Rabbits

[BIGDHunting]

We are wanting to increase our rabbit population. By that I mean, actually have rabbits on our land. We have owned it for a year at this point and I've only seen actual tracks once or twice. That was last winter when there was snow on the ground. I have not seen any rabbits since then. I know that increasing the cover and providing places to "hide" or "escape to" will help the habitat, but will that actually attract rabbits from afar? In the back of my mind, I am wondering if I were to call some pest control places and ask them to relocate rabbits to my property. Has anyone tried that? Or been successful at building a rabbit population from scratch?

 

[Native Hunter]

It takes the right kind of cover. Brushy fence rows with briers and fields of NWSGs + forbs are the ticket here. This helps protect them from their greatest enemies - especially birds of prey. When I started improving habitat for deer, the rabbit population increase right along with the deer population.

 

[Bill Loser]

Rabbits love cover. Give them cover and they will find it.
That said the rabbit population is cyclical, when fox and or coyote numbers are up rabbits obviously will be down, once the coyote and fox pops go down the rabbits will come back. I am on an upswing for rabbits right now but have been getting yotes coming in again so the pop will be going down again soon I suspect. Seems like a 2 year cycle for me.

 

[Bill]

I don't know about the legalities of such things but when I was kid my buddy's sisters pet rabbits got out of their pen. We spent years shooting 1/2 white and 1/2 gray rabbits out of the hedge rows.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Just plant a bunch of apple trees, and don’t screen them. Those bastards will be all over wrecking your trees. Not sure where you are located, but come on over and trap about 50 from my place, and take them. The last year has been over run by them little bastards. I think it has to do with the wolf population by me. When the wolves move in, they kill and chase out a lot of the other predators, like fox, coon, coyote, bobcats, etc.. and squirrels, and rabbit populations explode. I haven’t heard, or seen any wolves in the last month, so hopefully they moved on and we can get a balance of predators back.

 

[BIGDHunting]

Thanks everyone for your responses. We are working on improving our habitat for deer so like Native Hunter mentioned, hopefully we start seeing an increase in rabbits as well. Once we start getting the cover, I plan to use a trick I saw WHS use and pile up pallets at certain spots across our property. Hopefully that will help give them an escape/hide out when needed as well.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

If you make a bunch of brushpiles, you will have rabbits. My place was open beef pasture that was a mix of fields and woods when we bought it 10 years ago. Probably not more than a rabbit or two there at that time and now we shoot a pile of rabbits every year. Rabbits like brushy areas and edge areas - pretty much the same habitat that deer like to bed in.

The brushpiles need to be big enough with a solid base to last 5+ years. I start on woods edges and drop one 12" diameter junk tree and that trunk is the base of the brush pile. The trunk prevents the entire pile from compressing down as the pile ages. Pile some decent sized trees and branches on that main trunk and then continue to add tree tops and brush until the pile is 6' high and a little bigger than a car.

I make about 4 or 5 brushpiles like that every winter and now I have a milk run of brushpiles that offer the best rabbit hunting I've ever seen. Space the brush piles 50 yards away from each other so you know exactly where they will head when flushed and you will have some excellent hunting.

 

[homerj]

Get a bunch of free pallets and stack them a few deep, then throw cut brush on top. If that doesn't work nothing else will.

 

[BIGDHunting]

I do have a small stack of pallets ready to go for this and have a ready supply of more when the time comes. I do like your idea Ben about the stump and brush piles as well. I'll probably do a mix of both since stumps and brush are readily available. Thank you for the responses.

 

[Native Hunter]

If you make a bunch of brushpiles, you will have rabbits. My place was open beef pasture that was a mix of fields and woods when we bought it 10 years ago. Probably not more than a rabbit or two there at that time and now we shoot a pile of rabbits every year. Rabbits like brushy areas and edge areas - pretty much the same habitat that deer like to bed in.

The brushpiles need to be big enough with a solid base to last 5+ years. I start on woods edges and drop one 12" diameter junk tree and that trunk is the base of the brush pile. The trunk prevents the entire pile from compressing down as the pile ages. Pile some decent sized trees and branches on that main trunk and then continue to add tree tops and brush until the pile is 6' high and a little bigger than a car.

