30 times a day, but more often the food and drink are simply spoiled by mixing it with waste. Conclusion: there should be a lot of quality food.
Reproduction. Despite the theoretical fertility of these animals, in practice there may be many offspring, or there may not be any at all.
Breed. To maintain the population level, a replacement male breeder is required every six months.

Here are the main disadvantages of rabbit farming. If you add to them labor-intensive cleaning, rodent control and the daily need for owners to care for their pets, it becomes clear that rabbit breeding is not an easy matter. If such prospects do not frighten you, let's talk about placing animals.

Rabbit meat is good for the elderly, children, and even the sick: it is a real dietary low-calorie product

Killing a rabbit is not so easy: you get used to these animals, but there is a way out of the situation. You can breed decorative rabbits for sale

Planning the future livestock

How to build a good rabbitry without knowing how many rabbits will live in it? If you just want to have animals “for testing”, one rabbit with offspring is enough. They can easily get by with 1-3 cells on the site. In order for the supply of meat to be regular and uninterrupted, 20-30 individuals of different ages of different categories are needed.

To begin with, you can get a few rabbits and care for them throughout the warm season to determine how well this activity fits your plans

Optimal rabbitry sizes

If it is necessary to accommodate two adult individuals, it is enough to build a two-section room. Design parameters:

length from 140 cm;
width within 60-70 cm;
height from 50 to 70 cm.

Along the edges of the structure there are bunker drinkers and feeders. This will make it more difficult for animals to get their paws into them. An inclined net is placed between the sections into which hay can be placed. This internal structure is called a sennik. To save space on the site, the rabbitry can be arranged in two tiers. In addition to being compact, this design allows you to quickly add food to animals and speed up the cleaning procedure.

A small cage of two sections is perfect for keeping a couple of rabbits: everything they need is in this building

A room for young animals is constructed based on the following parameters:

length approximately 200 – 300 cm;
width up to 100 cm;
height ranges from 35 to 60 cm.

For young individuals whose age does not exceed 2 months, it is necessary to calculate the actual volume of cells based on the total number of animals. One such rabbit needs a minimum area of 0.12 m2.

Female and her offspring

To accommodate a female with offspring, you need at least 0.6 m2 of space. For newborn rabbits, a special nesting box is placed in the cage, which must have the following parameters:

length 35 cm;
height 30 cm;
width 25 cm.

In such a box, mother and her rabbits will feel calm.

The simplest nest box looks like this, it is not difficult to build. You can put hay or sawdust inside to make the kids feel cozy

What building material should be used?

To build a rabbitry you need relatively inexpensive but durable material. Please note that for all their cuteness, your future pets are rodents. This means that they will absolutely test any construction to the teeth.

Rabbits are rodents, so the internal bars made of wood must be protected from their attacks. It's easy to make protection from tin

If you want those parts of the frame that are made of wood to last more than one season, cover them with metal. In order not to buy it specifically, you can use tin from beer cans or galvanized steel for roofing work for these purposes. This additional work will not take much time, but the useful life of the cells will increase by ten years, or even more.

The most inexpensive and simple material for the frame is wood blocks, the cross-section of which is 50x50 mm. Wood should not be impregnated with an antiseptic. This impregnation is toxic enough to poison young animals. It is better to dry the frame thoroughly. This increases its durability.

A rabbitry with a frame made of well-dried wood can be considered the most economical design: it will last you more than one season

For the roof of each tier of the structure it is necessary to take moisture-resistant material. Flat or wavy slate is perfect for this purpose. If the structure will be located on the street, do not use metal for its roof. This material has the unpleasant property of getting very hot in the sun. As a result, the cell actually turns into an oven.

Now you need to choose the material for covering the frame. For this purpose, a galvanized chain-link mesh with a cell size of 20x20 mm is best suited. By the way, the chain-link itself got its name from the word “rabbit” pronounced in English.

Steel mesh is used for the side of the structure, its doors and facade. The compartment for storing hay - the hay barn, located between the sections - must be made of mesh, the cells of which have a size of 50x50 mm. This will make it easier for animals to get the food they need.

For the bottom, a flat galvanized mesh with cells of 25x25 mm or 10x25 mm is used. Its installation is carried out on load-bearing wooden slats. This solution allows you to do cleaning much faster. Rabbit feces simply fall through large enough cells. It does not stick to wood or galvanized surfaces, which would have to be scraped off each time. The accumulation of manure occurs either in a special receiving bunker, or on the ground if it rolls down the inclined surface of the roof of the lower tier of the structure.

As a rule, continuous flooring is not used for rabbitry. The reason is that wood immediately absorbs caustic urine, and feces simply stick to it. As a result, the microclimate in the cage worsens, and the boards begin to quickly rot. Therefore, it is better to make the bottom lattice. For this, planed floor bars are used. The gap between adjacent bars does not exceed 1 cm.

