Rabbit House
Meet Lulu and Wasabi!
During this summer project, I designed and built a perfect getaway hutch where they can relax and stretch their paws outside safely.
Design
The rabbit house is composed of 4x4 pillars, which were sunk as deeply into the soil as the bedrock permitted.
2x4s compose the remaining structural support frames, which were assembled separately and then screwed to the posts to form the rigid shape of the structure. The main cube is for easy human access, and the secondary rectangular prism extends the rabbit run length while being cheaper to construct.
Three triangular supports anchor the corrugated metal roof to the top of the main cube, and the secondary area is left open to the air.Â
All faces of the structure are covered in 0.25" galvanized hardware cloth, which is stapled to the posts and frames, and the hardware cloth is sunk 2-3 ft into the soil to the bedrock. Chicken wire is not suitable as the large gaps allow avian predators to stick claws or beak into the enclosure.
Burying the hardware cloth serves the dual purpose of preventing:
Burrowing rabbit escapees
External predators such as coyotes digging their way in
Construction
Lulu investigating construction debris as he tours the Rabbit House
Due to the difficulty of digging deep trenches in tree-root dense soil, construction took 4 months to complete.
I primarily used weather treated pine, with 2" wood screws, and finished the structure with a cream outdoor paint.
Total cost was around $400.