[R&M's BB Farm]

Hello all, We just wanted to post some pictures of our recent upgrade. We hung cages using recycled deck boards and EMT pipe. The poop chute is made of recycled mobile home underpinning, and of course the gutter and flashing behind the cages are new. We are excited to see how it works, hopefully to cut down on some chore time. We have other cages that we are planning to do free standing with the same type gutter system. Hope to post some pics of that later. We have seen many great projects on here that have helped to inspire us. We would like to thank you all!

 

[countryfied2011]

Looks good!:grin:

 

[Skip]

I really like the gutter idea. We want to collect the manure for gardening. Please post how easily it "flows."

 

[Spinner]

At first I thought someone snuck in and took a picture of my pens. I hope it works better for you than it did for me. The little bb's kept getting stuck in the gutter and I had to use a toilet brush to move them to the bucket. Better than shoveling off the ground, but I would have been much happier if they would have rolled down hill like I thought they should.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Hello all, We just wanted to post some pictures of our recent upgrade. We hung cages using recycled deck boards and EMT pipe. The poop chute is made of recycled mobile home underpinning, and of course the gutter and flashing behind the cages are new. We are excited to see how it works, hopefully to cut down on some chore time. We have other cages that we are planning to do free standing with the same type gutter system. Hope to post some pics of that later. We have seen many great projects on here that have helped to inspire us. We would like to thank you all!

We can see you put alot of work in your set-up, looks good. Let me tell you what "I" would do now being I have experimented with a set-up similiar to yours some years back. "I" would go get some thicker plastic sheating(4/6 mil) to put above this metal you got. I would temporary attach the plastic just below the bottom/back of the cages and let is swag(is that the proper word) down to where it hits the metal about 1/2 way, then cut the plastic about a inch or two longer than the metal above the gutter. Then fold the plastic under the metal edge and attach with paper clips or clothes pins etc. Plan to replace this plastic about twice a year, You will do alot of cleaning each week if you want to keep the metal set-up like you have now clean.

One other thing, if you do not mind some more info, I can not see any baby saver wire on the cages in your picture. Please put some on the Doe's cages you plan to birth in. It will save you alot of babies in years to come.

Just trying to help!

 

[R&M's BB Farm]

Hello All, The poop chute works very well, almost too well. The poop went sailing past the gutter in a few areas, so to remedy this we got some gutter guard. We installed it vertically with a few screws and joined the pieces with small strips of flashing and problem solved:sing:. Pictures are attached.

PD-Riverman thanks for the heads up on the baby saver wire. We actually have all does in 1/2 x 1 wire cages. The Bucks get the 1x1. Earlier pics weren't that clear. Hope all is well on the coast:spinsmiley:.

 

[Marinea]

Very nice setup!

I also have the slant boards and gutters and they work well. My suggestion to anyone considering this idea is to make sure you have a good amount of decline of the guttering from one end to the other. I would also recommend that your slant board material be smooth so as to not catch any droppings.

R&M, I would love to see some pics of how you have the cages suspended. I have two new cages on the way, and would love to eliminate some framing.

 

[R&M's BB Farm]

Marinea, I love how your cages are set up! Having a smooth slanted board would make the whole thing work so much better.:happy: We went with the textured metal just because we had it on hand. After tallying up how much I had spent on this project, I just couldn't justify spending more. :yuck: To suspend the cages, we just drilled all the way through the front boards and drilled into the back board around 3/4 of an inch. DH put the EMT pipe through the boards and between the wires of the cage. (the 1/2 by 1 inch wire did have to be snipped to allow the pipe through) Then we just put a scrap of 1 x 2 over the EMT to keep it from sliding out. It wasn't nearly as complicated as I just made it sound.:spinsmiley:

Front to back, we have about a 10 inch drop over right at 3 feet long. For the gutters, there is about a 4 inch drop over about 12 feet. Ideally, I would have made a little more of a drop on the gutter, but it worked with what we had.

Now that we have had a couple of nights of deposits being made, I can say that most of the berries do roll down the incline to the gutter, but the dropped hay, urine, and some berries did stay on the incline. I just scraped it down and rinsed the gutter down with a little water- so much easier than what I had been doing!

 

[Marinea]

Thanks for the pics! I think we are going to do something similar with our cages that are on the way.

Our setup in the pic above is also made from recycled materials. Our cages started out as a metal commercial store display holding kitchen sinks. If you look at the back wall in the pic, you can see some more of the display- it has since become a third cage. It is 2" square tubing that my hubby lovingly welded into cages for me. After this huge project, he has decided to retire his rabbit cage making welding for a while, so we have two 48x30" cages coming in from Bass, and we will just be building the frames.