I've decided to give it a late season attempt to set up a rabbit tractor of sorts. The plan is to use the portable dog kennel we've been using as a grass pen. I had Tony pick up a storage bin that I can cut a hole in, stuff with hay, and use as a shelter. He also bought me some bungee cords to use to hold a tarp over the top to keep those bald eagles from snacking on the bunnies. A big bowl will suffice for a water dish, and pellet feed will be weaned down over the course of a week or so as they get used to forage. They get lots of hay in their cages currently, so this is really just the fresher version of that anyway. I have made no arrangements as or yet to prevent digging out, as this has not been a problem in the past - though admittedly, I have never left my bunnies in the grass pen overnight. Only during the day. I may need to make more modifications.
This is all rather sudden, though I've been toying with the idea for some time now. The back burner idea here is to get some of the healthy bunnies out of the barn for a while to see if we can stop the spread of snuffles. I'm still not 100% sure which bunnies will be relegated to the tractor experiment yet. Ideally I'd like to put two out together, and they have to be currently healthy with no signs of snuffles. Kin, Kai, and Kevin are all possible buck options. I worry about separating Kin and Kai because they likely won't get along once they've been separated. They're already much older than I anticipated them being while still co-habitating peacefully. Perhaps if they go together to the tractor pen they will remain peaceful. They do enjoy being out in the grass pen anyway. Doe options would include Lorelei, Lilith, and Kaelyn, but if Lorelei or Lilith were to escape, I'd never be able to catch them, and I had plans to pair Kaelyn and Kevin together. So, do I put Kin and Kai out together, since I don't need extra bucks, and if anything goes wrong with the tractor, it's not a catastrophic loss? Or do I put Kevin and Kaelyn out in the tractor as a potential breeding pair (they are old enough) as a fall back in case the entire barn is a loss, I still have a single uncontaminated breeding pair?
I will have to sleep on it, think about it, and will probably ask the rest of the household what they think before making a decision. I plan on getting started with the set up tomorrow. It shouldn't take long to cut a hole in a storage bin and bungee some tarps to the kennel.