This photo clearly shows the slatted floor; each slatted floor is reliably protected from rodent teeth by small strips of metal

Rabbits cannot tolerate drafts and can get sick. To prevent this from happening, the rear wall of the structure is made blank. To create it, you can use polycarbonate, boards, simple plywood or OSB board.

If the structure will be located on the street, its supporting frame is made of metal. So, the supporting structure is welded from a corner with parameters 45x45 mm. After which it is simply filled with ready-made sections assembled from stamped mesh. The mesh must be secured to frames welded from steel rod. Another option is a wooden frame. Read below how to make it.

You need to know that animals may develop calluses on their paws; they bring suffering to the animal. To prevent this from happening, you can install a small plywood sheet on the floor to protect the paws. But such plywood must be periodically removed, cleaned and thoroughly dried.

An element such as plywood is needed only in those cages whose floor is made entirely of flat mesh. It is necessary to prevent rabbits from developing corns.

The net will not be able to protect animals from rain or snow. It is better to place such a cage under a slate canopy or in a barn.

A little about Zolotukhin’s method

Nikolai Ivanovich Zolotukhin has been breeding fur-bearing animals for many years, has studied their habits well and, summarizing his experience, has created his own method of effectively equipping rabbitries.

The combined floor looks exactly like this: a slightly sloping large solid front part and a 15-20 cm wide mesh at the back wall of the rabbitry

Zolotukhin suggests:

Make the floor combined: its front part will be in the form of an inclined flooring made of flat slate, and the back part should be made of steel mesh;
The feeders into which grain is poured are made not just of hoppers, but of a rotating design: in this case, they will be easy not only to fill, but also to clean.

Zolotukhin chose such a non-standard floor surface not by chance, but on the basis of reliable statistical data and his own observations. Approximately 95% of rabbits relieve themselves at the back wall of the cage. Just where the grid is located. 70% of feces end up there. The animals scatter the rest of the feces all over the floor, but it is dry, so sweeping it up is much easier.

A simple rotary feeder from Zolotukhin differs from a regular bunker feeder in that it can be deployed by slightly pulling towards you

Nikolai Ivanovich uses bedding that would absorb moisture only to teach young animals to urinate at the back wall of the room. His buildings are always dry, and he has to spend less time cleaning than others. For more information about the Zolotukhin method, watch the video.

Let's start building the rabbitry

To accurately calculate the consumption of materials needed to set up a rabbitry, you need to either use a ready-made drawing or make your own sketch based on the dimensions suggested above. After purchasing the material, you can start working.

This is a drawing of a two-tier, two-section cage that can accommodate four adult rabbits. It is equipped with an intersectional hay barn, drinking bowls and bunker feeders.

If the frame is wooden, cut the slats to size and connect them using self-tapping screws. Be sure to make sure there are no distortions. To do this, we check horizontal surfaces with a level, and vertical surfaces with a square. First we assemble the front and rear frames. Now, using short ceiling and floor jumpers, we connect them into a single structure.

If you look at the rabbitry from the side, you can clearly see exactly how its roof needs to be made so that it is sloping

The frame is ready. Now we install the bars of the hay barn and doors. We lay the slatted floor, not forgetting that the gap between its elements should not exceed 10 mm. After completing this work, we cut the mesh and plywood to attach them to the frame with self-tapping screws.

Now let's lay the roof. For the first level of the roof, you can use moisture-resistant QSB sheet. We cut it so that the edge of the sheet protrudes 10-15 cm beyond the dimensions of the cage. To build the second tier, we take corrugated slate. It is attached to the inclined bars of the frame itself.

All that remains is to install OSB doors, drinkers and bunker feeders. The work is completed. Watch the video, it will help you with your work:

All-season option with insulated compartments

Another rabbitry, this time all-season, is presented by a master who made it with his own hands. Below we provide a drawing of the structure and a video made by the author himself.

Another version of the rabbitry, this time it is equipped with warm compartments, which helps the furry animals successfully survive the cold and bad weather

How-to video:

2017-08-17 Igor Novitsky

Although the rabbit can hardly be called an exotic animal for Russia, in the meat and meat products market, rabbit meat makes up only a small percentage of the total mass. Most farmers do not want to get involved with these farm animals because it is believed that rabbits die like flies at the slightest provocation. However, in fact, all problems stem from improper living conditions and errors in the formation of the diet. By choosing the right feed and building a modern, high-quality rabbitry, you can successfully develop your rabbit business.

Before you build a rabbitry

Any construction begins not with drawings and cost estimates, but with defining the goals and objectives for which the structure is being built. In our case, we first need to give clear answers to the following questions:

How many animals will be kept at one time? There is a fundamental difference between a farm for a dozen animals and a farm for 200 rabbits.
Where exactly are the cages planned to be placed - on the street; under a light canopy that barely protects from the sun, rain and wind; or in a warm barn?
Will automatic water and food supply and waste removal systems be introduced?
Should cages be portable or stationary?

