We have ran an experiment housing chickens and rabbits together since last fall. We decided to give it a try when we had nowhere to put two chicks we had hatched out. Those two chicks went into the rabbit hutch when they were fully feathered. We observed no problems. Those two chicks were the friendliest we have had in awhile. So friendly they can get underfoot when loose.

The old original PVC chicken tractor has been rebuilt and redesigned as a rabbit tractor and chick rear-er for teenage chickens. It has some design improvements and modifications for rabbits which will be the main use of this tractor.

I have heard a lot of people say that co-housing chickens and rabbits together doesn’t work. We will test this and find out. So far my results show promise. Although I think a key reason our results are good is the introduction of chickens to the rabbits while the chickens are young.

The first experiment went well, one of those chicks is a full grown rooster that was still living with the rabbits until the new rabbit tractor was complete. We then moved the smallest of the new flock of chicks we are raising into the new rabbit tractor. The larger chicks joined the main flock.

The chicks were afraid of the rabbits at first. The rabbits paid no mind to the chicks as they were used to chickens in their cage. After a day they were all getting along great. The rebuilt rabbit tractor has the fenced in feeding shelf that the chickens can get to but the rabbits cannot. That fixes one of the problems I have heard other people mention about chicken feed being bad for rabbits.

The tractor will be getting a new water bucket with chicken nipples at different heights to accommodate the chicks at different ages. The camper shell that has served well as a chick brooder will also be rebuilt with feed shelves and a automatic watering system for the next batch this fall.

We are going to increase the number of rabbits and use the rabbit tractor to mow the grass along the drive. I cannot use the cattle to mow the area as they would be rough on the fruit trees along the drive. My goal this year is for the critters to do the lawn care on the homestead.

I am so happy with the redesign of the original coop we will be building another in a similar style in the future. This style has a price and weight advantage over the other design. I like both so I will build several of each as we increase the head count of our livestock.

After a week in the new tractor we have had no problems with the rabbits digging under the edge. The rabbits are very happy to have so much room with a green lawn outside their house. I am also curious about the amount of feed reduction that will occur with fresh grass always available. I have been moving the cage at least once a day, sometimes twice.

On a side note I have been working on two new pages to my site that I will launch in several weeks. One is frugal living and making money, the other is about tractors.