Foxes quite like a few strawberries and blackberries, and they also eat quite a few earthworms and beetles and the like, but fortunately they don't like veg with their rabbits
“I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh
Mike. Happy to be wrong but I don't think it's allowed now for people to go rabbiting with ferret's and net's.
I remember as a child one of my brothers kept ferrets, as long as he asked the farmers permission to go rabbiting on their land, he could, oddly enough he's a vegatarian and has never liked eating meat but would bring home a rabbit or two for the stew pot.
Hi Zoomer - it's still perfectly legal to go rabbiting with ferrets etc, with permission of the landowner and as long as all laws regarding animal welfare are observed.
Much safer and more humane than the inexperienced taking potshots at them which is so often the only alternative when an area is over-run.
I've grown up in the countryside and known foxes etc all my life and have never known them to dig and eat raw parsnips, turnips etc in the field - they may dig around them looking for worms and slugs, but I've never known them to eat them - possibly Mike's used to more urban foxes who are known to have different diets to rural ones ........
“I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh
I'm starting on the fence next week. The boundaries of the plot were marked out last weekend by the association and a friend has been roped into help. The sites not quite ready, I've still got a couple of brambles to dig out one side and a heap of stuff to burn at the top of the plot.
If the fence doesn't stop rabbits, may buy a couple of ferrets.
When we first moved to our house, I built some raised beds on a 'farm yard' made with a couple of feet of iron ore. To my horror, as soon as I put some flowers in the beds, the rabbits from our paddock behind came in and commenced dining. So the next job was putting up a picket fence with netting across the holes, to prevent them coming in, but they didn't, despite the fact that if I stand at the bedroom window I can see lots of white tails bobbing about in the paddock. Then we cleared an area to make a 'pitch' of playable grass, and then I built raised vegetable beds on the other side of the fence, and for the last two years have grown carrots, and salad, and other things that would tempt rabbits. There is nothing to stop them just coming and taking, but so far they haven't. My main theory is that because the pitch exists between the overgrown paddock and the vegetables, the rabbits dislike the 'exposure zone' they would have to cross (we have a lot of large birds of prey here). Alternatively they might be put off by the cats next door have. Or maybe they have just lost the way. My dad remembered going out with his uncles and cousins in Suffolk in the 1920s and they could kill rabbits by throwing stones at them. Perhaps this is an old country skill we should revive.
Posts
Not sure if they get fox's on the site, it wasn't a Q asked, do they eat veg or just rabbits
Foxes quite like a few strawberries and blackberries, and they also eat quite a few earthworms and beetles and the like, but fortunately they don't like veg with their rabbits
More than happy to share a few strawberries with our friend Reynard
Doesn't look like poultry or animals can be kept on the site although one plot holder keeps bee's.
Mike. Happy to be wrong but I don't think it's allowed now for people to go rabbiting with ferret's and net's.
I remember as a child one of my brothers kept ferrets, as long as he asked the farmers permission to go rabbiting on their land, he could, oddly enough he's a vegatarian and has never liked eating meat but would bring home a rabbit or two for the stew pot.
Hi Zoomer - it's still perfectly legal to go rabbiting with ferrets etc, with permission of the landowner and as long as all laws regarding animal welfare are observed.
http://www.droitwichferretwelfare.co.uk/index.php/the-law-relating-to-working-ferrets-in-the-field
Much safer and more humane than the inexperienced taking potshots at them which is so often the only alternative when an area is over-run.
I've grown up in the countryside and known foxes etc all my life and have never known them to dig and eat raw parsnips, turnips etc in the field - they may dig around them looking for worms and slugs, but I've never known them to eat them - possibly Mike's used to more urban foxes who are known to have different diets to rural ones ........
Thanks for the info Dove, useful to know..
I'm starting on the fence next week. The boundaries of the plot were marked out last weekend by the association and a friend has been roped into help. The sites not quite ready, I've still got a couple of brambles to dig out one side and a heap of stuff to burn at the top of the plot.
If the fence doesn't stop rabbits, may buy a couple of ferrets
.
When we first moved to our house, I built some raised beds on a 'farm yard' made with a couple of feet of iron ore. To my horror, as soon as I put some flowers in the beds, the rabbits from our paddock behind came in and commenced dining. So the next job was putting up a picket fence with netting across the holes, to prevent them coming in, but they didn't, despite the fact that if I stand at the bedroom window I can see lots of white tails bobbing about in the paddock. Then we cleared an area to make a 'pitch' of playable grass, and then I built raised vegetable beds on the other side of the fence, and for the last two years have grown carrots, and salad, and other things that would tempt rabbits. There is nothing to stop them just coming and taking, but so far they haven't. My main theory is that because the pitch exists between the overgrown paddock and the vegetables, the rabbits dislike the 'exposure zone' they would have to cross (we have a lot of large birds of prey here). Alternatively they might be put off by the cats next door have. Or maybe they have just lost the way. My dad remembered going out with his uncles and cousins in Suffolk in the 1920s and they could kill rabbits by throwing stones at them. Perhaps this is an old country skill we should revive.