attracting rabbits

[treybird_2006]

what the best way to attract rabbits to my loand i hunt on i have a pasture with grass up to my head should i cut paths in it and put some feeders ouu on the paths should i make some brushpiles and put feeders around them whats the best way and if i make a brush pile shoudl it be in the edge of a filed or in the woods

[S.R.Patch]

We hunted a field that they had left the milo stand and it was full of rabbits an a few birds.
Some strips of milo and other strips of red clover would be good. Brush piles along the edge of the woods are good, but must be sizeable enough(the bigger the better) that predators cant get through them and must be built up as they rot down.
Just vision what the places that have held the most rabbits looked like, then, try to recreate it on your grounds...

[Palerydr]

I have also found that along with good feed and cover, that salt will attract a lot of rabbits. I buy a few of those brick sized chunks of salt at the feed mill and keep them laying around the areas I want to keep rabbits coming to. They are under 2 bucks apiece and they last for quite a while. I have also heard that with the salt supply, that the doe rabbits give birth to larger litters although I don't know this to be true, I do know that the salt will keep the rabbits around. good luck, Palerydr

[Kansas Mike]

S.R.Patch is right. Rabbits are like quail, they like brushy edges with their food source close to their cover. For your brush piles, you can put two wood pallets on the ground and drive a 6' steel fence post through them to keep them in place. Cut cedars or whatever brush you can find and pile it on them. Try to get honeysuckle or other vines to grow around them. Plant clover around them, so the rabbits don't have to get out in the open and become hawk bait. The rabbits can nest between the slats of the pallets, but most predators can't get in there. Plant milo strips and let the weeds take it over. Just break up your cover and if there are rabbits in your area, they will move into your fields. Last but not least, get rid of the cats, if there are any around. Good luck.

Mike

[rshaw]

Make your brushpiles big. It usually takes me about an hour to make a good one. My rule of thumb is that if my dogs get into it then it isn't good enough. I also buy 50# salt blocks for about $4 a block. Just take one out to where you run and take a hammer and bust it into chunks about the size of your hand. Then I just put the salt in the middle of the brushpile. Usually if there is really thick cover I just walk down the edge and just start throwing chunks out. This seems to just about double my rabbit population. Just my 2 cents worth!!!!

[briarycreek]

i have a pasture with grass up to my head

If the grass is real thick I have found that rabbits don't do well because
it cuts down on their escape routes. Rabbits seem to like to live along
the edge of cover and brush piles along the edge of the woods would be
good. Rabbits like that. You might want to cut down some of that thick
grass to bring on some new growth and a few feed plots. Salt is good
to put out. This may take a few months to see results but to jump start
the process get a few rabbits to turn loose in the areas of the brush piles
and this should attract more rabbits to your land quicker. Don't build
the brush piles out in the open as this will make for a spot for the
preditors to pick off your rabbits. Rabbits like to travel through cover
like briar thickets short pines or similar habitat. Once you get a few
doe rabbits established on your land you will find an increase in your
population of rabbits. Buck rabbits travel long distances looking for the
females. I have found that even the tame rabbits in pens will attract
the wild rabbits to them. These are just some things that have worked
for me in the past. Good luck with your habitat.

[VABEAGLER]

The key to alot of rabbits especially if you live in areas that get snow is winter habitat. Everything grows up and looks like good rabbit cover in the summer but as soon as it snows many areas become void of rabbits or atleast rabbits that will sit above ground during the day.

The best rabbit cover is mutliflora Rose, Bicolor Lespedeeaz, Black and Rasberry patches, Honey suckle. If you can intersperse these with areas of small groth scrub trees wether it is pine or cutover you will have rabbits. For rabbits to thrive they need over head cover " a canopy". After a cutover or pine patch reaches atleat 10 years of age it has lost it appeal to rabbits. I suggesat cutting areas every 6-7 years. These saplings also frovide a winter time food source. In the winter you will see trees ringed by rabbits as many time the bark is the only source of nutrition available.
Rabbits will also browse on the above plant just like deer.

