Bye-Bye Bunny

One of the delights of a country garden is the wildlife, but it’s also one of the snags. Along with the birds and the butterflies, we have LOTS of rabbits, as well as moles, squirrels, field mice and the occasional cow. The rabbits do a lot of damage, especially in spring when the young ones will sample almost anything.

It’s impractical for us to rabbit-fence the whole garden, so I have learned to live with the bunnies by putting up temporary barriers and finding out what rabbits don’t eat: we have lots of poisonous plants! But we have put a rabbit-proof fence around our kitchen garden, where I grow cutting flowers as well as fruit and vegetables. It’s also a safe place to put young plants in pots.

But – disaster!  This year a rabbit managed to get in. Perhaps we left the gate open one night? I noticed a bit of nibbling here and there, and then our French beans were attacked.

So how do you catch a rabbit when there is plenty of food for it to eat? I looked online and discovered that rabbits are addicted to carrots. As I hadn’t sown any carrots in the garden this year, it seemed a promising solution. Beatrix Potter knew this – her picture of Peter Rabbit shows him enjoying carrots.

For several evenings I left an offering of carrot on the path, and it vanished overnight. Then I put my (humane) rabbit trap tied open, next to the carrots. Finally I put the carrot inside the trap. Last night I left the trap sprung.

SUCCESS!

I finally got to meet my marauder face-to-face. It looked young, glossy-coated and very well fed, which is not surprising seeing it had been feasting on my lettuce, broccoli and chard for some time (not to mention the carrots).

Feeling a bit Mr McGregor-ish, I took it for a car journey of about three miles and released it into a field where there were already several of its kin. It won’t be lonely, but it will have to learn to live without the gourmet food.

Now I need to check if there is another rabbit.  If there were two there may be even more – rabbit…rabbit…rabbit…