Predator protection in a rabbit colony?

[Willowdale]

How do you folks with rabbit colonies keep out raccoons, foxes or other predators? Many colony pictures show wire about 3' high. I assume you bury it 18" and put an L at the bottom? What about the top to keep them from climbing in? Electric wire?

It seems to me that one racoon or fox could take out a colony! Or can the rabbits defend themselves when they're in their warrens?

[Macybaby]

My colony is indoors. At first I really wanted to set up an outdoor area for them, then got to thinking what I'd have to do to keep my dog out. She's pretty good with the animals, but she has a very hard time restraining herself concerning the rabbits and think being able to see them hoping around would be too much for her.

So after coming up with an elaborate plan to keep the dog out, I realized it would not keep the cats out. While they will not bother the older rabbits, they may go over the ones just leaving the nest. My cats have no trouble climbing over a 5' wire fence, and they do it fast!

I'd need to completely enclose the pen just to keep my own animals out, let alone the varmits. So I decided that my colony will stay indoors. It also solves the problem that I have a high water table so burrows could be a problem.

Cathy

[Buster]

I don't have one yet, but my dog does a great job protecting my chickens and turkeys when they free range during the day. And she keeps critters off the property at night, even though the birds are all locked up. I don't think it will be hard for me to extend her training to rabbits. For some reason she leaves the wild ones in the neighborhood alone, and just goes after predators.

That said, I will have a back up... surrounding their fenced colony with three strands of electric wire.

[turtlehead]

I have chicken wire on the bottom part of the fence, bent at an 'L' so it extends on the ground outside the colony. This is to prevent dig-ins. I don't know if we've ever had an attempt, and I think if I were to do it again I'd use something more substantial than chicken wire, but so far so good.

For climbing animals (raccoons) I have two electric hot wires at about 18" and 30" (give or take) powered by a solar charger.

And for hawks/owls I have bird netting. We lost 2 litters to owls/hawks in about 3 nights one spring and then a doe to mastitis after her litter was gone, so that was a painful lesson. The bird netting does the trick.