Can rabbits heat the greenhouse? Can the greenhouse keep the rabbits warm?

We hope to buy a house soon, and would like to add a small windowed shed against one wall. Like the title says, can rabbits heat the greenhouse, and can the greenhouse keep the rabbits warm? Is there a formula for determining the proper size for a certain number of rabbits? Thanks for the help and advice!

just looked up a bunnies btu and found this article
https://www.esmagazine.com/blogs/14-es-insights/post/93881-bunnies-as-btu

also found a page that said a live bunny puts out around 8btu/ hour so you can calculate from there

I have started watching a Geoff Lawton PDC set of DVDs and he suggested converting the space under greenhouse benches into a winter space for chickens. So maybe you could actually move your rabbits into the greenhouse itself when heat is needed. I don't have any ideas about the numbers needed for heating but you might be limited by stocking density and space.

some reading has shown that a chicken produces between 8 and 12 btu maybe chickend and rabits like Joel Salaitins Raken house with your starts above the rabbit cages  depending on how cold you get in winter a few hundred animals could do it. just looked up the stats for the raken house  in a 30x50 structure they have 300 chickens and 40 does with their babys  dificult to say the btu output of the babys  but lets just estimate the litter to equal 2 adults on average and 8btu per adult gives around the equivelent of 1kw of heating  not enough for your summer crops but depeding on your insulation might be enough to keep the frost off

We are considering something similar. We put a compost pile outsid thier coop. During the weekend winter we will let them in to turn it and feed.
Eventually we will cover the compost. Providing a windbreak, warmth and feed.

Y'all got me thinking about putting in grow trays for n benches.

A btu of a rabbit. That's awesome that can be calculated.

Thank you

Rabbits and chickens both require considerable fresh air exchange with the outside. This seems incompatible with trying to maintain heat in a growing space in the depths of winter.

Where are you located?

A few observations from having rabbits: they seem to insulate themselves pretty well, I know they must lose heat through breath but I don't think they'd be on the level of cattle or something in terms of heat loss though. You'd need a crapton of rabbits. Which gets to Michael's point, with that literal ton of crap (or worse, pee) you are going to need lots of ventilation or there is going to be illness. Not to say it's impossible, but I think you're talking about a LOT of rabbits and a lot of pee. You might get more heat from some rabbits (I love having mine, btw, will never garden again without rabbits) and make a big pile of hot compost with their manure/pee instead!
(I'm assuming you're in Minnesota or someplace similarly frozen solid. If it's not extremely cold maybe rabbits might be enough to tide you over.)

with chickens rabbits and deep beding their pee and manure will compost adding a few BTUs more every bit adds up

Michael Cox wrote:Rabbits and chickens both require considerable fresh air exchange with the outside. This seems incompatible with trying to maintain heat in a growing space in the depths of winter.

I was thinking more along lines of having an under-bench chicken run with access to the outdoors during the day and the door propped open; just close the door at night to supplement nighttime heat during the shoulder season or in a mild winter. Not having a greenhouse closed up tight, but more of a hoophouse with the ability to open the ends for ventilation, and maybe 'open' is the default condition unless it is a very cold night.

I'm not sure that this was what the original poster had in mind - he may be in a much colder climate.