Kitchen Garden Forum

I posted a previous question about rabbit proof fencing and was advised what type to buy and from where. I have found a 30m roll for £50.00, which sounds reasonable. Any comments? However, other members don't have that type of money to spend and would prefer to protect smaller areas at a lesser cost. My question is therefore: given that plots will have a normal spread of vegetables and soft fruit, which of these will be targetted by the bunnies and need protecting?
Apparently, a couple of foxes previously occupied the site and despatched the rabbits in less than a year. Has anybody been able to get a fox from the RSPCA that needs rehoming? It might be cheaper than investing in fences!!

Barry I know near me they bring the sad/poorly/old/young mended foxes up to the fields and moors or open countryside
im not sure theyd put one back in the town? (pressuming you are in one)
theres no harm in asking tho

In my experience, rabbits eat anything, the little b***ers! We began by fencing off lettuce seedlings, and the like, so they moved on to spinach and beetroot leaves. So we put barriers/netting over those too, so they started on the onions, leeks and garlic. So in summary (ooh, get her!) we now cover everything, until they can cope against rabbit attack, and for some crops, that appears to mean they stay covered until they have finished cropping. Maybe we just have a family of cosmopolitan rabbits willing to try any and every food, who knows!!!

Hello Barry
As Retro says, rabbits will eat almost everything. When they've finished their favourites like lettuce and cabbage they will start on the rest of your crops. I've even had them gnawing carrot and beetroot root tops. A few they things that they really dislike seem to be stinging nettles, daffodils, rhubarb and potato haulms.

John

Different rabbits have different tastes, rather like humans. But the best assumption is that they will eat anything and, if they don't like something they may well bite it in annoyance, especially if it gets in their way. We had one rabbit who wasn't afraid of anything including electric drills and other noisy instruments and would go for the cables if you let him.

Want a borrow of my cat ?

Not only is she a 'mouser', she brought me a bunny the other day, and left it under the stairs for safe-keeping. The bunnies tend not to eat much at that point in their lives....

Seriously though, I do sympathise. We don't have a problem with anything bigger than slugs, snails, jays and pigeons, given that we keep the roaming sheep OUTSIDE the gate that is.

How do you cope with the rotation of crops and keep moving your crop protection around, given that bunnies tend to burrow under such defences ?
I wish you lots of luck with it.

Hi Wellie,

We put netting over nearly everything, it is fairly easy to move it as long as you haven't let lots of weeds grow up through it!
This year 2 of my sweetcorn plants were bitten right through at about 2" off the ground. They were about 18" tall at this stage, so my rabbit must be verging on the 'were' variety!! Seriously thought, they are a right pain in the rear, my life would be so much easier if they stayed the other side of the fence like they used to. They don't seem to bother with burrowing, must be either lazy or fat.