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Demi's Shed Progress UD:They love sticking their heads out of the bubble window!

DemiS

Warren Veteran
I thought I would make a thread sharing my ideas and purchases so far for my new shed/run set up, and then I can update you as it all comes together (hopefully getting some paving slabs laid next week and the shed is being delivered at the end of this month).

This is the shed I have gone for, a 6x6 shiplap with windows. I am hoping to add another window to the front, and my dad is going to make an 8x6ft run which will be approx 4ft high (just below the windows) and be joined to
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This is how I plan to paint the shed although my green is a little darker. I am using no nonsense garden paint in thyme and cream from screwfix

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Inside, I found an off cut of faux tile vinyl flooring which is designed for bathrooms so has a pretty decent grip. I'm planning on fixing this to the shed floor before the shed is actually assembled so the sides are screwed on top on as I think this will look neater and stop them pulling up the corners. There will also be a 6x2ft shelf in the shed just below window height so the rabbits can look out.

Below are some more purchases:
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  • Litter tray (Underbed storage box from ikea)
  • Hay rack (Wire basket from ikea)
  • Rechargeable light (Amazon)
  • Pet dome (I really think they're going to love this, being able to have a 180 degree view of the outside before they go out into their run)
  • Rabbit plant pot holder (From Next, I have painted this the same green that most of the shed will be, but it is going to be stuck to the cream door and I have some nice winter pansies to go inside)
  • Halford bottle holders
  • Pegboard and accessories to hold treats, grooming and cleaning supplies. They like to chew the bristles of the sweeping brush so I needed a way to lift this out of their reach. The board and all the accessories are from Ikea's skadis range
 
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Lovely! 6x6 is a good size and I really like the colour. Where are you getting the shed from? Are you going to put it on bearers as well as slabs?
 
Oh my, how exciting ! I love your ideas, and the peg board is brilliant, and the bunny plant holder. Can't wait to see it all completed, lucky bunnies :D
 
Can 100% recommend putting something additional under the floor joists to keep it even further off the floor :) All our sheds at home had this and the floor never rotted from underneath :thumb: Dad's big shed was there for at least 40yrs and only went after the roof rotted away, but the floor was still really sound (except under the roof leak).

The Tools Holder is awesome, I could really do with one of those/similar in a number of spaces around the house: thanks for giving us the name. I've also been trawling the Ikea website for bunny-related solutions :) I really like that shade of green :) You're doing the opposite to our (newly-painted this year) playhouse :D
 
Thanks everyone! The shed is from sheds2go and i believe it's the power brand which you can get from a few different places and they're designed so you can have the door/windows on any side you want. To be honest with I thought those little slats of wood under the floor were bearers, I didn't think of putting it on anything else but when it rains my slabs do get quite flooded so maybe I should. The shed is still coming next week but unfortunately i don't think the paving is going to be done in time so it may be another few weeks before it goes up :(
 
Don't know whether it's an idea you want to consider but you could try putting up low walls on the paving slabs, resting the shed on them and foregoing the shed floor. Have had to do this to my shed as the floor rotted out and it's turned out well enough that I could consider moving the bunnies in with just lino down.
 
The shed is up! No pictures of the outside yet because it's not properly in position and needs painting but here's the inside so far. The shed floor is actually a square 6x6ft but my camera makes it look rectangular.

Quick question, people with outdoor bunnies, do they have access to their run 24/7? The run that's going to be built will have thick mesh so should be fox proof but one of my rabbits is a bit dim and even when it's freezing and absolutely pouring it down with rain, she will sit in it until it looks like she's been dunked underwater whilst the other two head straight for cover. I have a cat flap with a timer on and I was wondering if I should restrict access outside overnight if I know the weather is going to be bad, until I have something sorted to cover the top of the run

Anyway here are some ramblings for people interested in the finer details:

  • The vinyl/lino flooring has been screwed to the floor under the sides of the shed so the little ******* can't pull up the corners
  • My dad is going to fix a 6x2ft shelf just a little below the windows so the rabbits have some extra space and can look out of the window. Only one ramp up to it should be required, as long as it stretches from the shelf, 6ft across and down to the opposite side it won't be too steep
  • The hay rack is resting on four large metal hooks, I can easily lift it on and off to refill but the rabbits shouldn't be able to budge it easily
  • It's highly likely hay is going to fall behind the litter box and then the rabbits will try shove it out of the way to get to it, so I'm trying to come up with a way to prevent that, perhaps a very small sheet of wood on an angle between the shed wall and the top of the litter tray so any little bits of hay slide down into the tray instead of behind it? Or alternatively I could make a small wooden frame that fits around the litter tray to stop them sliding it around
  • I decided to try my old ferplast sippy water bottles first because when you take off the grey bit that would normally hold the bottle to mesh, you can actually put it behind the bottle, screw it to the wall and it holds it quite securely. The metal bike bottle holders I got from halfords do fit the giant classic rabbit water bottles but they squeeze it a little so I'm worried those bottles would leak quite a lot
  • I've decided not to bother with the pvc profile on the exposed joists because they're all different sizes and some are at awkward angles. I'll wait and see if the rabbits take an interest in chewing them first

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The shed looks really well-made, I did have a look on their website but they are a bit pricey for me. They will be so cosy at night and in the bad weather :love: I like my Rabbits in at night but others leave them out. The hay rack looks a bit small. My Rabbits can eat a lot overnight as well as during the day.
 
It looks good! I like the pegboard holding all the supplies. =) I bet the bunnies will enjoy the shelf by the window that your dad is going to make.
 
The shed looks really well-made, I did have a look on their website but they are a bit pricey for me. They will be so cosy at night and in the bad weather :love: I like my Rabbits in at night but others leave them out. The hay rack looks a bit small. My Rabbits can eat a lot overnight as well as during the day.

