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Moving the outdoor hutch into the shed....

Rex Rabbity

Warren Scout
We have a 5ft x 2ft outdoor hutch on our patio for our new rabbit. We also have a separate 8ft x 5ft run on the garden lawn. We put him in the run twice a day every day for a few hours. I am a little concerned about the future winter weather and temps and was thinking of maybe moving the hutch into our 8x6 shed which is on our patio. We have just enough space in the shed to accommodate the hutch. The only problem is that the shed and the run will be on different levels. We do not have enough room on the patio for a run. If I was to put the hutch in the shed, I was thinking of raising up the hutch and cutting out a linking tunnel between the run and the shed/hutch. Maybe incorporating a catflap in the tunnel to keep out the weather. Any ideas/help will be much appreciated.


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Looks like you have marvellous plans.
We brought the hutch into the shed after fox attacks, and the buns loved it. We put a strong mesh door on the shed during the day but solid door which locked securely at night. Only trouble we found was we had rats come and nest under the shed and gnaw away at it trying to get food - bad creatures!. The idea for a connection to a run is brill, wish we had had enough room for that, instead we put a portable run on the grass in the front garden whenever we were ou with them - neighbours loved visiting.
Good luck with the alterations
 
Sounds like a good idea to me. Jeremy has (I think) a tunnel with combined catflap. Do you use the shed for non bunny stuff? If not you could convert the whole shed and have the hutch for sleep/hiding in. The have a ramp down from the tunnel. That way you don't ahve a whole in the back of the hutch if you want to put it back out in summer.

Here's is Jeremy's website: http://www.thebunnyshed.co.uk/Main.htm

I think I've seen closeup's of the tunnel too unless that was someone else?

Tam
 
hi

good ventilation is more important than warmth for a rabbit's health - ideally you need to replace the shed window if it's a non-opening one, or fit a mesh inner door to the shed, and just close the big door at night - but other than that it looks great, so long as he's not a digger, and so long as 'vermin' can't dig into his run and get him in his hutch? Ideally a linking catflap must be lockable at night to protect your bunny :)
 
Unfortunately we cannot use the whole shed for the rabbit as it is the only place we can store things like the lawmower, tools, cycles etc. We do like to keep it locked for security reasons, but it is quite well vented, due to the large door that does not fit well and has gaps in it! Good idea about the window, maybe it can be adapted so that it can be open in the hot weather. Hopefully the rabbit will know that it is better to be out in the run when it gets hot. There is another small hutch in the run with the large door removed so he can hop in there if he wants. As far as I know, we have never had trouble with vermin, so hopefully the fact that the hutch will be quite high up off the ground in the shed with the food stored on shelves will keep it that way. I suppose they could dig under the run, but we are planning on flagging under the run anyway in the near future. He's not digging at the moment, so we are leaving it for now. Just still deciding on the best/easiest way to link the run to the hutch/shed. Not keen on cutting into the back of the hutch, although this would probably be easiest. Maybe go in just above the hutch roof, down into the roof with a slope into the hutch....

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hi

It's wonderful when you've got bunnies isn't it? I waste hours designing hutch set-ups/garden layouts/shed refits :lol:
 
Thanks for the useful help so far everyone. I'm not the best DIY'er in the world by a long shot, but hopefully I can make this linking of the shed and run a success for a happier bunny. I hope I’m not boring you with the details too much, but I thought it may be of use for someone who is thinking of doing the same.

I have now cut out a hole in the shed ready to link the run and the shed. What a pain, lots of knots in the wood and awkward with the jigsaw! As you can see, I have made a frame around the cut-out on both the inside and outside of the shed. I have just now (not in photo) used silicone sealer to fill in all the gaps in the lap on the outside of the shed. This should make the cut-out and frame fully weatherproof. I will make a frame in the run the same size as the one in the shed for the link. I plan on using a short perspex/plastic cylinder to link the run and the shed as I think that the rain will run off the cylinder easier than if the link was just a box. I will cut out a circle in 2 pieces of square ply that match the size of the frames and use these at both ends to connect the shed and the run. I will also seal the joints with silicone. I was thinking about using a slide-in piece of ply at the run end of the tunnel that can block off the cylinder so that the rabbit can be isolated to the hutch. This would be mainly used overnight when we are not able to watch the run.

The run in the photos will have slabs underneath before the link is complete and it will be levelled to match the shed. This should make cleaning easier I hope!

I will post more photos when the work is complete.

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Can you keep some grass and cover it with mesh? This works with diggers. DIY looks great to me :D
 
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