WOW. They make you work for it.

[animalmom]

My nesting boxes are wire too, very similar to yours. I too used cardboard to line but found that my does had a tendency to shred up the cardboard... so I tried the nest box with just hay and the does are happy, kits are warm and healthy and no peed on cardboard for me.

You've had great questio

 

[farmerjan]

By the way, welcome also from a transplanted Yankee 35 + years ago to Va. I am 66 and have some serious joint issues that are going to be addressed starting early next year with an ankle replacement. Then knee(s).... Not quite as "mature" as @Mini Horses but I also still work.... I am a milk tester (29 yrs) on dairy farms and my son and I have about 150 head of beef cows in a cow calf operation we run. He also works full time for VDOT. Except when he has a very freak accident coming off the back of the flat bed truck and breaks the "neck of the femur just below the ball part of the hip joint" and is currently 2 weeks into healing with another 8 plus weeks to go. So right now it is me and some very good friends doing the chores/feeding etc.
I also have some dairy cows that I use as nurse cows and raise calves and milk some for the house. Son and I have separate residences several miles apart, and he is not much good when it comes to butchering..... really doesn't care for it. We can both/either dispose of an animal for humane reasons without coming unglued, but he is not a dyed in the wool hunter and would rather put his time into making hay or something.
Too bad you weren't closer to be a neighbor...... we could do some trading. And @Mini Horses is right about the teat size etc for milking. I cannot imagine milking a goat that is mini sized. My hands fit well around some of my cows teats, and I struggle with one that has teats that I can only get a thumb and 2 fingers around. She has become a nurse cow, let the calves suck her.

 

[Xerocles]

..... but won't they chew on, eat, shred, and tear up the cardboard liners????

Oh, absolutely, they will DESTROY the liners. But they're only for a couple of weeks. Then compost the cardboard and nest. And, of course cardboard is free at almost any store. Just have to be careful of its original contents. And, between litters, so much easier to clean/ disinfect than "traditional" wooden nests (which they will ALSO chew up).
Also, yes, I understand your hesitancy to kill animals. Lots of people are like that. No problem. Its a normal attitude. Me, I'm just able to go on auto pilot & shut my mind off about "what" I'm doing and concentrate on "how and why" I'm doing it. AND NEVER LOOK AT THEIR EYES! I've looked eye to eye with animals I've been about to dispatch before, and had to walk away and do it at another time. If its easy for someone to kill an animal....they've got problems. If its hard, then they've got a heart.

 

[Xerocles]

@farmerjan Now that's a job I could get into! Milk tester. Uhmmm, that one was really sweet and rich. Now let me try a glass from that one over there.

 

[Xerocles]

My nesting boxes are wire too, very similar to yours. I too used cardboard to line but found that my does had a tendency to shred up the cardboard... so I tried the nest box with just hay and the does are happy, kits are warm and healthy and no peed on cardboard for me.

You've had great questio

If I remember, you're in Texas? I've visited Texas a few times but never lived there. Its such a big place, I understand its very hot, very cold, very dry, very wet, windy, calm and any other weather pattern you can imagine, depending on where your finger hits the map. So, how cold does it get where you are? We are relatively mild here, but its not uncommon to get the occasional night in the teens. I planned on liners in mid winter litters (with mid summer breaks when temps get in the 90s) and just bottom liners the rest of the time. Do you even omit bottom liners? I can just see tiny squirmers burrowing through the hay and tiny feet getting caught even in the 1/2 X 1 inch wire.?

 

[Xerocles]

@farmerjan I just read your "about" in your profile, and I see you have Guernseys? OMG! I still remember when I was a kid. Dairy farm about 3 miles from us. Holsteins, but they had a coupla guernseys on the side. We bought (when you could do that) gallons of guernsey milk from them each week, of which I drank the most. Best milk I ever tasted. I played with the idea of getting a guernsey....but what a waste. I could NEVER use all that milk. Plus, although I did pretty intensive research until i came to my senses, since you're in VA, you would be about the closest place to me that HAS guernseys.

 

[AmberLops]

One of the first things i saw when I woke this morning. 20. AND she likes goats. AND she already has rabbits. AND she is Southern. As long as she says "ya'll" and eats grits.....this is better'n my dream. You people are great! I'm still laughing.
Amberlops, I think maybe minihorses was ALSO referring to OLD GOATS like me!
Hope everyone has a great day. Any day that begins with a laugh can't be bad.

