Rabbit Damage - 'Immune' Plants and Management Ideas
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- www.edibleacres.org
We are at a peak moment of rabbit browse and damage in our gardens right now. Between deep deep snow and very cold nights, the rabbits have been putting incredible pressure on our nursery and plantings. I share observations on which plants seem to be as close to immune to rabbit browse as can be, and other notes. I also talk about the steps I'm taking to reduce their numbers now...
12:22 - I discuss my current design for establishing a very comfortable and easy access location for the rabbits to eat as much as they want of branches I provide, in an area that is straightforward for me to hunt with a clear line of sight and accurate shot placement with a pellet gun. Any rabbits we kill in this way will be worked with as a source of incredibly nourishing food for us and a pelt that can be made into something useful. We waste none of their body.
We're very open to dialog around this short term approach to reducing their pressure as we support other predators to balance the situation moving forward and reinforce our fencing to keep them out in a real way. Are there more thoughtful or potentially humane avenues we can explore? Happy to hear alternative ideas.
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For what it's worth, my observations are identical. Pears and apples get significant attention. Currants, seaberry and Elderberries get zero. I do have one further observation made this year... I have a garden with 2 apples on the north side, grapes planted at their base, raspberries infront (among many other plants). In this guild, the rabbits hang out in the raspberries about 2 feet from the apples. However, in the same guild I have left up some kale and collards. Those two apple trees have ZERO rabbit damage, despite the rabbits being all over that place. The kale and collard section have noticeably more rabbit tracks seeming to enjoy them. This leads me to believe that planting stuff like kale and collards very late in the season can help deflect some of the rabbit pressure. My conclusion is that they really don't want to eat the trees. They would rather eat some kind of green, even if it's "stale" and old. They preferentially browse that and leave the trees alone (for the most part). I can imagine that a late-season seeding of some kale around your nursery stock may actually serve to act as "sacrificial cathode plating" armor for your fruit trees?
I feed my rabbits oregano from the garden in summer and if I don’t trim it back in fall I dig down and get them little “green” winter snacks. Might work for the wild ones, too
Props to edible acres and Canadian permaculture inspiring the community! Got my first house last year with an open acre and I'm hitting the ground running with fruit trees and perennials wanting to grow everything under the sun
@@ThomiBMcIntyre Maybe introduce some housing for owls hah. Or just some fake owls or Hawks around may spook them
I'll try planting extra kale, and I've found Scarlet kale to overwinter and reveg in zone 5 Michigan it's an easy kale for me.
@@JohnDoe_88 yeah this is really one of those things where there doesn't have to be A solution. We can do ALL the things.
Sean, your thinking and care about the lives of the wild animals around you is more advanced than 99.999% of the rest of us. You have nothing to reproach yourself about. Your thinking and musings in these videos is an education to those of us tuning in. Your ability to tell a real life story about the life in the garden (both flora and fauna) is amazing. Love your videos. Cheers Alec
I think you folks are incredibly conscious of what you are doing and it's implications. I have to trap animals on occasion or I will not have a garden & orchard. It is just that simple. I don't enjoy it but I am not going to loose and entire garden or dozens of fruit trees to voles, mice, rabbits and deer. There comes a point when there really isn't any other choice. People who do not live in the country and have never tried to grow their own food are not aware of the cycles of nature (rise & fall of certain animal populations....decline or absence of predators...etc) will never understand. You take great care of your chicken flock and even allow some of your work to feed the wild life. I see no reason why you should feel bad in the slightest for taking care of your family business, customers and wanting to reap the rewards of your 16 years of dedicated & ethical work!
It sounds like you’re doing the right thing. The ethics of harvesting meat from your land are pretty clear in my mind. You’ve created habitat for them, and you’re managing their population so they don’t decimate your crop. You’re just participating in your own system more actively. Thank you for sharing and I appreciate your concern for the ethics of how you harvest game.
Just on the Ethics thing... I see nothing wrong with being the predator in a situation where there is imbalance, and there is a healthy yield to obtain. This may partially be because I honestly truly feel that trees and bushes are alive and feel just as we do, and just as the rabbit does. I believe that they are just so dissimilar to us that it's hard for us to see it. For example, when plants are grazed, it has been shown scientifically that they release chemicals as a "scream" out and warning to other plants. Yes, your grass literally cries when you mow it. We just can't hear it. That is going to sound so "crazy tree hugging guy" but seriously if anyone is in doubt, go look it up. Okay, so why did I say that?
Because choosing the rabbit over the tree is just a choice, similar to choosing the tree over the rabbit. And making no choice is making a choice. So harvesting a rabbit for protein and saving trees is not an inhumane thing, at least no more than doing nothing and letting them destroy baby trees. And if the same time you are filling a meal and obtaining nourishment from it's life, blessing it's life as you take it, thanking it for the sustenance it gives you, ending it as humanely as possible, and providing a good life for it (habitat and browse) for the days it lived it's life, then that's what being a good human and steward to nature is all about.
I plant perennial kale for them. I plant clover for them. I allow them in my gardens. But I also back onto 10,000 acres of wild forest where we have foxes and owls and fishers, etc. They have a host of predators that keep them in check. However, if they get too numerous, I would not hesitate to join in with the other predators and consume some myself to keep their numbers in check.
I think your head is absolutely in the right place, and that's what matters. It does matter.