Only by answering these three questions can you begin to design and begin building a rabbitry. Now we know whether we can get by with three hastily assembled portable cages, or whether we need to build a whole rabbit town, which will be served by semi-automatic mechanisms or living people.

By the way, if you plan to breed rabbits in large quantities and sell the resulting products, you will also have to coordinate the construction with government services.

Place for a rabbitry

There are no particularly strict requirements regarding where on the site to place the rabbitry. The main thing is to adhere to the self-evident rules, ignoring which will inevitably lead to the loss of livestock.

Firstly, to build a rabbitry you need to choose a dry place. Wetlands or frequently flooded areas are not suitable. Excess moisture will not only accelerate the corrosion of building materials, but will also create an unhealthy microclimate around the rabbitry. As a result, the cells will wear out faster, and the mortality rate among animals will be high.

Secondly, try to place the cells with their “backs” to the windiest direction (usually north). Rabbits do not like drafts or wind, so it is better to protect them as much as possible from these natural phenomena. If possible, there should be dense trees or shrubs around the rabbitry that can soften strong winds.

Thirdly, the rabbitry should not be exposed to direct sunlight all day. In winter it may not be bad, but in summer the cages will be a real oven. Especially in the southern regions. If it so happens that you have got a completely “bald” area without trees that could cast a shadow on the cages, then either build a rabbitry indoors, or erect at least a light canopy over them (you can even just use spruce branches or brushwood), which would save from the scorching sun.

And again, we remind you that if you plan to raise rabbits for sale, you will have to build a rabbitry taking into account existing official building codes for such structures.

Ready-made Mikhailov rabbitries

Thanks to the Internet, the general public has become aware of two of the most successful designs of rabbit hutches, which are now used by many professional farmers. We are talking about rabbitries according to the schemes of Mikhailov and Zolotukhin.

Mikhailov's rabbit hutches are a two- or three-tier structure, where the upper tiers are occupied by residential sections, and on the lower tier there is a sealed manure collector. There are several models of these cages (for young animals for fattening, for pregnant rabbits and rabbits with rabbits, for adult males), but they are all united by a common idea - the presence of a built-in sealed container common to all sections of the cage, where manure accumulates.

The rabbit hutches of this design have a solid back wall, while the other three are mesh. The unit also has a built-in ventilation system, heating of drinking bowls and queen cells.

Another key feature that modern Mikhailov rabbitries are famous for is the maximum automation of all processes. Manure is removed from the cage and accumulates in the container on its own. In this case, the smell does not penetrate into the living compartment. The cages are also equipped with self-feeders and automatic drinkers. That is, you really only need to maintain the cage once a week - remove manure from the storage tank, pour food into the feeder and change the water canister.

The disadvantage of Mikhailov cells is that they need to be bought (and for a lot of money), since you can’t make them yourself. At best, this will be a simplified copy. This will be a good quality cage, but you will not achieve the results that can be achieved with a real rabbitry with a homemade one. In addition, raising rabbits in cages designed by Mikhailov also requires a special method.

General design and diagram of the rabbitry

Zolotukhin's rabbitry is a simpler design that you can successfully assemble yourself. Most farmers who make their own cages mainly use this design, making changes to it to suit their needs.

The Zolotukhin rabbitry also has a self-removal system for waste, which consists of a special floor design. Instead of the usual horizontal arrangement, flat slate or plywood is laid at an angle so that feces and urine roll under the back wall. There is a gap of 15-20 cm between the floor and the wall, covered with a metal mesh.

Living compartments can be arranged in two or three tiers, but for the automatic waste removal system to work, each subsequent tier must be moved back relative to the bottom one by the width of the mesh at the rear.

In its standard form, the cage has two living compartments on each tier, but that’s what makes Zolotukhin’s design so good: by making a rabbitry with your own hands, you can easily make modifications to the original design. If desired, you can mount a long cage with a dozen compartments on each tier. True, then they can no longer be moved from place to place if necessary.

The back and side walls of the rabbitry are made blank to minimize heat loss. The roof is a regular pitched one for the street or flat when placed under a canopy (or indoors).

The dimensions of the rabbitry are:

width - 1 meter per residential section;
height - 0.5 meters per section plus 30-40 cm between the floor/ground and the lower tier;
depth - at least 70 cm for the compartments of the lower tier (the upper ones are deeper due to the extension of the rear wall);
floor slope - 10-15 degrees;
The width of the mesh at the back wall is 15-20 cm.

The proportions of the door and mesh window on the front side of the cage are chosen at your discretion.

Feeders, drinkers and other small items

Before making a rabbitry, consider a feed and water supply system. Since rabbits require both grass/hay and grain feed, the cage needs to have both types of feeders.

