Most normal people would probably be embarrassed by now to say they tried something different and failed yet again. Not me. Guess I’m too stubborn to know when to give up. I decided to try Joel and Daniel Salatin’s rabbit pen design. At least the floor part. So, I applied 1×2 strips of lumber to the bottom of a single pen approximately 2″ apart lengthwise. Put the newest litter of rabbits in the pen. Gave them supplemental feed and water. Needless to say, they LOVED the fresh grass and I moved them daily. They quickly learned to straddle the open areas of the floor and put their feet on the strips of wood to be carried along when the pen was moved. This surprised me, as they weren’t particularly smart about not getting squished by the back of the moving pen in previous models.
But then the other day about 2 weeks into the use of this pen, I suddenly found only six rabbits left in the pen, of which I was able to find and recapture both escapees. Today there were only 2 left in the pen. My neighbor mentioned today about finding a few white bunnies on his side of the fence. BLAH!!!
’Course he also told me that his house cat decided to climb the fence and tried to harass my chickens, so I guess we are even. Anyway, back in the cages the two remaining rabbits go, and back to the drawing board for me….
I guess the trick is to keep the openings smaller than the rabbit’s skull, which is pretty darn small when they are young…. at least along the perimeters of the pen…..