Any rabbit/chicken owners want to QC my novel design plan?

[AlaskanNoob]

The last time I posted on this forum about a design plan, I also had no idea and no experience with the subject matter. Of course that was my plan for solar. After years of getting educated, the solar we finally installed this last summer looked absolutely nothing like my original plan. Nothing.

This should be simpler, although I am still ignorant. I have no experience raising rabbits or chickens. With my design here (very poorly drawn up to simply convey the basic idea), I am hoping to a) allow the rabbits/chickens to graze and b) protect them from the over abundance of things out here that want to eat them.

I'll show my Rabbit Run idea here. The chicken coop idea is essentially the same, except the part where the rod comes up from the ground will go through the middle of a small coop with nesting boxes (which will be wider than the run).



The idea for both is that I have a long, narrow, run that will have a motorized wheel on the outside end of it, some electric jacks, and it will rotate the entire run in a circle. The run is 100 square feet (just picked that size for now, that will likely change) and is 50 foot long and 2 foot wide. On some interval, the jacks will lift the run up off the ground (I'm not sure how yet) and the motorized wheel will drive the run along the circle for about 2 feet, and the jacks will let the run back down. The wheel(s), motor, and jacks are not shown in the sketch above, nor is the very steep metal roof or the thick mesh / chicken wire walls. Or the large mesh floor that will hopefully allow the plants to come up through it, but prevent the rabbits from getting out. No floor on the chicken version though.

The goal is to build a relatively small run, but have that run enjoy a 100 foot diameter field of planted food. Which is .18 acres of food. I'll start the project by clearing out a level 100 foot diameter circle and then planting concentric rings of perennial plants in a manner that provides the right balance of nutrition for the critters. So in the run, they'll have the right amount of plants to eat. Then at night when the rabbits are sleeping and not in the run (they will have an artificial warren I'll bury nearby with a tunnel to a hole center-located with the rod, so that they can always access the run), I'll program the run to move over to the next 2 foot wide slice of the field, so when they wake up they will have fresh food, and the plants they were eating the day before can begin to recover.

I'll also have an electric "door" that can protect the access hole to the warren to either protect them from an ermine that manages to get past my defenses and into the run, and can cut them off from running back into the warren when it comes time for me to make fried rabbit for dinner.

When there is snow on the ground, the system will stay put and I'll be feeding them the old fashioned way.

I haven't seen anybody do this for chickens or for rabbits, so maybe my idea is as dumb as my initial solar plan. But building a 100 square foot structure that allows the varmints to eat 8000 square foot of garden planted for them seems like a pretty good idea if I can pull it off. Thoughts?

 

[D71]

Just info chickens go to roost at night.

Wild Rabbits are nocturnal… we found raising domestic rabbits that they are up at night too.

The decision to go chicken over rabbits was probably eggs. Cadbury Bunny exception ?

ppl normally separate live stock. I would not have them sharing the same runs.

sounds like you are building tractors With it being moveable ….. meat chickens and rabbits mature rather quickly. You can incubate your own chickens from fertilized eggs - rooster. ?

If you ever feed your chickens processed feeds best if rabbits are kept away. They use arsenic based medicines in the chicken feeds.

Why Was Chicken the Primary Source of Arsenic Exposure in Children? | NutritionFacts.org

What was the National Chicken Council’s response to public health authorities calling for the industry to stop feeding arsenic-based drugs to poultry?

nutritionfacts.org

Traditional: You might want to raise small plot of feed corn to shuck - dry -crack it. Lot of work. Probably build supply of it before chickens. Look at storing it and varmint proofing.

How Long Does Cracked Corn Last? - Always Ready Prepper

When corn is cracked, it needs to be kept safe from rodents and other things that can ruin it. Cracked corn can last for a longer time if...

alwaysreadyprepper.com

I can see a lot of hungry predator competition for your food. In bad times it will be 2 legged versions.

 

[HighDesertOffgrid]

Joel Salatin (sp) has some interesting stuff on this. Might be worth borrowing some ideas from him. His tractors aren't automated but he raises hundreds at a time and just moves them daily alone. He also raises rabbits above chickens indoors. That might be something to consider on cold Alaskan days.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Just info chickens go to roost at night.

Wild Rabbits are nocturnal… we found raising domestic rabbits that they are up at night too.

The decision to go chicken over rabbits was probably eggs. Cadbury Bunny exception ?

ppl normally separate live stock. I would not have them sharing the same runs.

sounds like you are building tractors With it being moveable ….. meat chickens and rabbits mature rather quickly. You can incubate your own chickens from fertilized eggs - rooster. ?