The feeder for bulk food according to the Zolotukhin method is mounted directly into the cage door so that 1/3 of the total volume of the container is inside. It is proposed to make the feeder in the form of a tray or hopper with edges of unequal height: the side with the lower edge should be inside the cage, and the side with the high edge should be outside. The sizes of the feeder are selected individually, but the general recommendations are as follows:

high edge - 15-20 cm;
low edge - 5-7 cm;
width - 5-10 cm;
length - slightly less than the door itself.

The bunker for hay and grass is made according to exactly the same principle, only it is placed on the “window” and has a much larger size. There is also a difference in the materials used. Obviously, for bulk feed you need solid material - wood, tin, plexiglass, etc. But the hay barn is made from rabbit mesh.

To supply water, of course, it is better to use a nipple system, but for this you will have to spend money on purchasing it. To save money, you can construct a primitive cup drinker from scrap materials. However, it is important that the design of such a drinking bowl meets three requirements - it is minimally exposed to contamination, is easy to clean, and is not tipped over by the rabbit itself.

It should also be noted that in Zolotukhin’s cells there is no stationary queen cell. The female rabbit is simply placed in a wider compartment, in which a portable house-hole is placed in the winter (it must be securely fixed in the cage), and in the summer a large armful of hay is placed, where the female makes a nest. In this way, natural conditions for animals are simulated.

Materials for rabbitry

When constructing cages, you can use any available materials, but wood is best suited. It is environmentally friendly, readily available and easy to process.

The cage frame can be constructed from wooden beams or metal corners. The walls and floor of the rabbitry are made of boards or plywood. The outside can be sheathed with tin, but the inside must be wood. Zolotukhin does not recommend making mesh floors, since, according to him, rabbits suffer a lot when they are forced to move on a mesh floor. Use the mesh only at the back wall, where feces and urine roll off.

The roof is made either from the same boards or plywood, or from ordinary slate. The front of the cage has a large window and door. If the door is made of boards or plexiglass, then the “window” itself is made of mesh. Material for making feeders and drinkers - depending on the circumstances.

By the way, it is better to make the floors removable so that they can be removed and washed periodically. Of course, for this, the front section or roof must also be removable so that the floor itself can be removed.

Rabbits are quite unpretentious in care. They are versatile in matters of nutrition and do not require special conditions. But, before you start breeding such animals, you should remember that the animals reproduce extremely quickly. Therefore, the ability to make cages for rabbits with your own hands will be very useful for the owner of a rabbit farm.

Types of cages for rabbits

On the Internet you can find a large number of options on how to build a cage for rabbits yourself. But, before using one of them, you should remember that such designs involve division into several types. A standard rabbit farm should be equipped with at least three of them:

rabbitries for individual housing of males;
separate enclosures with a uterine compartment for a rabbit and newborn babies;
common spacious houses for keeping young animals until they reach puberty.

Such structures are also divided among themselves based on the design solutions used. So, if there is space, they will be equipped with an attached walking area. If there is no free space, the cells are made two-tiered. The different options also differ in the design of the roof, floor, and materials used.

For males

When making cages for males with your own hands, you should take into account that as the heat approaches, they become quite aggressive. During this period, when the rabbits are kept together, fights often occur for territory and food. Therefore, to suppress aggressive manifestations, adult individuals are placed in individual cages. This measure will also allow better control of the process of reproduction of living creatures.

But when building an individual enclosure, you need to make sure that it is spacious enough. The animal needs constant activity to maintain its shape. If there is no room for it, the rabbit will become fat, which will affect the functioning of the genital organs and reproductive function in general. The sizes of cages for rabbits in this category suggest the following values:

length – approximately 120 cm;
width – varies between 70–75 cm;
height – about 60 cm.

When calculating sizes for large breed rabbits, all values are doubled.

For a female rabbit with offspring

A female rabbit with young animals has completely different physiological needs. Therefore, the house for her requires a different design. It includes two sections:

Uterine compartment. Here the female gives birth to babies, warms them and feeds them. They make a mother liquor from solid material, then covering all the cracks and holes with insulation. A thick layer of litter is placed on the bottom. The minimum dimensions of the queen cell are 40x40 cm. If necessary, such a compartment is supplemented with a separate door.
Aft compartment. Suitable for installing a drinking bowl and containers under the feeder. It is also made spacious so that the rabbit can move around to her heart's content. The aft compartment can be supplemented with mesh walls.

The compartments are connected to each other by a small passage. It is placed at least 10 cm above the floor surface. This moment is a precaution against newborn babies falling out into the cold feed compartment.

For young animals

Grown-up rabbits are moved to a house for group housing. In this case, making a rabbit cage with your own hands is also easy. The main thing is to accurately calculate its dimensions.

length – 250–300 cm;
width – 100–120 cm;
height – 30–45 cm.

If necessary, the group housing method is also implemented in the cage options listed above. But the number of animals in this case is calculated taking into account its area.

