Rabbits

[john volkman]

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.

exactly my experience , my property is a mix of Pollinator paintings, early successional tree growth, along with brush piles from ash tree removal and my rabbit population has exploded , along with turkey , we already had a lot of deer. I trap also and that made a difference too. I make a habit of killing off any cool season grass on the property and that also helps.

 

[Mortenson]

I mowed 15 acres of pollinator crp for my neighbor in Dec. Has a lot of weeds and foxtail in it. Counted almost 25 rabbits run out of it. Could've been the same rabbit 25 times. It's the most bunnies I've seen around here in a long time.

 

[BIGDHunting]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! We plan to get started this week making the piles of brush as suggested. Whether pallets or limbs and smaller brush it sounds like we have a way ahead. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the rabbits find what we make and move in.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

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.

Do you have all cottontails or do you have snowshoe hares as well? We used to bag some of each in Rusk County, but now snowshoe hares aren't as common as they were 10+ years ago.

 

[Teeder]

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

Sounds like a good fawning area too.

 

[yoderjac]

Sounds like a good fawning area too.

I think the problem with them as fawning areas is the size. The would be pretty easy for coyotes to hunt. We have larger blocks that we keep in early succession. Hopefully most will fawn there.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

4" and 6" field tile under the brush piles.

Is that the corrugated, poly stuff??

 

[ruskbucks]

Do you have all cottontails or do you have snowshoe hares as well? We used to bag some of each in Rusk County, but now snowshoe hares aren't as common as they were 10+ years ago.

I have only seen one snowshoe on my land and that was probably around 10 years ago. They seem to be gone. Last year we went small game hunting a couple days after a fresh snow and saw almost no rabbit tracks at all in the woods.