Simple rabbit tractor design

integrates with raised-bed gardening

I cobbled together this simple design for a “rabbit tractor” - a movable rabbit hutch - using scrap materials.

As shown in the photo above, it’s made to sit on top of (one-half of) our (4’ x 10’) raised beds. The idea is that rabbits can over-winter in this hutch, dropping their fertilizer right into the garden bed to compost.

When one-half of the raised bed is full of straw and rabbit poo, we’ll slide it over to the other half to fertilize. I’ll probably build one or two more of these - one to go with each of our raised beds.

During the warm season the hutch(es) can be pulled along in our veggie garden where the rabbits can earn their keep by eating grass/weeds and fertilizing for us.

Here’s Magda and her seven bunnies on the prototype rabbit tractor’s maiden voyage across our backyard.

Trying out a gravity-fed bucket watering system with hardware (not the bucket) from rabbitnipples.com. (Yes that is a real website!)

A hutch this size is probably ideal for four to six full grown rabbits.

Rabbits are really easy to raise and take up very little space. The main concern is to separate them from their pee and poo. Rabbit pee is super strong concentrated urea (strong ammonia smell!) It can burn the skin of baby rabbits. The wide slat spacing shown in this rabbit tractor allows their pee and poo to drop through and protects the bunnies. Plus we want all that good stuff for fertility in our veggie garden!

Our friends at Sheraton Park have posted an excellent primer on raising meat rabbits - check it out!

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