Two-tier structures

The solution to the lack of free space on a rabbit farm is a two-tier house for rabbits. This design practically consists of two ordinary cells installed one on top of the other. However, it differs in certain features, including:

The presence of a common V-shaped canopy dividing each floor into compartments.
The presence of a pallet between the floor of the second tier and the ceiling of the first. To place it, the cells are connected with a small gap, and not end-to-end.
Placement of special containers under the floor for feces.
Each tier is supposed to have two compartments.

Make a two-story cage for rabbits with your own hands in accordance with step-by-step instructions:

Four identical rectangles are made from iron corners or thick timber.
The first rectangle is sheathed with a fine-grain mesh and placed on legs whose height is at least 30 cm. Long wooden blocks are used for this purpose.
Next, two frames are installed on the bars with a distance of 50 cm from each other. One of them serves as a roof for the first tier, so it is covered with wooden boards.
At a height of 10 cm from the second rectangle, a third one is mounted. It is also covered with mesh.
The last rectangle is again attached on top of the floor in increments of 50 cm. It is covered with a board. If the rabbitry is planned to be placed outside, an additional layer of roofing material is laid on top.
The side walls are covered with boards, plywood or mesh.
For the left niche between the first and second floors, a box is made and installed to collect rabbit manure.
A suitable size container for feces is selected under the bottom of the first tier and also placed under the finished structure.

The size of the enclosure can vary significantly. But the minimum length is 2.4 m. The width is at least 1.5 m. The height of the structure ranges from 1.8 to 2.2 m.

In general, a standard cage of this type can accommodate 4 animals. If necessary, a third floor is installed above the second floor, which significantly expands the capacity of the structure.

Walking

If the owner of rabbits has enough space on the site, it is recommended to make cages with walking. In this plan, two combined departments are also being assembled. The front is the standard option mentioned above. The only difference is a special passage made in the back wall and connecting the first section with a large closed enclosure.

This design is advantageous from the point of view that the animal has more space for activity. In addition, he receives fresh air and sunlight. All this helps to increase the productivity of the rodent and improve the quality of its coat.

The paddock is made approximately as follows:

They make a hole in the back blank wall of the main compartment.
Behind the main house, two more bars are dug in at the required distance.
Using slats, they construct the frame of the enclosure, connecting them with new dug-in bars and the rear supports of the main compartment.
A mesh is installed on the slats.

It is worth noting that if the enclosure is used only in the warm season, the legs do not need to be made. It will be installed on the ground. This option is also good because fresh vegetation appears through the floor cells, which the living creatures eat with pleasure.

Rabbit cage with walk

The minimum dimensions for a rabbitry with a walking enclosure are 200x100x60 cm. They can be increased upon request. The main thing is that there is enough space inside for active walks of animals.

Location of rabbit cages

In addition to how to make a rabbit hutch, you should also consider where to install it. There are also several recommendations in this regard.

The specific location of the rabbit houses is chosen taking into account the weather conditions of the area. If the climate is warm and does not expect severe frosts in winter, enclosures are installed outside. Moreover, this type of livestock maintenance is carried out year-round.

If the winters are cold, then only in the summer the enclosures are located outside. With the onset of cold weather, they are transferred to a warm barn.

Each option also includes a number of features. For outdoor placement:

the cages are installed with a dense back wall in the direction from which the wind most often blows in the region;
when installing, choose places where there are no drafts;
install houses on a certain hill where moisture does not accumulate after heavy rainfall;
the roof is mounted so that water does not get inside the cells during rain;
When placing houses in two rows, they are placed with their front parts facing each other at such a distance that a person can freely pass between them.

When moving rabbits indoors, you should adhere to the following rules:

Natural lighting in the barn is not enough, so it must be supplemented with electric lamps evenly installed throughout the ceiling;
artificial lighting in the room should be maintained for about 8-10 hours a day;
windows and other openings in the walls should be located above the installed cages to avoid drafts;
If the temperature in the barn drops very low in winter, you should consider using wood, electric or gas heating.

Important! Also, when located inside a barn, rabbit hutches are still installed on supports. This will reduce the amount of dust getting inside.

Materials and tools

Before you begin choosing a suitable material, you should develop a detailed drawing of such a project. Already-designed drawings of cages for rabbits are freely available on the Internet. A ready-made plan will allow you to accurately calculate the required volumes of material and not miss significant nuances in assembling the structure.

When preparing suitable materials, you should also take into account the fact that rabbits are rodents by nature. They easily damage the components of a fragile structure. Therefore, excessive savings here can lead to the fact that within a month or two the enclosure will have to be repaired or completely changed.

wooden products: long beams, slats, boards;
plywood;
slate slabs;
fine-grained mesh;
nails, screws or staples to secure all elements.