I know many vegans may take exception to this, but I think there is value in having people be considerate to this, but choose also to not be vegan. I think slow gradual changes of eating less meat is important. But the meat we do it, if harvested like this, is about as ethical as it gets. Again, choosing not to eat the rabbit is just a choice. And choosing to leave it alone is choosing to kill trees. That also is a choice. And it has a consequence all the same. Both beings are alive and deserve balance.
Thanks for sharing all this Keith!
Well stated. I hadn’t thought of it like that... not choosing is in fact making a choice
Long videos are never an issue for me as long as they're as informative as this one is. 👍🏼😁👍🏼
I really admire the way you guys are giving the rabbits their best life until the end and affording them that respect. I have only dealt with field mice here but it's shocking to see how easily the animals find those little food pockets within the relative desert that urbanization has created. I always enjoy your videos and appreciate the knowledge you pass on to us all through your experience.
We are creating an oasis here with habitat and a ton of great food, it makes sense we have this pressure to manage now!
Rabbits leave the elderberry because of the pact they have with deer.
Ha!
You do this as morally correct as can be done. They feed you feed. Instincts prevail without savagery.
It is an honor to learn from the two of you.
Your approach to hunting rabbits reminds me of a scene in the movie Cold Mountain. There is an old woman who is lovingly holding a lamb and then all of a sudden slits its throat. (Or at least that's my memory of it. It's been a while.) That scene haunted me for weeks. It seemed so cold hearted. But then I realized it was the kindest thing she could have done. She needed the meat to survive and the lamb had the best possible life with no fear at the end. Still, I don't think I could do it myself. I'm glad I don't have to.
I respect the commitment to ethical hunting, and appreciate you sharing your struggle with drawing your line. It's a sea of grey out there and it's so hard to have confidence when making decisions that have the ultimate significance to other beings that you can't really negotiate with. I think you're doing great and I'm jealous of your traditional Italian pasta dish.
-Tom
For the girdling, do you try bridge grafting? I may have actually learned it from Akiva. People here should know that if your trees ever do get the full 360 degree girdle, that you can often save them with a quick and timely bridge graft before the trees break dormancy.
I could replant them with the girdled part down below soil line and that would help...
Adding some owl nest boxes will help Sean. I have seen my elderberry bushes left alone by our rabbits here as well as our currants. All that rabbit traffic oh my! I find our hawks keep our population in check here in zone 5b upstate NY. I must say I keep all our fruit trees wrapped in small 1/2" welded wire and have started pruning apple trees and will leave trimmings as an offering. We chose not to eat anything that has eyes and that we live a very healthy lifestyle. Everyone has free will to chose what they deam appropriate. When confronted with such damage something has to be done to mitigate that. 🌱👍
No potatoes !?!? Haha
@@arlisswirtanen7794 Very funny Arliss! 😁
I support your decision Shawn. You have done a good bit of observing and attempting to reroute their traveling from your lively-hood.
Love it....lively hood!!!😂
If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em.
You're the most thoughtful and kind "preditor" I've ever observed. I am surprised but also happy to hear that you're ethically harvesting/ hunting the rabbits that are clearly thriving because of your plant propagation. I think you're playing your part in the most gentle way that you possibly could. I want to hear more about different rabbit recipes that you and Shasha are trying out. Lastly, what do you two plan to make out of the rabbit hide that she is tanning? You two are truly the best of beings in my opinion.
Such kind words, thank you. Not sure what Sasha will do with the hide, she's got a bunch of hides salted and has big plans :)
I agree with your stance on ethical harvesting and control of animals. I would *much* rather a critter die from a headshot than from poison or strangulation. Even live traps are problematic... that must be terrifying for any creature.
I have choke cherries close to my house, they seem to withstand the bunnies pretty well
What about voles? A whole video on them would be great fully appreciated... My arch nemesis in a high tunnel situation. So far they don’t seem to mess with my perennial arugulas but (surprisingly) do eat my rare allium bulbs 😔
I has all of my garlic eaten be voles. 😒
@@amyr505 That is NOT ok (thinking of all my garlic...).
I once witnessed a severe outbreak of Myxomatosis and that is something I never want to experience again. Blind little bunnies everywhere being hacked into pieces by everything. Lack of predators is a problem in any ecosystem and I think we should try to restore that. We have grey wolves coming back to my area for the first in more than a century. After 4 years I finally start to see a modest decline in the deer pressure which is promising. Some hunters get their hounds killed which is sad but besides from that I think the ecosystem health and sense of wilderness has improved.
Excellent deep dive on rabbit management, well presented indeed!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Edible acres seems an appropriate name for all involved. We learn something new every day and that's the beauty of caring for Mother Earth.
*On the Ethics of Rabbit Hunting/Trapping*
I think that, as a species, we have systematically waged war against all predators (if not all other species) to the detriment of many, many ecosystems. With that in mind, I believe that it is our responsibility to fill all of the niches we have emptied. I would much rather bring back the native carnivores and omnivores, but there seems to be huge resistance to that from many farmers, ranchers, politicians and others. Therefore, for the good of both the environment and the remaining wild animals, I see it as our duty to control the herbivorous populations so that they do not starve (from over population) and do not ravage either wild or domesticated flora, especially not to the point of extinction.
Recently, I have been planting for and actually feeding the wildlife that visit my home. So far, I have not needed to hunt any of them, though I did grant permission for some friends to bow-hunt deer on my property as long as they obeyed all hunting regulations. (They were unsuccessful at this.) My tiny 2-acre homestead is home to _at least_ 9 resident deer, as well as several transitory deer.
