Outdoor bunny cage and chickens?

[Zephyre]

Hi!

My parents are planning to expand their backyard and want to include a chicken coop in there. They are also considering moving our outdoors bunny to that area so her and the future chickens can socialize.
The bunny currently lives in a 10x6.5 feet enclosure (3x2 meters) with a big hutch included (around 6x3 feet / 2x1 meters and two levels).
I am now trying to design the future animal area and I have some trouble figuring out ways so that both the chickens and the bunny can have some separate spaces too. The future enclosure will be about 27x27 feet/ 8x8 meters, so there's plenty of space available.

I don't know if we will keep the old hutch or build a new one, but I need advice on how to design areas that chickens can't access but bunnies can.
For the chicken-only area I have no trouble, I will just include a ladder that goes to a second floor of the coop and the bunny shouldn't be able to climb it. How do I go about keeping the ckickens out though? Tunnels, cat-doors, I can't imagine anything that a chicken wouldn't be able to pass through. Any thoughts and tips? Thanks!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Not a good idea to keep chickens and bunnies together--chickens are not too sanitary so you run the risk of your rabbits getting sick from fecal exposure.

 

[MolallaRiverRabbitry]

I don’t think you could build anything the rabbits could get to that the chickens could not. I did something similar and had a lot of issues with them mixing (rabbits reaching the chicken food, chickens eating the rabbit food, getting in where theyre not supposed to, chickens pecking the rabbits, etc). My advice would be not to mix them, even though it seems so fun and farm-like to have them together. :-(

 

[Nancy McClelland]

A long time ago, when I was young, we had a huge garden, rabbits, and a chicken and pigeon coop which was at the far point of our property so the fowl and bunnies never mixed. My Dad got the bunnies for "meat" but they all passed on from old age and were never close to being cooked as they all became pets.

 

[dogwoodblossoms]

I mixed baby chicks with my old bunny and he got ear mites not long after.
I'm not sure what your backyard looks like, but maybe try moving bunny across your yard or closer to your house so the chickens can have that area (they needs lots of room haha).
Good luck!

 

[Zephyre]

Not a good idea to keep chickens and bunnies together--chickens are not too sanitary so you run the risk of your rabbits getting sick from fecal exposure.

I don’t think you could build anything the rabbits could get to that the chickens could not. I did something similar and had a lot of issues with them mixing (rabbits reaching the chicken food, chickens eating the rabbit food, getting in where theyre not supposed to, chickens pecking the rabbits, etc). My advice would be not to mix them, even though it seems so fun and farm-like to have them together. :-(

I see. I was worried about the food mixing as well, but figured I could make some sort of "grill" that would keep the bunny from reaching the chicken food, while the chickens could fit their beak through. But yeah, chickens poop everywhere so I understand why they are a pain to mix with rabbits. The reason we thought of keeping them together is both companionship and space, since the bunny would get a bigger run this way.

A long time ago, when I was young, we had a huge garden, rabbits, and a chicken and pigeon coop which was at the far point of our property so the fowl and bunnies never mixed. My Dad got the bunnies for "meat" but they all passed on from old age and were never close to being cooked as they all became pets.

Haha, I heard lots of stories like this with animals that end up being kept as pets.

I mixed baby chicks with my old bunny and he got ear mites not long after.
I'm not sure what your backyard looks like, but maybe try moving bunny across your yard or closer to your house so the chickens can have that area (they needs lots of room haha).
Good luck!

Oof. I completely forgot about mites.
The backyard at the moment is separated, the bunny has its own enclosure and the planned chicken coop will be all the way across the garden. We thought about keeping them together since the bunny would get more space this way but it kind of sounds like it will be more hassle than it's worth, everyone is saying that it's a bad idea to mix them together.

Thank you for the advice!