I make about 4 or 5 brushpiles like that every winter and now I have a milk run of brushpiles that offer the best rabbit hunting I've ever seen. Space the brush piles 50 yards away from each other so you know exactly where they will head when flushed and you will have some excellent hunting.

This is spot on. The big storm last spring has left me with so many tree tops I may get attacked by rabbits this year.

 

[blueKYstream]

I think you have some great answers already. Edge feathering is a great way to get your rabbit population up. The population has rebounded in my neck of the woods, but brush piles and edge feathering has helped exponentially. I took a group rabbit hunting my place for the last 5 or 6 years. A friend of a friend had beagles. Unfortunately, he recently passed away. We did quite good hitting areas I cut. The only problem was the dogs would often run one rabbit for an hour or more. We could have probably killed more walking around, but it was always fun watching the dogs work.

 

[SD51555]

Increase your ground cover, and then try to keep them out.

I have flattened quite a few acres on my place the past few years, and I noticed my rabbits showing up this year finally. Synced up perfectly as my cutover areas are hitting their peak thickness.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

This morning I saw 2 rabbits running from one brushpile to another on the edge of my front yard. At my place I try to kill two birds with one stone by removing invasive buckthorn and increasing rabbit habitat.

I turn some of the cut brush into rabbit piles and I burn some of it. After a couple years the areas I've cut, sprayed and burned buckthorn start to fill in with weeds and grasses and that is great rabbit habitat when brushpiles are nearby.

 

[b116757]

Plant some blackberries and let them run wild in a few locations. As a side note I think quail like blackberries thickets also.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

pile up pallets at certain spots across our property. Hopefully that will help give them an escape/hide out when needed as well.

Pallets would work - and so do well-constructed brush piles. For brush piles, put the bigger logs/limbs on the bottom, criss-crossing them to make hollows underneath. Then pile on all your smaller brush & limbs, briars, etc. Several family members and I built some brush piles like that, and for years, the bunnies used them like hotels. Making several piles - pallets or brush - will give rabbits a number of escape shelters.

 

[Frosted brassica]

This time of year you can pick up a trailer full of Christmas trees when people set them out. Pile them over some logs and have a quick brush pile.
Those free Christmas trees also do well adding cover to any ground blinds you may have.
Best of luck.

 

[ruskbucks]

I agree with e everybody else, cover = more rabbits. My land was a old farm. In the front it has all kinds of old junk laying around. The rabbits are in there thick. I had my pad cleared for my barn. They pushed all the tress to the back in piles. The rabbits population has increased 4 fold. The rest of my 80 acres very few rabbits, the front where the barn is is full of them.

 

[yoderjac]

We create brush piles for small game like rabbits, but our population fluctuates a lot. I think it has a lot to do with predation. It used to be fox and rabbit numbers that would vary together, but things have changed over the years. Coyotes have moved in. This has reduced our fox, groundhog, and rabbit populations. You can try predator control, but the effectiveness is limited. Most of our avian predators are now protected.

I now have what I'm calling "Wildlife Openings" that support small game as well. I basically took small fields, maybe a 1/4 to 1/3 acre and established them in clover. I then planted and caged soft mast trees in them. I that point I stopped doing everything. I don't maintain the trees or the clover. I just let it go wild. After about 4 years or so, the woody growth is beginning to get large enough to challenge my bushhog. That is when I mow them back. I'm just using the bushhog to keep them in early succession. These tall weedy areas are good rabbit habitat.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[bigboreblr]

My old boss used to take care of his property like yoderjack said. He would brush hog in strips, about 1/4 to 1/3 a year.

Another person I helped plan his area about 10 years ago. He made a meandering mess of trails throughout a clearcut regen area. Hinge cut and weedy brushy trails. One guy would stalk hunt through the trail, while two others would hunt the corners of this 20 acre area. The twisty turns made it tougher for overhead predators to sweep in at fast speed.

 

[H20fwler]

Mow less, leave good winter cover, make brush piles (used pallets work great)..you can also put 6'-8' sections of 4" and 6" field tile under the brush piles. Bunnies use the tile like burrows.