Rabbits or not Rabbits?

[Ali]

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

[Lottie]

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.

[Ali]

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?

[Nicos]

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?

[Hardy]

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"

[Clarea1]

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

[Ali]

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!

[Nicos]

fencing

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!

[Ali]

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...

[Nicos]

maths!

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!!!

[nick the grief]

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

[Ali]

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

[Jaxom]

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.

[Lesley Jay]

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.

[nick the grief]

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.

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