I alwaya thought that houseing rabbits over chickens in the smae housing was a good idea. Even have known some that has done it. CHickens eat the rabbit manure, and whatever spills form the rabbits ect. Now in the new issue,, someone said that they can exchange dieses easily. SO,, is it a good idea or not. I was gonna move my rabbits in with my "new" chickens to conserve the warmth. dont want to run electric to there, AT ALL. ANyone else house them together, or wont house them? and why?

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 26, 2001

Answers

Stan, we house our rabbits and chickens in the same barn, and have never had any disease problems. Only problem we had for a while was the chickens eating the rabbit feed! But we moved some feeders, and put lids on others, and got rid of that problem. We also make sure the chickens can't roost on the rabbit cages. That may be where the disease problem comes in - if the chickens are pooping into the rabbit cages. But, ours can't roost on the rabbit cages, so that isn't a problem for us either.

The chickens do a great job of keeping the rabbit pooped scratched up. We don't have any problem with bad smells in our barn at all. I think rabbits and chickens work very well together!

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 26, 2001.

I agree. My rabbits and chickens have lived well together and I have never had any problems. In the winter I bring the rabbits inside the coop and put long steel drop pans under them and empty them weekly. The chickens have never bothered them.Good luck!

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), October 26, 2001.

The only problem with raising the two in the same space is the chickens that roost atop the cages.

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001.

Years ago I had rabbits in an old chicken house and the rabbits got coccidiosis, which is also a chicken disease. But my son has them together and he is getting along alright with that arrangement.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), October 26, 2001.

Chickens can eat rabbits poop but if rabbits eat chicken poop they can get cocsidious (sp) but I house mine toghter with no trouble except the birds want to roost on top of rabbit cages so I blocked it off

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001.