Rabbit hole

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  • Nojoy621

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    8   0   0
    Aug 10, 2016
    390
    18
    Crown point
    Walking my backyard yesterday cleaning up after my dog I notice a pile of pine needles and a bare spot that was moving. I looked down and saw about 4-5 new born rabbits in a hole about 4 inches deep. I was about to mow my lawn so I'm glad I saw it.

    i have a 3 month old puppy that was sniffing around too but hasn't bothered them and we are actually going out of town for 2 weeks. How long do bunnies stay in the nest? I don't mind them being there really. I'm just curious to see if anyone has any tips.
     

    1911ly

    Grandmaster
    Site Supporter
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    6   0   0
    Dec 11, 2011
    13,419
    83
    South Bend
    I have 3 acres here. As hard as I try to avoid them I manage to hit one once every few years. That sucks when it happens. I hit one about a month ago. 2 baby bunnies down :-( .

    My golden would bring in a baby bunny once in a while. Come to find out a mommy bunny put a nest in the dog run. When he would bring one in. We would put it back in the and she'd still care for them. We'd let him out in the front yard until they grew up enough to run away away. Rabbits are funny things. the moma wasn't afraid of the dog. She did that for 3-4 years. The dog thought they were toys.
     

    Heavy

    Marksman
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    2   0   0
    May 4, 2016
    293
    18
    Tippecanoe County
    Mowing over baby rabbits is the only bad thing about spring. In early spring I'll walk the yard, I know the usual hiding spots, then hop on the mower. I had a bad time of it last year. I managed to save all but one. I collected all of them up in a box (they scattered when I spooked them), I found the last one tucked under my AC fan, I had to pick the unit up slightly so I could nudge it out with a stick to scoop it up into the box. Thinking I did the right thing, I went about cutting the grass and them dumped them all back into the same hole and covered them up. A couple days later I smelled the familiar scent from my days at the cemetery. Apparently there were two bunnies under the AC unit and one crawled under it and made it half way when I let it back down after getting the one out from under it. It was crushed in half. Poor thing. I felt awful about that. Some scavenger had ate the back half almost clean off.

    I make good and sure they don't get hit now.
     

    spencer rifle

    Grandmaster
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    66   0   0
    Apr 15, 2011
    6,544
    149
    Scrounging brass
    You people are all what we call in the profession "bunny petters." They're RABBITS. They will eat every last shred of green in your garden if you let them. They have no self-control. The world would be better off with a few less of them. Don't worry - they're rabbits - they'll make more.
     

    femurphy77

    Grandmaster
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    30   0   0
    Mar 5, 2009
    20,268
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    S.E. of disorder
    Similar situation a couple of years ago, the GF spotted a nest with 4 or 5 little ones in it under one of our evergreens, she called me over to identify it as it just looked like a ball of fur. At about the same time I'm looking at it our chocolate lab is walking away quietly with her mouth closed. Now this dogs mouth is never closed unless there is something in it so I told her to spit it out and out popped a baby bunny but it was dead probably due to fright. So the GF insists I run some fence around the tree to keep the dogs out in spite of the fact that I told her she'd have me out there shooting them in a month or two when they got into the garden!:rolleyes:
     

    Heavy

    Marksman
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    May 4, 2016
    293
    18
    Tippecanoe County
    You people are all what we call in the profession "bunny petters." They're RABBITS. They will eat every last shred of green in your garden if you let them. They have no self-control. The world would be better off with a few less of them. Don't worry - they're rabbits - they'll make more.

    Nice to meet you spencer rifle, you now know two things about me. My username is Heavy and I do NOT take pleasure or feel... meh... about killing a baby anything. Up to and including rabbits. That doesn't make me a "petter". That makes me kind and not willing to actively seek the death and pain of a being I'm not in fear of or looking to consume for nourishment.
     

    spencer rifle

    Grandmaster
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    66   0   0
    Apr 15, 2011
    6,544
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    Scrounging brass
    Nice to meet you spencer rifle, you now know two things about me. My username is Heavy and I do NOT take pleasure or feel... meh... about killing a baby anything. Up to and including rabbits. That doesn't make me a "petter". That makes me kind and not willing to actively seek the death and pain of a being I'm not in fear of or looking to consume for nourishment.
    You would not get along with my wife. We uncovered a nest of baby voles a few years ago, and I (with the younger kids' encouragement) let them live. Now we can hardly ever grow peas or beans in our garden, since the voles tunnel under and eat the seeds from below. We've had to replant numerous times to get anything. Traps, fencing, smoke bombs, poisonous baits - not solving the problem. She has never let me forget that mistake. If you or your neighbors have a garden, they mean you harm.
     

