As a side note to other rabbit threads of late.Sam Butler had a write up in Hounds and Hunting May 2004 issue page 78.May be of interest.
I would like to hear from anyone that has tried it and or had luck with the 6 x 12 pens using "Truly Wild Cottontail Rabbits".Cost efficient as per time materials etc.A lot of clubs go lacking as per rabbits for their field trials. Hunt6 David P
Raising Wild Rabbits
Moderators: Pike Ridge Beagles, Aaron Bartlett
I tried it with somewhat limited success.
I had some orphaned bunnies that were still in the nest.
A little girl fed them with a dropper every couple of hours and really nursed them well.
They grew, but as they got bigger they got wilder and wilder. They eventually started going nuts in my pen. I ended up letting them go.
Just my one and only experience with raising wild cottontails.
I had some orphaned bunnies that were still in the nest.
A little girl fed them with a dropper every couple of hours and really nursed them well.
They grew, but as they got bigger they got wilder and wilder. They eventually started going nuts in my pen. I ended up letting them go.
Just my one and only experience with raising wild cottontails.
Coyote problems? Can't fix it with western tactics. Here ya go. http://www.easterncoyotes.com/
You can find me and other Prostaff here. http://www.easterncoyotes.com/prostaff
You can find me and other Prostaff here. http://www.easterncoyotes.com/prostaff
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HatterasBob
- Posts: 664
- Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2003 12:47 pm
- Location: Maryland
My husband and I talked to the local pet store and have ordered some cottintail. We haven't gotten them yet (wheather has been too cold to ship them here) but we are building a large rabbit pen and going to give it a try. From what the owners of the pet store told us everything should work out well, they had friends of theirs do the same thing, to be able to use them to train the pups. We also plan on letting some just run wild on our property if all goes well so we can increase the population around here. Will try to keep you posted when we get them and how everything works out. Hope this is of some help. Good Luck!!!
Last edited by Jaz on Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
wild cotton tails
i always heard they wouldnt breed in confined pens but i never have tried it i know a guy that tried to cross a wild male to a san juan n he said that they wouldnt cross i baught 50 smokey mt cottontails once n turned them loose on our lease waited 2 weeks n took 2 young pups back up to a place where i turned 10 of them loose n in no time they had caught 5 i caught the pups n loaded them went back a month or so later n coul;dnt jump any of them coyote must have had a hey day in there jb
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JUST AS JOHN SEES IT
JUST AS JOHN SEES IT
If I had the notion and the resources, to keep my running pen stoocked, I would have small inter pens(saftey zone) within the large running area. The small inter pens would be a feeder supply of young rabbits to the outer large running area.
There was once an old fenced in hog lot that was grown up and produced a lot of rabbits. The hounds could not get in the lot but rabbit were always in supply and hunted around the outside of the lot, it was a feeder supply of rabbits to the outside area. Now rabbits did go back through the fence at times and made saftey under the old hog houses but we looked at it as they would be there to beed and make more for next year.
If you used the beagle netting to contain your saftey zone pens, little rabbits can get out but your breeding stock can't. If there's good enough cover, the little rabbits will stay out and what nature doesn't cull, the rest should be there to run.
The saftey zone should look like that old grown up hog lot, thick, stood up well to the weather and good shelter for nesting. Oh, and only one buck rabbit and 2 or 3 does per 150' square pen but it's better if it has no corners
...Patch
There was once an old fenced in hog lot that was grown up and produced a lot of rabbits. The hounds could not get in the lot but rabbit were always in supply and hunted around the outside of the lot, it was a feeder supply of rabbits to the outside area. Now rabbits did go back through the fence at times and made saftey under the old hog houses but we looked at it as they would be there to beed and make more for next year.
If you used the beagle netting to contain your saftey zone pens, little rabbits can get out but your breeding stock can't. If there's good enough cover, the little rabbits will stay out and what nature doesn't cull, the rest should be there to run.
The saftey zone should look like that old grown up hog lot, thick, stood up well to the weather and good shelter for nesting. Oh, and only one buck rabbit and 2 or 3 does per 150' square pen but it's better if it has no corners
...Patch-
Chuck Terry
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BOUTTIMEIV
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Tue Jul 30, 2002 11:08 pm
- Location: ohio
I use to belong to a club in Indiana that had a breeding pen.It was maybe 50X50 and was completely coverd with nets to keep out birds.The pen had junk piles everywhere for birthing places.What they did was 3 times a year 3 of us with nets and one pusher would go into the pen and collect only the young rabbits and leave the adults for continue breeding.Then we just took the young rabbits to the running pen and released them into big brush piles where they had all the food and water needed until they ventured out to where ever they decided to call home.One side note ,nobody was allowed to run in the running pen for about a week after we had a release.They were very sucsessfull in doing this for many years.
Best of luck,Mark
Best of luck,Mark