is a rabbit hutch o.k. as a chicken coop?

[socks]

Hi, newbie here, and before i get my chicks (very soon) I am trying to organize their eventual home. There is a home made rabbit hutch available to me for quite cheap it is about 6 ft by 8 ft and is raised off the ground about 1 foot. I do realize there would be some changes needed but it looks pretty good from the things I have learned. I am just hoping I haven't overlooked anything crucial or costly. The wire used seems to be some very small kind of chicken wire, about 1/2 inch and then held in by larger spaced welded wire. I don't imagine this bothering chickens but in a search I saw someone saying rabbit hutch floors are bad for chicken feet???
I'm not sure how much head space the birds i want would need (buff Orpingtons/wyandottes and such). I believe it is tall enough although roosts wouldn't be more than a few inches above the floor. There are several removable partitions right now which I think could be useful for isolating or introducing birds and apparently it is raccoon proof (there is a resident raccoon living in the tree above it that hasn't been able to get in.)

The entrance holes that go into other parts of the hutch look rather small, something like 6" by 6" so I guess I would have to do something about that??? not sure what large chickens would need and if anyone has any info on that I would appreciate it.

Maybe I should actually try to get some pictures of it because I don't want to make a big mistake. so any advice you could give might help as there is still time to back out.....thanks

 

[FrenchHen]

How many chickens?
How big will their run be?
You'll need to enlarge the door, but it sounds quite workable.
You could probably put 4-6 chickens in there without problems.

 

[socks]

Hi FrenchHen, I was thinking of 6 chickens but thought that would be plenty of space if I used the 4 sq. foot per chicken formula i.e. 6ft by 8ft being 48 sq. feet wouldn't that technically be big enough for 12? or does it change if there is not much height???
I will make their run at least 10ft by 10ft, haven't really figured that out but I will make sure that is decent and hope to let them out free ranging some as well or even just a mobile day pen.

Do you know how large the doors should be??? something like 12" by 12"?
I'm also wondering if rabbits are susceptible to the same diseases as chickens, for example I have heard that red mite can be found in old coops so to be careful about that and wonder if rabbits might have that too. Any idea?

Thanks, I do look forward to the day when I am not such a nervous newbie

and can help someone else with answers.

 

[FrenchHen]

I'm still nervous, but I'm not that new.
I don't know anything about mites, but if you put some DE or Permethrin in their dust area, they should be fine. I'd think the diseases would be species specific, but that's just my first thought.
I think our door is 8X 14. Husband just eyeballed it, so I don't know for sure.
I wouldn't put 12 standard hens in there; I'd keep it to six and see what happened.
I also have a hard time with simple math...12 is right but it seems a bit small.
Have you thought of nest boxes?

 

[socks]

Hi again, 6 will probably be plenty for me but I must admit that even though I haven't even done this yet I am imagining the day I would want more, or just you know accidently come home with an adorable chick or two.

that seems to happen a lot from what I read.
I thought about the mites because I heard they would suck blood from humans too. I plan to give it a good cleaning if i get it anyway including using my steam cleaner so might be enough.
There is a partitioned area on the side that I figured would be good for two nest boxes. The hutch opens from the top in two lengthwise sections so I guess I could just use that to access nests assuming there are no other hens hanging around inside when I check or if that is troublesome make access doors on the side.

I am anxious to look at it tomorrow and at least take some measurements to see what the inside height would be.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
For non-debeaked chickens being kept in a reasonably happy way i.e. not akin to their miserable industrial brethren (sistren?

), the 4 sq ft per chicken being discussed is just INDOOR space. And assumes you have 2-3x that size of run also available.

If you'll do that, and have a good big run in addition to the hutch, sure, 12 chickens if you really want (although you may have ventilation and/or heat difficulties, it being more challenging to manage air quality in a very *short* small-volume space like that).

I'm also wondering if rabbits are susceptible to the same diseases as chickens, for example I have heard that red mite can be found in old coops so to be careful about that and wonder if rabbits might have that too. Any idea?

There are no rabbit mites that chickens can get.

There are a few *diseases* that they share -- E coli colibacillosis, Pasteurella, Listeriosis, I think I'm missing one or two more but too lazy to look it up -- BUT if the rabbits had most of 'em you'd *know*, and a healthy chicken is not particularly susceptible, so really I would not worry at all. Clean all gunk and dust out of the hutch, just on general principle, and if you want to be careful, give it a scrub with bleach diluted 1-in-4 or 1-in-10 with water and let it sit in the sun for a day. You should be FINE

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[socks]

patandchickens wrote:

(although you may have ventilation and/or heat difficulties, it being more challenging to manage air quality in a very *short* small-volume space like that).

uh duh...exactly!, this is the kind of thing that didn't occur to me thanks for bringing that up. I plan to go over and get some measurements and pics today and upload one or two and hopefully you guys will scrutinize it a bit for fatal flaws.

Thanks so much for your kind help this is an amazing forum

.​

 

[ducks4you]

YEP! Check out the last of my pics--It's my hen, Fanny, who's been living in rabbit hutch built with 2 x 4's. Her cage is 3 ft. off the ground. I keep her in the barn, but this cage could have been adapted for outside use. The dimensions are:
3 x 4 x 4

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=185353

 

[clickie]

i use an old rabbit hutch for my chickens they seem to like.

 

[LovinMyHensInNC!]

Quote:
I'm a new egg, too, but both my chicken house and rabbit hutch (which I am also using for chickens) has a wire floor. I have done two things with it:

1) I use to just throw straw on top of the wire and do the deep litter method. Being there was wire under the straw, it always stayed nice and dry. BTW, poop won't "fall" through the wire as it may seem!

2) I now use shavings. I discovered the shavings would just fall through the wire so I got cheap linoleum and cut it to fit over the wire and throw the shavings on top of that once again doing the deep littler method. I like shavings on the floor much better than straw but both work and from what I read, it is a preference thing.