HA HA!!
My bad! Oh and i'm not southern...something people here love to remind me of every 10 seconds
I'm learning to say 'ya'll' and 'supper' but slip up here and there ha ha! As for grits...not my thing but i'll eat it if i have to!
I recently moved to Tennessee from AZ, born in CO, but i grew up in Hawaii. Lived in quite a few other states...you'll probably notice me mentioning a few states i've lived in

 

[AmberLops]

I have only had an occasional pet rabbit in the past...... but won't they chew on, eat, shred, and tear up the cardboard liners???? I want to have Rex rabbits for the fur to make things, but don't have the heart to kill my own. Being single and not able to physically get around as well as I used to, having no other help with butchering, and having a limited amount of time, it is most cost effective to have my butchering done at a plant where I can take the animal in and get it back ready to go in the freezer. I've done it in the past, deer, chickens, turkeys, helped with hog butchering day....It is alot easier to have some help to do it and just less of a "chore" if someone is there to just share the doing. There is no one around that I know to kill the rabbits, so they remain just a wish..... seems silly, but there it is.

In my experience...it depends on the rabbit. I've used cardboard-lined nestboxes and it works for some rabbits but others just destroyed them.
I don't think your wish sounds silly. It could be do-able! There are many options now for killing rabbits. I love the idea of the 'Hopper Popper' and i planned on using that when i get meat rabbits. It's easy and not messy...makes things 10x easier. I couldn't kill my lops...but my Lionheads? Maybe.
It's a shame you don't have a neighbor or someone nearby who could do it for you

 

[animalmom]

We're in North Central Texas, about 2 hours Southwestish from Fort Worth, zone 7 in plant terms. Our winters are usually in the low 30's during the day and dipping into the 20's at night and the occasional trip through the teens. We can go several days with freezing temperatures which makes taking care of all the animals more challenging. We can also get snow, although one aught not make book on it as one year we got a couple feet, the next a couple inches. Normally we get dusting and it is gone within a day or two (which is my preference as I'm not fond of snow). We warm back up to the 40's in March and usually do not get another freeze past the first full week of April.

August is normally our hottest month and we figure on it being 100+ for the entire month. When it isn't we are pleased. When it is we shrug and say that's normal. It is what it is.

The "thing" with bunnies is they do pretty well with cold as long as you can keep the wind off of them. During the colder months I pin up fleece blankets and old tablecloths (shields) near the cages to keep any blowing air off of them. Don't put anything next to the cage as the delightful rascals will drag it into the cage and chew on it. Kinda defeats the purpose. I roll up the shields if the day is not blowing from the East. The bunny barn is open only in the front, the other 3 sides are closed.

During the summer I put the shields at the front of the bunny barn to block the morning sun as the bunny barn faces East. Even morning sun can be hot. The fans are on thermostats and go on when the inside temp of the bunny barn hits 78. Shields get rolled up as soon as the sun is high enough not shine directly in, around 10:00 am.

All that to get to the question on liners. I no longer use liners, even bottom liners, at all. I just pack the box as full of hay as I can, squishing the hay into the corners. The doe will rearrange the hay to suit herself and make one end deeper than the other. The kits get the deep end... so they roll back to the deep end when they try to crawl out... bunny crowd control. Squirmy kits are going to squirm regardless. I've had kits burrow down the side of a nest box but have yet to find one that got its leg caught in the wire.

I like to check the nest box twice a day, in the morning when the buns get a little something for breakfast and again in the early evening when the buns get their dinner. As long as the doe isn't in the nest box nursing the kits you should be good to go to pull the box out and gently paw through it. I always count to make sure everyone is there. I start this a day after the kits are born. I take out the nest box somewhere around the 3rd to 4th week as the kits are in and out of it anyway.

Helpful?

 

[Baymule]

@Baymule. Thanks for your input. From the little I've read, you're one of the top "go to" ppl on here. And, yes, I can easily reach all corners of the cages. I made drop down doors, extra large, so I can insert my entire upper torso into the cage if need be.
But still the question. Where do I attach the chains on the cage for best support? Or does it matter?
Oh, and my dog is super protective of "his property and "his" animals. Anything coming on the property leaves quickly or never leaves again.View attachment 67608

Haha, I'm not so much a "go to" people here as much as I am a blabber-fingers. A lot has been covered and you have received great advice. On the rabbits and chickens together, I vote for that! I no longer have rabbits, but in my younger years I had about 300, give or take, for show and meat. I attached a chicken coop to the rabbit barn. The chickens ate the dropped feed, scratched under the cages, which kept the droppings turned and not stinking. They ate the fly larva and mingled their droppings with the rabbit manure. Garden gold. When I took out a nest box, I dumped the hay under the cages for the chickens to turn in with the manure. Plus, I got eggs! Win-win.

That's a handsome dog! What breed and what's his name? You'll find out that most of us are positively over the moon about our dogs.

Glad you joined the party! Lots of nice people here that are glad to help out any way we can.