    BigBoxaJunk

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Feb 9, 2013
    7,314
    113
    East-ish
    Nice to meet you spencer rifle, you now know two things about me. My username is Heavy and I do NOT take pleasure or feel... meh... about killing a baby anything. Up to and including rabbits. That doesn't make me a "petter". That makes me kind and not willing to actively seek the death and pain of a being I'm not in fear of or looking to consume for nourishment.

    Glad to hear that you're not a Heavy Petter.



    [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]
    You would not get along with my wife. We uncovered a nest of baby voles a few years ago, and I (with the younger kids' encouragement) let them live. Now we can hardly ever grow peas or beans in our garden, since the voles tunnel under and eat the seeds from below. We've had to replant numerous times to get anything. Traps, fencing, smoke bombs, poisonous baits - not solving the problem. She has never let me forget that mistake. If you or your neighbors have a garden, they mean you harm.
    [/FONT]

    [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]You could have killed a 100 families of voles a few years ago and it wouldn't make any difference in the number of voles you now have in your garden. Like you said, their voles, they make more, probably more and faster than rabbits.[/FONT]

    [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]And, it's funny, my yard is surrounded on two sides by a field of tall grass. I used to set mouse traps in the fence row to catch voles to feed my snakes. I've caught hundreds of them in years past but, even though I haven't trapped any in years, they still don't bother my garden. Rabbits eat some of my stuff, but usually not enough to rouse me to murderous action. I'm mostly a live-and-let-live kind of person.[/FONT]
     
    Last edited:

    Nojoy621

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    8   0   0
    Aug 10, 2016
    390
    18
    Crown point
    You people are all what we call in the profession "bunny petters." They're RABBITS. They will eat every last shred of green in your garden if you let them. They have no self-control. The world would be better off with a few less of them. Don't worry - they're rabbits - they'll make more.

    I don't have a garden and if they want to eat the weeds in my backyard more power to them. They aren't bothering me, and i don't think they are Killer Rabbits of Caerbannog so I'll just let them be until they move on.
     

    femurphy77

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    30   0   0
    Mar 5, 2009
    20,268
    113
    S.E. of disorder
    You would not get along with my wife. We uncovered a nest of baby voles a few years ago, and I (with the younger kids' encouragement) let them live. Now we can hardly ever grow peas or beans in our garden, since the voles tunnel under and eat the seeds from below. We've had to replant numerous times to get anything. Traps, fencing, smoke bombs, poisonous baits - not solving the problem. She has never let me forget that mistake. If you or your neighbors have a garden, they mean you harm.

    You need to get a couple of labs! The first year or so we lived here the backyard looked like the Normandy cliff tops on D-Day, craters everywhere! Now when the odd vole does manage to get as far as trying to set up shop they don't last long enough to bring in the relatives!:rockwoot:
     

    MCgrease08

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    37   0   0
    Mar 14, 2013
    14,374
    149
    Earth
    My parents have some type of beagle terrier mutt mix. He got 7-8 rabbits last spring. Not by finding nests, but individually.

    He only has like an 1/6 of an acre of fenced in territory but he is committed to bunny patrol. He will hit them hard and just shake them apart in seconds.

    He is a sweet dog, but watching him snag a rabbit is pretty vicious. You'd think they would learn to keep out by now. My mom says she feels bad about him getting so many, but he does keep them out of her flower beds.
     

    Nojoy621

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    8   0   0
    Aug 10, 2016
    390
    18
    Crown point
    My puppy is a lab and he will go out to the hole and just lay down and watch them, hasn't once tried to dig it up or get one as a snack. It's pretty funny watching him chase birds away that get too close.
     

    Heavy

    Marksman
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    May 4, 2016
    293
    18
    Tippecanoe County
    I get what you're saying spencer, about the damage they'll cause. I've known it. I don't have a garden. It has been on the to do list since we built our house. I don't know that a day will ever come though, that I'm ok with the thought of knowingly mowing over a warren of baby rabbits. So far, they seek refuge in my yard, never even seeing the adults and the little ones are gone after a couple mows never to be seen again.

    Heavy petter! Ha! Lol.
     
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