Upgrading from existing (donated) setup

Now Lopsy's on the road to recovery (got his first nurse follow-up this afternoon) I need to think about getting him a new place to live. His current hutch is well-built but tiny, and doesn't have a separate enclosed area so he's nowhere to hide. His run is only 5'x4'x2'ish and the metal dog-run-type. We'll be getting him a girlfriend too, but he needs a bigger pad for them both to move into at the same time. His current setup works out only about 21 square feet!

Lopsy likes being high up: he sits on anything he can get onto that's in his run, so we're going to get a 3' high run as a compromise between the washing line and platform space! We're not looking at anything below 8x4 as that fits comfortably in the garden with space to move it about when all the grass gets eaten, even though our lawn isn't massive My Dad has offered to make me a run which is awesome: he made the last one and, even after Charlie had died, he used it to protect his cabbages and must have got about 15 years perfect use out of it, and another 5 after it got structurally weak. Problem is though, he's a busy pensioner and mostly busy clearing his mum's maisonette out as she died in July (it's OK, we were all expecting it and it was a blessing! ) so I might not see it for awhile. But he might come and stay for a bit and build it here, we'll see. Not expecting anything for about a month on that front, realistically!

Hutch-wise, I'd really like one with an under-run, and I don't mean one of those same-width ones! The Welfare Hutch 4.5'-run one is ideal. It'll give them a bit of running space on the hardstanding. Dad's not going to make me one of those: he's not that good a carpenter! I'm also unwilling to get a cheap hutch and convert it. I'll probably keep the existing hutch as it's in good condition, just terrible. I will convert it to a mostly-shuttered hiding place I think, at the end of a tunnel next to the 'main' hutch.

We can't have anything too big (shed, aviary etc.) as our garden is pretty small and L-shaped, and hanging the washing on the line is a must all year round!

So, with two rabbits, do I need a double hutch? Or will a single hutch over a run and then the other mini-hutch suffice? I think they should have a sleeping area each, so they can choose where they go, but I plan to tunnel everything together so things won't be neighbouring.

Have you got a picture of your garden?

If your garden is quite small/narrow, one option would be to go full height and have the washing line inside in it. Basically turn a section of the garden into an enclosed aviary - like a garden but roofed/meshed! It means you can walk about and use the same space as the rabbits, rather than filling your garden up with a run.

Mmm, a picture is a good idea: will sort one tomorrow when the light's better. I don't think putting the washing line in will work; it's a treble one, probably best explained with a picture! So I'll be back with one tomorrow.

Pictures!

This is looking down the garden from the canal end (yes, we back on to a canal: a proper, well-used one!), the garage is on the right, the gate leads out on to the driveway and the house is on the left. The stack of bricks is for making raised beds in the veg patch (on my left as I take the picture) and you can make out the lawn and borders and fence which separates us from the car repair place next door (we live on an industrial estate). Washing lines run from behind me down to the garage, behind me to the kitchen and from the garage to the kitchen (hence three-way). Matt, the other half, is walking up the path.



This is the view in the other direction: I'm standing at the pile of bricks looking back up. You can see the veg patch (green tunnel currently out of run due to Lopsy's cone). The veg patch is the bottom bit of the 'L' in our 'L' shaped garden. You can see the washing line hook on the kitchen wall by the back door.



This is the likely site of the hutch: the back of the house faces ESE so this wall faces NNE. The wind comes straight down the passageway between the garage and house so it would be side-on (you can see the tarp's covering the windward side of the run, above). This point is just beyond the end of the garage.



This is the alternative site: it's ESE facing but with the kitchen being only a single-storey extension, it gets sun for a lot of the day which is problematic. You can see it's next to the brick pile, on the end of the garage.



This is Lopsy's current setup: the tiny hutch, minimalist metal run and a coney coney! The original cover has been replaced with a tarp as it was about as much use as a chocolate teapot. He's got a new hanging basket hayrack under there, and his orange hidey-box is currently back-to-front because his cone's too big to let him in. His hutch has no blocked-off bit, it's just a single area, and that blank panel doesn't open which is a pain, although the floor is a removable tray.



So, the double-height hutch is the maximum I want to go with: the garage window needs to be kept clear or I can't see a thing in there! But do I need a double hutch or can I get away with a single and the little hutch elsewhere for two Lopsy-sized bunnies?

That's a nice garden

Slightly crazy though... do you use the garage for a car? If not you could put a catflap though the wall there and have an indoor pen made from the existing mesh run (take it apart and use the panels) out to a run on the other side. Or pop it through the window... like I said slightly crazy But you could then forgo a hutch completely.

A two storey hutch would be nice if it wasn't connected to the run just to give them more space. One option to keep the window clear is to reverse the hutch, so instead of it looking out on to the run lid. You have it the other way around with the run extending behind it. It can also make it easier to open the doors and work in the hutch as you don't have to be stood in the run. That way you could have the run under the window and the side of the hutch would be between the window and the drain pipe.

In fact, that might work with your existing hutch even. Pop it so the left side fits between the window and drainpipe and then build an extra run out behind it under the window - would that fit?

Or you could avairy on to the back wall of the garage using the wall as the fourth side and just have a hutch on legs inside

I think it's nicer to have them where you can see out the house window, where as against the house wall you couldn't watch them so easily.

Reversing the hutch on the run is a very good idea, I like it! As a short person (5') I can't see half what happens out of the kitchen window: one reason I want them against the garage rather than the kitchen. Actually, with it being side-on, it wouldn't catch the sun so much. My friend painted her horses' stables a fetching silver colour (over white) so maybe doing that to the outside, non-chewable areas would be a good idea to reflect the sun. Or we could just move the hutch for the 5 months the sun gets that end of the garage for more than about 20mins.

I did think about converting the garage, to be honest! But it gets very damp in there: both doors are leaky at the bottom and the main front one doesn't open as the handle is broken. I use it for storing bikes, gardening equipment and wood at the moment (we have a wood burner) so I could rearrange it for rabbits. I don't think I'd ever leave the car in there, so maybe it's something to think about for the future? I do want to get it 'waterproofed' so I can run electricty in there and put a big freezer in, so I could always move them in then!

Sounds like the garage could make quite a good longer term project then

For shade, I find greenhouse netting quite good - it's like fine net, usually dark green, so it looks neat and it's a bit see through still but cuts out a lot of sun.

Or I'm guessing you might be a bit green fingered so you could try something natural to act as a sun block - things like grape vines or roses are rabbit safe and will climb/cover well.

Tamsin said:

Or I'm guessing you might be a bit green fingered so you could try something natural to act as a sun block - things like grape vines or roses are rabbit safe and will climb/cover well.

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LOL I think I am, but it's actually the other half I'm good at identification (plants, animals, aircraft...) and knowing what I want where but he's the one who does 75% of the work! Though I did weed the potted raspberries yesterday for chickweed to feed Lopsy ;P

Currently the garage area is shaded by the massive oak tree directly ahead (ENE), and in winter it's shaded by the trees across the canal on the embankment, but when the sun's high enough to peep over the extension (say, May-September) it gets full sun from about 11-2. Maybe some potted raspberries along there would help, or the potted silly blackberries we've got. We've a climbing rose next to the oak tree that could probably do with more sun and water so could move that, and Matt's cultivating a tayberry (3/4 blackberry, 1/4 raspberry) in the middle border which would help, thankfully increasingly further from the washing line! Certainly worth thinking about as plants in pots can be moved about easily if we need access or temporary space.

Thanks very much Tamsin, you've given me lots of options to think about!