Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello... I'm looking for rabbit help! We have many a bunny on our allotments but I was fairly sure I had got them out of mine until the broadbeans disappeared... so I put a sacrificial lettuce out and lo and behold it went - but, it didn't get eaten - it got dug up and shredded. I can't believe that my poor sacificial salad was so disgusting that even a rabbit would spit it out - so can anyone help in suggesting what else it could have been? Many thanks to you. Ali

Snap

Rabbits will not usually touch broad beans. I have an allotment in the country and we get loads of rabbits. What I reckon it is - is pheasants. We get lots of pheasants. They dig down looking for the seeds. If the tops are ripped off and there are sort of cut/ripped off leaves scattered then it is them. They like the seed. Try the fresh green tops, and spit them out cos they don't like them. It is the pheasant shooting season so they are off the fields and on the allotments. Good luck - you and I need it. I covered some with some of my old plastic type cloches, but they are growing bent. What shall I so - have bent over beans or none. The former me thinks. For those of mine that are exposed and getting shredded, I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will sprout again.

Thanks. Your description is perfect and we do have pheasants around the place. And interesting that you don't think rabbits eat broad beans! How do you cope with your rabbits in the summer?

I don't think it sounds like bunnies either although not sure what it could be!! We have plenty of experience with bunnies as on our last allotment the neighbouring farmer pulled up his hedgerows in one big frenzy the week before new restrictions came into force. Their homes were destroyed and they wandered onto the allotments in search of new acommodation and discovered a wonderful food supply! On our present allotment, one of our neighbours used to shoot them until the stricter regulations of storing arms came in and since he stopped, we have loads! We have also bred mini-lops at home!
Bunnies tend to nibble here and there, occasionally eat the whole thing, and move on a few hops. I have never seen them shred their food. You would also find droppings as a give-away and small scratched up areas. They also tend to stick to a particular route rather than wander around if they know where the food source is -if that means jumping a 4ft bunny fence; digging under a buried piece of bunny wire, or even eating through it (yes- it has happened to us!!),then they would still prefer to stick to a well known route and would leave a little trail of droppings on the way.
I hope this will help you determine if it is bunnies?
Perhaps we could all pull together a list of signs of various animal/bird trade marks once we have helped Ali. If it's pheasants you could try catching them with those little cones of feed?

Hi

If you have trouble with pheasants you might find Sewer Rat's Top Tip helpful - it's in the post "It's a Gift". And even if you don't give it a try it'll brighten your day picturing it!

Hardy

PS you can find it easily by doing a search on the word "pheasant"

would a chicken wire and post type fencing not be cheap way of solving the problem?

Our allotments are already fenced in! and i have even re-fenced one of the beds inside the fenced in allotment... they don't get into the bed though, so i am wondering if i have to just have lots of fenced in beds... lots and lots of chicken wire - maybe i should start a business!

I am beginning to think we are producing a breed of super bunnies.....all fed on our organic veg!!
I seriouly think that some of the adults can clear a 3ft 6ins fence. Typical bunny wire is 1050mm high and should be burried a good 9ins below the soil curving outwards to prevent under burrowing.( Filling the trench with bricks and rubble will make life difficult for them too! ) This drops the height of the remaining wire to about 3ft 6ins. Watch out for equipment near the fence, eg compost heaps, buckets etc as they will use them as trampolines to bounce off! A bunny at full dash can clear quite a distance! Chicken wire buried under gates- a piece 2ft long should do- should help prevent them digging underneath. A bunny can get through and under a gap of less than 2ins so watch out for corners and ill fitting gates! Remember baby bunnies are even smaller! Good luck with your fencing. Yes-the more you do will certainly deter them. Also check for any holes at ground level in the fencing -something chewed a 2ins hole (am sure was a bunny) and when we chased off an adult it ran through the hidden hole at full pelt (that's how we found the hole in the fence!).
Grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and telling them off, before throwing them back in the field, can be quite satisfying!!
Remember - after all that hard work, the pigeons etc etc will pay a visit too!! In the end it's down to how desperate you are not to share your crops with nature!

nicos, maybe you could be the nation's bunny-solution travelling around the allotments of the nation rescuing poor allotmenteers and catching the little fluffy balls of fun?

an allotment neighbour has said that it could be voles causing the problems...

so this list is coming along.. .bunnies, pheasants, pigeons, voles...

