The rabbit shed

When I started out, I didn't have anything to put the rabbits in - a building or covered shed of some sort.  So they started out being caged under a shade tree - since I got them when the temps where in the 90's (and the temp only got hotter through the Summer)  I found a great spot in the front yard that was up against the woods under a tree that had a big overhanging branch that kept them in the shade at all times.  We didn't get much rain through the Summer so that wasn't a big worry, when we did get rain I covered them with a big tarp until it passed but I knew I would need a place to put them and shelter them from the elements, especially with Winter coming.  We bought a covered car port of sorts that has worked great.  I can't remember the measurement on it but will figure that out and post, it's big enough for all the cages I have now (7 at the moment, want to get another cage to put weaned babies since I only have one at the moment) plus all their stuff, feed pellets, hay and alfalfa cubes, etc.  This was wonderful during the Winter, it's totally covered and you can zip up the front of it, so during the Winter I would keep it zipped up to help retain heat in the building and keep them from getting any sort of draft. It totally keeps the rain out and we had quite a bit of snow this Winter, and of course it kept them nice and dry and out of the snow.   Now that it's starting to warm up again I keep the front open unless it rains and if it starts to get any hotter I can pull the side up on one side so they can get a cross breeze and keep them from sitting in stagnant air.  Here's a picture I took tonight...

This is a picture taken from the front of the shed (it's right on the side of our house, I can walk out the front door and over to the side of the house to tend to them).  The 'doors' are staying open and bungee'd back now that it's warm outside.  I have 4 cages on one side and 3 on the other.  The big gray bin in the back has a bail of hay in it for them so it's off the ground, when it rains the water tends to run in sometimes and it would get the hay wet - plus this keeps mice out of it. Their food bin is to the left of that - it's a garbage can with a lid that snaps so nothing can get in their food.  The bucket I mainly use to sit on :)  As of right now they are sitting on two pieces of wood that are raised on saw horses until we can build a shelfing unit where we can stack the cages, it will have a drop pan between the bottom and top crates so the feces and urine doesn't land on the rabbits below.  But as of right now this is the set up, I hose the wood off quite often as a few of them tend to pee on the wood.  I will be taking pictures of everything when we do start making the shelfing unit, and will be posting about that, I want to be able to put 4 cages on the bottom and 4 on the top - all I need for the numbers I have are 8 cages for now.  I have the buck and 3 does I started out with, plus another doe that I kept from one of my litters that is at breeding age and another young doe I kept from one of my last litters, she's still got several months before I can breed her.  So I have 5 does and 1 buck at the moment and one growing cage that the weaned kits go in, but I would like another as I tend to have 2 litters around the same time and they can sometimes be very large litters.  Oh, and I have a florescent light that hangs from the top of the shed, but my lights have blow, so I strung the heat lamp up there for the time being until I can get more light bulbs, but it's got light so I can check on the rabbits after dark (especially if I have a doe that is due to kindle).