HHHLops My Rabbitry

I know it's not much to look at, but let me explain. I am just starting out, I'm not a big rabbitry, and I only have four lops right now. Secondly, it's winter here in Montana. Without snow, Montana in winter is a highly unattractive place, especially here in our valley.

The first picture is a view of the rabbitry from our garage. The rabbitry is surrounded by a net wire fence to keep the dogs out. Our own dogs are allowed in as long as I'm around, which I think is a good thing. It gets the rabbits somewhat used to dogs so they don't freak out if one wanders by. Eventually we plan to cover the bottom of the fence with chicken wire so I can let the rabbits out on the grass to play. Right now, I have to watch them closely because they'll pop through the fence and head out across the yard. The cages directly in front are my main cages. They house most of my herd.

The little white cage off my itself houses my buck/pet. I am very attached to him (I know, serious breeders can't afford to get sentimental) because of his sweet personality. He's housed by himself due to the fact that the other buck is very aggressive and either scares or just intimidates him. He spent all of last summer ripping his fur out almost down to the bone. After two trips to the vet, administration of wheat germ oil, sunflower seeds, three changes of feed, and even a cage swap, we decided to give him his own cage where he couldn't see the other rabbits. He's improving now and maybe someday I'll be able to show him again.

									Left: A view of the rabbitry to your left as you walk through the gate. The first cage houses the last of my Dutch. The next two cages are empty at the moment. As you can see, the rabbits are fed in screen-bottom gravity feeders.
Right: A view of the far end of my cages, the view you see from the road. This board (which I intend to paint next summer, but only on the side away from the rabbits so they can't possibly chew the paint) can swing down in warm weather. Right now it's latched closed to keep the Montana winter wind off the rabbits. The #10 cage is empty at the moment.

The above picture shows the other side of the rabbitry. Cage #16 houses my top buck, Terk. The rabbits have fairly large cages with boxes to sleep in out of the wind. They're actually nest boxes, but the weather can get so cold here and extremely windy in the summer, that they pretty much sleep in them year round. And no, actually they don't make a mess of them. I figure out which corner they want for a "bathroom" and put the boxes somewhere else. If you look at the last cage, you can probably see a cord hanging down. This is the cord to my doe's nest box warmer. And I have used it before. It's not plugged in right now though. And before you ask, yes it's out of chewing reach. It's permanent though, because my dad attached it to her box with screws so she couldn't slide it around- like the doe next door at the neighbours has been known to do.

The picture to the left shows my feed cans. All of my rabbit feed in use is stored in these plastic cans with snap on lids to keep the mice out. Not that we have many mice with two cats around. My extra feed is stored in our barn until it's needed. I don't store it for long periods of time, but I do buy it in 50 lb. sacks and mix my own feed in a bucket which then comes out to the plastic can. The other can holds treats like dried corn cobs, calf manna (used rarely), sunflower seeds. etc.

And lastly. Since I don't have an indoor rabbitry with
an office, all of my computerized records are stored
on my own computer which is kept in my room. I can
also print and scan records or pictures as needed.