Housing For Group Of 8

When we move to our new house (we get the keys on friday wooo) I will be attempting to bond our rabbits into a group of 8 :shock:

They will be inside untill we get their new accomodation built so gives me plenty of time to supervise them and make sure they bond okay.

We are planning on building our own dog kennel setup, in a similar style to this but more of a shed one end with their inside section penned off so we can use the rest of the space for storage and an aviary style run on the side
http://www.imagepuppy.com/shared/3b5314453900e5db47d7f4ac0356a7bc.jpeg

What size would you recommend it being? Does the run need to be bigger than the outside space?

At the moment the overall thing is looking to be about 15ft x 8ft but haven't worked out the exact inside/outside space yet :lol:

To be honest I would think 15x8 might be a little small for 8 rabbits. I have three in an overall space of 14x8 and I'm not sure it could accommodate another five.

Are your rabbits the kind to sit out in all weathers or go inside when it gets wet/cold? I think that will decide the ratio of inside to outside space.
Personally I'd go for about half and half to cover your bases and put two holes going through, one each side, so that the rabbits can run a loop over the whole area.

also, i'd think about using head and wall space for storage so your bunnies get the full floor space. You can make runners on the ceiling that storage tubs will slot in to and put pegs on the walls to hang things like brooms and bags from.

Most are small-medium sized buns apart from my french lop. No idea if they will sit in our out as they don't have runs attached at present.

I am hoping to rehome another mini-lop (as long as I can persuade OH) to go as a friend with my dwarf lop house bun which would bring the total down to 7 consisting of 3 mini lops, a dutch, a lionhead, a frenchie and a nethie.

Hadn't thought about storing things on shelves etc but not sure how that would work with hay bales, 20kg bags of food, big bags of litter and a bale of readigrass.

I could probably make it a little wider so it would be 15 x 10ft but depends how much it will eat into the garden as its only 30ft long and we need space for the dog and garden furniture etc.

Do you have any pics of your set-up?

here it is

2 of ours are small (nethie X mini rex) and one is a frenchie.

We're lucky that we have an outside cupboard that we can use for storage, I see the predicament!

If you're having trouble imagining how much space it will actually be you could get some spray chalk and draw out the area you can give them. I found that helped us when trying to decide on the area for our buns and chickens while still having enough room just for us.

I'm no expert on how much space buns need, I was just judging on the space mine have and how it would feel with another five in.
You could try getting in touch with some rescues and ask them how much space they'd recommend?

Our new mini lop should be coming home tomorrow

And we have decided to leave the 4 as a group, and make a trio out of another pair and our lionhead we took out of the group of 4 due to bullying.

So now planning a double kennel with a run on each end, and inside bit with storage space in the middle between the 2 pens.

I will ask for our rabbit boarders opinion as she is very bunny savvy herself.

Thanks for your help, and great pic x