Att bygga en kaninbur i trädgården - To build a rabbit cage in the garden

Our fantastic little rabbit Candy needs a more permanent outdoor space, where she can spend spring, summer and early autumn. So here is what we did to create a nice outdoor cage for her.

1. Placement of the cage. We wanted her to be close to us, so that it is easy to see her, and to take care of her. Our idea was to place a cage next to our outdoor sitting area, and outside the kitchen. It was also the place which have most natural shade by our nice bushes during quite some time during the day, which is good for rabbits. They do not want to be overheated. The minus-side of having a cage close to the outdoor sitting area is that it may smell from the cage if it s not cleaned out regularly. We will see how that goes.

The cage should be close to the house so we could enjoy the company of Candy, and it was placed in the shadow of the big bushes.

2. Size of the cage. Our decision was to make a cage of 2 x 5 meters. It is not huge, but big enough to provide some fun for the rabbit, and  for our daughter with friends who want to spend time with the rabbit.  And yet small enough to be possible to build for us. The thought is to still use the normal "grass-eating cage" and move that around as usual so that she can have grass on different places. Realistically the grass in this bigger cage will be eaten after a while. 

3. Type of cage. Rabbits are lush food for quite some predators, so the best is always to have a cage which has a roof made of net, as well as net on the side. But that was not possible for us to build this time. Our intension is to move Candys sleeping quaters (a regular outdoorcage that she has inside the box in the stables) and every night she will be locked into this sleeping cage, so that she is protected from stray foxes or big birds or other hunting animals.

It took some time to plan, draw and calculate the price of all that was needed for the cage. The material ended up costing us just under 1000 Skr.

4. Planning the cage. This took some time - drawings, googleing on internet, new drawings, estimating costs etc.  I spent one day one preparing and bying the stuff. There are some nice blogposts on building rabbitcages where we got some inspiration - and this one was very useful: http://www.tigerharen.org/material/tips/kaninhagn

This is what we came up with:

A rectangular cage, with 8 poles (45 x45 mm x 1800 mm). The net we used is called "putsnät" and it was available in 25 m of 1 m height (the net being 19 x 19 mm). The net needed to be digged down ca 30 cm, and since we wanted a high net (our jumpy rabbit is not shy to try height jumping) we settled for net up until 120 cm.  At the joint seam (where the net that we used would overlap)  we put a wooden rim ( 25 x 45 mm läkt)  A gate of ca 1 m to enter the cage was also planned. Further, we bought scruws for the wood, staples to attach the net to the wood, and hinges for the gate.

5. Building the cage.

Digging 30 cm deep around the fence was quite hard work, and took longer than I thought, The grass I saved in big lumps, so that we could cover the trench afterwards. In the bottom of the trench we filled up with some gravel, to hopefully discourage Candy from digging herself out.

The poles were 180 cm long, and untreated. We deliberately did not want impregnated wood. The life expectancy is of course shorter if the wood is untreated, but we hope it will stand for at least 5 years. The poles were hammered down until 120 to130 cm was above ground.

New tool friend
- worked very well to clip the net. 

The net was lowered down to 30 cm in the ground.
A bit tricky, but Johan helped me to get it right.
The net was attached to the outer side of the poles,
to (maybe) prevent a predator to get in too easily. 

Finally - after 6 days it was ready! Now next step is landscaping before we introduce Candy
- and maybe soon get a friend to her!

The basement

The basement is again on the agenda. After having some fun with visiting friends it was time to go on with this formerly hidden old part of the house. The last image you saw from the entrance was this:

Now it is this:

From the other side you can better see what I have done. 

The blocks of Siporex where already gone. The straight beam of concrete, made on top of a big clump of concrete, is gone. And I have drilled some kind of step in the clump. 

I suppose the concrete beam was for making it nicely even, as the big block is totally uneven. I used a week point to break the beam and once broken it was easy to take it away in its whole. More difficult was the block of concrete under it. It took me quite some time to make it more or less horizontal and drilling out the first step of a little stair I will make at the backside. With my bore hammer it was quite a big work.  

Clearing up the outside part I found out that the old staircase is still under the concrete. I hesitated but in the end I decided to not take away al the concrete as breaking it away is a hell of a job. And I'm not sure the staircase will be in good shape. And also nothing holds me later to take it away. 

Briks are partialy visible through the dark mud under the concrete clumb.

And take also al look to the nice floor inside when taken away some of the mud. 

In next episode I will make some base in concrete to build a wooden frame and a door on it.

The beast

Proudly we reported, even in the latest posts, about our shouting sunflowers, directing towards the sky. They would become for sure higher than 2 meter, maybe 3 meter was already in sight.

The 3 meter was in sight.

Was in sight. 

Yes “was”. Maybe some of the plants will still go over the 2 meter but the tallest one is … broken.

I have in the very back of the garden a trunk coming up 1.5 meter high. This is the perfect place for putting some small leftovers from the table.  It’s fun to see the hooded crows and the magpies taking only seconds to let the food disappear (the ones from the rat in a former post).

Yesterday I went to the trunk for dumping again some food. But I didn’t reach it. Halfway is our new vegetable garden and the potato field boarded with marigold at the southern side and sunflowers at the northern. Huge sunflowers already. Thick stems, big leaves and growing for sure high in the sky.

The first thing I saw were some big sunflower leaves on the ground. Astonished from where they were coming, a broken sunflower caught my eye. It broke somewhere around 0.75 meter from the ground. The stem partially pealed, like there scrubbed something against it. 

Then at the end of the row another 2. And there 2 more.

Nooooo …

Who has done this?

One of the children? One is gone so 1 left. No, she has to much respect for the work of others. When she should be very angry maybe? But then not in this way. She should break them and then run away. And she was not angry yesterday. 

One of the children from the neighbourhood. Possible but very unlikely …

So there is only left over: a terrible beast.

Wild boar (vildsvin – everzwijn) not as they should have eaten the potatoes. So the only animal we think can have done it is a Roe dear (rådjur – ree).

But the traces are not very much going in the direction of an animal as there aren't hardly traces of biting. 

Also on the ground there is hardly anything to see. Roe deer would for sure have prints on the path as this was not so long ago made and still quite soft. Only some a few collapsed pits in the soft ground. 

Again a mistery to solve.