I applaud your efforts to hunt and/or trap ethically. If you can do so, I say go for it. It is my belief that it symbiotically strengthens the populations of all involved. I believe that regenerative, sustainable agriculture requires a symbiotic relationship with local native fauna (and flora), and I fervently believe in biodiversity - including faunal diversity. If you could find a way to trap without causing suffering, I would support that, as well, but I side with Sasha if there is _any doubt_ about the efficacy of the traps.
I have never learned how to hunt or trap. If I could, I would, but I think I am verging on being to old to learn.
I believe we need more predators - a hierarchy of predators - in all ecospheres and that we should honor and support them. I know I am in the minority on that, but that _is_ what I believe.
Fantastic! Once again. It is the in depth way you look at things. This is taking function stacking and trap crops to a new level. Love it.
Good job on the hunting and improving conditions for the owls and other birds of prey. They will help you as you are helping them.
Great job!
We bought our small farm as an estate and we have large areas of wooded land which I absolutely love because it is full of wild fruits, food & medicine. But unfortunately because the couple that lived here were elderly and the land was neglected for years before they passed away there was an explosion in the population of moles, voles, & field mice. Needless to say they did serious damage to my garden the first year before our flock of chickens and our rescue cat brought the population under control. We still have some pressure from moles and a little from voles & field mice but it is nothing like what it was the first year plus it was a great source of extra protein for my flock when they would catch them. Thankfully the rabbits seem to stick to our wooded areas likely because it doesn't get nearly as cold here in Louisiana and there is green stuff to eat all year round. I'm really curious to see what happens this year since we got hammered by Hurricane Laura in 2020 and lost most of our large overstory trees to the storm. Many of them still lay where they fell because we are focused on rebuilding our house so there is currently plenty of rabbit friendly housing out in our woods for them to increase their population
Sean, a Great Pyrenees or an Anatolian Shepherd will not only guard your chickens but keep rabbits at bay!
We have a Great Pyr and two Anatolians and BY FAR, the Anatolians are better at keeping wild rabbits off our farm.
We are a no-kill farm with 233 chickens and 6 rescued meat rabbits we saved from the stew pot! Our rabbits live free range in a small 300 square foot fenced area around their double-decker hutch.
Our dogs know those rabbits are part of their charge and they protect them.
But other rabbits...
...they end up as dinner when the Anatolians catch them.
We don’t have much of a rabbit issue on our farm anymore.
If only I could find a way to keep the VOLES out of our gardens!!! 😖
Love you and Sasha! Stay warm. Cuddle the chickens for me!!!
😁🐓❤️
Thanks, I was surprised to hear about the Goumis and will cover mine right away. I planted Goumi last year and thought they were just as safe as the Sea buckthorn.
Personal experience is that they are an incredibly high level target for rabbit browse.
I'm grateful you shared this. I believe it's completely ethical. We each need to decide our level of dominion and consumption. Your points on poisons and chemicals in the landscape to control these populations is so important as well. Thank you for sharing that.
Half inch hardware cloth around the main stem to a height of 4' above grade, (over tree wrap to protect from sun scald, ) worked for us in the prairies where we were overrun by jack rabbits. Leaving some small, lower branches for browse (as Miracle Farms does). This does require time and effort, but less time than fencing, or mounting an ongoing effort into turning these prolific breeders into Hasenpfeffer. Remember to make this screen tall enough for the amount of snowfall (that make for bunny ladders) in your region. In lieu of leaving smallish lower branches in spots where they are in the way, I leave piles of tasty pruned fruit tree and shrub branches near spots where tracks indicate abundant critter access points to my property. These spots are at a distance away from the plants I want to keep.
I don't have nearly the extensive plantings that you do, but I've noticed that the rabbits and deer love my wild blackcap patch in the winter. It survives, but barely. Red osier dogwood also gets nibbled by the deer, but it's just a light pruning so probably benefits the plant. My hazels are generally ignored, but they're quite close to the house and the fenced dog yard. I also see tons of rabbit and deer tracks around my birdfeeders - they check for fallen seed (which is mostly black oil sunflower) every night. Last week, I watched a doe spend quite a while nibbling branch tips on a common buckthorn, which is said to be among of their least favorite winter foods. My mostly-annuals garden is fenced but small rabbits do get inside in the summer (I leave the gates open in the winter so I can get to my coldframes without shoveling), so I've thought about eliminating the fence completely, but I have a woodchuck that lives under the shed and that's a whole other problem. Have you ever had woodchuck problems?
Good notes here thank you. We do have woodchucks in the summer, another whole realm of challenege to work with!
Good stuff Sean thank you again. I had to add a low wrap of chicken wire to my main garden bc of the 2x4 wIre letting rabbits in, which worked fine but of course was reactive not proactive. Live and learn. You have a wonderful appreciation for life. Life eats life no matter how you slice it. Could be rabbit could be cucumbers. We’re all just a bunch of atoms trying to thrive. But regardless you have a beautiful connection to your food and your approach is as consciously ethical as I think a person could be. I try to have that same appreciation for the venison I harvest here in nj. Thanks again man your content is loaded with good info.
Woohoo I love this channel!! 😍
I have been building gabbions and planting willow in a Russian olive forest. The rabbits love when I trim branches down to the ground during the winter.
THey love our willows when they are young.
