How Cleaning Works with Stacked Rabbit Cage Systems

Here’s a Frequently Asked Question:

How do you clean the stacking meat rabbit cages?

And relatedly,

How do the rabbits in the bottom tiers stay clean?

Jump to:

• It’s All About the Drop Pan System
• What a Typical Cleaning Day Process Looks Like in the Rabbit Room
• Why I Use Shavings in the Drop Pans
• What Happens to the Waste?
• How Long Does All This Take?
• Tips and Tricks that Help Keep Trays Clean, Odors Down, and Fast, Efficient Barn Cleaning

It’s All About the Drop Pan System

First, let’s alleviate some concerns regarding how the rabbits below the top level stay clean.

No rabbits are pooped or urinated on in this system.

Each cage has a set of slide rails attached to the bottom of the frame kit. There is a drop pan with the same measurements as the cage. This slides in on the rails and catches all the manure and urine from the cage above.

This is a very clean system that also does a great job, for the most part, of keeping the barn floor clean. I do not have piles of manure under the cages, which goes a long way to keep my floors clean and mostly insect and maggot-free (in warm months). It does a lot to save my wood barn floors!!

What a Typical Cleaning Day Process Looks Like in the Rabbit Room

Cleaning these cages is a simple matter of pulling trays, dumping them into something, and then hauling away the mess.

I am lucky to own a Kubota UTV that has a dump body. So, my process is

• Pull about 5 trays at a time, stack them atop a rolling shavings bin
• Wheel the bins out to the door, where the UTV is parked
• Dump each tray into the UTV
• In warm months when I can run a hose, each tray gets sprayed out and drained for a few minutes while I work the next set
• In cold months, I keep a 4-inch putty knife with me and scrape out anything that might get stuck or frozen in. This is only an issue in the coldest of weather. Most of the time, the trays dump out quite cleanly, even when it’s below freezing.
• The trays come back in, get a light layer of shavings in the bottom, and then are slid back into the rails
• Of course, if I needed to, I could walk each tray individually out to the UTV and dump it. That's what I did before I inherited the shavings bin on wheels.
• Done.

A wheelbarrow or barn cart would work well to go around to each cage and dump the trays. I do like taking them to the outside of the barn either way, because I like to spray the trays out when I can. It helps a lot with odor and insect control, having the trays sprayed out once a week.

https://youtu.be/W-xFZIVVv_0

Why I Use Shavings in the Drop Pans

I choose to use a light layer of shavings at the bottom of my pans. You don’t have to, but there are some solid reasons why I do.

• Without something absorbent, the trays will get quite sloppy by the end of the week
• Liquid urine is less fun to carry around than urine soaked up in shavings!
• The shavings do a lot to keep odors down, especially in the summer
• Less wetness and liquid equals fewer flies laying eggs and better fly control
• Other products some people use are absorbent pellets designed for bedding stalls (usually marketed mostly towards horses) and a product called Sweet PDZ stall or coop refresher, which is said to work excellently for odor control

• If insect presence is high, I will sometimes also sprinkle a light layer of lime on the bottoms of the trays. It helps with odor and insects but does not take up enough of the urine to make it less sloppy.

What Happens to the Waste?

All of the waste goes straight to my elderberry orchard, fruit tree orchard, or garden beds. I use it for mulch and fertilizer, either tilled into the soil or as a weed-suppressing top dressing on the rows.

I don’t typically compost the waste because the manure is cold manure and doesn’t need to be composted or aged. The urine, which is a good source of nitrogen, is diluted enough in the shavings that it doesn’t present much of a problem as long as I’m not piling it too thickly or up against tender plant stems (which would be a problem with any type of mulch or compost).

If you are concerned, just spray down the pile before spreading it or water the waste on the beds immediately after spreading, which will further dilute the urine.

Diluted urine at a rate of 4:1 or 5:1 is harmless and can actually be used as a foliar spray for a nitrogen boost.

Anything that is spread on beds or rows during the dormant months of fall and winter isn’t a problem at all, and the urine is well diluted or washed into the ground by spring.

How Long Does All This Take?

That depends on how many rabbits I have and how many cages are full with bodies.

I have 39 “holes,” or, basically, cages. That’s 39 trays to clean. They vary in size from 24 inches square to 30 by 36 inches.

Cleaning doesn't really take any longer for the larger cages than it does for the smaller cages. I’m still only pulling one tray per hole.

If I have no grow outs, and I’m only cleaning my 12 breeding rabbits, This would only take about 15 to 20 minutes for the whole barn. That’s an estimate because that never really happens.

There are times when my grow out numbers are low, but I pretty much have never had only breeder cages since I started breeding. There are always kits with a doe and grow outs in some cages. That’s true even after a harvest because the grow outs are of varying ages and stages.

On a cleaning day, when I’m cleaning about half the cages, it takes around 45 minutes.

With all the cages full, it is about an hour to an hour.

Tips and Tricks that Help Keep Trays Clean, Odors Down, and Fast, Efficient Barn Cleaning

• Pick a day of the week when you can commit to cleaning and clean trays at least weekly
• In the height of summer and fly season, it’s not a bad idea to clean twice each week (and it’s easy enough to do, so it’s manageable)
• Have something on wheels to dump waste into -- either motorized or a hand cart
• A deep yard or garden cart is a good option and will probably be easier to dump into than a wheelbarrow
• Have a plan for your waste. You’ll have it every week.
• If you can’t use it, sell it
• The mixed waste makes a great hot compost pile. It tends to be well balanced in browns and greens between the grass-based manure and the shavings, and the urine gives the pile moisture. A lot of people say they don’t need to add anything else to the pile.

A regular routine of tray cleaning will keep all the manure and muck away from your rabbits. It will reduce odors and keep your air quality good. Flies are easily controlled since they are denied a lot of the conditions they need for egg laying and breeding, and the trays are emptied regularly enough so as to break their life cycle before it can get very far.

Routine cleaning will also reduce exposure to mites and insects, which will go very far in maintaining the health and well-being of your rabbits, as well as the comfort of your rabbit barn -- for the rabbits and for you!

Overall, I find this to be an excellent system for keeping rabbits. I don’t have to lift a shovel (something I don’t particularly enjoy doing). There is very little bending involved (for those of us with older backs). There are no built-up piles of waste attracting insects, flies, or rodents searching for wasted pellets.

And best of all, it doesn’t take too long!

Health, wellness, and air quality have proven to be easy to maintain with this system. I recommend it!