Back to focusing at home today after Tuesday's post on the rest of the picture with community and reminders that it isn't Just individual action that makes a difference. Growth is the word of the day around the homestead, which is exactly what we want at this time of year!
That isn't to say they aren't still very cute at this point of course, and they are all very very friendly. Too friendly some times. They like licking and nibbling on my hand, sleeve, buttons, and ipad while I'm doing weight checks. Today the baby Right decided to investigate the Lady of the House and the camera. While I was doing weight checks I was hearing "No, don't nip me, don't chew the camera! Hey, stop that!" It was an entertaining counterpoint to trying to cram squirming babies onto the scale. I'm starting to think for my sanity, especially when we are dealing with 4 litters at once that ending weight checks at 45 days may be the correct choice. As interesting as the data is, we are mostly doing it to get good ideas of the health and safety of the growing babies in the critical period. After that critical period one has to balance time and practicality versus interest in data. The important thing though will be continuing to interact thoroughly with the babies once they aren't getting weighed every day.
Speaking of cuing off other rabbits behaviors, I hope the other rabbits don't cue off of Dawn. Those of you who have been following us for a while may recognize the vacant expression and mouth full of hay as Dawn preparing a nest. You'll also know that it's been one week since she mated with Dorado. One single week out of just over four weeks of gestation. She's jumping the gun as usual, but when we gave her a lot more hay to supplement her food hay she seemed much happier, and happier rabbits is after all part of our goal.
As spring arrives we are seeing more and more critters. The Lady of the House managed to get some good photos of this good looking garter snake while it was slow enough due to the weather to not zip off with alacrity. We are also expecting our normal variety of bears, deer, and maybe turkeys. This of course concerns us when it comes to the garden which seems to be doing decently well. The radishes and kale haven't sprouted, but some of the lettuce is coming up,and the garlic is going gangbusters. Our next project, making some kind of fence to protect the garden from inquisitive animals. We know it's more of a suggestion but we're hoping it will do the trick!
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ReplyDeleteI live in Ohio and we are constantly fighting deer and wild rabbits who like eating my mother's garden. She likes to garden organic and avoid the use of pesticides and repellents. A few years ago she decided to take a hint from the prison systems and construct what we lovingly called the "Vlad the Impaler" garden.
ReplyDeleteTo construct this fortress my mother dug a 2-3 foot ditch around the outline of her garden. She sunk chicken wire into the hole and covered it so the chicken wire stuck up about 1 foot out of the ground. On the inside of the chicken wire she put up a normal looking wrought iron fence (dug about 2-5 inches into the ground so it would stand by itself) which she thought would help make it look less like an POW camp. She then put up a 2 foot fence of chicken wire on the inside of the wrought iron. For a natural, edible repentant she planted chives and onions around the outer most perimeter of the chicken wire (rabbits and deer don't like them). This sunken fence and onion wall protected against wild rabbits who like to dig.
To stop the deer she needed a tall fence. Along the chicken wire she stuck long wooden/plastic sticks that stand about 6-8 feet tall above ground. She wrapped a fine plastic mesh netting around the outside of these poles and attached it to the wrought iron fence/chicken wire so the deer couldn't lift it up from underneath. The result is a 7-8 foot wall of wire, onions and netting that cocooned the garden and prevented deer from getting in. Finally, she stuck about 4 extra 7 foot wooden poles sharp end up in the garden. While we all doubted the deer would try to jump the fence, she figured large spikes would help to encourage them to stay out. We didn't use these after the first year, but no deer ever decided to impale themselves by jumping the fence. In the 5 years since its construction this garden has been set up this way no animal has EVER eaten anything in the garden. We leave the chicken wire and iron fence up all year and replace the mesh/pole fence only in the summer.
I should also add that my neighbor next door has a raised garden bed which prevents rabbits from getting in. To stop the deer he put large wooden poles about 6-7 feet tall around the outline of the garden and wrapped fishing line around them. The lies are about 8-10 inches apart and pulled tight. The deer hate running into it and leave his garden alone. He also hangs Irish Springs Soap which is supposed to be a good deer repellent but I don't know if that works.
I can get some pictures of both set-ups if you're interested. I recommend it without the Vlad the Impaler spikes unless you really need something for the neighbors to talk about.
Those sound really effective, I'd love pictures of both setups. We aren't concerned about rabbits (yet) as much, but we are concerned about groundhogs and moles as well as the serious concern of deer. Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoroughly and for the offer of photos. We will definitely be taking this to heart and looking for onions to plant!
DeleteHave you thought about using predator urine? I'm not sure it would discourage a bear (I still like the electrified bacon fence), but it would probably keep off the deer. The garden store often sells coyote or mountian lion urine (I have no idea how they collect it) to discourage pests. I've laso heard that the scents on human hair upsets deer and rabbits, so you can use barber-shop clippings. Or have your dogs pee on the fence.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I've never tried any of these. Usually the dogs were sufficient discouragement, but it was a more suburban area.
Yeah, I've always wondered how they collect mountain lion urine, it just seems like it would be a very hazardous occupation so I'm guessing there is a trick to it. I pee along the property line on the theory that it will discourage critters to some extent, and I know letting Rico out will get anything moving, but he's only out when we are there. Every little bit helps!
DeleteI checked in with my little brother that build the chicken wire is only sunk about 1-2 feet deep. He made some comment about "what kind of mutant rabbit would dig three feet deep?". Sorry about that!
ReplyDeleteAlso I can say that Margot has a point about natural doggie repellent. We had ground hogs under a shed are were able to convince them to move in less than a week by throwing our dog's feces down their hole. Much better then killing them or having to trap them.
The groundhog removal tip is a good one, we shot the last 55lb groundhog monster that had taken shelter under our shed, and if we can just get it to leave that would be far preferable!
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