There are also a number of important points that will significantly increase the life of the structure and will be useful for living creatures:

Many manufacturers make the roof from metal sheets. This approach is fundamentally wrong. In the summer heat, the iron gets very hot, and excessive heat worsens the rabbits’ well-being. It is better to take slate, tiles or ordinary boards covered with roofing felt.
All wooden elements inside the enclosure should be sheathed with tin. Otherwise, the rabbit will sharpen its teeth on them and quickly render them unusable.
The mesh for the rabbitry is taken with hole sizes of 25x25 mm. Such material will be convenient for the rodent to move, but will not allow it to escape.
Additionally, it is recommended to lay a sheet of plywood on the floor. This coating will prevent health problems for your rodent's paws. In addition, after a certain time it is enough to simply remove it, wash it thoroughly, dry it and can be reused.

It is also not recommended to use metal corners and cross members as the basis of the frame. In winter, they can freeze, which will reduce the temperature inside the rabbitry. But the advantage of such elements is their strength.

Based on the selected materials, the necessary tool is selected. The minimum set in this regard includes:

hacksaw;
construction tape;
hammer;
metal scissors;
sandpaper;
screwdriver;
plane;
pliers.

When using metal elements, you may also need a drill and welding machine.

DIY making

The specific algorithm for making a cage for rabbits is based on the drawings used by the owner. As an example, let’s look at the simplest version of a rabbitry, which requires:

10 wooden blocks with a thickness of at least 30 mm;
2 large sheets of plywood;
3 m metal mesh;
self-tapping screws

The assembly of the structure takes place in the following stages:

From the bars we assemble a rectangle with dimensions of 3x0.7 m. Upon completion of the assembly, we fix it to the vertical bars, which will also act as legs. Moreover, the height of the rear vertical bars is 1 m. We leave the front ones a little longer (1.2 m).
We allocate part of the cage on both sides for the queen cells and lay out their floor completely with a board. Cover the remaining area of the base with the prepared mesh.
We mount the back wall from boards using self-tapping screws.
At the required distance from the walls, we fix the vertical bars that limit the uterine compartment. We install a plywood wall with a hole made across the base across them. We mount the queen cell cover on top.
We place a hay feeder in the center of the rabbitry. We make it from two frames connected in the shape of the letter “V”. We install steel wire vertically on the frames with wide spacing.
Next to the hay feeder we install a standard feeder and drinker that is suitable in size and design. We fix them permanently.
We line the sides of the cage with plywood.
At the front we make frames for future doors. We make them from boards, cover them with mesh and fix them on hinges.
We install the roof on top. The ideal material for it is slate. The roof is mounted on a slope with a tight fit to the vertical bars. At the same time, it protrudes 10 cm beyond the side and rear walls, and 5 cm beyond the front wall. In the center we make a hole for laying hay and feed. We close it with a door made separately.

Attention! At the end of the work, use pliers to bend all the protruding parts of the mesh, and sand the protruding wooden elements and sharp corners with sandpaper.

A carefully designed and manufactured rabbit cage will provide the animal with comfortable living conditions and help maintain its health. In addition, the thoughtful design greatly simplifies the process of cleaning up after rodents. But before making it, you should carefully study the main points of such work.

Raising rabbits is a profitable activity that does not require much time. Animals do not require special care or specific living conditions. Therefore, you can have several fluffies in a private household. Beginning farmers often have a desire to breed these animals, but the first thing they have to face is how to make cages for rabbits according to drawings with dimensions.

Choosing a location for cells

When installing cages for rabbits, you need to pay attention to certain conditions in which the animals may be. First you need to choose the right place where the cells will stand.. They can be placed:

on the street;
indoors.

Of course, devices can be placed outdoors only in regions with a more or less warm climate. In severe frosts, rabbits can simply freeze. If the air temperature is optimal all year round, then the following must be taken into account:

It's important to consider the details. They are useful both for keeping rabbits outdoors and indoors:

Keeping rabbits indoors

If the site is located in cold regions of the country, this implies the mandatory presence of an enclosed space for placing the houses. A shed may be suitable for this. It is necessary to create the right conditions for a comfortable stay for furry animals:

Having built a high-quality and comfortable cage for animals, the owner does only a small part of the work. The most important element is feeding, keeping and breeding rabbits in comfortable conditions for them. You will need to feed them the right food in a dry state. Wet or steamed food can adversely affect the health of rabbits and lead to death of the animals.

Building a cage with your own hands

Many people are interested in how to make a rabbitry with their own hands. There are different schemes in the pictures (one- and two-tier, large or small, mother liquors, homemade, industrial, wooden and metal, Italian, wandering, homemade, etc.), just as there are many approaches, for example, the method of Mikhailov, Zolotukhin , Maklyaka. A simple design can be made for little money, but, unfortunately, not for free.

Before you start working, you will need, in addition to the diagram, to select the right material for the work.

Necessary materials

To create such structures, it is desirable to use natural materials to imitate conditions similar to natural ones. Therefore, wooden blocks that are treated with environmentally friendly antiseptics should be used as the basis for the structure. To build cells you will need the following materials:

The interior walls are made of plywood, as it is moisture-resistant and very strong. Chipboard is not suitable for such purposes, since it strongly absorbs moisture and collapses over time due to swelling.

