Create a safe, sanitary, and efficient home for your rabbits. In this informative guide, Bob Bennett provides clear step-by-step instructions for building attractive all-wire hutches of all sizes, with additional tips for adding the necessary accessories like feeders, watering systems, nest boxes, and fencing. From the direction a hutch door should swing to proper ventilation and protection from predators, Bennett covers everything you need to know to create a housing structure that will help promote a healthy and productive rabbit-raising operation. Plans for designing and building efficient facilities for sheltering backyard rabbits in safety and comfort, whether it's just two or as many as one hundred.
Bob Bennett is the author of six books on rabbit raising, including Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits and Rabbit Housing, as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles. He has served as the editor of Rabbits magazine, has been a contributing editor to Countryside magazine, and is the founder of Domestic Rabbits and a past director of the American Rabbit Breeders Association. An Air Force veteran, Bennett has a master's degree from New York University and lives in Vermont, where he has raised rabbits for more than 50 years. Preface
Chapter One: Planning Your Rabbitry
A Brief History
Primary Considerations
Chapter Two: Building All-Wire Hutches
Choosing Welded Wire
Sizing the Hutch
Planning the Door
Plan: Easy Wire Hutch
Multiple Hutches
Plan: 10 Small Hutches
Plan: Top-Opening Hutch
Chapter Three: Outfitting the Hatch
Types of Feeders
Watering Methods
Installing a Watering System
The Best Nest Box
Plan: Wire Nest Box with Flanges
Plan: Wire Nest Box without Flanges
Building Your Own Carrying Cage
Chapter Four: Sheltering a Backyard Rabbitry
Simple Three-Wall Structures
Closed Buildings
Installing Hutches
Fencing All Around
Chapter Five: Building and Outfitting a Big Operation
Heating and Cooling
Ventilation
Manure Management
Chapter Six: Tools, Equipment, and Routines
The Necessities
Optional Items
Miscellaneous Equipment
Rabbitry Routine
Resources
Index
The Best Hutches for Your Rabbits
Provide a secure environment for your rabbits with a well-built rabbitry. Rabbit-raising expert Bob Bennett has built more than a few hutches over the years, and he shares his plans for designing and building efficient facilities for sheltering backyard rabbits in safety and comfort, whether it's just two or as many as one hundred. If you're interested in growing into a large-scale commercial operation, Bennett will help you begin your expansion, too. Profiles of rabbit owners across the United States offer first-hand accounts of successful housing projects, lessons learned from those that were less successful, and inside glimpses of innovative methods and unique facilities.
