Rabbits?

[OverWyreGrower]

OK, I've read the previous thread on rabbits, and it seems there are 2 ways.

High/buried fences OR shooting them

What really works? Shooting them isn't an option, as they're not in our field every morning/night and sometimes we won't see them for weeks, plus we don't know anyone with any sort of gun.

Fences I can do. We were going to put up a basic stock fence to keep the dog out, but was thinking that we could use chicken wire along the bottom at a right angle.

We're thinking about putting a plant or willow screen against the fence eventually, so this would help

Would the fencing ideas work? Any other top tips for keeping the fluffy bunnies away?

Thanks

OWG

[JennieAtkinson]

We made our field rabbit free OWG a number of years ago. It is walled in most places, so we checked every part of the wall including digging back a part of the foundations to check there were no chances of burrowing. We then put chicken wire attached to any type of fencing we could get hold of, I'm sure about 18" deep and 3 feet high around the other areas. The chicken wire was weighted down on both sides with horrendous number of rocks I manage to dig up! I encouraged the grass to grow up around the chicken wire to hold it in place too (its field grass so quite tough).
It has certaintly worked for us, but we do check regularly that there is no chance for the rabbits to burrow. Takes a while for a 1/4 acre field, but worth it. We have been rabbit free in the field now for 5 years and so far haven't had to replace the chickenwire.
Do go a reasonable depth down and also up as friends of ours have had rabbits jumping their 2 foot fence. Make sure too that whatever you plant around the chickenwire you are able to get to it to check it over time. Again friends have planted alot of shrubs around theirs but are finding it difficult to check, but of course the rabbits can still spot any possibilities of getting in.
Hope this helps and good luck.

PS We have resorted to shooting elsehwere in our garden as it would be such a long job to chickenwire another 1/2 acre! and the field next to us is teeming with rabbits. Although since we got our new puppy (she's now 18 months) she has chased a number out of the garden and we haven't seen many.

[MURFE 18]

We have rabbit problem, here what i did was 1inch mesh 4foot high, laid the bottm 1foot at right angle on the ground cause rabbits and foxes are abir dum, they will go up as far as they can to the fence and dig, this as worked for me rabbits can get through chicken wire as my mate next door as found out he,s just changing there,s to a smaller mesh, hope this helps you

[Mrs Dobby]

Looks like we've a wabbit problem on our site, something has been nibbling off the growing foliage on the carrots, not only on our plot, but on at least 2 other plots!

Unfortunately shooting is not 'officially' allowed on the site (its a council run site and is right on the edge of woodland / fields, so lots of wildlife), and netting the carrots doesnt seem to have worked, and fencing in our plot is something that would be pretty impossible to do, so anyone else any other suggestions, or do Mr D and I take a late night walk down there with a bit stick!

[sewer rat]

I have a severe rabbit problem on my 5 acres, and fencing the whole lot just isn't an option open to me this year due to cost, never mind the time it would take.
I use shooting and have a mate with some ferrets who is being gently persuaded that although he doesn't kill for anything other than the pot and doesn't like ferreting when there are young rabbits about (when are there ever NOT young rabbits about ???), this is a pest control matter so it'll be okay to ferret for a couple of nights real soon.
In the meantime I have snares at every run I can find along the fenceline - but the smart little bunnies now just walk (what the farmer actiually said was that they march, shoulders swaying and looking hard )out the old quarry gate, along the tramlines in the neighbouring field of forage peas where they eat their main course before moving onto mine for dessert.
However, fencing, if not cost prohibitive, would be the answer. Need fine mesh as mentioned previously, needs to be at least three ft above ground and one foot below, with the below decks bit also turned out so that when they dig down they find more wire.

[alanh]

Dear Overwyregrower,

I have had my site rabbit fenced for the last 4 years and I would just like to add a few thoughts to the previous contributions.

I agree that adequate fencing is the only way to exclude rabbits. Jennieatkinson is rightwhen she says that the wire need only be folded over to prevent rabbits from digging down: rabbits never dig closer than 6 inches to the fence. However rats do; and where rats lead rabbits can follow. I have found that securing the folded wire with ground staples (LBS Horticulture) does the trick admirably until the grass grows through thick enough to stop any lifting of the wire. I have also found that Badgers can be a problem: they either chew through the wire or attempt to climb over it.

My only other advise is to make sure that your staining posts are very secure, particularly if the ground is even slightly boggy. Whenever there is a change of direction (a corner say) you should use a 7" post concreted into the ground. Otherwise when you put in your straining wire the posts will move and your fence will begin to sag.

Hope that this is helpful. alanh.

[HeyWayne]

This weekend my father and I set about rabbit-proofing my plot.

Saturday morning we picked up some large pallets (3mx1.5m) from my place of work. Each pallet was sat on 4 bearer beams which were 1.5m long and 3-4inches thick. We loaded up the pallets onto a van, took them to my Dads and started dismantling them. Once dismantled we made some points on the posts with a chop-saw. They were then treated and left to dry.

Saturday afternoon, and yesterday we put the posts in place driving them in a good 500mm to leave a metre above ground. I now have no feeling in either of my hands, and if I see another sledgehammer I'll cry.

I have a 50m x 1.5m roll of chicken wire being delivered today (hopefully), and then another (30m x 1.5m) being delivered later in the week. We'll then attach it probably next week, digging down and then bending out to leave approx 1 metre above ground. We'll use supports at 45 degree angles to the posts at the corners (to hold them upright), and then use some "bull wire" to support the chicker wire around the top.

Each time I dropped the sledgehammer onto the top of the posts yesterday I said "hear that bunnies? That's the sound of exclusion from my plot, you little bleeders!"

We also dug up a load of bramble that had grown at the back of the plot - it would have compromised the fence otherwise.

I can hardly wait to be fenced in. I must say, I am proud and grateful to my Dad for helping me out, he's the best!

[JennieAtkinson]

Its lovely Haywayne when you see them sitting the other side with a perplexed look on their face! Well done, I'm sure you will benefit from all your hard work.

[OverWyreGrower]

Since our new (horrible) neighbours have moved in, we've not seen a rabbit on our gardens!!

I suspect it's because they've done lots of groundworks, with diggers and drills and ground clearance machinery. When they've found a warren, they've stopped work and sent the dogs down...

And also, Mr Neighbour has been outside with his gun, shooting any of the fluffy ones he can see!!

Hopefully, since the ground works are still continuing, they'll be put off a bit more.