rabbits and gardens!

[lazy shooter]

@Al:

You seem to be an accomplished cook.  I may try your rabbit recipes nest winter, and the deer over onions looks intriguing.  I love to cook with onions, and I love to cook in an iron skillet.  Another thing in your attitude is that I believe shoot and eat rids the crime scene of evidence.  We have mild winters, and when I cook with lots of onions or cook cabbage I use the gas burner on my outside barbecue grill. 

Thanks again, and it was a fun read.

lazy

[riverbee]

"Or italian queens!!! "

............ very true apis! they just don't make it here! 

"The recipes were a scuttle way to say shoot the varmints and eat them. Same with the deer.
Our law is can protect crops and live stock from varmints any time. But you sure would have a fight on your hands if you shot one of the states garden raiding deer here in Michigan."

al, ya mean SUBTLE?.......... , i did get your 'subtle hint' on the recipes and it was quite funny! your recipes probably are very good.  we enjoy venison, that's it. i grew up with all sorts of things on the table........ i do have some awesome venny recipes.

my husband actually asked me to take the pistols out for the woodchucks and bunnies. (i am the annie oakley....lol)  i can't do it. just can't do it. just a softy i guess.......well, i am. it's senseless. yeah so what they eat up my garden they do every year.  much better table fare out there than bunnies and woodchucks. 

thanks al!

ps lazy, this isn't a shoot and eat topic, it's about keeping bunnies out of the garden............

[Alleyyooper]

"ps lazy, this isn't a shoot and eat topic, it's about keeping bunnies out of the garden"

  and eating them is the best way, Might as well eat them now and veggies later as no veggies later and have to resort to rabbit.

I know my way around the kitchen and like to cook stuff for Kare. Of course I have to be careful with the spice selection if I want her to eat things again.

OK so I can't always spell the word I want, but Ya'll got the idea never the less.

   Al

[neillsayers]

RB, Heres a couple pics.

[riverbee]

thank you very much for pix neill! 

i think we pretty much lost our beans, peas, and maybe the cukes this year. dang little critters.

neil are those 2 by 8's ?

and do you have problems with the bunnies trying to dig under?

[neillsayers]

RB,

They are 2x10s. She used short pieces of re-bar driven into the ground to support the pipe. Not had any dig unders yet. Fingers crossed!

[brooksbeefarm]

If i had a rabbit that smart? i would hang a steel trap up side down over the hole on the inside of the tunnel or one of the old time mole traps, they work 24/7.  Jack

[neillsayers]

If i had a rabbit that smart? i would hang a steel trap up side down over the hole on the inside of the tunnel or one of the old time mole traps, they work 24/7.  Jack

[LazyBkpr]

scott, when i was younger/growing up........don't find the need now.   

   It isnt so much about the NEED to eat them, as it is about the NEED to protect your garden, and the NEED to enjoy a VERY FINE meal at little expense!!  So in effect, you kill two birds with one stone.. protection, and food.. no money spent on fancy repellents, fences, chargers, etc...    OH! And it also keeps you in tip top shooting shape so you will be prepared for the ZOMBIE invasion!!!!




 

[Gypsi]

hehe, I have learned that the MAIN reason I plant a garden is to lure in the critters I want to GRILL     

I like your solution
I am wondering if white wing doves the size of pigeons are on the dove season ok to hunt list?  because I hear they are rather tasty and they are chasing all my pretty birds off.

[riverbee]

i still don't find the need scott.........critters are smart......i hear what you are saying. hard for me.

if a gun works for you, fine, a gun doesn't work for me unless absolutely necessary.  i don't kill and grill critters/birds.

part of the challenge of keeping a garden is trying to outsmart them....sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. we keep it simple i guess. we would be shooting critters all day and all night everyday.  not going to do that. 

and btw, still in top shooting shape, beat them boys at the local rod and gun last thursday on skeet..............

garden is doing great! great harvest of mators, peppers.....good tator crop, pumpkins, pie pumpkins, squash. just miss the stuff the bunnies ate early in the season........

what i can't figure out is, last weekend we picked off a few green peppers off of 5 green pepper plants producing well.  we had to leave for a few days, came back and those plants were totally stripped of peppers............NOTHING LEFT......

want to talk about critters? ain't no critters stripping off my peppers.  like to give the two legged critter an arse full of buckshot for taking my peppers.
i couldn't believe it! 

anyone else had this problem?  folks stealing from your garden?