Definitely no criticism from me about reducing the wildlife pressure on your livelihood. You seem to always care for and nourish all the parts of the nature around you, and sometimes being the population control (predator) on a species is necessary to maintain a balance. We are ALL part of nature and depend on each other to maintain the balance.
great video. if i ever have a rabbit problem, I'll do exactly what you did here. i agree its the most ethical and practical solution.
Good job!
Its easy getting angry and acting on things thought beyond control, happy to see it done with patience, sincerity, and respect for life.
Everything in moderation pre conclusion.
Ecologically sound.
I definitely think that your approach to hunting the rabbits is about as ethical as you can get. There is a reason for it and they are serving a purpose afterwards.
Sometimes I wonder if rabbits are genetically programmed to know just how much damage they can do to eat what they need but the plants will come back again for them the next year....evolutionarilly that makes sense, although I am not sure evolhtionarilly is a word. Lol
I wonder the same thing. I see it VERY often that they brows right up to a certain point and then lay off...
I think you demonstrate a beyond reproach thought process and implementation, a great example to us all. I'm not sure I would be so tolerant if I saw $5k of stock disappear. Fortunately we don't have wild rabbits here only hares but do have a lot of deer pressure. They broke into our garden couple of weeks back and finished everything off, I was quite happy for them to do this as at -11f there was nothing good for us and it only demonstrated to me that we need to up our fencing. Love the idea of seeing more owls, something we've talked about here too.
Yes the monetary value can be a hard hit when I map it that way, but the reality is that the true limiting factor to our nursery is the actual time and mental bandwidth to managing sales. We run out of that way before we run out of plants. The rabbits simply selected a decent swatch of what we thought would be offering and 'simplified things' for us. There will still be enough other plants to sell in the spring that we won't be broke, and every plant that is eaten by rabbits in winter can rebound and regrow in the spring. It all works in the end, but the rate of consumption has to change otherwise it will erode into our baseline ability to make a financial living...
@@edibleacres My background was helping businesses streamline processes using tech they already have but more efficiently. If you want any help am more than happy to do a session talking through your current process and how you might be able to ease any bottlenecks you have so you can spend the time you have more productively when things get busy. Just let me know.
Looking forward to see what you do with your rabbit yield.
On the gardening channel with James Prigioni, he used a course of chicken wire at the bottom of his fence in order to deter the little bunnies...it seemed to work...love your musings, the channel and Sasha's ferments...thank you!
I think we'll commit to 2' standard chicken wire all around the base of the fence once the snow melts enough..
I think you could get a yield in the form of rabbit stew :-]
When you said you wanted to add more natural predators I was hoping you would get yourself some wolves XD
Horses eat hazelnut bushes. They also chewed the bark off the young poplars and kept the apple trees pruned kind of high up.
They've finally been moved, and in the spring I plan to get the field plowed and start planting.
I love your channel and methods! I don't usually leave comments, but we also have a lot of bunnies. The only way I have been able to keep them from "browsing" is to offer other food. Lol, I know it seems counter-productive, but it works. I use bird seed blocks on the ground between where the bunnies live and where I don't want them to browse. They seem to enjoy nibbling on the seed blocks more than any natural food source around here. I don't know if this will work in your situation, but I thought I should at least share the idea... since you're always sharing with us! ✌️
Really appreciate this note :)
Like your idea of luring them into a spot with the apple branches and stacking functions with the manure and probably lot of urine for the compost pile a lot to think about... thanks for sharing as always
Denis
Seems pretty functional so far.
The pellet gun is absolutely more humane than a snare, even if your aim is not perfect. Snares are not fast, are painful, and the rabbit spends the end of its life in fear and terror. I raise rabbits for meat, and work hard to maintain their comfort and peace up until the last second. It isn’t easy - sometimes they freak out when I pick them up. Better to put that one back and choose someone else. I also do not starve my animals beforehand, they get so agitated I can’t stand it. Another commenter mentioned that scene with the goat in a movie where the old woman is holding it on her lap and slits its throat. The goat is feeling love and then just ceases. That’s the goal.
Thank you for sharing your direct experience here, really appreciated.
I use a patch of lettuce 🥬 around my garden and the rabbits 🐇 grazing it almost never go into the actual garden !
Clover as a sacrifice seems to work during the growing season in zone 5, especially if you distribute human (or dog?--the point is, predator) hair clippings on your particularly vulnerable plants (Prunus for me). But neither will work in his winter or in Southern summers (cowpea instead?) where such plants are unattractive to herbivores for the simple reason that they are completely dead.
My most heavily hit trees this year have been apricot, plum and curly willow. Everything else has been nibbled, even the elder berry. Mostly the rabbits are sticking to the wild roses and wine berries. Mulberry and peashrub seems to be the least touch. A note about elderberry, my geese did strip all the bark off the elderberry in their run, these were two fingers thick trunks. Wild geese might do the same.
On a nutritional note, I'm interested in learning more about wild fruits and tart fruits rather than standard sweet ones. I've found that ketosis diet has been helpful to my health. Traditionally most keto diets avoid fruit due to sugar/carb content interfering with ketosis but I cannot digest most vegetables so I rely on berries of all kinds. So when I start my homestead I will be focusing on wild/tart fruits, mostly berries and also wild meats like rabbit and deer. Apparently there is a variety of watermelon discovered from seeds found that were hundreds of years old that kind of looks like a squash so I'm interested to see how it compares to modern watermelons.
