as well as the bathroom to bedroom conversion, DH has had time to winterise the bunny palace. Not completely, but it is looking good. When we upgraded it, we used aviary panels for a full height ‘yard’ of 6ft x 6ft attached onto the 2 story hutch. currently every day they get taken out to a 6 by 4 run on the lawn to nibble. We have taken the advice of rabbit welfare, and a hutch is not enough to try and get it right. our double hutch isn’t quite to their sizing, so preparing for winter, we are hoping to make most of the yard run useable. In it we have another ‘secure’ area – it is a bench for us to sit on [or them to hop up onto] with all 4 sides closed, and a rabbity entrance. it is snug inside with hay. our aviary roof has polycarbonate on half, and currently mesh with a plastic waterproof top on the other half, tho considering polycarb there too. the mesh between hutch and roof is also covered with polycarb as is also the whole side next to the wendy house, and the single panel on the door side. this is leaving enough uncovered for fresh air to go through on the least exposed side. hopefully tho this will take the edge off wintry cold, as well as stopping most of the rain [snow] getting in. We will double layer the hutch when it gets colder [draping over the defunct paddling pool making an air trap] so with loads of hay should be snuggly, and the bench tempting us to sit and take a while. Later plans are fencing off the wendy house area for the grassy run for next summer…
hopefully that will be good for the buns over winter. will move the water bottles so they are more sheltered too. [we always have a minimum of 2 bottles to make sure that even if one fails and leaks, the rabs will always have water.] and if it is a truly terrible winter, we will move them into the conservatory, like we have done before.