Rabbit Alert!

It was mother’s day at dusk the fryers got out. Forty or more rabbits were on the loose. They began to run and kick up their heels in our back yard as we devised a plan. Over the back fence the neighbors laughed and pointed, and offered suggestions. One New Zealand all white doe zipped by and our son dived for it he only had four white hairs to show for his efforts. I was nosed from behind as a bunny tagged me with a look of you’re it!

A Californian, these have black ears and nose, dashed across the yard, that had been transformed in to a sea of white. Our son and daughter helped us gather up the armloads of squirming bunnies. We got the rabbits contained again.

This was a regular part of morning and evening chores our children did getting rabbits back in their cages. I got used to hearing “I got one!” While I was fixing breakfast. Team work was essential, angoras are easiest to capture before they are sheared. We have devised signals to let the family know a rabbit is on the loose. “Rabbit alert!” Was what we would say as we all scrambled for the door.

Rabbits escaping is a common problem for rabbit raisers, and the name Houdini is a favorite name for these escape artists. One way we used to catch rabbits was to place cages on the ground in a V shape and heard the rabbit(s) in to it. The bunnies see the cage as a save haven and home and it was pretty effective. We also put three in U shape and a board to slide across the open part.

Our daughter made a rabbit trap for a science project is was a apple on a stick variation of the carrot on a string. An A was received for the project grade. We would distract them with goodies from the yard grapes, and other fruit they would be busy munching way and not notice as we caught them.
The like to hide in the neighbors rose bush, sun them selves in the road, under the cars and other vehicles. The berry path and petunia bed was the most favorite for bunnies and the most dreaded spot to recover them from was the brier patch also known as an Oregon grape bush. The forth of July was not a fun holiday for the rabbits the noise of fireworks startles them nearly to death.