If you ever feed your chickens processed feeds best if rabbits are kept away. They use arsenic based medicines in the chicken feeds.

Why Was Chicken the Primary Source of Arsenic Exposure in Children? | NutritionFacts.org

What was the National Chicken Council’s response to public health authorities calling for the industry to stop feeding arsenic-based drugs to poultry?

nutritionfacts.org

Traditional: You might want to raise small plot of feed corn to shuck - dry -crack it. Lot of work. Probably build supply of it before chickens. Look at storing it and varmint proofing.

How Long Does Cracked Corn Last? - Always Ready Prepper

When corn is cracked, it needs to be kept safe from rodents and other things that can ruin it. Cracked corn can last for a longer time if...

alwaysreadyprepper.com

I can see a lot of hungry predator competition for your food. In bad times it will be 2 legged versions.

Right on, I'll have the run rotate whenever the bunnies are sleeping. Two completely separate systems for rabbits and chickens, two different gardens. My hope is to keep away from processed feeds for them all, but I'm sure I'll have to use some at least in the beginning. Planning on eventually raising Black Soldier Fly and growing duckweed for the chickens as well. Corn is a tough one for us in Alaska, but maybe with a greenhouse eventually.

Yeah, predators are going to be a real pain for sure. Foxes, coyotes, eagles, goshawks, owls, bears, wolves, and the biggest threat will be ermines. We'll build live traps into our systems so we can catch any predators that get in, but I'm planning on having cameras and turrets with water cannons and spray to help protect the critters. Should be fun.

Not many two legged predators around these parts fortunately.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

This chicken coop is starting to become quite the marvel (in my mind anyway). We'll see how much of this dreaming actually becomes reality.

I'm now thinking the coop will be 10' x 10' and super insulated in the center of a 100' diameter chicken pasture. The rotating run will be pie shaped and 50' long. It will provide 140 square feet or so of space, and will complete a 360 degree rotation in 42 days. It will move over each night when the chickens are sleeping so every morning they'll have new plants to eat.

The first step will be trenching power, water, and a feed tube to where the center of the coop will be. Then installing some kind of tube/pole there, where all those lines go up the tube. The water will go up the pole, and then will go through a hole in the tube, and then back down to a water dish. The feed tube will go up the pole a little higher then out a cut out in the pole to a platform that will dump food. The power will go up to the top of the pole to a "slip ring" which will allow running power not only to a small ASHP, but also out to the end of the pie shaped run to power a motorized wheel that will rotating the run and cabin.

The cabin and run will be able to rotate without any of the lines getting tangled up. An electric automated door will open/close out to the run.

The feed tube will use a solenoid in the coop, and a solenoid in a building 70 feet away (that will have fish and black soldier fly and an internal bin of chicken feed), to move a capsule/container through a buried pipe (using strings or a small cable attached to both sides of the capsule) to deliver food to the chickens to supplement what they don't get from the rotating run.

There will be some lifts that will lift the cabin and run before rotating it, then setting it back down.

There will be a chute on the outside to allow me to use the skidder to dump a load of wood chips in there to use the layer method for the floor.

The bottom of the coop will have two rails for an electric rake to clean the floor of the coop so I can lift the coop, then have that all raked out into a bin I can move with forks to the garden for compost.

The nesting boxes will be roll away so that the eggs roll out of the boxes, then based on a switch position will either roll into an outer box for easy collection, or roll down into a covered collection box inside the coop when we're away on short trips. For longer trips away the collection box will use a spiral chute to deliver the eggs down to a covered water glass container. We mostly leave in the winter and we'll keep the coop just above freezing, so ideal storage for the eggs.

The run (including the bottom) will have wire mesh (holes big enough to allow chickens to grab the plants). And there will be an electric fence along the coop and run that will rotate along with everything else.

The most fun is going to be installing systems inside the rotating chicken run to try to attract and deliver flies and mosquitos for chicken consumption.

 

[Hogheavenfarm]

My chickens dont bother with flies or moskitos, or anything flying other than a butterfly sometimes. They are true decimators of dirt though. Having access to fresh ground they will start digging, and in a day can produce a chicken sized hole (with an accompanying dirt pile) , so your rotating run probably should have a wire base. Otherwise critters will use the existing holes to slip under the run , or the birds will wiggle out. Other critters will try to dig under the run as well, I have had bears, bobcats, coons, foxes, and possums dig under the fence at night and make off with a few prized roos.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

My chickens dont bother with flies or moskitos, or anything flying other than a butterfly sometimes. They are true decimators of dirt though. Having access to fresh ground they will start digging, and in a day can produce a chicken sized hole (with an accompanying dirt pile) , so your rotating run probably should have a wire base. Otherwise critters will use the existing holes to slip under the run , or the birds will wiggle out. Other critters will try to dig under the run as well, I have had bears, bobcats, coons, foxes, and possums dig under the fence at night and make off with a few prized roos.

