Building A Rabbit Hutch

Last year I decided to build a rabbit hutch.  As with all my projects, I sketched the general design with the desired dimensions on graph paper and built it from the plans in my head using my sketch as a guide.  

The Dimensions of this hutch are as follows:

12 feet long

5 feet deep

3 feet tall at the front

2 feet tall at the rear

The hutch stands on legs that are three feet tall and is divided into four equal sized pens. The legs were added in order to keep any predators at a bit of a distance....my main concern with this build was keeping raccoons at bay.

I first built the frame for the floor using two 2x6x12 treated boards for the length and five 2x6's cut down to four feet 9 inches long for the "floor joists" and attached the legs.  Next I laid out a 12 foot length of 3 foot wide wire mesh for the front side of the cages.  After securing the wire mesh I added a two foot wide strip of plywood to the back side.  This helped to secure the wire floor to the frame and would serve the purpose of giving the rabbits a solid floor to relax on when they didn't want to be on the mesh.

Once this was done I added 5 wall frames (one on each end with three more to separate the four pens from each other). The wall frames were built 3 feet high in the front and 2 feet high in the back so that the roof would be sloped allowing rain to run off.  I covered the middle wall with plywood to serve as a barrier between the buck and doe that live in the two inside cages.

With the walls up I began framing in the "hidey hole" as we call it to give the rabbits some privacy when they want to get away from everything.  After that I framed in the front side of each pen and covered it with wire mesh.  The next step was to build eight doors (one for the front and one for the back of each pen).  This allows access to the animals no matter where they are in the cage. 

For the roof support I toenailed cross members between each divider wall flush with the top and used metal roofing that had been reclaimed from a carport that my brother and I tore down for a family member.  Although it was a lot of work to tear down, there was a huge amount of reusable lumber and metal from the carport that has gone into several projects around here.

Once all of this was done, I proceeded to install the solid back walls, the wire mesh on the front walls and the doors. With that....the project was finished and it was time to pick up some rabbits!  

Our kids decided to name them....The one pictured below is Bob....lol

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