Just got the rabbit fence put up (pics)

Since I was trapping and releasing about 10 rabbits a year, I decided it was easier to just build a fence last year. I built it in 4 and 8 foot sections with 1x2s, painted them, and put chickenwire on them. They're only 2 feet tall, but so far it seems to have worked well. You just put the sections up with those electric fence stakes and then tie two sections together with a piece of #9 wire. Went up in like 30 minutes last night. I am quite pleased.



Had our little helper out supervising, too:



Need to build two more sections so we can double how much area it encloses. Trying to save 8 rows of beans from the rabbits.

I need to fence my garden also from the rabbits. Your cat looks just like mine. Here is my cat doing what he does best. Stan

nice looking garden fence panels. we have turtles that eat our beans off down here. rabbits haven't been to much damage yet. crows damage irrigation drip tape for water. have a lot of helper cats here also, must check tractors for napping cats before starting.

Nice looking fence. We used to have a lot of rabbit issues in the garden. Then it seemed like the hard winters a few years ago thinned the rabbits out. This spring it seems like they are making a come back. Had a half grown one run into the shop the other evening. Then when I went in he ran under a bench. I had a heck of a time getting him out of the shop. The dogs just watched as they are too lazy to even chase them anymore. LOL.

Looks like you just invented a cat trap.

that looks real nice but.... if you were successful trapping the rabbits why not continue that - and eat em.

Last year I fenced the entire garden. Still had a few get in. This year I decided to just enclose the stuff they eat: beans, cabbage, and broccoli. Mine doesn't look as nice as this one.

Larry

Talk about rabbits! I have about 2 acres inside a four foot fence, combination of hog wire and chainlink, where I planted a small garden two years ago, maybe 20 by 30 feet. The weather had been so dry that the rabbits were eating everything and anything, including the okra. Nothing I did worked. The chicken wire fence looked good (not nearly as nice and the one pictured), but they dug under it. I ran electric fence around it, and eventually along beside each row. Like I said, it's a small spot so it was easy to do drastic things. Oh, those things that make a noise are worthless. The grackles would come in and sit on that thing and look at it when it went off. It's really disconcerting to see a row of green plants one evening and a row of rabbit pills the next morning. I finally moved the garden spot up close to the house where my dogs could police it better.

I wanted to use my 22 or my pellet gun but between my mother and my wife and my daughter I didn't want to be called something I'm not. I'm sure some of you all will understand that part.

They seem to be kinda thinned out for now and I may go back to that area and try it again.

We keep a daily eye on the fence, as I am sure the little buggers could dig right under this. I think last years drought kept their population down a bit. And I'm still catching and relocating them, but none have wandered into my live traps this year (yet).

I liked the 1x2 design (I just sort of made it up as I went along as I just bought material from Home Depot and our Farm & Home store). Even the 8 foot sections are nice and light and easy to maneuver, and the electric fence rods stick into wet soil easily.

I've got some ping pong balls I am going to use to cap the tops of the electric fence rods as a safety thing, but it's too wet to go out and do that right now.

This cat is fantastic. He just started to show up a couple of years ago and he stops by and visits quite a bit. Loves to just hang around while we're working.

We have a good population of them here, cotton tail. It seems that all the dandelion in the lawn, clover and so on, they have never bothered with the garden, flowers and anything else. Its always the woodchuck and the deer. Canada Geese are also pest here too, but only in the fields.

Rabbits live good here, I'm sure between coyote, hawks and other predators, they are kept in check, but you can go out in the winter and catch bags of them during small game. They will flop over flat out on the driveway, chase and play, just don't bother a darned thing, has to be the forage as I do not do anything to the lawn here, if I did, it would likely cause a problem.

Woodchucks came up all around the house last year during a dry spell, nothing unprotected was safe. Will be putting up the deer fence soon on each garden, those darned things are just as much a pain.

(quoted from post at 15:32:11 05/27/13) We have a good population of them here, cotton tail. It seems that all the dandelion in the lawn, clover and so on, they have never bothered with the garden, flowers and anything else. Its always the woodchuck and the deer. Canada Geese are also pest here too, but only in the fields.

Rabbits live good here, I'm sure between coyote, hawks and other predators, they are kept in check, but you can go out in the winter and catch bags of them during small game. They will flop over flat out on the driveway, chase and play, just don't bother a darned thing, has to be the forage as I do not do anything to the lawn here, if I did, it would likely cause a problem.

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Only in the last... 5 years or so have they become a problem. Not sure if they developed a taste for beans or just have become too abundant in recent years or what exactly. But I've relocated probably 30-40 of them to the country, and we still have plenty of rabbits to go around. Only see about 3 in the yard these days, which is good as I think the cat keeps them at bay. Used to see 7 or 8 of them out all the time.

Hello Will Herring,

I keep catching these beasts, no rabbits. They are eating all my vegetables, I need to catch them rabbits as well. Is this the live trap you use, and what kind of bait you use for the rabbits? My fence is going up next!

Guido.

Yep. That's the same live trap I use. Caught some of those guys last year, too. Possums are easy to catch with fried chicken skin. Rabbits, used to try to bait with carrots and stuff, but finally figured just leaving the cages by the garden they get curious and wander in during the day. And once you catch the first one, try and get it set up again as fast as possible, as you may get a few more curious thanks to the smell of the other.