Now, I know it’s almost spring, the snow is almost gone, maybe not at my house but at most peoples. So why am I talking about cold-weather rabbit hutches when it’s spring? Most people when they start out raising meat rabbits will get their first rabbits in the spring, and unlike meat chickens which you butcher in the summer, you have to overwinter your meat rabbits or it’s really not worth your time or money to raise meat rabbits. Meat rabbits, in general, can’t breed until they are 6 months (females) or 7 months (males) so you can’t buy babies every year and expect them to breed before winter. So let’s talk rabbit housing.

 

Rabbits do very well in the cold but not so well in the heat. Heat is dangerous to the adults and young and in some cases lethal. I don’t really have a problem with heat where I live but it can get down to -40°F in the winter for several days at a stretch and snow up to 6ft a year. And because I live on top of a ridge it can also be very windy.  Now if I was lucky I would have moved into a house with a barn or at least a shed that I could put my rabbits into. But I wasn’t and didn’t. The only shed I had on my property was an old outhouse that I turned into an insulated chicken house. Too bad bunnies! So I had to come up with housing for my meat rabbits that could be stand-alone housing in all kinds of weathers and temperatures, from an occasional 95°F to -40°F with the wind. I felt up to the challenge.

 

So I started researching, reading books, and scouring the internet like crazy.  All the books say “all wire cages are the way to go”, and I believe them. Rabbits are way easier to clean up after, on wire rather than wood, but because the cages had to be weather hardy they were going to have to include wood.

 

Hutch Design

 

So we set some parameters; needs to provide shade, needs to keep the rabbits dry from rain, fairly free from drafts, needs to be a stand-alone structure (aka a mini-barn), cleanable, and large enough for a female and her litter. I also wanted a  platform for the rabbits to rest on so they were not always on the wire, which for some rabbits leads to sore hocks, and also the platform would allow me to rest the nest box on it.  Now lucky for me, my husband teaches drafting and math at the local high school and therefore has great computer programs, and he happens to be very good at building things, so he drew me up some wonderful plans from all our research.

These plans make two 2’w x 2’h x 4’l hutches. Click Cold-weather Rabbit Hutch Plans to download the pdf.

Material List:

18    2″x2″x8′

1    2″x4″x8′

2    2″x2″x8′

2    3/8″x4’x8′ plywood

4’x25′ 14-gauge double-galvanized wire with 1/2″ x 1″ holes

1/2 gallon of wood waterproofing stain

1/2lb of 2 1/2″ deck screws

1/2lb of 1′ deck/exterior screws

Staple gun and 3/4″ staples

24″x24″ foam board for under nest platforms for extra insulation (optional)

Roof (optional)

1    2″x8′

1    2:x4′

Tin roofing in 4 ‘sections

1-1/4-in Galvanized Self-Tapping Interior/Exterior Roofing Screws

 

The Plans

 

 

The Doors

The Final Product

 

Modifications to Hutch Design

 

Since making the original hutches we have changed some things, based on our experiences.

 

First Modification

Little tiny latches are terrible. Little latches don’t work with gloves and rabbits can jiggle them open. I’ve had male fights and accidental pregnancies because of little latches. You can see the little latches on the first picture. I wear big gloves for 6 months of the year so I don’t get frostbite on my fingers. The other 6 months I wear gloves so the rabbits don’t scratch me when I pick them up. We made these big blocky latches that swivel and are friendly to gloves and they are wonderful. Make them out of scrap wood like the pictures below.

 

Second Modification

Full wire fronts (below left) don’t work as well as enclosed ones (below right). The screened fronts were too sunny in the summer (south facing) and too windy in the winter. So for the second round of hutches, we decided to make half of the front, wood. This design works much better for us. Depending on your location you could modify this design and wire the front and have a removable board that could be screwed in for the winter.

 

Third Modification

We put poultry netting on our doors. Our hutches are within a chain link fence. I think the galvanized wire would be better at keeping out predators if the hutches were not within a fence. My dog can tear through poultry netting pretty easy.

 

Fourth Modification

Make a significant roof overhang on the front and back, at least a 6″ in the back and 12″ in the front.

 

Fifth Modification

If you put your hutches up on legs, put four legs, two in the front and two in the back to stabilize your cages. Every year the snow-load melts and slides down my roof hutches that are stabilized by two centrally placed legs. The snow-load ends upon the edge and tries to tip my hutches over. Whoops.

Finally, I wish we had made the nest platform/resting board out of hard plastic like a cutting board. Male rabbits and babies go the bathroom everywhere, especially on the platform. Our platforms are easily removable and replaceable but it would be nice just to easily wipe them off instead of using a wire brush and some snow/water.

Overall I am really happy with these rabbit hutches. They keep my rabbits warm in the winter and cool in the summer. My rabbits are happy and healthy and the cages are durable and cleanable.  Let me know if this designs worked for you or how you’ve adapted this design. Or what you designed for cold-weather housing.