goto bunnyrabbit.com news 2002 issue 1
How Do You Keep Your Barns Cool?
Let’s start from the ground up. The type of floor in your barn can affect the room temperature. Dirt, gravel, sand or concrete floors can be cooled temporarily with a good soaking of water. Water may cause mud problems on dirt floors. Spraying with water works great on concrete floors. The evaporation of the water-cools the floor.
The materials the barn is constructed with can affect barn temperatures. The more insulation used the better control of room temperature. When barn walls or windows are open outside air will affect heating or cooling. Metal and shingle roofs are common coverings for most barns. Light colors will help reflect some heat from the sun. White is the coolest and will reflect the most (not silver).
A mister system placed on top of barns can help lower interior temperatures by water evaporation. Interior misters may also help keep heat down, but moisture may cause respiratory problems for the rabbits and get their feed wet.
Fans, evaporative coolers and air conditioners will help control many closed barns. Fans can move air quickly but usually do not change the room temperature. Evaporative coolers can cool air temperature as long as the outside humidity is low enough to help the evaporative process. Air conditioning units will produce cool air but use more electricity and does not ventilate the barn.
Putting frozen water bottles in cages will lower the temperature temporarily. Misting rabbits with a water bottle can help. As a last resort, some breeders will dip the rabbit in water and return it to its cage.
Keeping rabbits cool is an important step for having a successful Rabbitry. In Texas, the summer season seems to last longer each year. We have tried anything and everything to help keep our rabbits comfortable.
If you can offer any good suggestions on cooling rabbits, please let us know and we will post them in our next newsletter.
Hopefully we can help each other save some great breeding and show rabbits from a terrible fate.
Good luck, Ken Vanecek