BEFORE MYXOMATOSIS

[micky 3,325]

There are not many old Rabbit catchers left on this site now and i was wondering if there is any one here who remembers life before this disease broke out ? , i often hear people say : THERE ARE NOW AS MANYRABBITS ABOUT AS BEFORE MIXY:  well i have never seen it though i came close twice, back in the day maximum infestation was considered to be 28 Per acre that might seem many to some folk but imagine it on a 1000 acre farm , one record i remember from the FIELD magazine was from an area i know well Bradgate Park in Leicestershire was about 6000 Rabbits shot by 8 guns in a day  another was how many Rabbits a Man caught in one hole {a number which  will surprise  you }

[comanche 3,038]

13 hours ago, micky said:

There are not many old Rabbit catchers left on this site now and i was wondering if there is any one here who remembers life before this disease broke out ? , i often hear people say : THERE ARE NOW AS MANYRABBITS ABOUT AS BEFORE MIXY:  well i have never seen it though i came close twice, back in the day maximum infestation was considered to be 28 Per acre that might seem many to some folk but imagine it on a 1000 acre farm , one record i remember from the FIELD magazine was from an area i know well Bradgate Park in Leicestershire was about 6000 Rabbits shot by 8 guns in a day  another was how many Rabbits a Man caught in one hole {a number which  will surprise  you }

Anyone old enough to even remember pre myxy times is going to be close to seventy . Though as they would've  been toddlers l expect their main contact with a bunny was in the form of a cuddly toy or ration-dodging meal.

To have actually taken note of rabbit numbers or hunted them they would be a few years up on that.

I wonder who the oldest THL member is?

I know its not me,,,,,

 

[Aussie Whip 4,127]

It was brought to Oz in 1950 but the rabbits did come back somewhat and remember in 78 catching three hundred for the weekend, then came calicivirus .

[tatsblisters 10,010]

I can still remember the tales of old poachers and family members of pre myxomatosis day's and the numbers of rabbits caught mainly on longnetting poaching forays on Earl Fitzwilliam's Wentworth estate. It always puzzled me if rabbits were that much of pest all them years ago that they needed a devastating disease to nearly wipe them out how come the fines and some times violent punishment from landowners and their servant's could be pretty severe.

[micky 3,325]

3 hours ago, comanche said:

Anyone old enough to even remember pre myxy times is going to be close to seventy . Though as they would've  been toddlers l expect their main contact with a bunny was in the form of a cuddly toy or ration-dodging meal.

To have actually taken note of rabbit numbers or hunted them they would be a few years up on that.

I wonder who the oldest THL member is?

I know its not me,,,,,

 

Look on General  talk there is a stack of old Basturds on there that can remember the Black Death never mind the Mixi 

I was born in 47 and it is still very vivid in my mind  i n those days every boy in our Village would go after Rabbits and i am sure it still is their minds too because there was no other way of getting Money, Mixi was a life changing event that affected most men and boys in nearly every Village in the UK even my Mam supplemented  her War pension by dressing and selling Rabbits

[Neal 1,873]

I'm just a nipper as I was born the year Neil Armstrong landed on the moon but I remember rabbit featuring as a large part of my diet growing up.

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

I remember an old boy telling me that when myxy hit in 1953 there was that many corpses lying about that they blocked the local river.

[jok 3,288]

We lived, in them days, on Park Farm, near Earlston in the Scottish Borders. Walking to school, I remember seeing my first, which was to be, a mixied rabbit. That would have had to be about 1963. Bearing in mind my old man and his mate would get rabbit regularly for the table this came as a bit of a shock. We didn’t actually know what was wrong with the poor thing but the swollen eyes and involuntary movement didn’t bode well. It was many years later when I returned to the UK that I took up the sport again. Still haunts me when I see a rabbit in this distress. Jok.

[micky 3,325]

3 hours ago, FOXHUNTER said:

I remember an old boy telling me that when myxy hit in 1953 there was that many corpses lying about that they blocked the local river.

Immigrant  Rabbits ?

[micky 3,325]

49 minutes ago, jok said:

We lived, in them days, on Park Farm, near Earlston in the Scottish Borders. Walking to school, I remember seeing my first, which was to be, a mixied rabbit. That would have had to be about 1963. Bearing in mind my old man and his mate would get rabbit regularly for the table this came as a bit of a shock. We didn’t actually know what was wrong with the poor thing but the swollen eyes and involuntary movement didn’t bode well. It was many years later when I returned to the UK that I took up the sport again. Still haunts me when I see a rabbit in this distress. Jok.

The first i saw of the Disease was on the route from Loughborough to Nottingham i think it was in a trap or snare or just sitting there next to one not to sure which it must be 66 years ago , i had to take it too the Doctors where he gave me a note the i went with my Grandad to Loughborough Police station as it was a notifiable disease a Week later we were delivering  Cheeses around the Warren hills in Charley  and the road was covered in Dead or Dying Rabbits then going down the drive to a Convalescent home their were hundreds and it stunk . And that was that . 

[gnipper 6,507]

4 hours ago, FOXHUNTER said:

I remember an old boy telling me that when myxy hit in 1953 there was that many corpses lying about that they blocked the local river.

An old boy round here was telling me about one area locally that had piles of rabbits the size of cars dumped around the place that had been picked up.

 Lucky to see ten there nowadays 

[Arry 22,168]

I don't remember Mixie hitting and I'm 70 so would have only been 2 when it happened. Remember father saying they were piled up on the side of the roads. I was a nipper when I first went out with the ferrets and my father and two mates and me tagging along would be lucky to get a brace. Things slowly got better and better with mixie hitting in the summers often. Then recently this bloody RHD came along and I find down here it's patchy now little thick patches and other places just a few fields away void of them.

Cheers Arry

Edited October 20, 2021 by Arry

[Aussie Whip 4,127]

Talking to an eighty year old famer here and he said at one time before myxi the rabbits had stripped his family farm bare and were swimming half a km to islands in a huge water catchment to get green feed.

[Moocher71 4,050]

Me uncul tells me story's about rabbiting before mixy hit ,he was young lad and out most days nights feeding his siblings and mam ,big family of 9 needed lot of vitals so it fell on him to poach .he said he set long nets up and a drag line and push stuff into nets and take 30 /40 coney and kaneys that run instead of flying, me mother said it wasn't unusual to wake up and jump down from vardo to find dozens of coney and kaneys hanging ready to go butchers as he sold what they didn't eat and he done this for few Yr just after the war ,he's 90 something now and he great dog man back in his day ,he stopped poaching because he said he took that much it  sickened him but times was hard and poaching was a must not a hobby .

Them times gone and most who remember will soon be gone with them sadly ,

[Moocher71 4,050]

19 hours ago, micky said:

The first i saw of the Disease was on the route from Loughborough to Nottingham i think it was in a trap or snare or just sitting there next to one not to sure which it must be 66 years ago , i had to take it too the Doctors where he gave me a note the i went with my Grandad to Loughborough Police station as it was a notifiable disease a Week later we were delivering  Cheeses around the Warren hills in Charley  and the road was covered in Dead or Dying Rabbits then going down the drive to a Convalescent home their were hundreds and it stunk . And that was that . 

I remember collecting fire wood with me dad and brothers near Melton mulberry in late 70s and rabbits just sitting by rd side and us kids picking them up and me dad putting them out there misery, horrible disease and yet again man made .leave nature alone and it will sort itself out like it always as done .