The wired bottom in the run is the plan. I've got to size the holes of the mesh properly though...big enough for the chickens to get at the garden, but not so big as to let an ermine in. I imagine ermines will be my number one threat.

Then again, it might be the many bears we also have. The coop and run will have an electric fence that rotates along with the rest of the structure, and the coop door will be programmed to close at night. I'll also have AI cameras looking around and tied to a treat dispenser inside the coop and a speaker that will make some kind of a sound when it dispenses. So if a predator is seen, it will sound and hopefully any chickens in the run will run into the coop and then the system will shut the door until the threat is gone.

Eventually the AI cameras will also operate bear spray canisters but I'm still working on those.

Good to know about flies and mosquitos, I will have to grab a bunch and see how the chickens react before I waste any time making some cosmic trap.

 

[D71]

The wired bottom in the run is the plan. I've got to size the holes of the mesh properly though...big enough for the chickens to get at the garden, but not so big as to let an ermine in. I imagine ermines will be my number one threat.

Then again, it might be the many bears we also have. The coop and run will have an electric fence that rotates along with the rest of the structure, and the coop door will be programmed to close at night. I'll also have AI cameras looking around and tied to a treat dispenser inside the coop and a speaker that will make some kind of a sound when it dispenses. So if a predator is seen, it will sound and hopefully any chickens in the run will run into the coop and then the system will shut the door until the threat is gone.

Eventually the AI cameras will also operate bear spray canisters but I'm still working on those.

Weasel are vicious creatures but look unassuming for their actual deadliness . … Eliminate them.

They are suppose to have nice fur. ermine

 

[gotbeans]

If you make your original idea in OP but cylindrical for the rabbits, you can just roll it super slowly all the time and ideally plants pop through as you said.. but seems simpler
I've had rabbits for 10 or so years (not for eating) and chickens for like 25 years, never seen anything like this though.
I've seen some manual moved chicken ones that people move around the yard but that's it.
Pretty interesting

The wired bottom in the run is the plan. I've got to size the holes of the mesh properly though...big enough for the chickens to get at the garden, but not so big as to let an ermine in. I imagine ermines will be my number one threat.

Then again, it might be the many bears we also have. The coop and run will have an electric fence that rotates along with the rest of the structure, and the coop door will be programmed to close at night. I'll also have AI cameras looking around and tied to a treat dispenser inside the coop and a speaker that will make some kind of a sound when it dispenses. So if a predator is seen, it will sound and hopefully any chickens in the run will run into the coop and then the system will shut the door until the threat is gone.

Eventually the AI cameras will also operate bear spray canisters but I'm still working on those.

Good to know about flies and mosquitos, I will have to grab a bunch and see how the chickens react before I waste any time making some cosmic trap.

How well do your models work for rabbits?
I've noticed majority of them detect rabbits as cats or humans lol
frigate does this as well, which is probably the only reputable open source system that exists. You can train models for that which is probably where I'd go

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Weasel are vicious creatures but look unassuming for their actual deadliness . … Eliminate them.

They are suppose to have nice fur. ermine

Nah, I'm a huge fan of the ermines. I cannot imagine killing one simply for its fur. They are incredible predators for sure.

 

[AlaskanNoob]

If you make your original idea in OP but cylindrical for the rabbits, you can just roll it super slowly all the time and ideally plants pop through as you said.. but seems simpler
I've had rabbits for 10 or so years (not for eating) and chickens for like 25 years, never seen anything like this though.
I've seen some manual moved chicken ones that people move around the yard but that's it.
Pretty interesting



How well do your models work for rabbits?
I've noticed majority of them detect rabbits as cats or humans lol
frigate does this as well, which is probably the only reputable open source system that exists. You can train models for that which is probably where I'd go

That would be simpler, but I want them to have an underground colony (that I'll make) so that they have some place warm to go in the winter. So I need to keep the pivot point over their entrance to that. Plus I don't want to manually have to roll anything, I want to automate it.