Thank you for being humane on dispatching them as well as not waisting their sacrifice. My Native American ancestors will thank an animal for giving it's life to feed our family as well as offer sage and some other things in thanks. Might be an avenue you could explore and see how you felt about it.
I would definitely enjoy some rabbit recipes!!!!! I love making rabbit and dumplings or rabbit pot pie 😋!!! I have heard rabbit and white gravy is good as well.
I think it's completely ethical. Whilst we have been conditioned otherwise, Man is still part of nature and so I have no problem with us hunting and eating meat. The rabbits are having a huge impact on your ability to earn and any which you hunt will be used as food/hide. Your hunting them actually results in much less suffering for them than if they are hunted by a different animal.
I agree with Sasha about the snaring - it would break my heart to think of a rabbit suffering for such a long time. We choose to eat meat in our family, and our biggest requirement is a quick and painless death (as much as possible). I think you are very conscious of your role in the eco-system and shouldn't be concerned with occasionally stepping into the predator role as needed.
We are "lucky" not to have much rabbit pressure here. I'm not sure if it's due to the presence of our dogs, or if we just don't have a large population to begin with. Voles, on the other hand, are a different story! My cats are fat and happy but we still are overrun with them. I would never use poison but we have had to start trapping near our animal feed. I'd love any other ideas/suggestions!
I am not too far away from your location with a similar climate etc, north side of Lake Ontario. Your observations of rabbit pressure are identical to mine. In addition to apple as a favourite, they devoured my aronia (chokeberry) and even ate the tops off young maples that I was starting near the driveway.
They are tough... Interestingly we started seeing mink prints in the snow later winter and now I haven't seen a rabbit at all since then... It all may be balancing out
I raise rabbits! Oh my, that’s a ton of tracks! From the tiny poops,I think they are definitely in need of bulk in their diets, which is why they are going for apple bark and others with sweet bark. Maybe interrupt their thoroughfare with flakes of fresh grass or alfalfa hay for them to browse?
Great suggestion. We have hay bales for the chicken coop, I may flake some out in areas we want them to be.
This raises a question on the use of alfalfa pellets (e.g. horse food) as a cheap organic fertilizer. Granted rabbits will burn the organics to carbon dioxide and water and return some of the fertility (not necessarily to where the gardener had planned, and plants I consider "pets" hate any soil fertility, so I want to target my fertilizer) in the form of poop.
I appreciate being able to learn and compare our challenges in the garden, great video! I haven’t had any rabbit damage, but the fox kinda rule in my neighborhood, here in southeast PA. Where are your fox?
I wouldn't be surprised if neighbors put out traps or poison or some other gross things to keep foxes/coyotes at bay. . People are scared of predators I think. I truly hope there is some other reason they haven't been around in a while but I see people make horrifying decisions about what to do with predators...
@@edibleacres That’s tragic! Human behavior is a challenge to permaculture flourishing. I enjoy seeing the neighborhood fox with an occasional squirrel in its mouth...they keep their distance, typically trotting away doing what they were created to do.
Excellent and very informative video. Thanks!
PS - good hunting!
I checked today and they are gnawing the heck out of my Nanking Cherry and Dwarf Cherry bushes. Also basket wilowl but not corkscrew, which is interesting. I found a gap in a tree fence that I fixed because I could see they are squeezing through and chewing the lower branches of a young apple. Not sure if my apple root stock will recover, they did a number on the potted plants I was going to graft this spring. Sigh... Great video, really got me thinking!
So many things to keep up with! You'd think you get a break for a bit in the winter, but there is always some new activity happening to keep us on our toes!
You have to protect your property and if that means killing rabbits, that is what you have to do. I do not criticize vegans or vegetarians for their beliefs, and they should not criticize people that do not have the same beliefs.
Well said!
Autobahn. Hahaha yup you have rabbit pressure. Nice job Sean of showing comparisons in food preference.
Thanks. We put up fencing temporarily around the whole garden and that has been helpful, but still have a lure/hunting place we are feeding them dailiy.
Love your ethics behind this . But “rabbit porous” is a stroke of genius 😂😂😂😂
Not sure how else to describe it... .
@@edibleacres Love it :)
Kestrel are not large enough to be taking rabbits on a regular basis. Red tail hawks are the scale needed for rabbit predation. I've built and used successfully a couple of simple box traps for live catching rabbits that have worked well. In my case I needed them to recapture domestic rabbits that had escaped, but they're an option that does not have the negative aspects of snares. The box traps are simple construction projects, you're certainly capable of building ;) Once caught, you have options.
For some reason, he seems to free range his chickens. Redtails were by far the most effective chicken predator around when I was in Florida, and convinced me never to try small livestock without a caged ceiling or other secure roof over their heads.
The rivers in yellow stone reforested and recovered from erosion once wolves were reintroduced. The wolves keep the grazers on the move and prevent over grazing.
I could imagine this very much.
Those predatory birds will eat your chickens... It's your business you're talking about, you must keep it safe and productive! Enjoy your rabbit 🐇 harvest, however you get it friend. 😊
You absolutely go above and beyond most as far as respecting the lives of critters that vie for your plants. You can give them good life and respect and fill the freezer. This is using nature to nurture.
Have you considered get a dog? Even the random presence of a dog may help. Although, training the dog to respect all your plants could be quite costly in time also. Good luck!
We had dogs before and may again, but the system is so super complex who knows how much damage their activity would do, too!
