########## This post contains pictures of dead animals! ###########
I was more than a little disappointed to see some apple trees in my "rabbit proof" veg garden had been damaged by rabbits (the same ones that were damaged by mice last year). So tonight I decided to get some payback and remove them from the garden.
Armed with a torch and my trusty little bolt action .410 shotgun I removed the offenders that I caught in the act - no trial needed.
They've now been gutted, skinned and put in the fridge for a tea one night this week. they were both a good size so should make a good stew!
I now need a bit of time in the light to find out where they were getting in or whether is was just as simple as leaving the gate open for an hour whilst I was in the garden the other day?
Whatever it is, I hope it's an easy fix. Dern, it's been years since I've eaten rabbit!
ReplyDeletenice work, hope you find where/how they got in. Love a bit of rabbit, makes a good curry
ReplyDeleteGood job, peaky things rabbits. When you put the fence up, did you put a foot or so into the ground, or level on the ground outside?
ReplyDeleteIf you can protect the plants somehow to where you can get the rabbits then you might have a very good source for meat. Rabbit is better than chicken if fixed properly.
ReplyDeleteI wish acquiring rabbits around here was that easy. Anything that big here would sell for about 35 or 40 $ a piece.
ReplyDeleteIt's the country way, you look like a good shot, so over and done quickly. Enjoy your meal.
ReplyDeleteTwo with one shot, Ol' Dead-Eye??
ReplyDelete"Those wascally wabbits!" Elmer Thudd
ReplyDeleteThat takes me back. I used to go rabbiting with a single barrelled bolt action .410.
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I were a rabbit hunting pair. One of us carried a single shot .22 and the other had a single shot .410. If the rabbit was sitting still, the .22 got the first shot. If a miss, then the .410 took the second shot. If the rabbit was running, then the .410 went first. If a miss, hearing the bang, the rabbits would usually stop cold for a second. That's when the .22 made stew meat out of 'em. We had a ball and our family always enjoyed the meat. Good memories!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they were big rabbits, they have had a very good food source ... only now they are yours ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm a townie and not country wise at all....but don't rabbits just burrow under things like fences???
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you eating them and not binning them.
ReplyDeleteKev... check by your fence posts.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in forestry we used to line out the seedling trees in a rabbit-fenced nursery area...
all properly done...
2 ft wide 1/2" mesh at the bottom... one foot out and one up...
followed by one yard 1" mesh from ground up to the top.
BUT... the young seedlings were still being eaten...??
We could see the nursery from the workhut...
an old Nissen hut.
One rainy day we were gathered around our big pot-bellied stove, engaging in the customary Yorkshire Tea Ceremony to pass the time.... when my boss, sitting opposite me, looked livid and said in a hiss..."You wee little bastard, I'll have you!!"
I must have looked horrified... he hissed again, "Not you...look out there!!" He could see the tree nursery out the open door... we all looked round to see...
a rabbit climbing the chicken mesh, by one of the posts!!
He hopped off the top of the post into the nursery... and we watched, mesmerised, as three more did the same.
The next day, he had us put a further 2ft of 1/2" mesh around the plantation... at the top of the fence... with 1 ft bent outwards at 45 degrees... this was supported at each fence post by an L-shaped length of 8 or 10 gauge wire... strong enough to stop the wire mesh being bent down under the weight of a rabbit...
it looked weird, but it worked.
So, if rabbits near Guildford can climb, yours might!!