[Startingover]

Im so excited. This morning saw something brown come out from some shrubbery. Looked and saw this bunny. First one in my yard since I’ve been here. (The dead one doesn’t count). Put a couple of carrots out for him. I hope the raccoons don’t eat them. In Ohio you saw them anytime you went out in the evening.

 

[Old Thomas]

We have rabbits around now that my cat is dead. She used to kill everything except woodchucks, they got a bullet in the head.

 

[stick\shift]

They love hiding out in the day lilies my dad has in his front yard.

 

[Mystriss]

We have a bunny family that took up residence under my classic '79 chevy pickup next to the shop. They're changing out of their white coats from winter ATM. I've always wondered how they can hop around at 30 below, I'd have figured they were so small they'd freeze to death real quick, but nope, they're up and moving all winter long.

 

[DexterII]

That's cool. Our rabbit population goes up and down, I think mostly reflective of the coyote population, but I've always like having them around, even when we had a garden. Rabbits get a bad rap from gardeners, but they're not nearly as destructive as woodchucks and deer. Sure, they get into the flowers and whatnot, but seldom enough to destroy anything. I think more crucial than setting out carrots or anything for them is environment and keeping the cats away. I haven't seen cats get the best of full grown rabbits very often, but they will quickly decimate nests. Their nests are generally very well disguised, so need to watch for them during spring mowings. As far as environment, I removed a dozen or so overgrown junipers 10 years or so ago and we saw a significant drop in bunnies around the yard, but starting planting a few at a time to replace them, trim the bushes low to the ground, things like that so they have places to duck into quickly, and they've come back pretty good.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

In days of our history Cotton Tail was almost considered a delicacy, after eating a continued diet of chicken and pork, until a suspect outbreak of COPIED: (Tularemia, or rabbit fever ) shut that thought down for several years. Now in my later years i just shoot them with a camera and plant a few extra garden plants for them, although i've not found them to be that detrimental to gardening.

 

[Startingover]

Now I have to research ‘woodchuck’. Maybe its like a groundhog?

Edit: yes a groundhog. Farmers in Ohio don’t like them cause of the holes in fields.

Haha. Several yrs ago visiting my sister in Akron I got to her house shortly before she came home so I was walking around her backyard where she has a garden. It was a total mess. Looked like rubbish laying all over and you don’t know my sister but she’s fastidious about her yard. Later after she got home we were in the house talking and she proudly asked if I saw her garden. You should have heard her when we went out back. She didn’t know a groundhog had destroyed her garden. He’d gotten under her chainlink fence.

The carrots I put out are still there. Maybe he was just passing thru.

When the bunny saw me and ran in the direction of a tree that has a good size area of dried flowers it almost looks like hay which I didn’t Rake up because of the seeds. I have 4 o’clock‘s there. I think I’ll just make a little brick fence around part of it and leave it in case he hides there.

 

[Colbyt]

Lucky for me, they seem to prefer the tender young shoots of Mamas flowers and they don't care for tomato plants.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

But Cottontails will go to great heights to reach Lamb's Quarter.:smile:

 

[SPS-1]

I have a couple of rabbits that like to spend time in my back yard. Fortunately, they have not been digging holes in my yard. Used to be that if I saw them starting to dig a hole in my back yard, I would go out and spray it with my cheapest Christmas gift cologne. Then one time I did that and they just decided to move their hole to my front yard. Had bunnies in there before I noticed. So now I just let them do their thing wherever they want.

 

[roughneck]

We have a ton of rabbits living under the shed. Wife’s dachshunds love chasing them around.

 

[DexterII]

I find them really entertaining. One day last summer there were three of them running around the yard, first thing in the morning, chasing each other in circles, jumping over each other, generally having a good time, every time I looked for them they were still at it, and kept it up right until dusk. They must have taken breaks sometime, but none that I saw. I've wondered a few times if they had maybe gotten into some over ripe berries or whatever. The funniest thing though was watching them in the horseshoe pits one summer. Day after day they would play something like king of the mountain, one of them would get in the pit and run the perimeter until another one would charge in, they'd tussle around a bit, and whichever one won would stay in the pit. We had about 6-8 of regular ones that year and some days it seemed like a constant stream of contenders entering the pit.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

I had no idea a rabbit would play possom until i saw this with my old eyes. I witnessed our cat catching a cottontail that was off guard because HE was chasing HER, a terrible love sick mistake i thought.



I was standing in the garage door opening so the cat brought the very limp rabbit to within 20 ft. of me and dropped it on the lawn then the cat backed off several feet, which i thought strange so i watched to see what followed and why. After a few minutes i saw the rabbit slightly raise his head to see where the cat was. He did this twice then up and away to the timber the race was on. The cat finally came back empty handed as we would say. The chance of ever seeing that again to get a video, well, i'd have better odds of becoming a millionaire i suspect.

 

[DoomsDave]

We have rabbits around now that my cat is dead. She used to kill everything except woodchucks, they got a bullet in the head.

Holy cow, that was a real [expletive] of a cat! Was it a big one, like a Maine ****?

 

[DoomsDave]

No, no rabbits.

Dear god no.

 

[DoomsDave]

Now I have to research ‘woodchuck’. Maybe its like a groundhog?

Edit: yes a groundhog. Farmers in Ohio don’t like them cause of the holes in fields.

Haha. Several yrs ago visiting my sister in Akron I got to her house shortly before she came home so I was walking around her backyard where she has a garden. It was a total mess. Looked like rubbish laying all over and you don’t know my sister but she’s fastidious about her yard. Later after she got home we were in the house talking and she proudly asked if I saw her garden. You should have heard her when we went out back. She didn’t know a groundhog had destroyed her garden. He’d gotten under her chainlink fence.

The carrots I put out are still there. Maybe he was just passing thru.

When the bunny saw me and ran in the direction of a tree that has a good size area of dried flowers it almost looks like hay which I didn’t Rake up because of the seeds. I have 4 o’clock‘s there. I think I’ll just make a little brick fence around part of it and leave it in case he hides there.

Euell Gibbons used to like to eat fried ground hogs. He said they tasted like veal. I'll try a bite if someone has some.

 

[roughneck]

Never ate groundhog.
There was a local restaurant that served muskrat. Surprisingly they closed down.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Never ate groundhog.
There was a local restaurant that served muskrat. Surprisingly they closed down.

My wife wouldn't even drive down that street much less go in that door.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Speaking of cottontail rabbits, maybe some of you that know of small children being home schooled now would like to forward this close-up pic i took a few years ago. In my education courses this might be called general education and there are probably kids that have never seen a pic of a Wabbit except in a Elmer Fudd cartoon or in a book, if they were ever read a book.

 

[roughneck]

My wife wouldn't even drive down that street much less go in that door.

This place was actually featured on the food network. That show restaurant impossible.