Jennifer B
Young Bun
Hi all, I'm a newbie hoping to adopt a pair of rescue bunnies as soon as I have their accommodation up to scratch.
I've bought a chicken coop from ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230880597427?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619). It came with an additional 2 metre run and was the biggest combination I could find on my budget. I've checked that my local rescue is happy with it, and they are subject to a bit of extra weather proofing.
It arrived the other day and my lovely hubby put it up for me.
The first thing is - of course it looks much smaller than I imagined. I'm just not very good at translating dimensions to what it actually will look like. My husband thinks it looks huge - but I'm thinking poor wee bunnies! I was always intending to get a portable run so that they could get time on the grass, but I'm now already dreaming of extensions.
Also, the instructions show that the extra run can be built on to the front of the main section but when he built it my husband says it's not so simple. The roof sections wont line up flush and the mechanism for opening and shutting off access to the ramp is in the way.
So we're considering how best to do the join. Husband says with a bid of fudging he can do it, but I'm wondering if it would be more fun for the bunnies to put in a tunnel (like roundabout) or build a mesh tunnel or something.
We're planning on roofing the whole of the main section and probably putting wood across the back of both sections to help them keep sheltered. I've bought a cover for it which should cover the whole of the main section but wasn't planning on getting a cover for the run. We were thinking of getting a cat flap or something to stop drafts coming in the door from the hutch section to the run.
Having read a few stories on here about foxes I'm wondering if I should buy extra mesh and put another layer over the sections we leave open. Advice seems to be to replace the locks with something better too. It all seems a bit flimsy so maybe we should be fixing it down to the slabs somehow.
Here are some more pics.
Sorry for all the photos and long post but any advice/suggestions gratefully accepted!
I've bought a chicken coop from ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230880597427?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619). It came with an additional 2 metre run and was the biggest combination I could find on my budget. I've checked that my local rescue is happy with it, and they are subject to a bit of extra weather proofing.
It arrived the other day and my lovely hubby put it up for me.
The first thing is - of course it looks much smaller than I imagined. I'm just not very good at translating dimensions to what it actually will look like. My husband thinks it looks huge - but I'm thinking poor wee bunnies! I was always intending to get a portable run so that they could get time on the grass, but I'm now already dreaming of extensions.
Also, the instructions show that the extra run can be built on to the front of the main section but when he built it my husband says it's not so simple. The roof sections wont line up flush and the mechanism for opening and shutting off access to the ramp is in the way.
So we're considering how best to do the join. Husband says with a bid of fudging he can do it, but I'm wondering if it would be more fun for the bunnies to put in a tunnel (like roundabout) or build a mesh tunnel or something.
We're planning on roofing the whole of the main section and probably putting wood across the back of both sections to help them keep sheltered. I've bought a cover for it which should cover the whole of the main section but wasn't planning on getting a cover for the run. We were thinking of getting a cat flap or something to stop drafts coming in the door from the hutch section to the run.
Having read a few stories on here about foxes I'm wondering if I should buy extra mesh and put another layer over the sections we leave open. Advice seems to be to replace the locks with something better too. It all seems a bit flimsy so maybe we should be fixing it down to the slabs somehow.
Here are some more pics.
Sorry for all the photos and long post but any advice/suggestions gratefully accepted!
