Rabbit Drop Box

[john b 38]

Been working my way through my plans this week. Been putting this one off but it was OK in the end.

 

 

 

 

I built a small stand, same size as the cage, to test it out on

 

 

[Holdaway 2]

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[john b 38]

I don't think there's much secret about it. You can make 2 from an 8ft by 4ft sheet of 12mm ply. A sheet of that in exterior grade WBP is about £20 although you really want 'marine' which is more expensive around £30.

 

Then there's a couple of lengths of roof lath which would be about £2 or £3 all in.

 

A length of allthread, so thats another £1 and a few screws and nails.

 

So what's that - about £20, not including the catch cage underneath.

 

As for buying one ready made from me ? well if someone was close enough to fetch it perhaps but they're too heavy to post around the country.

[slyfox-mal 1]

nice one mate ive not seen one of them since i was a young lad

the keeper i worked with for a year used them and had really good results he used to lock them off for a bit so they got used to going through em and then he would just take the lock off and bingo loads of rabbits in the bottom

cheers mal

[stubby 175]

Ive still yet to build my one yet john, but seeing the pictures is going to help, one thing, are you going to mesh over the open area of the trap door, outside of the tunnel, otherwise whats to stop earlier captured rabbits jumping out, when the next drops in

[john b 38]

well I the pit will be about 2ft deep - it's not impossible that a fully grown adult rabbit could jump that vertical distance but they'd never be able to time it right. However once they've seen where the opening is it's concieavble they could jump 'at it' I suppose and may be scrabble out. I really don't know.

 

The big danger is if you use an all wire pit liner becuase then the buggers would climb that and would get out.

 

It's very eay to add mesh to the underside of the frame and block that section - can be secured on three sides. The drawback od that is that when it comes to empty the box you can't use that gap either.

 

One answer is to have a removeable mesh panel.

 

Another is to reduce the width of the trapdoor and add an extra counterweight - making the exit hole too small to use and increasing the size of the access door.

[ellir0305 9]

well I the pit will be about 2ft deep - it's not impossible that a fully grown adult rabbit could jump that vertical distance but they'd never be able to time it right. However once they've seen where the opening is it's concieavble they could jump 'at it' I suppose and may be scrabble out. I really don't know.

 

The big danger is if you use an all wire pit liner becuase then the buggers would climb that and would get out.

 

It's very eay to add mesh to the underside of the frame and block that section - can be secured on three sides. The drawback od that is that when it comes to empty the box you can't use that gap either.

 

One answer is to have a removeable mesh panel.

 

Another is to reduce the width of the trapdoor and add an extra counterweight - making the exit hole too small to use and increasing the size of the access door.

 

you could fix a hinged panel onto the see saw part which would fill the gap when tilted but could be pushed out of the way for emptying this could work

 

Rob