Hey Sean, a friend of mine had a similar problem on his homestead in Northern California. What you have is an imbalance between predator and prey. Set up several 10-15ft t-posts or perches for predatory birds, maybe an owl box or two to have owls nest near your property. Your rabbit and vole/mouse numbers should go down in no time. let nature do the work for you. If you find that there are too many predators and they're over reaching and exterminating too much wildlife then you can always easily remove these landing and nesting zones. hope this helps!
Hoping to make the time to create and install these elements... Thank you for the ideas.
I have a type of fatal trap that I use for problematic squirrels called a Conibear body trap size 110. I suspect this would be the right size for rabbits also. They can be bought for under $10 a piece and look like miniature versions of the old pioneer beaver traps.
I use the standard 2"x4" galvanized fence and then put chicken wire along the bottom foot of the fence. It does a great job of keeping the baby bunnies out. The chipmunks can still find ways into my garden, but the rabbits arent much of an issue anymore. I still need to run chicken wire along the bottom of my food forest fence. The rabbits haven't nibbled my two year old apple trees yet but your video has me worried since I've seen them in there.
Chipmunks will always get in! Yeah, we plan to use chickenwire around the bottom 2 feet probably, but need the snow to receed first.
I have a feral cat, highly intelligent, whom I tamed when he was half grown. This was long and difficult but once he finally decided I was trustworthy I became "tribe." He's about 12 now and still goes out rabbit hunting daily even though I make sure he always has food available. He simply prefers wild food. He's a very affectionate cat but hunting is as important to him as breathing. It brings him into full alertness and extreme focus, keeps him fit and gives him purpose. I've come to understand that the predator-prey relationship is a key driver of evolution in both plants and animals. It promotes adaptation in plants and in animals necessarily rewards alertness and intelligence. I've never seen Tiger play with prey like a domestic cat might. He just kills immediately, killing for food, not entertainment. In his prime he would hunt large adult rabbits as big as himself but now he concentrates on young rabbits. He favours the heads for eating - a vet told me this is because the brain is a good source of taurine which cats need in high amounts.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about the predator prey relationship. It's one of multiple ways nature keeps things in balance. Another way is viruses. We have calicivirus here which cycles through the rabbit population every 3 or 4 years. It never eradicates them completely but it keeps numbers down. (Rats, as well as being a vital part of nature's rubbish disposal team, also keep bird numbers down by eating the eggs. It only dawned on me recently that without rats very successful breeders like starlings would get completely out of hand. It would be interesting to know whether rats target some species' eggs more than others.)
You might encourage raptors to visit by leaving rabbit carcasses out? Raptors are hard pressed for food in winter too. (Of course it might encourage other visitors you might not want? Perhaps place the carcass out of reach of dogs and such?) Falcons will only feed on live food but hawks will happily scavenge. I'm not sure about owls? Where I am the rabbits come out early morning and lateish afternoon so hawks often hunt the younger ones then. Stoats will also do so but they'll kill your chickens too. Tiger kills stoats. He has an atavistic hatred of them. I guess they're prime competitors.
I've seen some black currant damage from rabbits when conditions are tough. I was thinking, I've not noticed rabbits nibbling at the bark of mature apple trees. It's the young growth that they love, presumably because it's more nutritious. I wonder whether this winter pruning by the rabbits actually stimulates plant growth in the spring? (When it doesn't destroy the plant completely.)
Really great ideas here, thank you so much! Carcass wise... whatever rabbits I've hunted we've worked with completely... The legs are cut off and dried as beautiful elements, the pelt is salted for later tanning and the carcass is cooked slowly and thoroughly so we can eat every fleck of meat and the bones put in for a long slow stock until they basically melt!
The idea of setting up owl habitats admirable I hope that that will not endanger your hens much but any other birds of pray definitely will be dangerous to them. Just something to think about. Thanks for all your awesome content.
I don't think we'll have to worry about the chickens with owls, they are securely in at niight.
We'd like to free-range, but bald eagles nest a mile away. They mostly fish for carp, but occasionally zip by so low that I duck from the large shadow. I love them, but I can't afford to feed them organic free-range chicken.
Birds of prey usually don’t hunt within a certain radius of the nest. They leave that prey for the chicks, once they fledge.
Be warry of inviting Owls to control the rabbits. Owls love to hunt chickens. So if Owls aren't already there, I would say hold that thought. Rabbits can be a blessing...manure does wonders on asparagus! And they are excellent eating. Your sensitive approach is quite fine.
Thanks for the tips!
I would be interested in a video of how you process and use the parts of the rabbit. I understand you probably don’t want to show the actual butchering part. But I’d love to see all the ways you use the rabbits.
Sasha has only cooked a few but if I get another one soon we may document.
I edged my beds with clover, kale, and seed radishes(whatever farmers use as a cover crop). They never make it past the edge now. I just gave them the stuff they wanted first and they track along the edge of the garden now.
This year I am going to try to direct them where I want the bunny poop more. We'll see if I can figure that out.
I just started thinking of them as neighbors instead of pests.
I like them way better than the actual neighbor that cut down his tree and completely destroyed my micro climates in the backyard.