What types of houses are there for rabbits?

All good cells have common characteristics, but they can still be divided into several types, each of which has its own individual differences. The first important factor is what breeds and individuals will live in such structures. Each farm should have several types of cages. Depending on how much space there is in height in the barn, structures are divided into the following:

single-tier;
two-tier;
three or more tiers.

At a certain age, rabbits must be housed. Types of cells can be divided into the following types:

cages for young animals;
designs for adults.

Nest cages are made for pregnant rabbits and recently born rabbits. They are also called queen cells because they have a box, tank or booth inside that imitates a burrow in natural conditions. In it, the expectant mother makes a nest for her children. There they spend the first two months of their lives.

The size of the cells may also depend on what breed you want to breed:

dwarf rabbits;
ordinary;
large (accelerators).

It also matters for what purpose the animals are bred. They can be both for the soul and for sale.

Cell designs can be different, and their parameters can vary significantly. But, on the other hand, you can make a cage according to general rules, and then complete the necessary parts.

Manufacturing stages

Lovers of a country lifestyle are often interested in the question of how to build a rabbitry with their own hands. There are many drawings on the Internet, so there are plenty of options. The most common way to build a typical structure is to have two sections. In one part there will be adult livestock, and in the other there will be a queen cell.

If there is no female with cubs on the farm yet, you can put additional houses in the nesting compartment and put adult rabbits there so that they can hide there if they feel unwell. For owners who do not know how to build a rabbit cage with their own hands, step-by-step instructions are given below. Cell production occurs in stages:

Cells according to the Mikhailov method

Making a rabbit house using the Mikhailov method involves creating a multi-tiered mini-farm. In other words, this is a kind of shed consisting of mini-farms. Each of them has a separate cage for the queen cell (for two female rabbits), and on the other side there is a separate structure for the fattening period of the young animals, which are disconnected from the mother’s nest. After four months, you can get real giants weighing 8-12 kg using this method. Rabbit breeding using this method is quite a profitable business.

It is a little more difficult to make a cage for a female rabbit with a queen cell using Mikhailov’s method than a structure for fattening rabbits.

Thus, this method is rightfully considered the best in all respects for production breeding purposes.

Rabbits have become very popular in animal husbandry. They can be grown not only on farms, but also in ordinary residential apartments. In addition to good care and proper diet, it is necessary to create the most comfortable living conditions. A cage will serve as a home for rabbits. You can buy it in a store or make it yourself from scrap material.

Before starting construction, you should decide who will live in the house, prepare a model: calculate the parameters, draw up drawings, draw sketches of the future structure. The floor is made of timber. The slats are laid out at intervals so that animal waste is dumped into the tray. The side and back walls are made of boards. A chain link is stretched on the front part. The house is equipped with a feeding trough, a drinking bowl, and a hay barn. The manger and the entrance inside are covered with mesh so that rabbits do not damage them.

Drawings of a cage for young animals

Young rabbits are housed in numbers of 6-10 for slaughter, and no more than 5-6 for breeding. They are kept in a large, capacious cage, to which an enclosure is attached.

To create an accurate drawing, calculate the minimum area that one individual will occupy. For babies it is 0.15 m². It reaches no more than 3 m in length, 1 m in width, and 0.7 m in height.

The pen dimensions are identical. The floor is covered with beams, and a metal mesh is stretched around it. To get into it, they make a hole.

Drawings of an adult rabbitry

For adult representatives, the unit of occupied area for calculating the total increases to 0.5 m². Cages with separate sections are built for them. If necessary, they can be made multi-tiered, but preference is given to single-tiered ones.

Multi-level structures are more difficult to keep clean.

The dimensions of the houses depend on the breed, age, and sex of the rabbit. Adults are placed in groups of 3 in a single section, and 5-6 in a double section. Section dimensions: 0.8-1.1 m, for double the entire length is 1.3 m; minimum depth 0.6 m.

Young males that have reached the age of three months are divided into two groups: the slaughter ones are castrated and housed together, the breeding ones are seated one at a time. For purebred rabbits, houses with dimensions of 0.7 x 0.7 x 0.6 m are made.

Options for drawings, all pictures are clickable, click to enlarge:

Two-tier shed

It is a structure made up of sections built in several levels. Such structures are used in street maintenance. Installed at a height of 0.6 m from the ground.

To build the foundation, concrete is used to securely secure the structure. The total length reaches 2 m, width - 1 m. All cells in the shed are identical, stand close to each other, covered with a canopy. A waste tray is arranged at the bottom.

The advantage of this type of housing is that the animals spend the entire spring and summer in the fresh air. Cleaning the houses does not take much time and effort.

Options for drawings of two-tier sheds, click on the picture to enlarge it:

Dimensions of rabbitry with queen cell

A portable house for a pregnant or lactating female and babies is built separately from other structures. To calculate the occupied area, take 0.7 m² per unit. Standard dimensions:

length - 1.2 m;
width - 0.6 m;
height - 0.7 m.

