Discouraging rabbits naturally

jojo5

jojo5

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Has anyone got any good tips for discouraging rabbits from creating a warren in a field? (apart from the obvious!). Rabbits often browse in the field I use and hide in the hedge, but I have found one hole now. I was hoping to be able to discourage them - if I block up this hole though will they dig another one nearby?
 
I had same problem. Someone I know keeps ferrets and I got a bin bag full of their dirty bedding and packed the holes with it before filling in. Seemed to keep them away !! Good luck
 
Just shoot the b***ers! I am so fed up with them digging and digging in my paddocks. When I fill in a hole they dig it up again.

Personally I hope Mr Fox makes his appearance soon and eats a few of the pesky critters!!!
 
We have just spent £400 on electric netting as they are trashing my paddocks!
Thats without the energiser or battery we already had.
Thats just round where the worst of them are. So far so good!
 
Wish I could find a way to beat the bu**ers - we have them digging holes all over the fields, the garden, even in the school. Our two dogs dont seem to deter them, neither do the foxes living in the orchard, or the buzzards. :mad:
 
Get a feral farm cat from the Cats Protection, they will be very grateful as untameable ones are hard to find homes from. We had 40 acres of rabbits and now I see very few (buzzards help too). But we still have lots of hares, the cats cant catch them it seems, they are too fast! Most hares Ive seen was 23 in one field :-))))lovely
 
We had real problem few years ago - I could not count the numbers of rabbits grazing in my neighbours two acre paddock in an early morning - approx three hundred of the beasts. We have a good number of buzzards nearby. Dogs helped to keep them out of our field a little but they came back as soon as the dogs were not about. Friend's greyhound loved visiting us! Stable cats took a some of the young. The blighters even got used to a game keeper's car who used to come along and try and reduce numbers as often as he could.

A few were killed by myxi when susceptible but don't like to see them suffer that way. The best thing has been getting a ferreter out to deal with the problem.

If you want to discourage them, you could try plastic birds of prey to scare them off or get someone with a bird of prey to fly your field as much as possible. I'm not sure how effective rabbit proof /electric fencing would be/work and how much effort/cost to install it correctly.
 
Thanks for all these ideas. I'm at a livery yard so can't try all of these. Most evenings when I go out to the field there is a cat mooching about in there so she/he clearly isn't making much difference!!
 
you could always advertise in such as the countrymans weekly im sure theres plenty of folk with ferrets dogs who would gladly get rid of them for you

our neighbour has helped a few rabbit problems out by word of mouth with the gun and ferrets

my whippy would be in her element bunny for brekfast lunch and dinner MMMmmmm lol
 
jojo5 said:
Thanks for all these ideas. I'm at a livery yard so can't try all of these. Most evenings when I go out to the field there is a cat mooching about in there so she/he clearly isn't making much difference!!
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In my experience, the cats only take the young. It helps a little but will not sort out the problem.

I would maybe speak to the livery yard manager/owner about dealing with the rabbits. Don't wait till your horse breaks a leg. In the meantime, fill in the holes and put old tyres round them so your horse less likely to go in them. I think there is usually minimum of three escape holes per warren so if you block one, they will try to clear the blockage or dig another route. Check for new holes at least daily.
 
When you poo-pick, put the poo in the rabbit holes instead of on the muck heap. It worked for us, they eventually get the message and dig their burrows elsewhere. Okay so you are only moving the problem on, but at least you don't end up with any broken equine legs!
 
Thanks again to all. Have been putting pony poo down the hole and each morning I find it outside the hole again!! However tonight have used a secret weapon - my box bedding disinfectant powder . . . My thinking was that it's a version of Domestos but one that I had to hand, and it's not in any way harmful to horses if it is transported back out of the holes, as it is made to put down in boxes under bedding. This is in the absence of local ferret persons!!! Will let you know what the rabbits think tomorrow!!
 
shame you aren't closer! I have found my 3 staffies are making a very big difference to the rabbit population. They don't always catch but they do seem to scare and we are definately seeing less of them.
 
We find the best way of filling up a hole is puts loads broken glass down it before you fill it it. They wont dig it out then and if they do another i repeat it now most rabbit holes are in the fence line where horses cant get in them.
 
Rent-a-staffie would be a great idea, but I think their travel expenses might be a bit much!!! May put a tyre round the hole as someone suggested earlier. BUT I checked the hole tonight after putting the disinfectant powder down last night and all the poo is still down there - every other night it has been thrown out by industrious bunnies. I know they will come up somewhere else, but i'll be waiting!!
 
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