Raising Meat Rabbits (Part Four): Elevated Cage Systems 

If you're coming into this series in the middle and would like to start from episode one, here is the playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLXrP3tEiJQU7Ai6CPabijbJeulMtaccgx

i have raised rabbits for 54 years and watched alot of rabbit videos and your the first person to explain that there is a top and a bottom to the floor wire, great job.

I like Salatin’s idea of keeping chickens under the rabbits and wood shavings/sawdust. Nothing smells bad. The rabbit poop gets mixed up in the shavings by the chickens scratching it out. Collect your high quality compost off the floor twice a year! No cleaning!

finally, the first utube rabbit raiser that explained that there is a top and bottom to half inch x 1 inch floor wire. I've been raising rabbits for 54 years now and your the first online homesteader that has explained it . great job,,, your videos are very informative and without all the drama, unlike some of the other homestead peoples videos. GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

I finally got a Dutch buck and a beautiful black Mini-Rex doe! I'm so excited! And I'm so scratched .....That tip about top/bottom on wire was great, thanks.

oh well done!!!!!!!!! Outstanding tidbits, the which way to run the wire just saved me a LOT of frustration having to rebuild a cage!!!!! When I had rabbits in the past I never built their cages so I would have had no idea until everything was assembled.

I grew up with my dad raising rabbits at one point we had 126 and we too would sell and eat them, but for growing up in that kind if life this is the first I hear them being called a doe and a buck I had no idea!! As they say, you learn something new everyday 😊….Thanks for sharing

Great cages. And very informative. 😊 rabbits would be great for a small farm

I've never had the resting mats. A family who raised & showed rabbits told us to use sheetrock. The rabbits will rip the paper off & chew on the gypsum, but the minerals in the gypsum are very healing for the rabbit's feet & hocks. The paper & flakes of gypsum are also good in your garden compost. Great informative videos on raising rabbits Heather!! Thank you! God bless!

Thank you heather that was a very well put together video with a ton of information that I am going to definitely jot down and notate and keep for when I finally get my rabbits! LOL thank you so much for all the hard work you put into your videos.

Thank you! We appreciate all your insight and advice. You have been a vital resource in our rabbit journey. April & Brian

Great video! Still trying to figure out where we could put the rabbits and keep them cool (and warm). I wish we had one more barn!! Cheers Heather!

Great video, You gave me some interesting ideas to think on. 👍

Nice farm, nice videos. Greeting from Czech republic(EU) P.S. I have Californian rabits too.

You should do a cooling tot 😊 look up the rabbits center 😊

Excellent video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge! ❤

I dont have any question for now Just want to say hello :)

Great 📹 video

So nice k cute Rabbit’ great cage rabbitry’ hello my friend watching from Philippines

I fabricated mine out of reinforcing mesh for concrete covered with chicken wire on the sides, and the bottom i welded on horizontals 3-4mm wires (depends what i had around to re-use) spaces the size of my index apart. so it roughly works out at 1/2" apart.

Lots of useful info. You're good at this!

Great setup! If one day I get a barn, I hope to have a similar set up. Very efficient. In the meantime, the hutches will do. I love the Californians! I used to have some a few years ago- I'm tempted to get them again. 😅 I had some food wasters too. Then the goats (free ranging at the time) learned there were "treats" underneath the rabbit pens, so they would bee-line there as soon as I let them loose. 🤦🏻‍♀️ (btw, I don't recommend free ranging goats- we took down our old fencing and it was convenient at the time, but man did they get into everything!)

Hi Heather, Thanks for the information. Just got started.

Good job, congratulation for your hard work. Very fantastic.

Awesome setup

You've put a lot of effort into this vdo, thank you so much! ;)

Hello Heather. How's it going?

When you move out the kits from the mother do you separate the bucks and does into separate enclosures? And can you combine 2 sets of kits into the same enclosure once they grow out?

Glad I found you. Great explanations. Question: I saw your tractors on blocks. How do you move them? Thanks a mil.

still in gathering information. this video was a wealth of information on cages. Thank you so much. Is there a particular place that I could find the baby saver wire that’s 1 inch by half an inch?

Great series on rabbits! Do you find the rabbit manure causes a weed problem in the garden due to hay feeding and residual hay/waste hay mixed in with manure?

Couldn’t you turn the vertical cage on its side?

I followed a lady on TikTok who was constantly being harassed for keeping her rabbits in wire cages. Which is nonsense of course, but it goes to show you how misinformed people are. You have a great setup!

Enjoying the series. How do you separate the manure from the hay in your barn?

When are your breeding months? I guess I mean what months temperature wise do you not breed in? Thank you!

2:10 for mounting explanation 🥰

I’m new to rabbits, heading into our third breeding. I have a similar raised cage setup. Curious to know how you constructed your waste trays in the stacked setup, or where you purchased. I’m considering adding a lower level to my current raised level. Thanks for the great videos! 10:50

AWSOME VIDEO. We're to get the wire in bulk, we're to get bulk feed? And dimensions on cages? Thx

What can be used to clean cages

Do your breeders live exclusively in the hanging cages or do you ever put them out on grass?

For hanging barn cages, is odour going to be an issue if they are hanging above concrete? I heard you say dirty is ideal and that makes sense. It makes me wonder if the ammonia from urine will soak into the concrete and leave a lasting odour over time, which i wouldn't be able to handle. Would you suggest i put down a tarp under the cages so ensure it doesn't soak in, and do the deep litter method on the tarp? Or would i have to remove the concrete floor or house them elsewhere? Thanks! 😊

Do you have any concerns about the lack of space for the rabbits to run around?

