Longtime local journalist Bill Radford and his wife, Margaret, live on 5 acres in the Falcon area with chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats, a flock of parakeets, goats and two horses. Contact Bill at billradford3@gmail.com.
Keep an eye on the bunny
By Bill Radford
Well, playtime may be over for the bunny sisters.
We have two female bunnies that live in a pen outside. They’re not actually sisters, but they are bonded. On weekends and days when I am working from home, I’ll generally start my day by opening their pen and allowing the two out “to frolic” for an hour or two. They don’t have total freedom; they have a fenced-in area to roam, most of which is inside a larger fenced-in area, so enough to ward off predators. (Our chickens have the same area to roam in.)
Generally, the bunnies return to the safety and comfort of their pen on their own. If they’re still frolicking, I herd them back; they’re well-trained enough that when they see me, they usually just run to their pen.
The bunnies don’t have names; I just call them the white bunny and the brown bunny. After their assigned frolic time the other day, I went out to find the white bunny resting in its pen. The brown bunny, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found. I looked in the tall grass, I looked under the chicken house. Nothing.
What I did find was a small gap under the fencing leading to the pasture; it’s the only section that isn’t double-fenced. So I also searched the pasture. No bunny.
I went out several times during the day to resume the search. Finally, in early evening, as I was leaving the chicken/rabbit yard into the larger fenced-in area (aka, our side yard), there was the brown rabbit, happily munching on grass under the honey locust tree. With a little prompting, the bunny scurried back to its friend in the rabbit pen.
So had the brown rabbit gotten all the way out and then returned as the day was waning? Or was it in the yard the whole time and somehow I missed it? I’ll never know as the rabbit isn’t talking. I plugged the one gap in the fence I had found, but I am a little hesitant to allow more free time.
We’ve had a series of rabbits for a long time, even before we moved to our little house on the prairie. We always have a pair, so when one rabbit eventually dies, we feel compelled to get another so the surviving bunny isn’t lonely. But at some point we’ll have to hop off the bunny train.
Our bunnies aren’t livestock; we don’t raise them for meat or for show. But they’re not exactly pets either — at least not the type you cuddle with. (We did have a bunny once upon a time that we would hold and even take on short walks with the help of a bunny harness.) Our bunnies are always rescues and we just feel we’re giving them a good life.
Instead of a traditional rabbit hutch, they have an igloo-style doghouse that helps keep them comfortable in the winter, with the help of loads of hay or straw. The summer heat is actually more of a threat, so when temperatures get to sizzling, we use blocks of ice to help keep them cool. They always have shade and are protected from wind. There is wire mesh buried under the ground so they can’t dig themselves out.
Still, many might argue against their outdoor setting. An article on rabbit.org stresses the need for “a safe and comfortable indoor living environment.”
“Indoor house rabbits typically live eight to 12 years, depending on their size, breed and the quality of care they received,” the article states. “In contrast, outdoor domestic rabbits live only about three to five years, and wild rabbits have a much shorter lifespan, often living only one to two years.”
On the other hand, an article at backyardchickencoops.com.au had this to say: “When people think of rabbits, many think of them as a dear little inside pet, but it is actually best if rabbits are kept outside — in the confines of a safe hutch, of course!” The article notes that rabbits have “a very sensitive respiratory system, and what may not bother other indoor pets — dust, cleaning products, musty air, etc. — can adversely affect their system.”
The Educated Rabbit (theeducatedrabbit.com) notes that the question of whether to keep rabbits inside or outside “is a controversial topic among rabbit enthusiasts.” It comes down on the side of keeping them indoors. One reason: Rabbits are prey animals, and there are plenty of outdoor predators — from raccoons to coyotes to neighbors’ dogs — that could target them. In our case, though, I would argue that our three dogs who spend most of their time inside, coupled with the possibility of accidentally leaving a door open to a rabbit room, would be more of a threat than hanging out in the triple-secured rabbit pen. If the rabbit did indeed escape into the pasture, admittedly that would pose dangers.
I asked people on Nextdoor their opinion. One person posted that their kids raised rabbits for 4-H back when they lived in Ohio, “Which is not known for balmy winters, to say the least. The breeder we bought them from said heat is actually harder for them to tolerate than cold, as long as they were out of direct wind and had shelter from snow and rain. We put our hutch facing south on the south side of a shed (so the shed wall was protection from the north) and with a piece of canvas on the west we could drop down if we had wind from that direction. Never lost a rabbit in 10 years! We made sure they had frozen soda bottles in the summer to snuggle up against.”
In looking up tips for rabbit care, I found a Zooplus magazine article online that says rabbits should be allowed to run freely once a day — “naturally in a suitably secured outdoor area.” So maybe our rabbits will still have their playtime — but supervised so they don’t vanish from sight.
I’ve got my eye on you, brown rabbit.
The Radford rabbits: these two bunnies are great buddies.
Brown bunny went missing for most of a day but is safe and sound now. Bad Bunny!
