Dustin Talley

Andrew Mayflower wrote:Nice way to use worn out skis!

I'm generally not a fan of that chicken wire.  Perhaps less of an issue with rabbits, but with chickens you can still have predators like a raccoon reach through the wire and rip heads off.  Also, the gage on that chicken wire is pretty small, so a determined rabbit could chew through it and make an escape path.  For my son's rabbit tractors I used 1"x2" welded wire fencing.  Doesn't improve the raccoon issue, but it is a lot more sturdy against rabbits themselves.

Predators are too scared of being shot in a drive-by to come to my neighborhood...

[quote=Kc Simmons]Depends on the rabbits' personalities and the amount of space they have to themselves. Some does will get along with others, regardless of age, while others prefer to be solitary and have their own space. There's almost always going to be a little squabbling, though, to determine the pecking order. Typically just some mounting/humping and maybe some fur pulling. Anything more aggressive than that shouldn't be allowed to occur.
Best thing to do is try it and supervise so you can remove anyone who gets too aggressive. [/quote]

That sounds fair. The tractor is 4x8 so lots of room. It has skis on it so I can drag it around the yard. It has chicken wire on bottom so they can't dig out.

So I made a rabbit tractor and I want to put all of my females in it together but I'm not sure if they will fight. There are 4 and they are all young. It it safe to stick'em all in the same tractor?

Eliot Mason wrote:The plans I found are roughly 12'x8', so 96 sq ft with 80-100 birds.  Which we can roughly say is 1 sq/ft per.  So 3.2 sq/ft per will be luxurious.

But Jordan has an excellent point... its not just movement space but also forage.  So there is also a question here about how often you want to move the tractor - and that depends on the quality of your pasture.

Well mine is a backyard in my 1/3 acre urban lot but I have enough grass to move them every day and have about a 2 week period between getting the same area again.

I was up at Polyface Farms this weekend checking Joel Salatins chicken tractors out and I want to do them on a smaller scale. I am thinking about 10 broilers in a 4x8 tractor. Is that enough space?

Thanks everyone! I think I will not do lawn clippings but I am interested in turning lawn clippings into hay. Would I just spread it out to dry in the sun?

"We have things set up to breed a doe every week, so we also have a doe kindling every week.  We butcher an average of 6 rabbits a week.  We have 12 does and 2 bucks right now, but we will probably cull a few does this summer to get back down to about 8-10 does.

This is the kind of operation I want. How many people work on this whole process including taking care of, culling and processing the rabbits?

So my yard is all natural meaning no chemicals or pesticides of any kind. After I mow the lawn and my grass bag is full is there anything wrong with giving the rabbits a bunch of that cut grass on the way to dumping it in the compost? I know it seems like common sense would answer this for me but I've watched enough scary bunnie bloat videos on youtube to frighten me a little!

Thanks for the info! Brian, I think that website is going to be very helpful! Thanks again!

I live in the downtown area of a fairly large city so all the wild and ferel animals are afraid to show up here, scared they'll get shot in a drive by...