Rabbit Tractor

It's been a long-time goal of mine to raise meat rabbits on pasture.  Working out the details has taken forever!  There are so many things to consider with pastured rabbits because they're so adept at escape.  After hours and hours of looking at hundreds of chicken tractors, I think we've finally figured out how to make our own rabbit tractor.

I plan to start small with 2 does and a buck and since no one pastures rabbits I have no idea how much space to give them.  I figured a good start would be 4'x12'.  4' wide will fit between our planned raised garden beds.  We're going to move the pen every day or as needed to make sure they have plenty of fresh grass.

We started yesterday with the base.  There are many possibilities for a bottom, but it needs to be something the rabbits can't dig themselves out of, while still providing soft footing and access to the grass.  We used 2x4 wire since we already had some.

The frame is 2x4s with 2 in the middle to keep it straight.  Between the 2x4s are 1x2 slats to help stabilize the wire.  A combination of poultry staples and staple gun staples holds the wire down.

Now that the frame is complete, we're ready to work on the top of the tractor.  I'll post updates when we get that part done. :)

Photos on the farm

Here's our Fern, a Rott/German Shepherd/Burnese Mt. Dog mix

 

Honey.  She's 8 months.

Honey and Molly.  Molly is about dead-on for Nigerian Dwarf height.

Our resident rabbits gone wild, 2 pedigreed Lionheads named Joon & Benny.

Goats!

I bought back my double-registered AGS/ADGA Nigerian Dwarf doeling, Honey, yesterday, as well as this beautiful Grand Champion Nigerian, Molly:

Molly is out of Chicory Springs and bred for early May kids from a Poppy Patch buck.  I'm so excited to see what she has...her buckling last year was colored like she is.