Perhaps I could!! Have just re-read my last piece and my maths is astounding!! Sorry! It is generally recommended to bury wire 6ins below leaving 3ft above but this clearly doesn't work for some of us. In many places we have had to cut more netting in half and add it to the top. If you do find out what is nibbling your produce- do let us know!!!

If I'd grabbed the little fluffy ball I think it would be desting to sit with the carrots in a stew pan

and all from your allotment! you can't get much more self sufficient than that!

Every Rabbit in the pot is one less eating your vegetables on your lottie.
Rabbit is rather tasty. If you have Pheasant on your lottie then you can have Game Pie too.

Oh Jaxom I couldn't eat the pheasants on our allotments - they are really friendly. Or should I say were really friendly. I guess someone must have shot them.

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Where's your plot Lesley I love Pheasant and would be happy to do the dead for you

i had pheasants in my garden this morning... want to do the dead on them too? but it would mean losing some beautiful plumage in the morning sun!

Hello people i might be the answer to your prays because the other hobby i do apart from allotments is Free pest control i am fully insured Basc member and use pre silenced air rifles perfect for shooting rabbits they are very quiet with a silencer and accurate with telescopic site on i have many years expierance shooting rabbits, before long they will be breeding so their will be young ones doing more damage to your veg.I am aged 40 and willing to travel up to 80 mile.

It would be a pleasure free of charge in return for shooting permission contact me on pk014i8385@blueyonder.co.uk .

Names Paul Kennedy

'll leave you the feathers Ali

for phesants make a cage out of chicken wire the same shape as a pollytunnel with a bottom on it it should be about 3ft long and 18" wide cut a hole in the front of it about 6" by 6" from the bottom in the centre then roll up some chicken wire to make a cone to fit the hole you have just made and taper to about 4" then insert it into the hole and stitch it in around the hole with wire then make a small door in the side of the cage which you can take the bird out of place it in the area intended put some old tree branches around it then sprinkle some corn in the trap then a little out side of the trap into the cone and im sure you will catch your bird

make sure you check the trap twice a day this trap keeps the birds alive

I think these pheasants can read messageboards. I now have a harem of pheasants - not in the allotment but in my garden. Mr P and his 4 wives. Mr P comes right up to the kitchen door to eat my bird scraps... he's too beautiful to eat!

their spread far and wide now cos shooting season over thats why they coming to you for food.Game keeper will have stopped feeding em.

There very nice you knoe roasted

Ali

4 Wabbits. I personally (soory about this) would shoot the little blighters! However, failing this option, either get someone to bring a ferret (yes, a ferret) and get it to spray everywhere. Failing that, ask anyone who keeps ferrets to give you a bag of the cage sweepings and scatter that about! I've tried it and it works, beleive me!

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Zebedee
"Raised to a state of heavenly lunacy where I just can't be touched!"

interesting to see this thread come up again after such a long time!!

I have since heard that if you cut some old hosepipe into 3-4 ft lengths (needs to be the yellow I think) and paint on eyes and a red mouth and leave several of them around the allotment, and keep moving them each time you visit, then the bunnies think they are snakes and keep away. I have never tried this myself, but will give it a try if I can get hold of some old hosepipe.
We buried the last of our pet bunnies( Tiffy) a couple of days ago- aged 9 ...the last of many we used for breeding (over 15 years )so can't try it out on her. My daughter's pet house rabbit wouldn't know an enemy if it ate him...bounds around ignoring the cats!! So he's not much cop either!
If anyone does try this out, I'd be interested in the results.
Like the idea of ferrett pooh and pee though! Will hunt some out! Good idea!