This is a front view of the house with our cat, Hunter who patrols the place!
Side View of our home with flower gardens
We live in the country and throughout the many years we have lived here, we have landscaped and planted hundreds of perinneal flowers and ornimental trees around our house.
In the back yard there are beautiful Hosta gardens and other fabulous flowers that grow there and change with the seasons!!
Pole barn and rabbit barn
This is a view of our two barns. Our large pole barn is 30x40'. The smaller barn belongs to the rabbits which has been completely remodeled and resided with vinyl. No more painting or repairing!!
I did a lot of research before building this barn. I knew what I wanted, and my husband and I are still doing things to improve it. It is insulated and has good airflow. It has a top roof vent, four vents (one on each side of the barn) and each can be closed off for the winter months. The ceiling has great lighting, and the barn has electric heating. It now has air conditioning but I only use it when the temps are unbearable in the summer. We live in the woods and the barn is shaded by many mature trees.
The barn is set on 8x8" timbers and underneath is crushed limestone. There are large stone retaining walls around the barn (plants in the picture are hiding them) and in between the retaining walls and the barn we had put 3/4"stone to keep out mice and digging animals! It also helps with the draining of rain and snow. We have put a lot of thought into this barn and are very proud to display it to you!
Just Remodeled!! We decided to put Vinyl Siding on the Rabbit barn as it was need of some major repairs. It looks great! and I should never have to worry about painting or repairing any more wood in this barn.
This is the Front view rabbit barn with 1 set heavy insulated doors, and behind the heavy doors, is a set double screen doors. The New Octagon Window above, has a screen. And a lever pushes open the window for extra ventilation above. It will also let in a lot of filtered light.
The barn also has gutters on both sides and the down spouts are tunneled underground to keep any water away from the barn. We put crushed granite around the front, sides and back of the barn to drain water from rain and snow it also looks nice!
Inside front view of barn Welcome!
n On On On oe Inside the barn, just inside the double doors is a set of screen doors which is used for three seasons. Besides regular screen, there is heavy 1 x 2 inch wire over the screen. This is to keep out any unwanted animals that could tear out the screen. We have removable plexiglass that can be fastened to the 4 windows in the fall and winter months as it gets cold, yet it still lets light in the barn on warmer days without the drafts! We have the heavy wire on the large window in the back of the barn as well. Both sets of doors have locks.
Storage loft above rabbitry
We built this loft to be able to store carriers and other show items out of the way. It really comes in handy for nest boxes, or any other items you are not using out of show season. I use a ladder to get up to the loft, which is hidden in one of the corners of the barn. I also have some very good fluorescent lighting extended from the barn ceiling. These light fixtures are made specially for cattle/rabbit barns and help to increase the breeding cycles of live stock.
The Mini Show & Grooming Table.
This mini show table is a great addition to the barn.I designed how I wanted it built to utilitize the space in my barn. A good friend of ours, David Zins, made it to custom fit in the barn.
This table is awesome because it actually folds flat against the wall when you do not want to use it. The legs fold under it and are held to the table with hook and eyes. It is fastened the wall with strong door hinges so it does not sag or warp. The top has a nice work space as well as a replaceable carpet. It contains 4 holes & lifts right off the table to store on top of the cages or on the loft.
The table works well for teaching the rabbits to pose and getting the youngsters used to the holes at a show. On cleaning day, I can clean 4 cages at a time because I always have a place to put the rabbits!!!
Inside view of the rabbit Barn
This photo shows the right side of the rabbit barn as you walk in the door. This is a new custom built cage. There are 15 holes. Each hole is 18 x 24 x 16. They all have plastic pans.
My rabbits do not sit on wire cage bottoms, they sit in the pans directly on a thick layer of pine shavings. The urine guards are made of clear plexiglass that measures 10" high on the sides and the back. They can be easily removed for cleaning. The cage stand is made of pine 2x4's, and sits on casters for easy moving when the barn needs to be cleaned. Under the cage there is enough room to put my feed bins. I try to utilize all the space in the barn well.
I would again like to thank our friend, David Zins for building me some of the items I designed for the barn. The 15 hole cage, the rolling feed cart, and the awesome mini show table. Any hair brained ideas I come up with, he can build them!!
Center view of the barn
This is the center view of the barn. As you are looking through the pictures, you are probably wondering what does she do with all the rabbit manure?? Well, I have a large rolling garbage can on one corner of the barn. I put heavy contractor garbage bags in the can so they can withstand the weight. Or I will re-use the heavy bags that the shavings came in.
There is a woman who raises flowers and a neighbor who grows vegetables not far from my home, who love to take the manure to feed their plants. When I get a bunch of full bags, I call them and they pick it up! Plus I get flowers for my garden, and veggies for my table. Nice trade off, thanks to the rabbits!!
The left side of the barn
This is the left side of the barn as you walk in through the front door. This is a custom made cage that I actually purchased from a friend who owns a pet store in our town. It was in great shape, but the metal pans were in need of repair. So I purchased plastic pans that actually fit inside the metal pans.
My husband put larger doors on each cage so I could fit nest boxes in each one.We also made clear plexiglass urine guards for each cage. this makes for easier cleaning and it lets more light into each cage then normal metal urine guards do.
My custom made rolling feed cart
I designed this cart to make things easier for me to feed my animals in the barn. It holds everything I need without having to run back and forth to get feed & water. And It will even hold a complete bale of hay in the compartment where you see the sliding door.
The Heater
This is an electric heating unit that my husband had installed several years ago. You are viewing it from the under side. It is mounted to the rafters of the loft in the barn. It is a unit that would normally heat up your bathroom.
Because my barn is not very large, and is very well insulated, it really does a nice job! It is thermostatically controlled. We keep it around 36 degrees unless I want to do some breeding in the late Fall. Then I will up the temp to around 55 degrees.
This thing is pretty slick! and keeps the temp where it is supposed to be with the help of the ceiling fan that runs 24-7 all year long.
Extra Cabinet Space
I was at a Habitat for Humanity one day looking around. I happened to find these cabinets and thought how they would look pretty good in the barn to hold all my supplies and keep them clean as well!! So I purchased them for a great price of $35.00.
When I got home with these cabinets, I showed them to my husband & told him what I wanted to do with them. He thought I was NUTS!! I said I know they will fit, and give me more room to store my things then the metal cabinet I had.
After they were in, he commented on how nice they looked!! He said " I wonder how many rabbit barns look like this? People will think you actually live in there" The work space on top holds my scale as well as other things I use in the barn. The shelf on the right side, has a work space and has plastic drawers on top and bottom. I keep clean food and water bowls in the bottom, and misc. items in the top small drawers. It is super handy and stays neat & very clean!!
As you can see there is a lot of drawer space in this lower cabinet. It has a top drawer and two slide out drawers on the bottom. The left side of the cabinet has 3 shelves to hold items as well!