I agree with your thinking completely. As a young child playing in the fields in England, I caught the toe of my boot in a snare, and instinctively felt outraged at such cruelty, and I regularly then went on a snare hunt, destroying all that I could find. Snares are incredibly cruel and catch other creatures besides rabbits. Poisons too I abhor and I use non. Now here in Australia my cats spend their days staking out the rat holes round the chook shed, and also the rabbit holes under a big gum tree. They regularly catch both, and sometimes a brown snake helps out with the rats and possibly a fox or two and some eagles help with the rabbits. I am an omnivore, I have nothing against fishing or hunting for food, but do not understand killing simply for pleasure.
an interesting note the first few leaves of rhubarb always get eaten then for 2-3 days after my rabbit wallows in the chicken run like he's sick but after that stops eating it, its been a routine for 6 six springs in a row
I have about a billion rabbits in my yard plus my free range 14 pound male domestic rabbit. the gooseberry the currents the elderberry never get touched, blueberry always get eaten but only if they can start at the tip and eat down. Spike flowers get mauled by them persimmon if its short as well. None of my rabbit herd eats the stem of rasphberry but that inhale leaves. Grape is a fav among my wild rabbits and my rabbit colony and my muscovey ducks, they all keep it trimmed to a perfectly even line
Sounds like a very wild scene over there!
Shoo whee, what a question. The ethics of hunting? If you are going to eat it go right ahead. Suffering is not okay so I agree with Sasha on that score. Personally I carry too heavy of an empathy load to kill anything. I mean someone who bursts into tears when a slug is subjected to salt, someone who can’t thin out seedlings, pretty much have to be starving to kill anything that moves around. I’m getting better at harvesting veg and berries. (Feeling ridiculous at this point.) More power to you.
I'm not suggesting that the life of a plant is exactly equal to the life of a rabbit, deer, etc., but there is value in each of those plant lives . The rabbit is doing their natural life and work, but leaving a wake of serious suffering in the trees and shrubs that are left with raw rounds and scraped bark and exposed to super low temperatures and dry winter air. Those plants are our allies and we care deeply about them (and depend on their survival for our food and financial survival too!).
That doesn't mean in any way there is anger or revenge or any of that, but let's say one rabbit eats the tops off 100 hazelnut bushes this winter... that may have a ripple effect of taking many many thousands of pounds of hazelnuts out of the future world. Really complex stuff!
@@edibleacres No worries! I completely agree with your reasoning and really admire your thoughtfulness. I’m just a super wimp. I cried over the (admittedly weak) alders our neighbor cut down too. Didn’t stop me from taking and using the wood chips from those trees, or appreciating the new sunlight on my garden beds. Excess empathy isn’t the easiest thing to live with but it does come in handy, for instance when committing to being a student/advocate/steward of this earth. We all have our strengths - thank goodness they are all different. Diversity is the key, eh?
Great idea for an owl nest box. Ill have to look into that
I love your stuff.
Maybe looking into domesticated/ Co- habitable animals to help with rabbit browse. I don't know how realistic that could be with the chicken yard. It might add stress to other animals.
I don't think i could have done it myself, but its not hard to see the reason behind your decision. As long as they don't suffer, I am fine with it. (as long as i don't have do it myself)
Sean, are you
getting a fruit set from the seaberry yet?
This last year we got a nice solid first round of fruit.
I’ve found that the rabbits love my aronia bushes which is fine, I planted them for the wildlife and they’re planted outside of my main garden fence.
Yep, they definitely wail on our Aronias. The great news is that since Aronia is a multi-stemmed suckering shrub it is very compatible with the browse and you never have to worry about losing a graft or a main tree/trunk form...
@@edibleacres oh awesome I didn’t know that, thank you. They’ve been creeping along slowly and this is the third year their in the ground, so I’m hoping they really take off this season. Happy growing!
Ah, great stuff as always, thank you!
It seemed to me that, at least in some apples, the rabits focused on the bark above the graft. Is that so? And if yes, is it rootstock dependent? That could be something to choose...
So many funky variables. There are some apple types they don't like much, some where they won't eat the lower bark, others they will. And then the ultimate variable is that they can be picky a bit in some contexts, but give it a brutally cold and windy night with deep snow and every plant is food at that point. Either so much to learn or so much to just let go of trying to know...
@@edibleacres Ah, yes indeed... just like me, I won't eat some things unless nothing else available... I guess you are dancing the dance between learning more details and letting go.
I've experimented a bit with "bramble guards", with good results, but by far not as much rabbit traffic (that I could tell). I used the cuttings from brambles to weave a mat, and then simply placed it around the trees. It's a prickly business, though. But it used a resource that was difficult to repurpose otherwise, since we didn't want prickly compost. And of course not 100% browser-proof.
I've used similar bramble obstacles to deter small rodents from eating the sown seeds, braiding it and placing it around seed trays (it worked to some extent against the slugs! especially when the brambles dried out).
When I started planting my bare, compacted site in NH over 30 years ago, I would occasionally encounter a cottontail. You'd think they would have multiplied like...well, rabbits, but I haven't seen one here in over a decade. Yet other wildlife abounds. Our sites are so similar; it amazes me that the rabbit pressure is so different. Just curious--do you know whether these are New England cottontails or eastern cottontails?
I don't know much about the rabbits as far as specific types, sorry.
I think you've found a good method. I don't begrudge anyone using snares but I dislike them too.
Good ideas, why not a dog? And what shot do you think works best for quick clean dispatch, head or mid body. My wife also wants to know if you or Sasha could do an instructional hide tanning episode, for she has high regard for your homestead methodology and has employed your method of chicken dispatch on our small farm.
I have a medium-sized German shepherd mix that does not deter the rabbits from my yard and gardens in the slightest. 😩
Edible acres for the rabbits, chickens, deer, owls, and people alike!
