Myth Busted

[Viking45]

As I was mowing the front yard today I ran over a rabbit burrow and thank God no babies were killed.
Three ran out in all directions and they were tiny but very fast(faster than myself).
I grabbed two and stuffed them back into the nest but one started screaming. If you have ever heard a bunny scream it tears at your heart strings.
The mother came to their defense and I dropped to my knees and held them out and the mother came right up to me,smelled them,saw they were ok and went after the third one.

She stayed with the third one until night fall and herded it back to the nest.
The "myth" being that when a human touches wild babies they abandon them. Wrong!

She was unlike any rabbit I have seen in the wild,she seemed of higher intelligence.
The mother tucked them all in and stayed right there and appeared to be watching over them.

As far as i know at this point she is looking after them right now.

I thought it was strange that an adult rabbit would allow me to get this close.
This pic was taken about 4 days ago(before I knew she had babies right there) and the nest was right next to her.

[JerrBear]

Mos' COOL story and picture Mr. V!

You might enjoy reading Raggylug, a short story by Ernest Thompson Seton from the rabbit's point of view...

[whippersnapper]

Because of my garden, bunnies are on my $hit list at the moment, but good story.

[Viking45]

No problem,a friend in Majorca (outside Spain) says he uses weasels to keep rabbit populations down in his garden. The guy owns a fig farm in fricken Majorca for cryin' out loud.
Don't feel terribly sorry for the guy.

[turbo_dog]

Because of my garden, bunnies are on my $hit list at the moment, but good story.

Me too. This is the first time in several years that we planted a garden, and the rabbits ruined it.

[whippersnapper]

That sucks, turbo...It's kind of a double edged sword...I like, and enjoy the critters, but I also like to grow some food and eat it. Because I don't want everything fenced, I have resorted to making small rings of rabbit fence to put around individual plants. That does ok for the rabbits...The Marlin .22 lever leaning against the back door takes care of the woodchucks and coon. The deer I just holler at and chase like a madman.

My small strawberry patch has been doing pretty good this year. I just picked about 4 pints worth and have eaten strawberry short cake all week,,,

[turbo_dog]

That's cool- my grandmother had a big strawberry patch when I was a kid. Some of my best memories are eating those strawberries at Grandma's house. My other grandparents kept grape vines behind their house. We would stand there and eat them straight off the vine.

It didnt occur to me that the rabbits would mess everything up like they did. By the time I realized the extent of the damage, it was too late to try to fence them out. Plus my timing was a little off. Our dog stayed in the yard most of the time and always ran critters away that encroached on her turf. But she had been ailing for the last few months, and wasn't gettiong around very well, then we lost her a couple of weeks ago, so I didn't get the protection I needed for my garden.

I think the tomatoes are the only thing left that the rabbits havent ruined. And I hope the pear trees bear OK this year. They seem to do good on odd numbered years.

[whippersnapper]

Sorry to hear about your dog.

I have a couple young pear tress and have noticed the same thing about the every other year cycle. This year one is loaded, but had nothing last year. I read that you are better off removing some of the pears in the heavy bearing years. I guess the tree doesn't use as much energy and will do better the next year. Since my trees are dwarfs, it's fairly easy and I think I'm going to remove about half of the immature pears.

[Viking45]

Very sorry to hear about your dog TD.

A lot of people are not aware of these cycles. Oak trees will produce huge amounts of acorns one year and not so many the next.
Same with walnut,mulberry and any fruit trees.
These cycles include insects too,last year we had an enormous number of cicadas,our tree out front had those brown shells all over it and some were on top of others.
I have not seen many grasshoppers in the last few years but lately we have had the largest number of lightning bugs I have seen in years. It was amazing how many we saw in a small area just a few nights ago.

I wish you guys would send me some of those pears when they get ready,that's my favorite fruit.

[jim d,]

Interesting that you mentioned lightning bugs, just last night I was thinking that there seems to many more than usual right now.

Jim

[Frank]

Hi Jim,
It appears to be full-on mating season for them right now, I noticed it tonight. Have you ever seen a firefly tree? Thousands of them gather in one specific tree and they light it up like it's on fire. I have only seen it one time in my 52 years, and it is one thing that I would put on my bucket list.
Terry, plant basil around where you don't want rabbits, I have heard that they hate it. Are you growing any peppers this year, I'm almost out.

VBR,

Frank

[whippersnapper]

Good to hear from you, Frank

I have 3 different kinds of Basil started in small containers, but I seem to have a brown thumb when it comes to growing herbs and it doesn't seem to be doing well yet. Maybe, if it takes off, I will transplant some out in the main garden.

[whippersnapper]

I noticed quite a few fireflys early in the spring, but not so many in the last couple weeks.

[JerrBear]

BLACK WIDOWS here! Infestation has been particuliarly BAD this year. Musta killed 8-10 of them. Luckily, all have been outside or inna garage... Guess I coulda called pest control, but I'm too cheapness...

[whippersnapper]

Glad we don't have poisonous creatures up here!