 

[gotbeans]

That would be simpler, but I want them to have an underground colony (that I'll make) so that they have some place warm to go in the winter. So I need to keep the pivot point over their entrance to that. Plus I don't want to manually have to roll anything, I want to automate it.

rolling would be easier to automate that was the point in it lol. You'll have to do it while they are active/awake cuz that'll always be the case.
I'm not sure how many plants would stick through though, I guess if it was only grass..

forgot to say: rabbits also don't "sleep", they take micronaps and have second eyelids that they can close but their eye is still open / can see like crocodile/alligators have
They're most active at dusk & dawn, but they probably sleep the longest during the day for like 15 minute intervals

 

[AlaskanNoob]

rolling would be easier to automate that was the point in it lol. You'll have to do it while they are active/awake cuz that'll always be the case.
I'm not sure how many plants would stick through though, I guess if it was only grass..

forgot to say: rabbits also don't "sleep", they take micronaps and have second eyelids that they can close but their eye is still open / can see like crocodile/alligators have
They're most active at dusk & dawn, but they probably sleep the longest during the day for like 15 minute intervals

Maybe I'm not understanding. My thought is a buried colony in the center, and a hutch over top of that. The hutch and run rotates 360 degrees. By doing that, they always have access to the underground warren while their access to the garden rotates. It will roll during rotation because all of it will be on wheels. The outer wheel on the end of the run will be pointed 90 degrees away from the center, so it rolls in a circle.

How is what you're envisioning different?

 

[gotbeans]

Maybe I'm not understanding. My thought is a buried colony in the center, and a hutch over top of that. The hutch and run rotates 360 degrees. By doing that, they always have access to the underground warren while their access to the garden rotates. It will roll during rotation because all of it will be on wheels. The outer wheel on the end of the run will be pointed 90 degrees away from the center, so it rolls in a circle.

How is what you're envisioning different?

Identical but instead of a rectangle with wheels on the bottom it's a big cylinder that rolls lol

I don't want to draw it but just imagine with the pic that you only had 1 layer of fence in these instead of the entirety of a roll
cuz your method also has a bottom of wire mesh (for the rabbits at least) right? so just making a roll seems simpler

 

[AlaskanNoob]

Identical but instead of a rectangle with wheels on the bottom it's a big cylinder that rolls lol

How does the hutch being a cylinder rather than a square simplify it? Seems if the coop is a triangle, a square, or a cylinder it would work the same. The hutch will be lifted (along with the run), then will rotate on wheels.

 

[gotbeans]

How does the hutch being a cylinder rather than a square simplify it? Seems if the coop is a triangle, a square, or a cylinder it would work the same. The hutch will be lifted (along with the run), then will rotate on wheels.

cuz you don't have to lift it, and don't have to have wheels

 

[AlaskanNoob]

cuz you don't have to lift it, and don't have to have wheels

The hutch is connected to the run....And the whole thing rotates. How on earth would all of that rotate around the field without being lifted or having wheels, simply by changing the hutch from a square to a cylinder?

The whole thing in red lifts up on three wheels (the wheel on the end of the hutch will have a motor to drive the rotation), and the whole thing outlined in red rotates slightly, moving the pie shaped run over each day. The Hutch rotates around the pole.

I don't understand how making the hutch a cylinder instead of a square makes it so it doesn't have to be lifted nor need wheels.

 

[gotbeans]

The run is a cylinder. No idea why you started talking about the hutch all the sudden

 

[AlaskanNoob]

The run is a cylinder. No idea why you started talking about the hutch all the sudden

Because:

How does the hutch being a cylinder rather than a square simplify it? Seems if the coop is a triangle, a square, or a cylinder it would work the same. The hutch will be lifted (along with the run), then will rotate on wheels.

cuz you don't have to lift it, and don't have to have wheels

But I see what you're saying now. Make the run a cylinder of mesh and let it roll on the ground over the garden. That could work for the run, but the hutch would still need to be lifted while it rotates, or it would just need to be elevated slightly off the ground permanently which would be a better solution. The cylinder would only offer a tiny fraction of access to each part of the garden at one time, as opposed to the pie shape, but that could be overcome with more frequent rotation.

I'd have to put some kind of motor around the pole strong enough to rotate the hutch, and let the run cylinder just freewheel. It would eliminate wheels and lifts. That is certainly an advantage.

The one downside I'm not sure how to tackle would be the electric fence for the run. In my pie shaped run, the fence wouldn't touch the metal mesh, and wouldn't shock the chickens. I'm not sure how I'd make an electric fence that rolls on the ground through the garden.

I finally understand, that's something to consider, thanks for sharing.

 

[gotbeans]

Yea I only saw you talking hutch last 2 posts

funny enough if you did make the hutch a circle you could make the run a cone instead of cylinder and have the outer part of it wider so it rotates perfectly lmao
all you'd need is 1 motor then & 1 thing moving
that probably makes it even more difficult though