Commercial Rabbit Cages

Generally speaking, most breeders, particularly those who contemplate a small rabbi try, endeavor to make their hutches at the lowest possible costs. That poorly made cheap hutches may in the long run be very much more expensive interns of maintenance, renewal and extra time involved in management, than well made expensive hutches, is rarely considered.

In any commercial enterprise, however, the cost of housing must be balanced against subsequent cost of management, and cost of depreciation. A cheap hutch made from scrap boxes from a greengrocer could be made for a few pence each, but there is little doubt that their life would be comparatively short, and the time wasted by operating them through one year would be great. It can easily take two or three times as long to manage a badly constructed rabbit it would do if the same rabbi try were well made.

From a number of surveys of American commercial rabbit farms, it becomes apparent that a figure of ten hours per hutch per year would be a fair estimate of the time required for all operations and even greater efficiency could undoubtedly be obtained. It is necessarily quite impossible to give more tangential statements on this question, but it would be fair to say that, provided the hutch were well made and well designed for lab our saving operation, a very high figure would not be uneconomic, particularly when it is considered that the life of the hotels would be some fifteen years or more.

At the present time it is possible to build or have built sets of metal hutches with self-cleaning facilities for approximately each. At a life of only ten years the annual cost would be about 45 pence per hutch, and this its terms of paid lab our isle’s than one suite's work.

There is also the further point that with well designed equipment, some reduction in the incidence of disease would be achieved. With the saving of only one young rabbit a year, a conservative estimate, the increased cost of the hutch would be repaid.

The subject of housing costs, indeed the wider subject of all costs in the rabbit industry, has been little considered in this country. That a great deal of investigation and attention to this important subject is necessary in the future, is obvious. It should not be assumed from the above that it is re com-mended that the most expensive housing should be purchased or made. It is only that attention should be drawn to thievery prevalent fallacy that the most economical housing is that which can be made for the lowest cost. When planning rabbi try, after the designs have been worked out they should be coasted, and the only satisfactory way in which this can be done is to draw up a bill of materials (allowing in most cases about 7 per cent for wastage) and cost each item and then thereabout of building.

Quotations could be obtained from hutch builders which will provide a standard, and in the long run experienced workmanship may be best.

Stacking of Hutches

By far the majority of hutches in this country are stacked in three tiers. The reason is generally that space in rabbinic at a premium, and the cost of tiered hutches is rather less per unit than is the cost of hutches in a single tier. However in large commercial undertakings in America, the single tier system forms the basis of the majority of rabbinic, and generally speaking the floors of these single tiered hutches are of mesh, allowing the feces to drop on to the ground below. It is argued that single tier housing requires legislator, but this is only true when feeding and watering can be accomplished without opening hutch doors. When solid floors arc used, the single tier system has probably not a great deal to recommend it.

The floor of the bottom hutch of any stack should not be less than 9 inches from the ground, and a foot is preferable. With hutches t8 inches high this will mean that the floor of the top hutch is 4i feet from the ground, which is not too high for easy management.