Building better pens

269. In the last booklet you were told that wire mesh is the best material for building rabbit pens.

270. When you begin to keep more female rabbits for mating you will have to build more pens. Perhaps you would like to use some wire mesh when you build them.

271. The drawings on the next pages show you how to build a better pen using wire mesh for the floors and for the inside walls.

272. If you do use wire mesh to build any of your pens, be sure to use these pens for your full- grown rabbits.

How to build a better pen using wire mesh

These pens are built much like those that you learned to build in the last booklet; however, the floors, inside walls and doors are made using wire mesh. The following items will tell you how to build these pens . . .

1 build the frames as you did before (see pages 22 to 24 in the last booklet), put them in the ground, fill the holes with earth and pack them well

Nail board in centre

2 nail a 4 x 10 cm wooden board between the floor braces where the centre wall will be (see arrow)

3 nail 4 x 10 cm boards at the level of the braces all the way around the frame

4 cover this frame with 1.25 x 1.25 mm wire mesh

4 x 10 cm boards

5 cover the ends and back of the frame with wooden boards (see page 25 in the last booklet)

1.25 x 1.25 mm wire mesh

6 build a wall between the pens, cover it with wire mesh and attach it in the centre

Attach the wall in the centre of the pen

7 finish boxing in the front using 10- cm boards, making sure that the boards are straight and square

Finish boxing

8 to hold the pen doors in place, attach four pieces of wood to the inside of each pen and four small blocks with screws to the outside of each pen

Attach four pieces of wood

9 now you can build the roof and cover it as before (see the last booklet)

Build the roof and cover

10 build the pen doors as before; however, make the plant feeder using strong wire and wire mesh and cover the small door with wire mesh

Build the pen doors