[kramsay]

Has any one ever kept chickens and rabbits together ?

 

[CAjerseychick]

No but our new does are in the chicken yard and sleeping in the coop at night....
My daughter wants to do this though...so will follow your thread with interest!!!

 

[mmiller]

I haven't never done it, but I do know that chickens will eat baby rabbits. Something to think about if the rabbits will be having babies.

 

[ksalvagno]

What do you mean by keep them together?

Chickens are very dusty which could affect the lungs of the rabbits. Chicken feed could be deadly to rabbits. Parasites could also be an issue.

 

[kramsay]

Our chicken pen, is big 40 feet long and 15 wide, (it was originally a dog pen lol). The fence is rabbit fence, with chicken wire along the bottom, and the pen is all grass. The "coop" is a big dog house (my dad built it, (carpenter), they roost on the top rail of the pen at night.

I raised rabbits when I was younger, and a friend has 2 males (used to living together and friendly) for sale, I was thinking about getting them, but I really don't wanna put them in a cage.

I read that if rabbits eat chicken feed and vis versa it is no problem.. I feed my chickens scratch grains- not pellets.

 

[ksalvagno]

I have never known corn to be ok for rabbits. Not sure how many chickens you have but the poop in there would be bad too.

 

[CAjerseychick]

THats about the size of our chicken yard (the hens actually fly out during the day to range out on our 2 acres)... You could block off the coop(cut a chicken door alittle higher up the rabbits cant access) so the bunnies would just range out in the grass in the chicken area....same with the feeders, put them higher up just in case....I saw some "all stock" grains at the feedstore, not sure these occassionally would be ok for the bunnies?

 

[ksalvagno]

No, Allstock wouldn't be good for rabbits. Allstock contains corn. They should only be getting rabbit feed.

 

[kramsay]

The coop has a chicken walk, which I have seen rabbits use.. I throw the chickens feed out for them on the ground, not in a feeder.. I thought I could put the rabbits up at night to feed it or something like that. An old guy used to raise rabbits around here, and he feed corn to them in a "special blend" that looks about like the scratch grains I feed.

 

[enchantedgoats]

the Amish keep rabbits and chickens together (sort of). they have a big coop for the chickens and then as a second story rabbit hutch only half of the second story is rabbits the other has rails for the chickens to roost. it is toasty in there because the rabbits put off alot of heat which helps to keep the hens laying . the bucks are kept seperately other wise they would be over run. they use thwe rabbits for meat and sell alot of bunnies at Easter.those amish really know their stuff, i'm not talking puppies(thats another story) i'm talking clever use of resources.

 

[kccjer]

I always have to laugh when I read what you should and shouldn't do with animals cause it will kill them. My rabbits and rabbits in the wild eat corn all the time. Seriously....if it's available, they will eat it. We don't "keep" rabbits any more. Ours escaped and just run the farm now. One of the does dug her den in the floor of the chicken house and lived and raised babies there for a couple years. Guess it depends how much you are spending on the rabbits and whether you want to risk it or not.