I have 2 the same as this, they are actually huge!

The shed is lovely :love:
 
My outside bunnies are shut in their shed at night. Whilst I'm pretty sure their runs are fox-proof, I am anxious about them being scared at night while we are asleep and I know we have foxes in the garden sometimes.

We use bricks to hold things like litter trays in place in the shed, so that it's not so easy for them to move them.

It's looking good :)
 
Thanks everyone! The hay rack is bigger than it looks in the picture and I do tend to pack it quite tight. I did look at the next size up which would have been enormous but it was out of stock so I'll see how they do with this one, if it isn't lasting them 24 hours I'll try track down the bigger one :)
 
Looks brilliant :D I bet they'll love it! I would probably shut them in at night if one of them isn't great at sheltering. Lopsy's only that bad when there's no food in the shelter, so now he's on concrete it's much easier to give him fewer reasons to be outside! In fact we've not had a cover on the run since the last one died as it was too windy for AGES and it's just kinda stopped being athing now :D Chibbs has never known the run WITH a cover.

Something I thought of today, as I was out cleaning the bunnies in the wet: something absorbent is useful to have down in long periods of wet. This week here it's going to be no less than 80% humidity and little wind, so it'll just be wet and horrible all week. The bunnies' feet are already sodden (they enjoyed flicking dirty water at me this morning :roll:) so a layer of a few sheets of newspaper and plenty of hay in litter trays works OK here. Chibbs dos take a liking to destroying newspaper so we'll see how it goes: I don't think she's experienced floor newspaper yet. Aboleth used to have a go at it the first cuple of times it went doenwn but gave up after that. Chibbs had dug out most of the lowsided litter tray yesterday and the newspaper and hay in and around it were sodden with water (not wee for once XD), so they must have got quite wet yesterday even though it didn't actually rain until after dark, it was just damp and misty all day.

The shelf will also be useful for keeping stuff that's usually on the floor out of the way during cleaning, although you might end up with a dustpan, brush, newspaper etc. on your head when they go up there and start clearing it off :lol:
 
Looks brilliant :D I bet they'll love it! I would probably shut them in at night if one of them isn't great at sheltering. Lopsy's only that bad when there's no food in the shelter, so now he's on concrete it's much easier to give him fewer reasons to be outside! In fact we've not had a cover on the run since the last one died as it was too windy for AGES and it's just kinda stopped being athing now :D Chibbs has never known the run WITH a cover.

Something I thought of today, as I was out cleaning the bunnies in the wet: something absorbent is useful to have down in long periods of wet. This week here it's going to be no less than 80% humidity and little wind, so it'll just be wet and horrible all week. The bunnies' feet are already sodden (they enjoyed flicking dirty water at me this morning :roll:) so a layer of a few sheets of newspaper and plenty of hay in litter trays works OK here. Chibbs dos take a liking to destroying newspaper so we'll see how it goes: I don't think she's experienced floor newspaper yet. Aboleth used to have a go at it the first cuple of times it went doenwn but gave up after that. Chibbs had dug out most of the lowsided litter tray yesterday and the newspaper and hay in and around it were sodden with water (not wee for once XD), so they must have got quite wet yesterday even though it didn't actually rain until after dark, it was just damp and misty all day.

The shelf will also be useful for keeping stuff that's usually on the floor out of the way during cleaning, although you might end up with a dustpan, brush, newspaper etc. on your head when they go up there and start clearing it off :lol:

Thanks! I think I am going to try selectively keep them in at night depending on the weather, I am worried though that they're going to get frustrated when they can't get through the cat flap and will try chew it up. Newspaper is a great idea thank you, I might put some down when it's wet outside so they don't make the vinyl all muddy and slippy. They'll probably tear it up but at least it gives them something to play with :lol: The pegboard with all the cleaning stuff is on the opposite side to where the bunny shelf will be so no risk of them tearing it off :)

I decided I would repurpose the outdoor shelter that the rabbits never use as a hideyhole in the shed but unfortunately the roof felt had shrivelled up and some of the material underneath had started to rot and go mouldy. I've torn off all the damaged bits and put it inside the other shed to dry out a bit then I'm going to paint it tomorrow and see what it looks like. I'll try get more pictures tomorrow

Another question - I seem to have a fly problem in the shed, and this is before the rabbits or any of their food or bedding were put in the shed. Loads of tiny little flying bugs, mainly gathered around the windows. I've had a look on google to see if this is a common thing, I Thought maybe they're attracted to the wood treatment or something but I haven't found anything. Has anyone else experienced this? Would fly strips be the best solution?
 
Bug problem: depends what they are. Could be cluster flies, but they're normally 'normal fly sized' ish. We get a few cluster flies in our attic every autumn/winter, they go there to overwinter and we don't have a problem with them because only a few come into the attic itself, the rest are in the roof line. Given the warm temperatures at the moment, and dampness, it could honestly be anything. Try googling what sort they are maybe? If you get a picture you could try looking up the picture using Google Lens/similar.
 
Is the plant artificial or real? If real maybe you have fruit flies nesting in the soil. Hope you can sort this out, can you put a photo on here, maybe someone can recognise them.
 
Sorry forgot to get pictures today but the closest looking thing I've found online are gnats. The plant is artificial and the shed had been left dry, clean and mostly empty before i noticed them so I really don't understand why they're swarming in there. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and I might get some of that sticky fly paper to see if that will trap them. I nearly swept out a few spiders from inside the shed but then realised they're the most natural solution to the problem :lol:

It's looking much cosier today! I think they'll feel a lot more comfortable when the shelf and ladder is up to make the litter area a bit more private

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