Hey what are those orange things in th cages?

Total newb question, but if the bottom of the cage has a bit of rust on it do you need to cut that part out/ get a new cage or us that okay to keep? Thanks!

What do you use to film?

Hey Heather! How many rabbits do you keep past 12 weeks usually? I was thinking I'll start of my rabbitry with 2 - 3 does and 1 buck, leaving kits with the mama till7 weeks and then putting them in a tractor until freezer day at 12 weeks. So I figured I would only really need 4 cages and 2 tractors. I see you have many cages, though.

Do you tan your own hide? Or do the pelts tear when you butcher them so early? Do they have to be a certain age before pelts can be used? I have had rabbits but i got a massive breed and they died before my infrastructure was in place for breeding.

17:53 Have you ever considred using square tubing? 🤔 I also don't like the idea of having rabbits chew on treated wood, but also don't like the idea of replacing untreated wood often. Steel square tubing is the only compromise I can think of, but there may be drawbacks to that that I have not thought of 🤷‍♀️

Do you have rat problems with dropped feed?

Where I can get that cage? I like bit wide n long

I just tried baked rabbit tonight for the 1st time. The meat has good texture, comes apart pretty easy. It was bland since I've never cooked it before so I didn't eat a loft. I want to get into canning, BAD. What's your favorite way to cook it? Are you going too have start to end on cooking/canning? We have 10ac, will be living there no later than next summer, we'll see. Its kinda just me at this point and my 13yr old boy. I'm Mr. Mom, single dad. We want animals and pets and food. Jonesy at Jonesy Family Store @ Yahoo.

Pourquoi toutes ces charmantes dames parlent elles sans arrêt sur un ton monocorde à devenir dingue ét en plus en anglais. Je n en peux plus je coupe.

Saw dust

Hi respected mam plz your watsap n I need some tip for keeping rabbit

Amazing video as always Heather.. very very informative. I have a question you have do you have Facebook or tic tok to send a personal message. Thank you.

Can confirm rabbits will chew on plastic 😅 My spoiled house rabbit chewed on her food dish if it was empty for 3 seconds. I did get a ceramic dish for her and she hasn't tried chewing on her litter box, so it might have just been because there was food in that plastic.

I have watched all of your rabbit videos. Can you include the link for the tongs you used to pick up the rabbits in your earlier videos?

Use Burt's Bees chapstick to heal hock sores. Works very well and it's safe if they lick their feet.

Levi says the 2x2 we put the outside tractors together with are called Furring Strips. We used 2x4 for the vertical corners.

Very interesting and informative!!! I've only had rabbits in the past as pets when my boys were young. I wish I had these videos at that time to guide my husbandry of the rabbits. I have a "grabber" tool like you and keep it with me when I'm mowing grass. So handy to grab a stick or a piece of trash etc., rather than having to stop the mower, get off the mower and remove the unwanted item. Such a neat little tool to have on hand! Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I look forward to the next episode, stay safe!!!

Lathing…maybe firing strips

hi im only new to rabbits and i want to start breeding for meat ,i want to start building my suspended wire cages and have a very large roll of 12mm x12mm ( half inch by half inch) wire that i want to use up , the question i have is will there dropping go through ? im looking at breeding Newzealands

how much do you sale a pair of rabbits

This has been a great resource! Straight to the point and highly informative! A masterclass and masterpiece! Love from 🇲🇦 Morocco

Thank you so much for this series!!!

On our 'rabbit tractors', we just used 2" chicken wire about a foot around the edges, (going back towards the middle of the cage), in an 8' by 8' 'tractor'. The middle didn't have any wire at all. But my brother and I moved these twice a day and we would check on the 'grow outs' several times a day too. [We never had any 'predator' problems due to our dogs always being close by the rabbits.] Of course the area we would have these tractors in was level ground, (pretty much), and these grow outs were only in the tractors about 6 weeks. We typically butchered them around 12 weeks old. We never had any problems using the 2" chicken wire on the bottom like this, but I think that this was due to my brother and I checking on these rabbits several times a day. A good 'farm project' for us 'youngins' back then. Good job on your videos! Thanks!

Thank you so much for this video it was very informative and helpful, I am considering getting two bucks and four does so I can keep two separate Bloodlines so I can also breed The Offspring. So my question is how Litters One Adele produce in her lifetime

I found 36 x 30 x 24 rabbit cages at Tractor Supply, reg $44.95 on sale for $34.95. I bought 5 and installed them on a custom built welded 14gauge red iron platform suspended 4 1/2 feet above a shaded concrete surface (I'm 6'6" tall) in a breezeway under a tree canopy. Buck in the center cage, flanked by does, flanked by turn-out cages. I use cardboard slabs under hay for better bunny support and change it out weekly. When I feed hay, it's bundled into a 1/2 - inch bundle. This makes it more manageable. In a hard freeze, I put rubber plant warmer mats inside the cages.

I keep my rabbits in cages with hardware cloth because of the snake problem and sometimes rats eating the bunny's feet!!! Great vidoes.

How many rabbits do have in your barn ??? Iv seen what happen running free and having the rabbits take a chock out of you it hurt it better keep. Rabbits in cages

It doesn’t look like your rabbits like the resting mats. They are not using any of them.

Very talanted & experienced

Love your hoodie

Market for the rabbits please

Amazing video as always Heather.. very very informative. I have a question you have do you have Facebook or tic tok to send a personal message. Thank you.