Rabbits are not migratory animals the their home range must be able to support them during the worst months of the year. Concentrate on winter time habitat and cover and the next spring you will see even more rabbits.


If you have these things year round you will have rabbits: Food, Shelter, Water, Cover.

[AlabamaSwamper]

If you want rabbits and have cover, plant CLOVER and they will move in to stay, I guarantee it!

[briarycreek]

VABeagler is right about the winter cover and food.

I have put feeders around my brushpiles and throw out cheap apples so
that a doe rabbit that uses that brush pile for cover can survive by not
going far for food. Out to the mail box is a lot safer for her than having
to go clear across town for dinner. Ground cover is the key. small
woody shrubs are great cover. Small feed plots in the area will help.
It does us no good if momma rabbit has a nest of young and gets eaten
by an owl that night. Evergreens and briar patches are a rabbits best
friend. They still like the edge of a green field if its not loaded with
fescue. Orchard grass and clover of course will do nicely and makes
for a nice hay crop. I would say that ideally the best habitat for a rabbit
would be a 4 - 6 foot wide area planted at the edge of a field all the way
around the field with clover and orchard grass then 20 - 30 feet of short
pines all around the same field before going into the big woods I think
should be a hunters paridise. You have to have that winter cover to keep
the rabbits going. Again good luck on your project.

[JIMMIE ABSHIRE]

ITS VERY DIFFICULT TO CATCH RABBITS WHEN FOOD SOURCE IS GOOD MY BEST RESULTS COME IN WINTER MONTHS

[db215]

I planted a one acre red and white clover patch two years ago and the rabbits have been all over it. I have blackberry patches all over the rest of the land (100 acres) with 5' paths mowed about every 100' for easy walking. I put this clover patch right out in the middle and around Sept. 1st. I usually plant a biologic patch for the deer and I noticed last year that a lot of the rabbits changed over to this patch when it came up. I'm not sure why but more rabbits in the biologic patch then in the clover patch, maybe better protein???? (Maybe someone else knows why) For several years now I have had an abundance of rabbits and sometimes too many, dogs run into the blackberries and out runs five rabbits, we have seen this several times. I forgot to mention that with the biologic I mixed 5 pounds of turnips last year and the rabbits ate on them until they started leafing out in the spring, they carried them all winter and I also noticed that the deer would dig them up late in the winter.
This seems to work for me and I hope it helps someone else with some ideas. Good hunting!

[Huntin54]

We planted the turnips mix that the biologic has and the deer never touched the turnips and the rabbits didn't either maybe they just didn't taste that good. We picked some of the turnips and made soup with veggies turnips and some deer meat that was good.

[Bart Caudill]

[quote="Palerydr"]I have also found that along with good feed and cover, that salt will attract a lot of rabbits.

I also have been using the 4lb (brick size) salt blocks. This was the third year that I have put them out in the spring. The last two rabbit seasons have really showed me that the salt theory works.
However, I always use the brown colored salt/mineral blocks. I heard that they help provide nutrients for the does, when they are having little ones, and by doing this, the does will have a higher success rate for raising the whole litter, which means more rabbits.
I know one thing, in the last two years on my dads farm,(since I have been putting these out) we have ran more, seen more, and shot more rabbits than ever before.
One more thing to try. In the winter time, when they have nothing to eat but tree bark, get a bag of shelled corn. Throw a few big handfulls in the thickets, at different locations on your hunting property, for the rabbits to eat. I haven't tried this personally, but have friends that swear by it. I will be doing it this winter also.

Hope this helps,

Bart

[keith2210]

where do you put the salt blocks and how many do you put out per acre? keith

[Bart Caudill]

I put them in the thickest briar patches I can find, as to keep the deer from getting to them.
I guess about 2 or 3 per acre.
I buy them buy the case. There is 15 salt/mineral blocks to a case, and I get it for $18.00

Bart