Your best bet in turns of predator birds is probably large owls that would be hunting/nesting this time of year. This could be great horned owls ( don’t usually use nest boxes), barred owls ( like to nest near water and do use boxes) or barn owls (need open country side). We have such a large fox, coyote, raccoon population we almost never see Rabbits but that means we can never let out our chickens.
All a balance I guess. Thank you for these notes, I'll look into them for sure.
Do you cook the rabbit right after it was harvested? I have heard that hanging up small game for a few days makes it taste better.
The rabbit I shot stayed in the fridge for 2 days and was incredibly good quality.
I wish i could help offer tips for diverting rabbits as what ive done works wonders but im in an almost snow free area of the PNW. Every fall I purposefully plant my ditch with cover crop and grass so that the rabbits eat it down all winter. Rabbits always go for grasses and cover crop before branchy material. Im on half an acre with about an 8th? of acre worth of ditch between the road and my living wall. As long as it gets to knee high before winter hits it supports the 20+ resident rabbits in my yard
So many rabbits!
We have bales of nice organic hay so I may start setting out flakes for them as well since I understand they prefer that anyway.
I appreciate you finding a use for the rabbit after harvest. If you attract owls would you put your chickens at risk? I would like to add a owl box on my property for rodent control but I don’t want owls eating my chickens.
We have a very secure coop at night so I don't have concerns there...
Every few years we have the Fishers around and they control the rabbit population. We also have Ermine to balance the population for the rest of the time. We are not THAT far from your area. Do you guys have these animals? Also, setting up habitat for eagles, hawks and owls would help.
I've had good luck discouraging rabbits with "used" cat litter. I don't use around food garden but ornamentals seem fine with a sprinkle where the rabbits gather.
Good note here, thank you!
@Nancy Thomas @@edibleacres Toxiplasmosis is a serious concern. Please don't put used cat litter anywhere near your gardens.
Just a teeny, tiny population of rabbit there, sir!
Our farm cat takes care of rodents during non-snowy months. With the two feet (and growing) snow pack we have right now...well, she has refused to to out, and I can't blame her. We don't havethe rabbit population you do. I've seen rabbit browse in the past on currants, but not much. Yes on the blueberries (I want to get highbush so we can have more harvest for us). We had to fence the hazelnuts!
RIP your thornless blackberry...
We eat meat. A quick death is the only way we consider, whether farm-raised like our chickens, or wild like deer or rabbits, or predators, like possums (and the rabid raccoon last summer). Rule of thumb, which I believe I have stated on your channel before: if harvesting animals becomes "easy" ethically or emotionally, that's the time to stop. We would like to tan hides, but don't have the "bandwidth" at this stage. So...compost in place: we dig a hole, plant the critter, and then a plant on top of it.
Liked commented and shared I can't afford to join atm but I'll do my bit 😊
Please never ever feel pressure to join as a member, we're super happy to have you as a nice member of the community as you are :)
Here the rabbits generally aren't a huge problem. It's the squirrels that do all the damage.
We are in winter #3 here at our rental house, so we haven't been planting many perennials. Our annual gardens are tucked away under 2ft of snow and the rabbit activity mostly passes over without lingering. Our patch of black cap raspberries is unscathed as well.
Last winter and early spring I toyed with the idea of snares. I set a few up and was completely unsuccessful. I am uncomfortable with guns, but I do agree that snares are the less humane option. I'm considering slingshot or bowhunting, but I have to double check the laws in ontario. All I know is that you don't need a permit here for rabbit.
As for the veganism question- I am in total agreement with you there. There is no ecosystem on earth without animals, and if our goal is to live in accordance with and emulation of wild systems, animal inputs and animal death are a fundamental component.
Suggestion for your fencing, maybe wire tie 2’ or 3’ chicken wire to the existing fencing instead of completely replacing it all. Hope that helps to keep the rabbits out.
We're on the same page :). Just bought 400 feet of 2' tall chicken wire. Today we'll be wrapping the fence in a temporary way along the snow line until things thaw out enough and we can do it for real.
@@edibleacres it should help drastically, good luck!
I've been having trouble finding any seaberry, especially locally (northern Michigan). I don't mind ordering but that seems hard to find online as well. Anyone have any good recommendations?
Lots of mail order places have them now. West Coast places like One Green World have many varieties but they are a bit expensive. Honeyberryusa or Indiana Berry might have a few types if you don't need them to stay short (like the Buryat cultivars supposedly do).
@@erikjohnson9223 Yeah One Green World is the only place I had found so far and it is for sure a tad expensive. I'll check Honeyberryusa and Indiana. Thanks.
plantingjustice.org is worth checking out for sure, too... perfectcircle.farm has amazing plants but sells out quickly.
Don't know why some times why I get a late notice, but late better than never. Back home we ate rabbit all the time, we snare them in the fall and bottle them for the summer as well as fresh food and awesome in soups. But now because of Religious reasons I don't snare anymore but shoot them, but because of my health I now have to rely on friends for a few meals of rabbits. lol lol Love the vids keep it up. Cheers
Not sure if you guys have any kids or want kids but I bet they would be well loved and well trained respect for nature and the land....
They like hay too or greens by your compost and it would be very desirable
At least they are leaving pellets behind great fertilizer;)
We've been putting out free choice hay for them near the branches lately...
@@edibleacres :) that will help good luck
Thank you for practicing ethical hunting.