Can chickens and bunnies share a run (with separate sleeping areas)?

[dutchbunny83]

We currently have a 15' by 20' pen that's fenced in with a large chicken coop attached to it.
There are 6 hens and 1 silkie bantam roo in the pen. We also have some chicks that are a few weeks old inside in a bathtub with a heat lamp that will be going out and some point.
We just built a second chicken coop so there will be enough room.
And the fence is about 4' tall, but there is no top so my hens will fly out for a little while then go back in so they're pretty much free range. At night we lock them in their coop (they only use the original one they won't even go in the new coop even though it's way bigger).

Anyway, my question is if I add in a separate sleeping area (like a little hutch on the ground the bunnies can come and go from), are they able to share a pen?
My kids really wanted rabbits (2- one for each of them) for Easter.
I just wanted to be sure they could live together without my hens attacking them.

Anyone have experience with this?

THANKS!

 

[DoubletakeFarm]

I have my chickens and two rabbits together and have no problems at all except the rabbits like to eat the chicken feed. But they get along just fine. My fenced in area is much bigger though. One thing you have to realize is that rabbits WILL dig their way out. I've found mine outside the pasture carousing with the wild rabbits. They always came back in and I plugged the hole they dug with rocks and they've stopped. But they dig tunnels under my barn now.

 

[dutchbunny83]

Okay thank you!
I wish we could have a bigger pen (actually I wish we could have a farm... one day!), but we are military and live in the suburbs on a half acre lot.
We have a beagle/black lab mix so if they dig out he will probably try to play with them which could end badly.
One side of our run is enclosed by my husband's oversized shed painted like a barn (trying to make our backyard as farm-like as we can!), so I didn't think about them going under that.
I don't really care about them digging as long as they're safe.

Did you start them outside as babies or were they grown? My hens are about 4 1/2 months old, but when we let our 4 week old chicks outside with them (they're still inside because its cold at night) my hens go after the new chicks.

THANKS!!!

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I would skirt the run you plan to keep them in with hardware clothe (so its sort of angled to the inside) bury it so they can't dig under the fence. Just because the first posters bunnies come back doesn't mean yours will, and bunnies are fast!
I suppose if its warm enough where you are they could be started outside. I'm no rabbit expert thought. There's a big rabbit thread in the other pets and livestock section. That would be an excellent place to do some reading and ask some questions
Nikki

 

[dutchbunny83]

Thanks so much!

LOVE your silkie, they're my favorite!!!

 

[DoubletakeFarm]

The first rabbit we got was a drop off. My husband found it in the front yard one morning. Some people get dogs or cats dropped at their farm-we get a domestic rabbit-go figure. So I caught her and put her in the barn. Once a week we would find her outside the fence sitting with a wild rabbit (I think she was lonely). My daughter bought me a lionhead bunny for Mother's Day so now she has a friend and they have been staying inside the pasture since.

The lionhead was a baby and we put her outside immediately in May. Neither of the rabbits have any problems in the Ohio winters. They're out and about nibbling grass but they can go in the barn anytime they want to get out of the weather. I thought they would stay in the barn and snuggle in the hay, but they dig tunnels, make a nest and sleep in there.