The mother liquor is made with a separate door or a retractable one, its parameters are: 0.4 x 0.7 x 0.6 m. The hole is 0.2 x 0.2 m. The frame is made of plywood, in two layers, between which insulation is laid.

For the winter version, the floor is heated: a heating pad is placed between the layers, the cord for connecting to the network is brought out so that animals do not chew it off. The roof is covered with water-repellent material.

Drawings of a rabbitry with a queen cell, click on the photo to enlarge it:

Used to house several animals. A nesting compartment is attached to the sides. The frame is built from boards, the floor in the aft section is covered with mesh, and in the mother section - with timber. For roughage, a manger is made on the front wall. The drinking bowl and feeder are hung on the door.

Options:

length 2.1-2.4 m;
width 0.7 m;
the height of the facade is 0.5-0.6 m, with a bevel towards the rear wall, at which it will be 0.4 m.

Drawings of Zolotukhin's rabbitry

Nikolai Ivanovich Zolotukhin studied the behavior and lifestyle of rabbits in the wild for many years. Based on the researched information, he developed a structure for comfortable housing of animals at home. These are three-tier cells with the following parameters:

length 2 m;
width 0.8 m;
height 1.5 m;
the floor from the rear facade is 0.2 m covered with a metal mesh, the slope from the front wall to it is 0.05 m;
square doors, side length 0.4 m.

Variants of drawings according to Zolotukhin. Click on the picture to enlarge it:

For construction you will need:

wooden boards, beams;
chain-link or metal mesh;
iron sheets;
slate;
polycarbonate

Construction scheme:

Making the frame using the standard method, dividing it into two parts with a gap between them. A hay box is placed there.
The floor is covered with slate, retreating 0.2 m from the rear facade. A mesh is stretched over this area.
The back is covered with polycarbonate. The sheets are installed at a certain angle and directed towards the end of the slate of the upper tier. At the very last floor the sheet will be straight. This serves to make cleaning the cells easier. Waste is rolled through a mesh in the floor into a tray along the back wall.
In the case of a nesting compartment, the door is made of boards with insulation between the layers. The main part is made of mesh.
The walls in the summer compartment are also made of mesh, separated by a partition. In winter, it is removed and a large house is obtained for keeping young individuals.
The feeder is attached to the front wall, with one third part located inside. The bottom is angled so that it can be filled from the outside without disturbing the animals. The sippy cup is installed inside.

Mikhailova's rabbitry

Another model belongs to the famous rabbit breeder Igor Nikolaevich Mikhailov. It is based on dividing the room into three sections: upper, lower, and stand.

Each of them performs its own function: the top is the tiers where the animals live. The bottom serves as a tray for collecting and storing feces. The stand part is designed to fix the structure.

Variants of drawings of Mikhailov's rabbitry. Click on any picture to enlarge it:

Design dimensions:

total length is 2.4 m, for one section it is 0.6 m;
width 0.6 m;
height 1 m, including the top part 0.7 m;
queen cell length 0.4 m, width - 0.35 m;
There are no clear dimensions for the conical part intended for collecting waste.

The body is made of iron, and the inside is lined with wood for insulation. The frame base serves for the stability of the structure. Its height is 1.4 m.

Cell size depending on breed

Pedigree Giant rabbits are a large species with impressive parameters: they grow from 55 to 65 cm in length, their weight is from 5.5 kg to 7.5 kg. Based on this, the cells for them must be special.

For one adult, the dimensions will be as follows: length 95-100 cm, width 70 cm, height 60-70 cm. For young animals, the total area of the building will be at least 1.2 m², height 40 cm. Particular attention should be paid to the floor. It is covered with a dense mesh 2 mm thick. Bars with a thickness of 35-40 mm are placed under the bottom with intervals for collecting feces.

If the masonry is done tightly, then a pallet is placed in the house, which is removed every day.

The California rabbit is a selective breed that is unpretentious to the living conditions; the hard hair on their paws allows them to line the floor with a mesh or lattice. The dimensions of the individual are also less impressive; they can weigh from 4.5 to 5 kg. Area 0.4-0.5 m².

For representatives of the breed, which are kept for meat, a hole 2 x 2 m in size and 1 m deep is sometimes dug as a home. The walls are reinforced with slate, the floor is laid out with boards or mesh. They surround the top with a fence and make a roof. Separately, they dig a small hole, which is not reinforced with anything. In such natural conditions, rabbits reproduce better and raise offspring on their own.

Cages with bookmarks for feed

For fattening, cages are built with the following dimensions:

length 0.7 m;
width 0.5 m;
height 0.3 m.

Drawings of cages with feeders, all photos are clickable, click to enlarge:

The structure is made of wire with a diameter of 6 mm; a thinner wire is wrapped around the joints to secure them. Nipple drinkers are used to supply water, and food is kept in small feeders. The rabbits are fed for a week.

Type