[brooksbeefarm]

For some reason the rabbit population has boomed at our farm? They even hop out from some of my hives when i start working them and set and watch me about 5 ft. away? When i go to the next hive they just watch me, and if i walk toward them they just keep a 5ft, distance between us. They just don't fear us like they did when i was growing up I watched them hop around the garden but they never ate anything like the green bean plants, cabbage, ect. , they and never gave a problem? They hop around the yard with the barn cats watching them but are not afraid. My old bird dog is to old to chase them now but tries to point them and sometimes falls over I should put him down but don't have the heart to,when he gets worse i'll take him to the vet. I won't let an animal suffer. Still can't figure these rabbits out. Jack

[Gypsi]

I think the increase in rabbits around here is due to the loss of my red tailed hawks.  A pair used to nest around here.  Rat poison manufacturers switched ingredients in the baits, now if a predator catches a rat that has ingested some, it kills the predator. I do still have coyotes. I consider that a Plus.

[Bakersdozen]

Checks and balances. 
Jack says:
"For some reason the rabbit population has boomed at our farm?"
With the boom in population, you may see an abundance of coyotes, fox, hawks or such in the next couple of years.
I have seen hawks try to pick up squirrels, but without much success.  Squirrels, now that's a critter that needs a predator.

[lazy shooter]

I could probably build a fence that would keep rabbits out of my raised bed gardens, but I don't think a raccoon can be stopped.  A friend of mine says, to build a goat proof fence, "Build the fence and throw a bucket of water on it.  If any of the water passes through the fence, it will not contain goats."  The same could be said for "coons."

Coons are very good with their front feet, they are smart and diligent and they don't have anything else to do.  On the ranch, only a steel building keeps them at bay.

lazy

[iddee]

Lazy, a baking pan and sweet potatoes keep them at bay just fine. 

[brooksbeefarm]

Haven't seen or heard any Coyotes on the farm for the past two years? I use to kill them when a snow was on, i can see a long ways from the house and have shot many from my back porch. I also use to track them in the snow and jump shoot them, got to lazy (or old) to do that anymore. . As for Red Tail hawks, when i run my brush cutter over the pastures  ( July to Sept.) young hawks set in close by trees and watch for a meal. They will swoop down and attack mice, Boles,snakes, Rabbits, ect. they just set there and dine on what ever as i make my next round and look at me like there saying Thank You. I even see several Rabbits in my out yards that use to be a rarity? Another odd think, we have been seeing dead opossums laying around that don't have signs that they were killed by anything? i don't leave poison out where animals could get in it? Jack

[LazyBkpr]

Lazy, a baking pan and sweet potatoes keep them at bay just fine. 

  Yes... i agree so VERY VERY good....
     I just lost some fruit trees and about 3 grand worth of grapes to deer...    The DNR says the numbers are WAY down this year and they will limit tags...  Why is it when they say numbers are down I see more deer than I ever have in my life?

   Old Knitro the bee dog seems to be keeping the rabbits at bay...  I am PROUD of him!  Popping one every so often and giving it to him seems to keep him slinking through the fields and on the hunt...   Deer, are another issue... i tied up Knitro down by the grapes... Woke up at 2:10 AM to his insistent barking...  walked out there, and there are 9 deer eating my grapes 15 feet from him...
   4 of them will never eat a grape again...
   if you can avoid killing natures critters, I applaud you, send me some money to replace my losses, and i will stop killing them too.