First time posting here. Been reading a while.
I am inspired by this thread. I have a few hugelkulture beds, and a few sheet mulched beds, and room to expand here in Central Texas. I found an abandoned pet rabbit, Florida White I think, last week while out fishing. While fishing I was thinking, "chickens, rabbits or goats" and letting my mind scatter and wonder on the pros and cons of each. In a very Alice in Wonderland sort of way, this white rabbit appears in my peripheral. Long story short, I chased then stalked the bunny, caught it an brought her home.
I work for the municipally owned electric utility and I have access to numerous electric wire spools. You know, the ever present bachelor table. The spool laid on its side is 4 feet tall with the center tube 3 feet deep. I plan to lay three of the wire spools side by side in an interlocking fashion along the perimeter deer fence. Then attach a standard hutch on the outside of the fence/spool, and cut access doors on the inside the garden side of the spool. The wooden spools will provide subteranian habitat for the rabbits, a retaining wall for the hugel bed, and they will eventually rot adding it all back to the bed.
Before this is constructed, the hutch attached to the spool is mobile, provided you take out the rabbit, feeders, and such; just roll it to another area.
My biggest concern is that a hugelkulture bed may create too much heat for the rabbits to live. A rabbit burrow in a hot compost heap? I'm thinking, if the bottom portion of the spools is filled with the native clay soil to bury the central tube of the spool, then mound the rotting wood and compostables above and beside the clay, then the rabbits would be protected from the compost heat. Or I could use the native juniper logs to ensure very slow decomposition around the spools.
eh. I'll make some drawings
