Pets in the garden.
Pets in the garden.
Posted on 22 Oct, 2008 11 comments
Most people associate Australia with sheep and rabbits, which is correct. Now, the sheep have not turned wild, but the rabbits have. These were introduced by the first settlers and I don’t know why. Perhaps initially they were pets, and unfortunately as so often happens, when the fun is over, the pets get set free and especially rabbits start having fun and doing what rabbits do best. The farmers and land owners have been plagued by these rabbits for ages and or course started doing something about it. It helped to some extend and for some time, but gradually they became resistant to it, then something else was done about it.
Now when we first were in this country we saw a lot of rabbits around us. These little buggers dug holes, ate new shoots on anything they could find and were really destructive. There was nothing we could do about it, but wait till disease got the better of them. One day towards sunset I noticed something black in the garden. It moved, it was little and yes, it was a rabbit. How cute! But it had seen me too and ran away. Soon I noticed a little ginger rabbit too and then there were two. A few days later, out came a white rabbit, the cutest little darling. I knew now, where they were coming from: outof the shed, which was our garage really. There was so much junk there, that you couldn’t possibly find them, so many places to hide.
Meanwhile the kids had seen these three littlelies too and wanted to have them. Hmmm, what to do? A friend of mine said that rabbits loved strawberry jam. We made a plan. We would catch them, but not at once. First we would let them get used to the gage. It was a simple cage, on the same pricipal as we made to catch the magpie, many years later. This was a wire cage hubby made, without a floor. We put it on its side, leaning on a stick, placed the dish ( my best Wedgewood of course, lol! ) with some jam and a bit of grated carrot with it, so they had multiple choice. From the window we watched. Out they came, now even earlier, but still late in the afternoon. They sniffed and hopped and ate some grass, sniffed again in the right direction and…nothing. It was dark and we had stiff necks from looking sideways. But the next morning all was gone, the dish was clean. I am sure nothing else would have come, it must have been the rabbits. Next evening, and we were starting to look forward to this hour of the day, the rabbits came and went straight for the cage to eat their treat. We were happy. Meanwhile hubby build a cage to keep them in, in case we had caught them. Two days later we did! We saw them in there and pulled the string, the cage fell to the ground and voila, we caught them! Like mad they started to dig, but we were quick. We had a little door in the top, and my hubbies hand went through and grabbed them one by one and transferred them in the cage.
It took some time before they became tame enough to take them out and handle them. The kids were beside themselves. They had cute little rabbits, but of course they didn’t stay cute. They grew into monsters. They were useful to eat my kitchen scraps, but we had to shift the cage all the time, as they ate the grass underneath and pooped everywhere. Gradually the kids lost interest, the fun was gone. We set them free, as I couldn’t bare to kill them, but inside me I knew it was the wrong thing. It would only produce more rabbits.
Slowly the population died down and there were very few rabbits. Then they came back, all of a sudden outof nowhere.
Years later my son, then at highschool, had another look at the rabbits. From a different angle you could say. He shot them! He trapped them. He skinned them, he froze them and sold them at school to the teachers. Quite a little pocket money maker. Ohh, well, life is like that, especially on the farm.
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Comments
Hi Wolf, haven't seen you for a while? Are the possoms still plagueing you? Are you talking about nowadays or yesteryears? If you are having them again that means they again have become immune to the calicivirus.
And you know what happened in the olden days, don't you? They brought in the foxes to kill the rabbits, and of course that was even worse. They've had whole campaigns to eradicate those foxes with poison, a substance which is found in native plants and wildflowers, to which our native fauna is resistant. It was very succesful down in Western Australia as all the wildlife returned. Some had been on the brink of extinction, like the chudditch. The only thing is when they were dropping the poisoned dried meat from planes you had to keep good track of your dogs, as of course they get killed just the same. But they would never drop within 5 kms of private properties, but could not garantee the bits were not carried by wind or other animals to your place. The poison would only be affective for a few days anyway and they were supposed to let you know when the droppings were. Not that they did. But I walked the dogs in the bush every day and just kept an eye on them.
22 Oct, 2008
sounds a very hit and miss method to me . , Interesting !
22 Oct, 2008
Hi Marguerite,
This is a fascinating story, and many thanks for sharing it with us.Our biggest problem are the inner city pigeons that scavenge for food and mess up the city buildings, but the pests are not on the same scale as the ones you experience.
Hope all is well and all best wishes.
22 Oct, 2008
Hi Grenville and Amy. Thank you for reading my blog. Yes, the bunnies are a hit and mis. Glad I am not a farmer any more. I know about those pigeons Grenville, my sister in law in the Hague has terrible trouble with them on her balcony. I noticed there that others had put up wires and even sharp glass, like in prisons, to deter the birds. One person in that neighbourhood is feeding the darn things, so out they come in drones. It is a health risk too, as in summer you can't even have your balcony door open, as the buggers fly inside and sit in your kitchen. The health department came, but they can't do anything. I'd say poison them, but then again, you might get other birds in the attempt. Peashooters??? Air rifles???
Glad it is not really my problem, I would not sleep....
23 Oct, 2008
Nice story about the rabbits. We had them when we were kids. One of them lived for 9 yrs.
I would say that's old for a rabbit.
I like to eat them aswell but not the pet ones.
23 Oct, 2008
We've always had trouble with rabbits in our creek Marguerite but sometimes they seem to die right off and then come back with a vengeance. Which they have certainly done this spring.
Yeah been very busy (moved house again!) lately, the possums aren't my problem anymore though which is excellent. Although we did warn the people who bought our house about them just to be fair.
26 Oct, 2008
Hi Wolf. Nice to hear from you again and to hear you have moved house. That was quick? Do you have a garden there too? Hope to see some pics once you have settled in. I know it takes ages before all is unpacked and organised. Have fun doing that!
29 Oct, 2008
Yeah it was really quick we hadn't even been there six months. I've actually moved back with my parents until I find another house to buy now so it will be a little while until I have my own garden again. I'm currently reduced to a pot garden. I've got pots and pots of plants ready to plant out at my next house (when I find it).
30 Oct, 2008
Hi Wolf. There's no place like home, lol. My daughter keeps coming back too. The other now has found her first home and will be moving in end of this month. Her garden looks like a sandpit, so it will be interesting to see what she makes of it. I wish you good luck in finding a new place, hope it wasn't too much of a drama leaving the other place. It always takes a lot outof a person, when they have to shift for one reason or other, saying goodbye to gardens is even worse, as not all plants can move with you. I've moved interstate twice and that is a real upheavel, you cannot take any plants interstate, and even if you could, they wouldn't survive the removal van!
Perhaps send some pics of your parents garden, just to keep us happy, ok?
3 Nov, 2008
There are a couple of pics of plants from my parents garden up now. Unfortunately they both work so much these days (I thought when kids left home parents got to slow down lol) that their garden has been a bit let go.
3 Nov, 2008
Blog post by Marguerite.
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You are so right - rabbits are a plague indeed. The creek that runs through the middle of our family farm is overrun with them. We let the farm hands come in and shoot them to help keep it under control. They make a few quid off it considering how much butchers charge you to buy rabbit but we don't mind as long as the rabbit numbers are kept down.
We went through the pet rabbit stage as kids too it seems to be just one of those things kids have to try out before they're convinced it's not as much fun as they thought.
22 Oct, 2008